My teacher prep program included a course on reading for secondary teacher candidates. One day the professor asked all of the candidates to bring in an example of a book or article they were using in the classrooms in which they were doing field work so that we could discuss how to help students understand different types of text. When he came to the group of prospective science teachers and listened to our questions, he acknowledged that he was simply stumped: English was his specialty and he didn't have much advice on how we could help our students pick out key information when reading science textbooks.

Mella Baxter's post on Wednesday points out the importance of preparing teacher candidates in all content areas to assist struggling readers, especially given that the Common Core State Standards will require students to read and comprehend non-fiction as well as fiction.  I'm looking forward to the day when science teacher candidates, and teacher candidates in every other subject area, learn about literacy from specialists in their area and enter the classroom well-prepared to help their students understand what they are reading.