In order for students to make sense of new ideas or new content, they must receive scaffolding of previous knowledge. Although, students may have different skill levels, effective scaffolding allows the content to be accessible to all students. Similarly, When students are introduced to a certain disciplinary lenses, specifically through reading disciplinary texts, students require some sort of scaffolding. This scaffolding may include describing the how the discipline expresses ideas, looking at text structure of different disciplinary texts and focusing on key terms used by that discipline.

Modeling is a technique that can be used to scaffold and engage students in disciplinary thinking. Each discipline possesses its own way of discovering knowledge, conveying information to their audience and their own educational language. Therefore, students should receive direct instruction on discipline specific material before incorporating the materials into lessons. Research presented in the article, “Disciplinary literacy in elementary school: how a struggling students positions herself as a writer,” explains that all students benefit from modeling before being asked to engage in disciplinary activities with texts (Haland, 2018). Teachers should deliberately chose texts to model with key features that are relevant to their objectives, communicate the reasoning to why the author is writing the way they were, model with the students and allow students to write their own texts in the same way (Haland, 2018). By taking this approach, students of all abilities will be able to position themselves in the a discipline.

Modeling disciplinary texts requires teachers to choose literature that has key terms, language and purpose that aligns with the particular discipline they are focusing on. Students who interact with disciplinary texts through modeling have the necessary tools to learn through the lenses or experts.

Håland,A. (2017). Disciplinary literacy in elementary school: How a struggling student positions herself as a writer. The Reading Teacher, 70(4), 457-468.

Public schools are required to have a curriculum that is enriching, engaging and examines all social and cultural perspectives; that provides an equitable learning experience for all students. However, there is a stigma about religion, teaching religious texts and examining the different religions in any context in public schools. By avoiding the examination of religious ideas and texts, public schools are perpetuating an ignorance to an important social and cultural difference among students. More direclty, this ignorance of religious ideas is misinterpreted and carried over into society as an intolerance for religion.

Although the topic may seem uncomfortable to teachers, students and even parents, religion is a cultural or social framework that many people use to shape their lives. In her article, “Religious literacies in secular literacies classroom,” Skerrett’s (2014) research supports the importance of religious literacies. She finds that although teachers and students in a secular classroom experienced tensions when addressing religious literacy, they approached lessons “by emphasizing a shared value of human empathy and their shared commitment to classroom community, pursuing understanding of one another’s perspectives and seeking underlying commonalities of different, or differently articulated religious beliefs,” (Skerrett, 2014). This approach to religious literacy involves students using skills that they already practice in other disciplines. Furthermore, this is a skill used outside of the disciplines in everyday human interaction.

Although it may seem like we are a far way from incorporating religious literacies in secular schools, research continues to provide findings that support these literacies. Examining the history of religions and how they have shaped the core disciplines today can provide students with a tool to synthesize information in a helpful way. Religion, as a discipline in itself, may benefit students in secular literacy schools.

Citation for article referenced in this post:

Skerrett, A. (2014). Religious literacies in a secular literacy classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(2), 233-250.

Digital literacy may sound like the educational idea, disciplinary literacy, and there is a reason for that. Similar to disciplinary literacy, digital literacies can be applied across the disciplines and they give students tools meet common core standards or other benchmarks in the different content areas. When students are given the opportunity to strengthen their digital literacy skills, they will find new ways to analyze, make connections and problem solve.

So, what is digital literacy? Digital literacies refer to the skill set needed to navigate digital mediums such as computers, computer applications, electronic learning tools, electronic sources and even calculators. Although many students are exposed to digital tools every day, they may not possess the knowledge to use these tools academically. In order to benefit from digital tools, students must develop digital literacy.

Digital literacy looks different across the content areas. Digital mathematics literacy is defined as “the types of literacies necessary to question, construct, and participate in both consuming and producing mathematical knowledge through multiple modes of text, including image, print and speech,” (Siebert & Draper, 2017). Students need digital mathematics literacy to use math tools including calculators or computer applications for charting/drawing. Digital literacies are needed when using a calculator to enter formulas, express fractions and to operate the software via buttons.

It is important for teachers to be fluent in digital literacies in order to implement them in their classroom. Furthermore, teachers should use digital tools to only enhance student learning by creating outlets for students to develop their understanding, communicate ideas, come to solutions in ways that aren’t possible without technology (Siebert & Draper, 2017). It is the teachers role to make sure students are benefiting from the digital tools they use. Teachers can do research to find digital tools that are appropriate for their content area and incorporate them into the classroom.

Cited in this post: Siebert, D., & Draper, R. (2017). Digital mathematics literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(5), 577-580.

This week, given the freedom to choose what I read in class, I found an enlightening article about reading across the disciplines. In this article by Lee (2014), the author discusses factors that teachers and scholars are ignoring when considering the implementation and student progress in disciplinary learning across content areas.

In the introduction of her research, Lee (2014) makes a broad claim about the goals set for students and how it is “crucial” for certain socioeconomic groups to achieve these goals in order to excel in life. She claims that the skills developed through disciplinary reading “are especially crucial for young people who are living in poverty and are positioned in our society in political, social, and economic statuses that require resistance in order to not remain in non-dominant hierarchies,” (2014). In simpler terms, the author is claiming that we are trying to teacher disciplinary literacy and while the goals we set for students will prepare them for their future academic/personal careeres, not all students are benefiting from instruction because their backgrounds are being ignored.

This being said, the students who will benefit most from the outcomes of disciplinary reading are not receiving the supports they need to have a chance to be successful. As a pre-service teacher, we are taught about inclusive classrooms, how to include all students in our lessons and how to modify lessons to enhance student learning. However, in course articles about disciplinary readings, authors don’t propose solutions that consider the socioeconomic background of students. In fact, I would go as far to say that most of the research in disciplinary reading has been with students from affluent areas with, who are from “dominant hierarchies.”

All students bring their own background knowledge and experiences to learning. We are taught to consider these backgrounds when planning lessons, including disciplinary reading across texts. Rarely are we asked to consider how students backgrounds can negatively effect their learning, specifically when the goals we set benefit a particular group of students the most.

Lee, C. D. (2014). The multi-dimensional demands of reading in the disciplines. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(1), 9-15.

After spending a couple weeks reading about disciplinary literacy, I have gained multiple viewpoints on disciplinary literacy. Although many of the past articles mentioned in my blog are praising disciplinary literacy practices, some educators argue against these practices. For example, many teachers already feel overwhelmed with integrating standards into lessons, making sure students meet national benchmarks and keeping students engaged in learning.

When used correctly, disciplinary literacy can enhance a classroom and provide students with tools they can carry across disciplines. An article by Shanahan et al. provides arguments for disciplinary literacy; offering ways elementary school teachers can prepare and integrate students for disciplinary literacy. The article suggest that teachers prepare elementary students for disciplinary literacy by “ensuring that students read and understand the often nuanced differences among a wide range of text types, helping students make sense of information and ideas across multiple texts, and teaching vocabulary in every subject area.” Although this may seem like an overwhelming task, implementing disciplinary literacy can be as simple as thinking about these components while creating a lesson.

When planning for an ELA lesson, an elementary teacher may consider providing various types of texts (fiction, non-fiction, picture books, data), giving students an opportunity to explore the disciplines through these texts. The teacher may also use texts with different biases and opinions. This allows students to see the different opinions held by different disciplines and establishments. Attention to vocabulary is also a disciplinary tool that the elementary teacher can use in her ELA lesson. Using higher level vocabulary and words that are specific to disciplines can help elementary students begin to see through disciplinary lenses.

Rather than an argument against disciplinary literacy, I would like to propose the question: what does disciplinary literacy look like in the classroom when a student has a learning disability or even an IEP? In the elementary grades, students begin to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and emotional disorders. These diagnoses often effect students individually in the classroom and require modifications to their curriculum, classroom environments’ and personal lives. I struggle to imagine an effective way to execute disciplinary literacy for students with learning disabilities. Furthermore, how do you make disciplinary literacy worthwhile, or useful for students with disabilities?

In my experiences as a pre-service teacher, I have discovered many examples of the concepts content, content area and disciplinary literacy. These experiences have been both inside the classroom and in my undergraduate courses. I am also going to discuss another term that is familiar in my academic career, certification area, providing my interpretation and definition of the concept.  

Content, or the “what” students are reading to get information, is exemplified different ways in the classroom. For example, students in a mid-Atlantic ELA classroom that I observed received knowledge about Anne Frank through an interactive virtual reality lesson. This lesson provided students with the history of Anne Frank’s experience in the holocaust by examining her home. The creator/ author of this unique type of content used historical facts and images to provide information to students.

Content area, also defined as the subject area or the different disciplines focused on in the academic world, is a crucial part of my pre-service teacher career. I have observed different ways schools conjugate, or separate, middle level content areas. One way I have observed content areas divided in the school is mathematics, sciences and cultural literacy. This method is interesting because cultural literacy is a combination of two content areas: history and ELA. During cultural literacy lessons, student would use ELA strategies and methods to learn about the history of the world.

Disciplinary literacy practices, defined in a study by Rainey (2018), are “shared languages and symbolic tools that members of academic disciplines […] use to construct knowledge alongside others,” (Rainey, 2018). Pre-service teachers are being taught to teach students through disciplinary lenses to foster meaningful and appropriate learning. One way pre-service teachers are being taught to use disciplinary literacy in science is through teaching inquiry. In science, students use inquiry in a similar way that scientists use inquiry in labs and in their practice.

Certification area is a term that is used in the college community among professionals, administration and students. Similar to content area, certification area is an academic term used in a specific community of learners. If I had to define certification area, the definition would be identified as, “the content area or content areas that education degrees are segregated in; each area involves the study of unique tools, ways of teaching and knowledge of one or more discipline.” There is a strong connection between this definition and the concepts content, content area and disciplinary literacy.

Not only are the concepts discussed previously used in the definition of certification area, they also embodied in the different certification areas. For example, content that is mastered in the certification area Early Childhood Education is different than that in the certification area for Secondary Education. Certification area is not specific to the educational world and is present in other academic disciplines.

Article cited 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. 

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:

Senior year is here. Finally. Although there is much learning and writing to be done this year, I am going to begin with a gif of a cat that accurately depicts me completing this assignment .