Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach Content Literacy Through Quad Text Sets

• In Event: Not Siloed: Working Across Disciplines to Improve Teacher Preparation

Abstract

As a multi-disciplinary team of teacher educators (in English Language Arts, English as a Second Language/Foreign Language, science, and social studies), we consider how secondary pre-service teachers (PSTs) perceive and implement content-area literacy integration through PSTs’ construction of Quad Text Sets (QTS). Results indicated that PSTs envisioned QTS as a means to teach content-specific background knowledge, and to a lesser extent content-specific literacy and general literacy. Despite positive perceptions of QTS, some PSTs, particularly science PSTS, struggled to recognize literacy’s role in content-area classrooms. We explore how teacher educators can help PSTs incorporate literacy strategies into secondary classrooms.

Authors

• Alexis Rutt, University of Virginia

• Alicen Brown, University of Virginia

• April Simun Salerno, University of Virginia

• Natasha A. Heny, University of Virginia