Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades

All throghout elementary school, reading was always a subject I was confident in. The reason I was so confident in reading was because of how fast and fluent I could read. However, just because I could read at a fast pace and could also read the words correctly, I rarely comprehended the text. Comprehension was not very important to me when I was in elementary school. I thought that if I could read fast and fluent then I was considered a good reader. I was terribly wrong. Today I still have that same problem. I read very well, but I often find myself reading the text several times so that I can comprehend what it says. This is a problem that I wish my teachers would have recognized and helped me with when I was young because I probably would not have the same problem today if it would have been corrected a long time ago when I was still learning the process of reading comprehension. This article had very good ideas on emphasizing the importance of content area literacy instruction. Reading to learn and learning to read go hand in hand, just like the article said. Doing both at the same time, in my opinion, can really help students become better readers and even want to read more often.

The article suggested different types of texts for students to read, instead of just textbook reading, such as trade books, Internet sites, newspapers, and magazines. These content-related texts can provide students with opportunities to increase their domain knowledge about dozens of real world topics. The more time students spend reading about expository text, the greater they will be with this text type. I think that using different kinds of texts in schools will definitely attract more interest in the students and maybe give them a fun way to read. I believe that if I had these things when I was in elementary school then I would be much better at reading comprehension and also have a greater passion to read. According to the article, teaching common expository text stuctures, such as description, sequence, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution, facilitates reading and writing of exposition. This is so important for students because they will be better able to comprehend and retain the information found in them.

If content-related texts such as trade books, Internet sites, newspapers, and magazines are not provided in our schools, then how can we expand the use of expository text to students?
If these texts were allowed in schools, but some parents were not comfortable with their children using them, what other alternatives could the teachers use?