In a struggling global economy, education is focused on core subjects such as language arts and mathematics, and the development of technological and career-readiness skills. Arts education has not been a central focus of education reform movements in the United States, and none of the current education standards frameworks deeply address the processes, texts and literacies that are inherent to arts disciplines. This lack of clarity poses a problem for state and district leaders who might be inclined to advocate for the arts in schools and classrooms across the country, but cannot find adequate detail in their guiding frameworks. This volume acknowledges the challenges that arts educators face, and posits that authentic arts instruction and learning can benefit a young person's development both inside and outside of the classroom. It presents ways that arts teachers and literacy specialists can work together to help others understand the potential that arts learning has to enhance students 21st century learning skills.

In a struggling global economy, education is focused on core subjects such as language arts and mathematics, and the development of technological and career-readiness skills. Arts education has not been a central focus of education reform movements in the United States, and none of the current education standards frameworks deeply address the processes, texts and literacies that are inherent to arts disciplines. This lack of clarity poses a problem for state and district leaders who might be inclined to advocate for the arts in schools and classrooms across the country, but cannot find adequate detail in their guiding frameworks. This volume acknowledges the challenges that arts educators face, and posits that authentic arts instruction and learning can benefit a young person's development both inside and outside of the classroom. It presents ways that arts teachers and literacy specialists can work together to help others understand the potential that arts learning has to enhance students 21st century learning skills.

Today's teachers need to prepare students for a world that places increasingly higher literacy demands on its citizens. In this timely book, the authors explore content-area literacy and instruction in English, music, science, mathematics, social studies, visual arts, technology, and theatre. Each of the chapters has been written by teacher educators who are experts in their discipline. Their key recommendations reflect the aims and instructional frameworks unique to content-area learning. This resource focuses on how literacy specialists and content-area educators can combine their talents to teach all readers and writers in the middle and secondary school classroom. The text features vignettes from classroom practice with visuals to demonstrate, for example, how we read a painting or hear the discourse of a song.|Today's teachers need to prepare students for a world that places increasingly higher literacy demands on its citizens. In this timely book, the authors explore content-area literacy and instruction in English, music, science, mathematics, social studies, visual arts, technology, and theatre. Each of the chapters has been written by teacher educators who are experts in their discipline. Their key recommendations reflect the aims and instructional frameworks unique to content-area learning. This resource focuses on how literacy specialists and content-area educators can combine their talents to teach all readers and writers in the middle and secondary school classroom. The text features vignettes from classroom practice with visuals to demonstrate, for example, how we read a painting or hear the discourse of a song.

From leading authorities in both adolescent literacy and content-area teaching, this book addresses the particular challenges of literacy learning in each of the major academic disciplines. Chapters focus on how to help students successfully engage with texts and ideas in English/literature, science, math, history, and arts classrooms. The book shows that while general strategies for reading informational texts are essential, they are not enough--students also need to learn processing strategies that are quite specific to each subject and its typical tasks or problems. Vignettes from exemplary classrooms illustrate research-based ways to build content-area knowledge while targeting essential reading and writing skills.