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Disciplinary Literacy Paper

Alan Molina
Department of Education, Arizona State University
RDG 323: Literacy Process/Content Areas
Dr. Haddy
September 6, 2020
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Importance of Adolescent Literacy Instruction

Literacy today can mean a number of things but the focus in most schools is still literacy

in reading and writing. In a study conducted by the American Institutes for Research on the crisis

of adolescent literacy, results for secondary students on the National Assessment of Educational

Progress (NAEP) showed that there is still a gap in racial and ethnic groups when it comes to

literacy (Salinger, 7-8). Although this has persisted for several years now, the gap has been

closing slowly and the overall literacy rate has been going up. In another study done at the

University of Canterbury by Susan Briggs, on literacy experiences, showed similar results to

those of Salinger’s research. However, Briggs suggests a possible answer to how to improve

student literacy, stating that in order “to enhance students’ subject-based literacy learning in

secondary school, teachers need to utilize evidence-based instructional approaches for students’

vocabulary acquisition and provide more support for some students in specific reading and

writing activities, across the curriculum areas” (Briggs 120-122). That is to say, a new approach

to teaching literacy needs to be taken. One more study that should be noted was done by the

University of Melbourne in Victoria Australia. This study focused on factors influencing

adolescents’ perceptions of their literacy capacities, showing that students perform better when

cultural influences are involved in the learning prosses, that their perceptions of literacy

capacities increased when they believed to know something about the topic and as a result, their

actual literacy in said area was better than students who only received the information without

any cultural connections (Nowak 75-81).

Now, why am I focusing on these case studies? Because they all demonstrate the current

situation on adolescent literacy. Salinger shows that even as schools diversify social and ethnic

gaps will exist. These gaps must still me address when teaching in secondary classrooms. By
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integrating a verity of sources from different backgrounds it is possible to narrow the gap even

further. Briggs demonstrates the need to change the way we teach literacy. With all the resources

available to us today, we can find something that will work for every student. There is no

universal technique when it comes to teaching. Some things will work for some students and

others will not, thus when teaching literacy, we need to know what will work best for our

specific students. Lastly, Nowak shows the importance of integrating culture and the importance

of students’ own perceptions of literacy. Finding ways that students can interact to and relate

with a subject matter greatly increases their ability to learn and become literate.

We are currently in the prosses of transitioning into a new era of teaching. The days of

reading from a single textbook are over and we must now diversify the information we provide.

As Dr. Ross Collin put it, we are no longer preparing students to only succeed in a college or

career but rather, are getting them ready to think more deeply in everyday life, engaging in the

public sphere, and becoming screenful citizens (Kuby, C.R., & Collin, R.). Literacy can mean a

number of things and must be prepared to teach new emerging literacies as well. By preparing

ourselves we are preparing our students for the future.

Explanation of Disciplinary Literacy in History

Disciplinary literacy in history may not be something that comes naturally, for even in

history alone, there are a number of different literacies one needs to become familiar with. To put

it simply, disciplinary literacy in history is the ability to comprehend and analyze a variety of

source, mainly primary and secondary, in order to come to a conclusion about either the

authenticity of said sources, the reasoning and cause of an event, or one’s personal truth about

what actually happened. This, however, assumes that the student is already literate in a number

of other areas, such as being able to read maps, info graphs, artifacts (such as ancient tools or
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historical figures), historical videos, and a number of other things depending on how the

information and history are presented or preserved (Bain 518-519, Reisman 233-234, 259). Not

only that but because history is by nature the study of past events and discoveries, it often tends

to cross with other disciplinary literacies (Bain 520).

This is why it is so important to teach disciplinary literacy in history. Without teaching

how to read and interpret the information provided it becomes very easy for students to get lost

in the work. Be it because of a wall of text or because they haven’t learned the vocabulary yet or

because they have never needed to read a map before. Without teaching the students beforehand

how to use a source, their work can only ever achieve a surface level of thinking. But by taking

the time to explain and showing how a source can be read, the cognitive ability of the students

will increase.

A great example of teaching historical disciplinary literacy comes from the Stanford

model “Reading Like a Historian.” In these classrooms’ students are not focused on memorizing

date but rather they are taught how to read a source the way a historian would read it. Asking

questions such as: who wrote it? When was it written? Why was it written? And is the author’s

account trustworthy/accurate? As a result, the overall quality of their writing and responses were

improved, as well as their overall enjoyment of the class (Stanford). Not only that but the skill

they gained by thinking like a historian can be applied in other fields outside the classroom.

Supporting Students in History

There are many challenges that students face when it comes to disciplinary literacy in

history. Yet, the most egregious of these has to be that by the time students reach high school and

college, many teachers expect the students to be able to gather information from the reading
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material alone (Bain 517). This is not something specific to history, but it is the most common

issue that students face. As for the solution to this problem, it tends to vary by content, but

overall teachers and schools should more adequately prepare students and teach them how to

read the material provided. We cannot assume that just because a student has reached a certain

grade that they no longer need to be taught how to interpret information.

Now for more specific challenges when it comes to teaching disciplinary literacy in

history a good referred point would be the Arizona State Standers for Social Science. With the

list below being three disciplinary skills that the state wants students to learn but can be difficult

from some students.

1.) “The ability to identify, compare, and evaluate multiple perspectives about a

given event to draw conclusions since there are multiple points of view about

events and issues” (Arizona 16).

2.) “To gather, interpret, and use evidence to develop claims and answer

historical, economic, geographical, and political questions and communicate

their conclusions” (Arizona 16).

3.) “To analyze relationships among causes and effects and to create and support

arguments using relevant evidence” (Arizona 16).

In regard to the first challenge lies the issue of students needing to be able to

distinguished bias in historical documents and being able to use a wider number of sources to get

a better idea of the time and frame in which the source was written. This will require the student

to look more closely at the facts and to identify how the author’s bias might influence their

perspective of the situation. Thus, the students cannot always take what the author writes at face

value and must use their own reasoning to identify the truth, something that is difficult to due in
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history. A possible solution for this would be to have the students work in group and for each

reading, the students will “discuss guiding questions that emphasize the context in which the text

was created or delivered, the perspective of the author, and the relationship between claim and

evidence” (International 6).

The second challenge can be just as difficult for students as the first. For, in this case,

students must come up with their own answer, supported by the evidence in the sources. The

issue lies in the fact that many questions can have more than just one right answer and the need

to know the “correct” answer can stump a lot of students. Thus, I recommend that “students

create a graphic organizer, such as a bubble map, as a prewriting activity that helps them to place

evidence under specific claims,” showing them what answer is supported the strongest based on

their observations (International 6).

Lastly, we have the challenge of creating an argument based on a series of events. Now

here is what I think is the hardest thing to teach about disciplinary literacy in history. That, so

long as there is evidence, no argument is wrong. There is no right answer because history is

nuance. Many students want to be on the winning side or the correct side, but history has shown

that this is all a matter of perspective. Another issue that students can face is the fact that one

event could counter their entire argument and thus they must develop a counter-argument. Along

with the fact that a historical argument can seldom be talked about in absolutes because we can

never say for certain that event B happened because event A caused C to happen. We can only

support our claims with even more evidence from multiple sources but at any time something

new can be discovered than changes how we see an event to have happened. The best solution to

this problem would be experience in debates, choosing topics such as: was Richard Nickson a

good president? Would the U.S. have joined WWII if not for Pearl Harbor? What is the most
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effective form of government? These questions have no right answer, but many answers can be

supported and argued against. In this case, practice is the best way to teach.
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References
Arizona Department of Education. (2018, October 22). History and Social Science Standards.
Retrieved September 6, 2020, from https://cms.azed.gov/home/GetDocumentFile?
id=5bd773021dcb250b94e91702
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 4, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23265943
Briggs, S. (2020). Exploring adolescent literacy experiences through vocabulary learning and
self-efficacy in reading and writing. Retrieved September 5, 2020, from
https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/100088/Briggs%2c%20Susan_Master
%27s%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
International Literacy Association. (2017). Content Area and Disciplinart Literacy: Strategies
and Frameworks. Retrieved September 5, 2020, from
https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-content-area-
disciplinary-literacy-strategies-frameworks.pdf?sfvrsn=e180a58e_6
Kuby, C.R., & Collin, R. (2015, February 16). Moving beyond the content area literacy debate of
strategies vs. disciplinary approaches. Voice of Literacy. Podcast retrieved September 3,
2020, from http://voiceofliteracy.org/posts/59635
Nowak, M. (2017). Adolescent literacy journeys. University of Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
Retrieved September 4, 2020, from https://minerva-
access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/194536/Nowak-AdlscLitJourneys-
FINAL.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Reisman, A. (2012) The ‘Document-Based Lesson’: Bringing disciplinary inquiry into high
school history classrooms with adolescent struggling readers, Journal of Curriculum
Studies, 44:2, 233-264. Retrieved September 5, 2020, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2011.591436?
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Salinger, T. (2011). Addressing the “crisis” in adolescent literacy. Washington, DC: American.
Retrieved September 6, 2020, from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/slcp/finalcrisis.pdf
Stanford History Education Group (2020). Reading Like a Historian: History Lessons. Stanford
University. Retrieved September 5, 2020, from https://sheg.stanford.edu/historylessons?f
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