Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF DISCIPLINARY LITERACY Valencia 1

Philosophy of Disciplinary Literacy: What Does It Mean to be Literate in English?

Jennifer Valencia

Arizona State University

RDG 323: Literacy Process/Content Areas

Professor Trombley

29 November 2020
What Does It Mean to be Literate in English? Valencia 2

Integrating Literacy

Integrating literacy into English seemed fairly easy at the beginning of the semester

because it was already a part of English, however I learned that it goes beyond that. There are

various things to consider, such as how students interact with different texts, getting them to

break down texts and extracting key ideas as well as organizing those ideas and being able to

defend them. This is something students already have to do but figuring out ways for students to

fulfill these concepts is where I think disciplinary literacy and differentiation comes in.

I’ve learned that getting students to interact with the text will depend on the type of text

that they have. I had never heard of lateral reading, reading across texts and reading a text in

isolation, but these helped me to conceptualize how to help students interact with a text in a way

that is tailored to them. Getting to distinguish different before, during and after reading activities

was helpful because it allows for thoughtful selection of activities as opposed to giving students

busy work to do. I was able to apply these when developing my multimedia text set for our cross

curricular unit plan. I really like teaching academic vocabulary and setting students up with a

graphic organizer as a way to introduce them to a text or topic. In our cross curricular unit we

actually ended up creating something similar to a reading guide to help students navigate through

the digital learning experience. Using the BDA framework for texts made it a bit easier to

consider the best ways for students to interact with a text depending on what we wanted them to

get out of reading or seeing a text.

Literacy in English

For students to be literate in English, they have to be able to read for comprehension and

interpretation and I think that this then translates into them being able to think critically and

write. Their ability to read and analyze texts will aid in their development of creating and
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defending arguments. These are skills that are universal; they extend to every content students

will interact with and to every aspect of their lives. This is why it is critical that teachers set

students up for success when it comes to reading and writing. This is where we have to

differentiate and consider the learning needs of every student and apply it to our lessons and

activities. I personally liked the paragraph outline activity because it lends itself easily to any text

and any format that we need it to be in. It can also be tailored to any student and it is a great way

to help them dissect a text and prepare them for writing with main ideas and supporting details.

This also prepares them to create and defend arguments as well as recognizing these in a text. I

also learned the value of giving students quick writes as a way to get their initial thoughts on a

topic we give them, which can then be developed into bigger pieces.  

Learning Process

This semester has helped me develop my understanding of disciplinary literacy and

content literacy. Before, I understood reading and writing and that students had to practice them

in English, but now though I understand it goes much deeper than that. It extends to every aspect

of life and in school we have to create opportunities for students to practice this in every content

area and not just in English. Through working with my group on the cross disciplinary unit, we

really had to consider how we wanted students to interact with each reading that they did and

every video they watched as well as what we wanted them to get out of it. Doing this

collaboratively helped to extend the idea of disciplinary literacy to other content areas and the

importance of teaching this to students. What I had them do in English would translate into what

they would be doing in math or science. It was inspiring to see how the three contents were

developed to create one and I felt as though all of our activities came together coherently.