Abstract
Many schools for grades 4–8 are departmentalized; that is, students receive daily instruction from several different teachers because each teacher specializes in a single subject. A balanced and comprehensive literacy program can be a reality when a competent and caring teacher puts forth the time and effort it takes to create a program that connects content areas with the language arts in deep and meaningful ways and offers important ideas that students can wrap their minds around through engaging activities. The skills of literacy, while absolutely necessary, are part and parcel of the more critical task—realizing what reading can mean and how it can make readers feel. Based on the substantiation of test scores as well as an impartial observer's examination, the students appear to be learning the skills of literacy and to be able to apply them to the content areas in a rich and rewarding way.