In this week’s reading, Wolsey & Lapp (2017) address the differences in the terms content, content area and disciplinary literacy (Wolsey & Lapp, 2017). This post is going to focus on the specific term content.
Although these terms sound alike, they each play a diverse role in the classroom. In education, content is the “what” or modem the author is using to relay knowledge. I think of content as an umbrella term that encompasses numbers, symbols, graphs, pictures or even sounds authors across disciplines can use to help readers understand the information.
Students have different background knowledge sometimes about the content in classrooms. Another interesting point made by researchers is how students carry their own experience and knowledge that effects how they make sense of content (Wolsey & Lapp, 2017). This may include skills or tools used to interpret information. I would explain it by saying each student has their own “toolkit” that they bring with them to the classroom. This “toolkit” includes those skills or experiences that students use to make sense of information in front of them, It is important for teachers to understand that students in the classroom have different “toolkits” and there for learn content differently.
When teachers are knowledgeable about the previous content students have been exposed to, they can prevent confusion and repetition in the classroom. For example, if a teacher is going to assign students a graph to interpret, they should ensure students have the necessary skills to read that content.
There are endless ways teachers can use content in their classroom. Teachers should have content from different authors that convey the same information. Also, teachers can find content for their classroom that provide opposing opinions on different topics. Exposing students to different content will improve their reading across disciplines
Citation for article discussed in this post: Wolsey, T. D., & Lapp, D. (2017). Literacy in the disciplines: A teacher’s guide for grades 5-12. Chapter 1. New York, NY: Guilford. Citation for article discussed in this post:
meatballs&marinara 
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog about the two articles we had to read for this week. I never understand the difference between content literacy and discipline literacy before reading the articles, and completely agree that content is the “what” that the author is trying to convey within their writing. I also agree with your statement of how you said teachers should create different forms of content and include different works by different authors so that it can be well-rounded and beneficial for all learners and their different reading/content levels. I thought you brought up an interesting comment about how students bring their own knowledge about certain content to the classroom and based off previous knowledge and experience is how they interpret that specific data. I remember reading the “Gee” article and how he said that younger students basically start off with a clean slate and have the capabilities to learn from the same foundation as everyone else if given the tools. His point goes hand-in-hand with your statement about bringing previous knowledge and experience to the classroom and how we, as teachers, can shape their minds with the foundation we start them with as early learners.
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I like your metaphor of the “toolkit”– it made me think of Gee’s identity kit– do you think there are similarities or am I stretching things?
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