Going Nowhere Fast:
The Importance of Integrating Content Areas and Literacy
into a Comprehensive Classroom Management Plan

A life lacking the fundamental ability to communicate with others, is a hard life. It is a life fraught with frustration at being unable to clearly communicate needs, wants and desires. In children especially, this frustration can often lead to impulsive and destructive behaviors. Because of this, a priority in my Comprehensive Classroom Management Plan will be to assess my students literacy skills and ensure that they have every opportunity to build their skills as they learn in all content areas. Without solid literacy skills including phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, The students' ability to speak, read or write effectively is compromised. Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell have done extensive research and written volumes regarding effective methods of teaching primary and intermediate literacy skills to children. Their work, along with others will be incorporated into my lessons, methods and strategies.

As my students develop solid literacy skills, they will be better prepared to take on the requirements set forth by New York State in the Learning Standards for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, Technology, The Arts, and so on.

With a strong foundation in literacy skills, they will be well prepared to explore English Language Arts especially. They will be better readers. Better writers. They will develop a deeper understanding of the varied means available to them to communicate information on many levels. With strong literacy skills, my students will be ready to tackle the difficult concepts required to master Math and Science processes, and not be hampered as they expand their vocabulary and writing skills into the scientific and logical realms. Solid literacy skills in their own language will also give them a foundation of knowledge to use when learning languages of other peoples and cultures. History and the study of how we humans have impacted the world around us, and how the world has impacted us, will lead them into entirely new ways of viewing the world around them. This deeper understanding will give my students the opportunity to explore ideas and information from varied and diverse perspectives.

Bottom line: Students who are able to adequately communicate their thoughts, ideas and needs; who can appreciate others' differences and perspectives; and who are confident in their own skills and abilities will not suffer from as much frustration and will be less inclined to impulsively act out in perceived negative ways. That is why effective integration of content and literacy are key to my Comprehensive Classroom Management Plan.

Click here  to view a visual representation of how Literacy and Content are inextricably intertwined.
(this was a project that Jeanne Weber, Aeyola Williams and Jennifer Jacubowicz completed for our Intermediate Literacy course.)