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    Disciplinary Literacy A Shift That Makes Sense

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    The document discusses the shift from general reading strategies to disciplinary literacy, where literacy skills are taught within specific subjects. Disciplinary literacy respects how students learn in different content areas and involves doing authentic work in each discipline. Teachers identify important skills for their subject and teach them through content instead of as separate activities. Examples are provided of literacy skills and thinking in various subjects like science, history, math and English.

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    Disciplinary Literacy A Shift That Makes Sense

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    The document discusses the shift from general reading strategies to disciplinary literacy, where literacy skills are taught within specific subjects. Disciplinary literacy respects how students learn in different content areas and involves doing authentic work in each discipline. Teachers identify important skills for their subject and teach them through content instead of as separate activities. Examples are provided of literacy skills and thinking in various subjects like science, history, math and English.

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    The document discusses the shift from general reading strategies to disciplinary literacy, where literacy skills are taught within specific subjects. Disciplinary literacy respects how students learn in different content areas and involves doing authentic work in each discipline. Teachers identify important skills for their subject and teach them through content instead of as separate activities. Examples are provided of literacy skills and thinking in various subjects like science, history, math and English.

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    Disciplinary Literacy A Shift That Makes Sense

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    Yana Arsyadi
    The document discusses the shift from general reading strategies to disciplinary literacy, where literacy skills are taught within specific subjects. Disciplinary literacy respects how students learn in different content areas and involves doing authentic work in each discipline. Teachers identify important skills for their subject and teach them through content instead of as separate activities. Examples are provided of literacy skills and thinking in various subjects like science, history, math and English.

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    ASCD Express Home Archives Upcoming Themes Write for Express Subscribe

    Literacy in Every Classroom


    February 23, 2017 | Volume 12 | Issue 12
    Table of Contents
    Share |

    Disciplinary Literacy: A Shift That Makes Sense

    ReLeah Lent

    Becky Stewart, a high school physics teacher, had attended so many workshops on reading strategies
    that she felt as if she could teach a session herself. She tried to do what was asked of her, utilizing K-
    W-L charts and close reading strategies, but she jokingly told her friend that if one more person told
    her that every teacher was a teacher of reading, she would quit her job and find work in a research
    lab.

    For years, disciplinary teachers have felt they were being asked to supplement their content with a
    separate reading curriculum. "I'm not a reading teacher," Becky explained. "My degree is in science,
    and I want to teach science. I really don't want a job where I am responsible for teaching kids how to
    read and write."

    Becky is not alone. Even English teachers point out that they, like other content-area teachers, have a
    full curriculum that doesn't start or end with basic literacy skills. And beware of asking a math
    teacher, whose very language is often represented in ways other than the alphabet, what she thinks
    of the reading strategy movement. Elective or special area teachers, such as those who teach music
    or the arts, are also often asked to include literacy strategies in their teaching, though their texts may
    be in the form of props, canvas, clay, or sheets of music rather than a traditional book. Since a text is
    really anything imbued with meaning (Draper, 2015), it doesn't make sense to require teachers who
    rarely use print-centric materials to employ traditional reading methods to help students gain
    understanding.

    One of the problems with such a narrow definition of text is the "one-size-fits-all" reading strategy
    movement, where generic strategies are often used as isolated activities completely unrelated to the
    content. Some schools, for instance, implement "strategies of the week" in which all teachers must
    use a common concept map or have a similar word wall related to their current unit of study. Such
    an approach doesn't help students understand when and how a strategy might be used or adapted,
    and it can actually undermine their ability to become independent and flexible learners.

    Enter Disciplinary Literacy


    Disciplinary literacy takes a turn away from isolated content-area strategies and clarifies what
    teachers can do to help their students learn in a more effective way. It respects the varied ways that
    students read, reason, write, think, speak, and, most important, participate in specific content areas.
    Researcher Elizabeth Moje (2010) deepens the definition by arguing that disciplinary learning doesn't
    just build knowledge but actually produces or constructs it. Let's consider the K-W-L mentioned
    earlier. This strategy has been shown to be generally effective in helping students

    Reflect on what they already know (What I know).

    Set a purpose for reading (What I want to know).

    Review what they have learned (What I have learned).


    However, it would be much more useful if the strategy were customized to various content areas,
    directing students to use their new knowledge. In other words, in a disciplinary literacy approach, the
    K-W-L strategy becomes something different for each content area:

    Observe-infer-conclude in science (Alvermann, Gillis, & Phelps, 2009)

    Deconstruct-solve-apply in math

    Analyze-compare/evaluate-infer in history

    Summarize-evaluate/analyze-write in English

    Listen-comprehend-speak in foreign language

    Observe-analyze-express in art
    Content-area writing is similarly specific to each discipline. For example, a well thought-out metaphor
    may enhance a piece of writing in an English class but would hardly work for a written deconstruction
    of a math problem or the concise, factual writing needed in science. Getting students to think about
    content also requires targeted disciplinary skills. When a teacher asks students to think like a
    historian, he means that they must learn how to intuitively source materials, read closely for
    underlying bias, and engage in an analysis of the text or a comparison of one text to another. This
    sort of thinking, although it shares some commonalities with other disciplines, helps students learn
    how to specifically engage in the subject of history as opposed to, say, math or science. In short,
    disciplinary literacy is about doing the work of the disciplines instead of merely reading about it.

    Diving into Disciplinary Literacy

    But how do busy teachers make the shift to a disciplinary literacy classroom? It requires an
    embedded approach that honors the expertise of content-area teachers. First, they must identify
    what students need to learn and do to become successful in their content areas, preferably through
    dialogue with colleagues who teach the same content. Once they have named such skills and
    behaviors, they should focus on how to teach these skills while teaching content—not as a sidebar to
    the content. Admittedly, teachers may need to engage in a book or lesson study or even participate
    in a professional development opportunity to learn how best to teach the identified skills, but
    focusing on literacy skills within the disciplines brings to life a much richer schoolwide curriculum as
    students learn how to use literacy for different purposes in various subject areas.

    What Are Literacies Within the Disciplines?


    The following lists for each of the major content areas, although not comprehensive, can act as
    starting points through which communities of teachers can begin to think in terms of disciplinary
    literacy (Lent, 2016). Click here to download the list as a shareable PDF.

    Science

    When scientists read, they

    Ask "Why?" more than "What?"

    Interpret data, charts, and illustrations

    Seek to understand concepts as well as words

    Determine validity of sources and quality of evidence

    Pay attention to details


    When scientists write, they

    Use precise vocabulary

    Compose in phrases, bullets, graphs or sketches

    Use passive voice

    Favor exactness over craft or elaboration

    Communicate in a systematic form


    When scientists think, they

    Tap into curiosity to create questions

    Rely on prior knowledge or research

    Consider new hypotheses or evidence

    Propose explanations

    Create solutions
    History or Social Science

    When historians read, they

    Interpret primary and secondary sources

    Identify bias

    Think sequentially

    Compare and contrast events, accounts, documents and visuals

    Determine meaning of words within context


    When historians write, they

    Create timelines with accompanying narratives


    Synthesize information/evidence from multiple sources

    Emphasize coherent organization of ideas

    Grapple with multiple ideas and large quantities of information

    Create essays based on argumentative principles


    When historians think, they

    Create narratives

    Rely on valid primary and secondary sources to guide their thinking

    Compare and contrast or ponder causes and effects

    Consider big ideas or inquiries across long periods of time

    Recognize bias
    Math

    When mathematicians read, they

    Use information to piece together a solution

    Look for patterns and relationships

    Decipher symbols and abstract ideas

    Ask questions

    Apply mathematical reasoning


    When Mathematicians write, they

    Explain, justify, describe, estimate or analyze

    Favor calculations over words

    Use precise vocabulary

    Include reasons and examples

    Utilize real-word situations


    When Mathematicians think, they

    Consider patterns

    Utilize previous understandings

    Find connections

    Estimate, generalize, and find exceptions

    Employ mathematical principles


    English

    When students of English read, they


    Understand how figurative language works

    Find underlying messages that evolve as theme

    Assume a skeptical stance

    Pay attention to new vocabulary or words used in new ways

    Summarize and synthesize


    When students of English write, they

    Engage in a process that includes drafting, revising, and editing

    Use mentor texts to help them with the craft of writing

    Pay attention to organization, details, elaboration and voice

    Rely on the feedback of others

    Avoid formulaic writing


    When students of English think, they

    Reflect on multiple texts

    Ask questions of the author

    Consider research or others ideas

    Discuss ideas and themes

    Argue both sides of a point


    As teachers discuss the skills students need in their content area, they can expand these lists and
    then determine the most effective instructional practices to help students practice and master such
    skills—all while engaging in the authentic work of their disciplines.

    Through disciplinary literacy, we can create readers and writers who come to use literacy for its
    highest purpose—learning—with an expert by their side, a content area teacher who not only
    understands the subject but also how to use literacy to unlock it.

    References

    Alvermann, D. E., Phelps, S. F., & Gillis, V. R. (2009). Content-area reading and literacy: Succeeding in
    today's diverse classrooms. New York: Pearson.

    Draper, R. J. (2015, March). Using the Common Core State Standards to support disciplinary literacies.
    Voices from the Middle, 22(3), 59.

    Lent, R. C. (2016). This is disciplinary literacy: Reading, writing, thinking, and doing … content area by
    content area. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

    Moje, E. B. (2010, April 6). Disciplinary literacy: Why it matters and what you should do about it. Retrieved
    from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4gK-wGzU
    ReLeah Cosett Lent is an international literacy consultant and author of many books, including This Is
    Disciplinary Literacy: Reading, Writing, Thinking, and Doing . . . Content Area by Content Area (2016,
    Corwin) and Overcoming Textbook Fatigue: 21st Century Tools to Revitalize Teaching and Learning (ASCD,
    2012).

    ASCD Express, Vol. 12, No. 12. Copyright 2017 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit
    www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.

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