Assignment: Literacy Position Statement 

This assignment is designed to assist students in developing a philosophy of literacy in the content areas.  Students will be going into schools where the teachers don’t believe they have time to teach literacy strategies to their kids and students will need to be well grounded as to the longer-term value of learning strategy instruction. Students will develop a position statement articulating their understanding of adolescent literacy and how it connects to their content area. They will need to synthesize theory, research, and best practice from the course readings, activities, and assignments into a cohesive, coherent philosophy. The final product should be a well-organized presentation of key points with support from theory and research.  Each section is worth 33.3 pts and each section should have its own paragraph.

Directions 

Use the following framework to write the three sections of the position statement

1. The Status of Adolescent Literacy (33.3 pts)

Using multiple, relevant sources from the course, review and synthesize data, theories, and policy on the current situation in adolescent literacy. The statement should demonstrate an understanding of the status of adolescent literacy on a national level by incorporating data and theories on the crisis of adolescent literacy to explain the current context of adolescent literacy. 

1. The Importance of Being Literate in____ (insert content area) (33.3 pts).
   Identify specific skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for literacy in this content area and discuss connections between disciplinary literacy skills and the real life literacy experiences of adolescents. The statement should demonstrate and understanding of the importance of literacy in life with specific connections to literacy within the content area. It should identify the specific skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for literacy in this content area.
2. Literacy and ____ (insert content area) (33.3 pts).
   Identify specific literacy challenges your content area presents. Be sure to articulate why students may struggle with these aspects of literacy (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) in the content area. This section should address the relationship between students’ literacy experiences and the challenge of content reading (linguistic, conceptual, vocabulary, etc.). It should address WHY students may struggle with this aspect of literacy (reading, writing, speaking, and/or listening).