6. What literacy skills are taught through the content areas and what are taught through language arts lessons?

Literacy skills are taught through both the content areas and language arts lessons. Explicit language arts instruction through both languages is an essential component of TWI instruction. But literacy skills can (and should) be taught through carefully planned content area units as well. Thematic content area units involve having students read a variety of both fiction and nonfiction material at a variety of reading levels. Literacy skills are taught through focused mini-lessons, readings, and writing projects throughout the unit. In particular, content-specific vocabulary, rhetorical structures, and skills (such as using glossaries, looking for sub-headings as a way of finding information, reading table of contents, skimming, etc.) lend themselves to instruction through the content areas.