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Disciplinary Literacy and the Importance

Dion Deguzman

Arizona State University

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Disciplinary Literacy

Disciplinary literacy was almost a concept that I thought I had such a knowing and great

knowledge in, but going through this module I realized that it is way more than your students

understanding your discipline. There were questions asked throughout this module like, “what

does it mean in an academic setting, and society, to be literate?” and “what are literacy demands

that schools and teachers ask of students?” which I thought I had the answer, but had to rethink

what I was saying and typing out in class. I began to understand that disciplinary literacy is

something that teachers have to teach in conjunction with their discipline. Teachers have to give

students the skill of literacy, such as reading, writing, and communicating, to be able to learn

content knowledge that could be used in any discipline. The skills that are learned are strategies

that students should be able to connect, and relate to, in any other subject area. It is a teacher’s

job to be able to not only teach their students how to read and write, but also to read and write for

their content and teach it to the students with different learning styles, intelligences, mind sets,

and lenses (Barry, 2012, 603).

In Their Context

I truly understood the importance of disciplinary literacy in reading the articles and

watching videos about this idea. One of those articles that turned a light bulb on in my head

about disciplinary literacy was explained by Peter Smagorinsky. He mentioned an interaction

with a History teacher at his school who was upset that the students did not know how to format

a history paper, blaming Smagorinsky for this problem he is having (Smagorinsky, 2015, 142). It

occurred to me that this is how and why there is always a word that comes before the word

“report” when it is used in a school setting. It is the difference between a book report, lab report,

etc… in that each report at the end of the day is meant to state facts, using evidence to support,
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yet they are all constructed in different manners. I would read a novel, for a book report,

differently than how I would read the data that I collected when I conducted an experiment in my

science class to write a lab report. Yet, did my teachers set me up in order to succeed in both the

book report and the lab report? That is where the importance of not only myself as a teacher,

teaching disciplinary literacy, but also my fellow colleagues in different contents. When going

into a school, in order for our students to succeed and reach their full potential in all classes, I

have to take initiative to make sure that all us teachers are working together to truly differentiate

and support each other between classrooms and departments.

The Steppingstone

Reflecting back on this module it was the perfect steppingstone into the content we are

going to see the rest of this semester. Without understanding the foundations behind running

classroom content, I would not be able to comprehend and work through some of the concepts

we are currently learning. Disciplinary literacy sounds simple, but in reality, is a complex idea

that must be practiced and taught in all classrooms.

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References

Barry, A. (2012). “I Was Skeptical at First”: Content Literacy in the Art Museum. Journal of

Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(7), 597–607. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.00071

Smagorinsky, P. (2015). Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts. Journal of Adolescent

& Adult Literacy, 59(2), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.464