Disciplinary Literacy 1

Disciplinary Literacy

Kyle Shryock

Arizona State University

RDG 323: Week 2

9/7/2020
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Herein, I shall discuss the similarities and differences between disciplinary literacy and

content-area literacy and how they should by integrated into a History/Social Studies classroom.

Disciplinary literacy and content-area literacy should be well understood and practiced by all

educators. Content-area literacy seems almost self-explanatory in its title. However, the

definition of disciplinary literacy is more nuanced. While content-area literacy focuses on

content literacy, disciplinary literacy refers to the wide range of tools and strategies needed to

develop literacy across different content areas. Unfortunately, in the field “Content area reading

teachers view reading tasks as similar across the disciplines” (Hynd-Shanahan, 2013, p. 93).

However, with our definition of disciplinary literacy, we know this to be untrue. It is, therefore,

of utmost importance for an educator to know and understand the differences between

disciplinary literacy and content-area literacy for their effective use within the classroom. Indeed,

an effective educator will utilize both forms of literacy in their classroom instruction.

Within the content-area of History/Social Studies, educators will teach the tools and

techniques for students to effectively consume primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Within

these sources, educators must familiarize students with the types of vocabulary and terminology

most often used in this content-area. As a study of events, historical text often resorts to

chronological terminology such as: before, then, and thereafter. In addition to this terminological

framework, “historians classify systems such as governments, like feudalism or monarchy; they

think thematically (exploring, for example, ‘processes of migration,’ ‘expansion and retraction of

rights,’ or ‘changes in economic systems,’) and they interpret the relationships among events”

(Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2014, p. 240). Showing students how to use a wide variety of

primary, secondary, and tertiary sources will, therefore, be absolutely crucial to developing

literacy within the content area of History/Social Studies.

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One of the main issues that disciplinary literacy faces in the History/Social Studies

classroom is one that crosses most content areas. The issue is that in many classrooms today,

students are often taught to skim through text for the most relevant information. This tends to

lead to incomplete comprehension in all content areas. While there are many strategies used to

address this issue, mnemonic devices can be particularly useful for approaching historical texts

(Monte-Sano, De La Paz, & Felton, 2014, p. 559). In their article, Monte-Sano, De La Paz, &

Felton showed the use of a mnemonic device for approaching historical texts improved

disciplinary literacy in 8th graders (2014, p. 542). The use of a mnemonic device is but one way

to address the issue of content-skimming.

Another issue facing History/Social Studies classrooms falls into a separate area of

literacy. Many students struggle in their “abilities to write historical arguments and in the length

of their essays” (De La Paz et al, 2014, p. 228). The successful comprehension of historical text

leads us into the next phase of disciplinary literacy. Educators must show students how to

analyze texts and interpret them in their own words. However, there are also tool and strategies

to improve our teaching of how to use our own interpretations to create thoughtful analyses. The

curriculum interventions suggested in the article by De La Paz, et al included the use of other

mnemonic devices (essay templates) and student workshops (2014, p. 230). Ensuring that

students can write coherently about historical texts and topics should be a primary disciplinary

literacy goal for all History/Social Studies teachers.

Defining disciplinary literacy as the wide range of tools and strategies needed to develop

literacy across different content areas lays bare some of the issues that educators face in teaching

this kind of literacy. While the skimming of materials is a reading comprehension issue that

tends to cross content areas, the writing struggles that History/Social Studies students face seem
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to be more discipline specific. Teaching students’ strategies to avoid skimming will advance

literacy across disciplines. Whereas, providing students with curriculum intervention and student

workshops can be specifically useful within the History/Social Studies discipline. In this sense

“Every lesson, therefore, is in its own way a lesson in disciplinary literacy” (Bain, 2012, p. 521).

Although every lesson will contain some content-area literacy, it is the educator’s responsibility

to create lessons the teach and utilize the tools and techniques of disciplinary literacy.
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References

Bain, R. (2012). Using Disciplinary Literacy to Develop Coherence in History Teacher

Education: The Clinical Rounds Project. The History Teacher, 45(4), 513-532. Retrieved

September 7, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23265943

Hinchman, K., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. (2014). Best practices in adolescent literacy

instruction (2nd ed., pp. 232-260). New York: Guilford Publications.

Hynd-Shanahan, C. (2013). What Does It Take? Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(2),

93-98. doi: 10.1002/jaal.226

Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S., & Felton, M. (2014). Implementing a disciplinary-literacy

curriculum for US history: learning from expert middle school teachers in diverse

classrooms. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46(4), 540–575.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2014.904444

Susan De La Paz, Mark Felton, Chauncey Monte-Sano, Robert Croninger, Cara Jackson, Jeehye

Shim Deogracias & Benjamin Polk Hoffman. (2014). Developing Historical Reading and

Writing With Adolescent Readers: Effects on Student Learning, Theory & Research in

Social Education, 42(2), 228-274, DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2014.908754