Cross Curricular Design

There are a variety of strategies that teachers can use to support reading across the curriculum. This page includes three different strategies.

• Cross-curricular Standards
• Academic Vocabulary
• Cross-curricular Instructional Design

Cross-curricular Standards

At the secondary level the Language Arts Florida Standards (LAFS) include strands to support literacy (reading and writing) in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Speaking and listening standards are also included in all history/social studies, science, and technical subject courses. (from CPALMS)

Literacy Standards in the Content Areas - http://www.cpalms.org/Standards/Literacy_Standards.aspx

Academic Vocabulary and Language Shifts

Vocabulary is important for any discipline or area of study, but just learning the vocabulary words is not enough. For students to become proficient the vocabulary needs to become a part of their academic language, the language they use during instruction and learning activities.

The ELA Florida Standards Implementation Guide includes a section on ELA academic vocabulary, as well as a resource on confusing words that are important for proficiency in the ELA standards. Take a moment to look at these resources. They start on page 57 of the implementation guide, or you can view them below.

Additional Resource

There are literacy toolkits available on the Florida Department of Education website. Included in these toolkits is a set of questions that include ELA vocabulary and that are designed for teachers to use in science classes and technical subject content areas.

Literacy in the Content Areas Toolkits - http://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/literacy/toolkits.stml

Cross-curricular Instructional Design

Some instructional activities, because of their design, can be repurposed for ELA, science, social studies, and technical subject courses. The instructional activity provides the cross-curricular framework and the vocabulary and content used addresses specific standards. This next activity includes an instructional framework that can be used to address all three of the ELA Instructional Shifts: Complex Texts & Academic Vocabulary, Building Knowledge, and Text Based Evidence.

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