Disciplinary Literacy

There are currently two approaches to literacy development: content area literacy and disciplinary literacy. The former focuses on explicitly teaching generic strategies to develop students’ abilities to effectively read and write across content areas (Fang & Coatoam, 2013, pg. 627). The latter recognizes that literacy skills and strategies and disciplinary content are “inextricably intertwined” (pg. 628), and therefore, literacy strategies specific to the content area must be taught. Within the content area of history, students should learn the reading and writing strategies that actual historians practice in their field. According to Lee and Spratley (2010), historical documents discuss issues of politics, economics, and societal issues that students need to be prepared to understand in order to become informed, civically involved members of their communities (pg. 6). 

Disciplinary literacy is a more advanced form of literacy that many school districts are moving towards implementing because of its ability to help struggling readers overcome a variety of challenges (Lee & Spratley, 2010, pg. 2). These challenges can include problems with “vocabulary knowledge”, “general knowledge of topics and text structures,” “knowing what to do when comprehension breaks down,” and ability to monitor one’s own comprehension (pg. 2). In their article, Lee and Spratley (2010) propose using disciplinary reading as strategy for transitioning from “learning to read” in kindergarten to “reading to learn” in middle through high school (pg. 2). In the discipline of history, one example of reading to learn includes the ability to decide whether a document comes from a reliable source in order to understand a historical event (pg. 6). By focusing literacy development on the specific demands of each discipline, students will be prepared to delve deeper into the issues they study in class, and potentially see more value in their classes because they are taking on the role of professionals in those fields. While teaching disciplinary literacy will not necessarily ensure that all students will become professionals in those fields, it will still prepare them to be critical thinkers capable of comprehending what they read (Fang & Coatoam, 2013, pg. 628).

Disciplinary literacy is said to be possible to implement starting as early as upper elementary school, and requires that teachers be properly trained on the content of each discipline, the discourse patterns, and the “habits of mind” that professionals in such fields exercise (Fang & Coatoam, 2013, pg. 629). However, despite its’ recent rise to prominence, many believe that the false dichotomy has been created between content area literacy and disciplinary literacy (Brozo, et. al., 2013, pg. 353). Brozo, Moorman, Meyer, and Stewart (2013) advocate for a combination of the two literacy development strategies, which they call the radical center” (pg. 354). The radical center holds that calls to replace content area literacy practices with disciplinary literacy practices are unproductive, especially for students who are struggling readers. This is of particular interest to me as a future English as a Second Language teacher because students will still be developing their English proficiency and therefore be struggling with literacy development. Working from the radical center does not imply “making things easy” for students; it meets students where they are at in their literacy development path and works with them from that point using all resources available. Teachers using both methods will still be creating a “culture of high expectations” (Lee & Spratley, 2010, pg. 17) for their students when teaching literacy from the radical center. To begin implementing this more pragmatic approach to literacy, discipline specific teachers and literacy specialists need to be willing to engage in dialogue that explores the fusion of the two and effectively support the learning needs of all students.  

ESL Resource: Realizing Opportunities for English Learners in the Common CoreEnglish Language Arts and Disciplinary Literacy Standards