Development Literacy vs Content Area Literacy

[Admin]

What does each of the following terms mean?

[/li][li]developmental literacy

[/li][li]content area literacy





I look forward to reading your insightful ideas.

[law]

Developmental literacy refers to the progression of skills entailed in producing fluent readers, writers, interpreters and communicators of text.

Content area literacy refers to the ability to read, write, understand, critique, elaborate and report multiple text types confined to a particular study.

[gjames]

Developmental Literacy can be explained as a series of steps one takes to help achieve a goal of fluent reader, creative and expressive writer and great communicator of facts, ideas/opinions and interpretations made on their own or by others.

Content Literacy can be considered the steps one takes after developing their literacy skills. This is when persons read to gain information and to answer questions. This type of literacy tends to focus on specific subject areas and obviously content related to these subjects.

[tedward]

Developmental literacy can be described as a process which involves the development and progression of an individuals reading and writing abilities. Additionally, in developmental literacy the is strong focus on recognizing letters and the sounds they make, pronunciation of these words, reading and comprehension and also the ability to write with meaning.

Content Area Literacy refers to a practice which involves an individuals ability to read, understand and analyze critically multiple forms of print.

[mjoseph]

Development literacy encompasses the skills that an individual needs to learn to read such as reading fluency skills, decoding skills, sounds skills, phonetic skills inorder to read or write texts.

Content area literacy, on the other hand, is the ability of an individual to critically analyse, comprehend multiple forms of texts as well as the ability to critique the information read from multiple forms of texts.

[ndubois]

Developmental literacy is the various processes that students go through during their educational journey and life that enables them to develop skills in reading and writing. Those skills enables them to meet the literacy demands. Skills such as understanding, comprehending, reconstructing, constructing and also critical thinking just to name a few.

Content area literacy is getting students actively involved in their reading and writing which allows them to develop skills, by the use of multiple text. This process must be practiced until it becomes a habit. This type of literacy is should be practiced by content area subject teachers.

[Admin]

Thank you for sharing your understanding of the terms.
I like the phrase "progression of skills" used by Law and Tedward in the definition of developmental literacy. However, Law needs to identify those skills that children acquire in learning to read and write.

Dubois, you need to revise the definition of developmental literacy. the skills that you mentioned are not associated with developmental literacy.

Although some of your definitions have captured the gist, I would like you to consider the following questions in producing a definition that is more comprehensive if you were to obtain full marks for the question.

1. With which stages/grade level of Chall's reading development is developmental literacy associated?

2. With which stages/grade level of Chall's reading development is content area literacy associated?

3. what is the primary purpose/focus of developmental literacy? what specific skills are students learning/acquiring?

4. what is the primary purpose/focus of content area literacy?

5. what type of text is predominately used to foster developmental and content area literacy?

I would like you to think about and answer these questions, then you will return to the forum to share a more comprehensive definition of each term. Feel free to quote the ideas of authors in your definitions.

All the best.

[cwinter]

Developmental literacy can be expressed as the learning and progressing of skills such as decoding, manipulating sounds, pronunciation, blending, segmenting, recognizing print to produce readers and writer well equipped for the literacy demands of the 21st century.

Content area literacy refers to a practice of reading, writing, understand, analyzing, making critiques of the many different forms of text (informational) by use of critical thinking and with a purpose.

[ndubois]

I have gone through the suggestions and have come up with the following points:

Developmental literacy is associated with the first three stages of Chall's stages of reading development (0-2). Those stages are where children learn to read. Skills such as phonics skills, word recognition, decoding, reading fluency are attained in developmental literacy and are all needed in content area literacy. In Chall's reading development text that are familiar fosters developmental literacy.

Content area literacy relates to Chall's last three stages of reading development (3-5) where reading to learn becomes the focus. Multiple text are used to foster content area literacy.

[sjustin]

Developmental Literacy refers to the progressive learning of skills associated with language fluency and competency (alphabet and word recondition and sounds, reading and writing, interpreting). These skills are developmental as they occur over a period of time or in stages as the individual is constantly exposed to an array of genres of text.

Content Area Literacy is a cognitive ability that is associated with one’s social practice and skills involved in reading and comprehending a variety of forms of print. These prints include traditional novels to internet electronic documents that an individual is able to dissect and critique to offer some deep understanding of the content presented.

[jchicotlouisy]

"Developmental Literacy" as the title suggests, is the process by which an individual attains or improves his/her ability to read and write. With reference to Jeanne Chall's 'Stages of Reading development," stages 0-2 focuses strategically on developmental literacy. This is where the child learns to decode, manipulate the 44 sounds in English and other basic areas of English. In other words, the child "Learns to read."


On the other hand, "Content area literacy" is a cognitive and social process, where students can interact with the multiple forms of print. Interacting involves interpreting, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating. Chall's stages 3-5 heavily focuses on such aspect of literacy, where students "read to learn."

[sregis]

Developmental literacy is most prevalent in the early stages of literacy. It is the first phase of literacy. Developmental literacy can be considered as "basic literacy as" there is a focus on manipulating sounds, segmenting and comprehension. According to Chall's theory Developmental literacy take place from the ages of 0 to 8 years.

Content Area Literacy is "advance literacy" which is nonexistent without the completion of Developmental literacy. Therefore, it can be deemed "advance literacy". Content Area Literacy focuses on gaining information, forming opinions and synthesizing. According to Chall's theory Content Area Literacy take place from the ages of 8years and over.

[geugene]

Developmental Literacy is the process of enabling students to grasp the key concepts that are necessary to read generally. This involves building on conceptual knowledge, decoding, gluing to and from print and developing fluency in reading. In this process the child develops from Stages 0 to 2 according to Chall's stages of reading development. This usually takes places from birth to 8 years old and these children are in classes from pre-kindergarten to grade 3.

Content Literacy is the process of empowering students to understand the key ideas that are fundamental in order to read and succeed in a particular subject or course of study. This type of literacy allows individuals to read critically in order to gain new knowledge, have multiple viewpoints and construct and reconstruct information from a wide body of knowledge. In this process the child develops from Stages 3 to 5 according to Chall's stages of reading development. This usually takes places from 8 years old to adulthood and persons are in classes from grade 4 up to university level.

[lgidharry]

Developmental literacy is the process by which an individual progresses in reading and writing over a period of time. According to Chall’s stages of reading development, developmental literacy occurs at stages 0-2 or from grade K to grade 3. This is where students use narrative texts to learn how to read. At this stage students are learning skills such as phonics skills, word recognition, decoding, reading fluency etc.

Content area literacy on the other hand is a cognitive and social practice involving the ability and desire to read, comprehend, critique and write about multiple forms of print. Chall's stages 3-5, or from ages 8 and above (grade 4 and above) focuses on content area literacy where students read to learn using expository, non-fiction and informative texts.

[jwilliams]

Developmental literacy is the actions that are taken to help students become better readers by helpiing with decoding pronouncing and recognizing words, letters and sounds.

Content area literacy is a practice where there is a willingness and competence in reading, understanding and ablity to analyze variious forms of text.