Healthy Reading: Teaching Strategies for Integrating Health and Literacy Education

Abstract

Across the world, development of health literacy skills with elementary school students improves health outcomes, reduces health risks, and increases academic success. As elementary school classroom teachers are often responsible for delivering the health curriculum to their students, this article examines ways to integrate health literacy with reading instruction. The authors describe learning experiences designed to develop knowledge and skills about nutrition and healthy eating choices in different cultural contexts. Mutual development of reading and health literacy skills leads to development of skills essential for supporting health and academic success. While the innovative strategies described here are designed in the context of U.S. classrooms, teaching health literacy in conjunction with critical literacy skills has global relevance.