In the end...

The reading skills students need will vary by the subject. Not only will I need to teach the content, I also need to teach students the literacy skills they need to succeed in the subject. Before this semester, I never considered that my students wouldn't come to me with those skills. For many reasons, my students might not be reading on the level that our textbook or Georgia Milestones Tests will require. I have many strategies to help my students improve their reading and comprehension so that they can understand the content as well. It is a shame that some students might be knowledgeable in a content area but their grades don't reflect it because they are struggling readers. I enjoyed the Strategy Lessons and I now have a large variety of fun ways to help students make sense of the text. I am glad I bought this book and have a list of different activities on pages 90 and 91 that I can go to whenever our class needs something to regain the interest of my students.

Literacy is not just reading though. There are many other aspects to literacy that I may not have included in the definition before this class like writing or understanding videos and spoken language. Most importantly, literacy involves thinking strategies that are listed on page 30 and I will probably make a list of this chart for my classroom and maybe even for my students.

I always want to be the best teacher I can be and I want to try to teach students the important things even if it doesn't always relate to my content area. Anything I teach them that can be applied to their other classes or their daily lives will be a double win in my book. Literacy is so important and the ability to read is something even I take for granted. Any way that I can teach a skill that students use everyday is something I will strive for. I can't wait to research other strategies and read articles with more advice for teaching content literacy. I found an article that was specific to math that I would love to incorporate into my future classroom here: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/VM/0201-sep2012/VM0201Why.pdf
Another article I found with other great ideas is found here:
https://education.ucf.edu/mirc/docs/Disciplinary-literacy-strategies-in-content-area-classes2015.pdf

Chasing Vermeer is one of the only books I can remember reading that I actually enjoyed. I would love to have a book club and a class library with books that relate to math. I was inspired by our Literature Circle and I found a short list of math book titles I would like to include here:
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-learning-toolkit/math-literature-creating-math-library-home
Other websites for putting together a math library are found here:
https://www.booksource.com/Departments/Booksource/Grades-6-8.aspx?CategoryBvin=cf64badc-dc9f-4e35-a005-85d2e050505d&SubCategoryBvin=dba7d38d-4f84-4409-bfa3-31633ad4fbfc
and here:
http://guides.library.duq.edu/CurriculumCenter/mathliterature
It was interesting to read this from an educator and student perspective, but overall I enjoyed every bit of the book and our activities with it. I was so nervous to create a podcast, but that ended up being a great experience too.

I guess all good things must come to an end, and I will really miss this class.
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