Disciplinary Literacy: Guiding Questions and Resources

Part One: Understanding Disciplinary Literacy
Use the quotations and resources below to help you understand disciplinary literacy.

  • What is literacy?
  • What is disciplinary literacy?  What is it not?
  • What are the arguments for this approach?
  • What concerns have been raised? How are these concerns addressed?

First, some quotations to consider:

FRC’s definition of literacy: The ability to competently make meaning of any symbolic representation of an object, idea or concept to create and communicate understanding.

“Literacy is not something you add to an already overcrowded plate; literacy is the plate.”
Irvin, J., Meltzer, J, and Dukes, M. (2007) Taking the lead on adolescent                        literacy. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
“Disciplinary literacy means, not just accumulating knowledge about the discipline but understanding the discipline’s important theoretical ideas. It means understanding what questions are important to the discipline and how to seek answers to those questions. It also means being able to read and write successfully within that discipline.”
Johnson, H. (2011). What It Is They Do: Differentiating Knowledge and Literacy Practices Across Content Disciplines. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(2), 100-109
"Without these specialized literacies, students may be relegated to the position of reading and writing about what others are doing rather than participating in the activities of creation, inquiry, expression and problem-solving.”(p.2)
Draper, R. ed. (2010). (Re)imagining content-area literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
“engaging all students as readers and writers in subject areas is also a matter of social justice. For their own personal development and for effective participation in a democratic society, students need to be able to read with comprehension and critically evaluate the texts they encounter.” (p. 9)
Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, M. (2008). Reading in secondary content area: A language based pedagogy. Annarbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
 Take a look at:

Moje, E. (2008). Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107. available at EBSCOhost.com: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=uid&custid=%20s1568718&group=main

Disciplinary Literacy: Why It Matters and What We Should Do About It: A Keynote addess by  Elizabeth Moje
  Video and powerpoint slides: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3121

    Shanhan, T. (2012) Disciplinary Literacy is NOT the New Name for Content Area Reading http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/01/disciplinary-literacy-is-not-new-name.html

Cynthia Shanahan Interview  -  November 7, 2011
http://voiceofliteracy.missouri.edu/view.php?id=552&&title=Cynthia+Shanahan+Interview&cast_date=November+7%2C+2011&pageBefore=archive

Zygouris-Coe (2012) What is Disciplinary Literacy and Why Aren’t We Talking More About it?
http://vocablog-plc.blogspot.ca/2012/03/what-is-disciplinary-literacy-and-why.html

Discussion with your literacy coach

Part Two: Planning forward with disciplinary literacy

Use the following questions to guide your thinking in planning to teach through a disciplinary literacy lens.

  • What are the texts of my discipline?
  • How do my colleagues and I read the texts of my discipline?
  • What texts are appropriate for my students to access?
  • What skills do I need to help my students develop as apprentices in my discipline?
  • What are the essential skills outcomes of my course? How do the skills required for disciplinary literacy overlap with these skills?/ Are they the same? Different?
  • What literacy and instructional strategies will work in my classroom to help my students develop these skills?
  • What are the essential content outcomes of the courses I teach? How can I embed disciplinary literacy into how I teach this content?
Resources:

Your own background knowledge and discussions with your colleagues

Curriculum documents from Manitoba Education and Literacy http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/index.html

subject-specific course materials and resources  

For further reading

Buehl, D. (2011). Developing readers in the academic disciplines. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Draper, R. ed. (2010). (Re)imagining content-area literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, M. (2008). Reading in secondary content area: A language based pedagogy. Annarbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Gee, J. (2004) Situated language and literacy: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jetton, T., & Shanahan, C. (2012). Adolescent literacy in the academic disciplines: General principles and practical strategies. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Johnson, H. (2011). What It Is They Do: Differentiating Knowledge and Literacy Practices Across Content Disciplines. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(2), 100-109

Irvin, J., Meltzer, J, and Dukes, M. (2007) Taking the lead on adolescent literacy. Alexandria, ZA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Mandigo, J., Francis, N., Lodewyk, K., & Lopez, R. (2009).  Postion paper: Physical Literacy for educators. Retrieved from http://www.phecanada.ca/sites/default/files/current_research_pdf/07-22-10/PhysicalLiteracyPositionPaper.pdf

Marlett, P. J. (2004). The use of alternative texts in physical education. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(3), 226-237.

Moje, E. (2008). Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107.

McConachie, S., & Petrosky, A. (2010). Content matters: A disciplinary approach to improving student learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Zimmerman, Susan and Ellin Keene. 2007. Mosaic of Thought, 2nd Edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.