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Philosophy of Disciplinary Literacy

RDG 323 Professor Haddy

Johnathan Welch

11/29/2020
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When a person hears the word literate a familiar definition comes to our minds almost

instantly. Literate means the ability for one to be able to read or write a specific language. For

the most part anyone can do this. However, when it’s implemented within a school setting it

looks drastically different for those within the classroom. It looks different depending on the

content area in which students are learning material in. For example, Science literacy is going to

look different than English literacy just like History literacy is going to look different than Math

literacy. Each content area might have similar terminology, but they do not mean the exact same

thing which is where most students get confused. As a future teacher, it’s our responsibility to

make it evident to students that these are different. The teacher can accomplish through various

strategies, engagement models, and academic language. Another thing that the instructor needs

to be aware of is the responsiveness of the student based on their cultural background. This is an

important part because not all cultures handle education the same nor do they have accessible

access to all forms of it.

Disciplinary Literacy within the content area of Science focuses on reading, writing,

speaking, and listening. While these are similar to most content areas the main focus for the

science community is being able to relate the experiences and skills needed to thrive. I find that

most students tend to struggle in comprehending science literacy because it is unique and can

have many meanings. For a student to communicate their end product they must ask compelling

questions, gather information from texts, synthesize claims made from those articles, evaluate

and revise, and share it with the class (Azed, 2017). To do this though, students must

comprehend complex vocabulary terms that they wouldn’t utilize in an English or History

course. These may include Photosynthesis, Punnet Squares, Adaptations, etc. In enticing students

into this field and make it more applicable to their lives, different phenomena’s have been seen
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overtime. According to Azed (2017), phenomena are events that are observed to exist or happen

when an explanation is in question. This gives way for multiple explanations to arise never

resulting in a clear-cut answer.

The cultural background of a student and teacher play a significant role in the classroom.

It affects how well the content is conveyed between the two parties. If there is something that

clashes between the two then the odds of that student receiving the proper information lowers

drastically. However, Kathleen Cullen describes the importance of various strategies that are

applicable for these situations. Cullen (2020) explains that although English language arts is the

main hub for literacy strategies it can be integrated in all academic subjects. Texts are one of the

many examples that is familiar in all focuses and utilized the most. For science the text may

focus on structured systems in relation to circulatory, endocrine, and respiratory (Cullen, 2020).

Each content area differs the text in a way that is relatable to the system. These literacy strategies

are implemented into the classroom to help students improve their overall understating of the

course content.

Teachers throughout the years develop different strategies and mold frameworks that

benefit content areas all around but more specifically their own. Some interlap but for the most

part they’re broken into content area literacy and disciplinary literacy. Content area literacy is

applicable throughout many disciplines and is easily transferable for students to comprehend. A

teacher may model what they desire from the students and then have them practice it in smaller

groups or independently (International Literacy Association, 2017). An example within a science

classroom would be demonstrating how to fill in a note worksheet throughout the lesson. The

teacher would demonstrate the expectations clearly and then allow students to follow along and

do it themselves. Disciplinary literacy is more specific to the academic discipline itself and is
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mainly beneficial to that area. The International Literacy Association (2017) describes it as the

ability for students to use literacy that are unique within the discipline to engage in goals and

practices. Science disciplines would focus more on articles and explanations relating to scientific

figures or data that was produced.

In a similar way, authors Judith, Julie, and Melinda develop their own remarks about

these ideas in the book Taking Action an Adolescent Literacy. They discussed about the different

motivational tools for students as well as engagement and achievements for them. According to

them there is a connection between the three of them. From an outside perspective it makes sense

that they would be connected because those students who want to achieve something will be

motivated to engage within the curriculum. Since motivation leads to engagement this is where

teachers need to start and we have to tie it into something that students are interested in or find a

purpose for (Irvin, Meltzer, & Dukes, 2007). Without motivation from the students the teacher is

going to struggle a lot. There will be tons of awkward silence, lack of communication, and lower

scores on everything overall. For the science discipline it’s easier to motivate students through

laboratory activities because they can engage with it and manipulate it. Literacy is present during

these opportunities allowing students to “interact with text and with each other about text” (Irvin,

Meltzer, & Dukes, 2007). These moments can increase the rate at which students question and

predict things as well as being able to summarize what occurred during the process.

Everyone knows that the academic language within a content area becomes dull overtime

and is increasingly difficult for students to find interest in learning about it. For all students the

branching between different disciplines starts the moment they start learning from that content

area. There are “overlapping subregisters” but even those branch off and become more

specialized based on the highly technical language used (Zwiers, 2014). Even though we want
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students to increase their rigor in the academic fields it’s important for teachers to increase the

pedagogical language knowledge. In building a student’s PDL they will have the ability to

construct and comprehend more complex terminology later on.

Going into this semester I knew a fair amount of information about online resources that

were available for students and teachers. This came from previous semesters of designing lesson

plans and gathering information from other professors and colleagues. A few of these included

Peardeck, Kahoot, Quizlet, Padlet, and the various options that are available on Google Drive

except Jamboard. Having taken this Digital Literacy course, I now have a bigger and wider

arsenal that I can utilize within my future classroom. Some of the new resources are Jamboard,

Wakelet, and Padlet. Although Padlet is on here twice I didn’t use it as much prior to this course

just because I didn’t fully know what it could be used for. With my groups final lesson plan

assignment, we were able to utilize a Wakelet and thought about using a Padlet for a portion of it

but decided it would be confusing if we did.

References

Azed. (2017). Disciplinary Literacy in High School Science. Azed.

https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2017/11/HS%20Science%20Disciplinary

%20Literacy.pdf?id=5a0476ae3217e104b0543f32

Cullen, K. (2020). Culturally Responsive Disciplinary Literacy Strategies Instruction. Steps to

Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice.

https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/steps-to-success/chapter/12-culturally-responsive-

disciplinary-literacy-strategies-instruction/

International Literacy Association. (2017). Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy Strategies

and Frameworks. Literacy Leadership Brief.

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-content-area-

disciplinary-literacy-strategies-frameworks.pdf?sfvrsn=e180a58e_6

Irvin, J., Meltzer, J., & Dukes, M. (2007). Student Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement.

Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107034/chapters/Student-Motivation,-

Engagement,-and-Achievement.aspx

Zwiers, J. (2014). Building Academic Language. International Reading Association.

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/reader.action?

docID=1652090&ppg=97