The Reading Next text describes a literacy crisis that is facing the American student. There are a variety of statistics and numbers to support the claim that literacy rates among students are declining. The reading next report cites issues with reading comprehension that were addressed by Gunning's Chapter 8 Comprehension Text Structures and Teaching Procedures. Gunning offers strategies for increasing reading comprehension such as teaching text structures an tent patterns, reading guides and questioning techniques, just to name a few. McKenna and Robinson's Teaching through Text chapter 8 is an in depth look at the use of different types of reading guides. They assert that “...guides are a powerful tool for a wide range of readers and a wide variety of selections.” (McKenna 174) through the use of these guides student comprehension can be increased. McKenna's Getting to know your Students, Your Materials, and Your Teaching discusses the importance of balancing the student's literacy proficiency, the nature of the written material and the literacy-related demands of the teacher as a way to improve student literacy. This balance addresses the Reading Next's identified issues with student reading level and expectations set by educators.
Raising student literacy and comprehension is the duty of all educators. As an Art content area teacher it will be my job to embed effective instructional principals in the art content. This can be achieved through the implementation of reading guides to go along with content readings such as artist biographies, explanations of artistic movements, and art history research. To accommodate the writing aspect of literacy in the art classroom students will be expected to write explanations and critiques of their work as well as the work of others. Diverse texts with a wide range of difficulty levels and topics are part of every art classroom I have entered. There are classroom libraries, resource books on techniques for all skill levels and picture books as references for subjects are a very simple and effective inclusion in an art room to build student literacy. Technology instruction as a component for building literacy can be incorporated into my art lessons in the following ways. I plan to assign students an inquiry project that can and should be researched online. There is also a my plan to have a digital gallery of student's works with critique and discussion boards. Lieracy is an important part of anyones education and should be taught in every classroom. No matter what the content area or grade level we are all reading and writing teachers.
