Content Area Literacy: The Effects of Focusing on Preservice Teachers’ Literacy Identities

Abstract

While secondary preservice content area teachers are passionate about their content areas, many are still resistant to learning about and using literacy in their future classrooms (Moje, 2010; O’Brien & Stewart, 1990, Spitler, 2011). This could be due to a struggle with high level literacy skills (American Institute for Research, 2006; NAEP, 2015) or a lack of literacy in their personal lives. This study examines a university content area literacy course that focused on preservice teachers’ literacy identities and on providing a community that offered positive interactions with literacy through authentic and purposeful reading experiences. A study of survey data reflects how these preservice teachers’ views of literacy in the classroom and their own personal literacy identities were affected by specific literacy lessons and literacy assignments.

Keywords

• content area literacy
• preservice teacher
• literacy
• identity