Disciplinary Literacy Position Paper 1

Disciplinary Literacy Position Paper

Brian Kohout

Arizona State University

 Disciplinary Literacy Position Paper 2

Disciplinary Literacy through the perspective of History

In the discipline of history, the overall goal is to teach students how to read and interpret

historical texts, write and explain historical concepts and think about issues and events from a

historian’s perspective (Disciplinary Literacy in Social studies, 2018). In a history class, the

teacher must convey all important aspects of the subject to their students, so that when they are

finished with the class they will be prepared to apply what they have learned to similar classes.

Some might ask why history is important or how does it prepare students for the real world? The

answer is that it does prepare students for the real world, but not in the way that some may think.

History teaches students how the world developed and how the world works, this may not be a

very useful skill for a typical job, but it gives students an idea of what to expect when they

graduate from high school. Each discipline is unique, each discipline has their own way of

conveying information to the class, for the subject of history, disciplinary literacy looks like

students discussing historical texts, covering historical documents, and understanding the

perspective of people from the past.

Under a disciplinary literacy approach, students use literacy to engage in goals and

practices that are unique to each academic discipline (International Literacy Association, 2017, p.

3). While each academic discipline is unique, adolescents of today are very fortunate to have

more advanced tools that have great potential to change how they learn for the better. The ways

adolescents use digital tools (e.g., smartphones, computers) are examples of how more

multimodal, out-of-school literacies differ from the more dominant, academic literacies that

students use in school (Munger, n.d.) With the inclusion of new technology in the classroom,

adolescents have access to information and resources at their fingertips, but it all depends on how

such devices are utilized in the classroom. In the subject of history, having access to these

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devices means that students can read online resources provided by the teacher, that way students

have access to the resources at all times, rather than just printing out a piece of paper that

students will just throw out. With access to all of this information, there of course is a challenge,

getting students to read the resources. History teachers face a particular dilemma, they have

students that know how to read, but students struggle and even resist to read the textbook,

referring it to be boring (Shanahan, Shanahan, 2014, p. 232). There are of course ways to make

the reading material more enjoyable, one method or idea is to focus on student interests and

teach them what they want to learn more about, but for most school districts there is a curriculum

and a set of standards to follow. This makes things difficult, but not impossible, teachers can

narrow down overall class interest in a certain topic and then discuss that topic as a whole,

teachers can even try to incorporate the interests of their students in lectures as much as possible

in order to maintain class attention and focus.

“Doing” history requires historians to work not only with primary and secondary print

sources, but also with artifacts, objects, and data, each demanding comprehension, analysis, and

evaluation (Bain, 2012, p. 518). This is another side of history that students in a traditional

history class never get to see, students only have the opportunity to read primary and secondary

sources, they almost never have the opportunity to interact with objects or artifacts that have

historical importance. One might say that field trips would be another option, but not every

school can afford to give students that opportunity, even if the parents fund the trip, that would

all hinge on the community the school is in. To seek different methods of teaching history to

adolescents, it will also come down to the budget of the school, which will hinder and make

things more challenging for teachers. Assuming that most schools have internet access, studying

artifacts or objects related to history can be done online, students don’t necessarily need to see

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the object or artifact in person, all it does is add to the experience. Students could be given an

assignment that focuses on an important artifact or object from history, in which students could

either write a research paper, present the information to the rest of the class, or a short video or

audio recording. The students can be given a list of objects or artifacts and decide which one they

would like to research or even choose one that is not mentioned on the list. The whole idea of

teaching history is not to focus on memorization of information, but rather learning about how

things came to be, and understanding the development of the society we now reside in. History

teachers should do everything within their power to peak students interests in the subject, as long

as they are learning and they enjoy it, that is all that matters.

History can be a difficult subject to convey information to students, every history class

seems to be structured the same way. The teacher will lecture for half the class and give students

an assignment at the end of the lecture and students are expected to remember all this

information that was given to them all at once and be expected to complete the assignment with

no issues. Listening to the teacher just spew information for 45 minutes can become incredibly

daunting and difficult to maintain focus during the entirety of the lecture, that is why the teacher

needs to pause and reflect every so often. Of course teachers are on the clock and have to get the

information out their, but the teacher should at least just give students a little more time to

process the information that was given to them. Lecturing is still a very useful method, it just

depends on how it is presented. Adolescents can only maintain their focus for so long, history

teachers or teachers in general should be focusing on maintaining student attention throughout

the duration of the lecture. At certain points during the lecture, teacher should check for

understanding, but they instead only ask if the class has any questions. Students are overloaded

with so much information that they don’t know what to focus on, so the teacher should pose the

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questions themselves. They should ask mini quiz questions, that do not count towards their

grade, but will help them narrow down what is important to remember over the course of the

lecture. Disciplinary literacy in history is changing, just as all disciplines are changing, with the

integration of new technologies and teaching methods, learning in this subject can only get better

for the student.

In conclusion, disciplinary literacy in history looks like students discussing historical

texts, covering historical documents, and understanding the perspective of people from the past.

History can be a difficult subject for students to learn, especially if they have problem

maintaining focus, but with the implementation of new and emerging teaching methods, these

students can have a more enjoyable learning experience. With new technology being utilized in

the classroom more and more, students have greater learning opportunities than ever before,

giving them access to information at all times. Adolescents need to be given a variety of methods

to complete assignments, this will help ease the tension of students and make completing an

assignment less of a burden. Lecturing is still important to conveying information, but it is over-

utilized by history teachers. Hopefully in the near future, teachers of all subjects will be able to

implement new teaching methods that are more efficient and enjoyable for students.

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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

January 25, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23265943.

Disciplinary Literacy in Social Studies. (2018, June 21). Retrieved January 23, 2021, from

https://recollectionwisconsin.org/teachers/socialstudies.

International Literacy Association. (2017). Content area and disciplinary literacy: Strategies and

frameworks [Literacy leadership brief]. Newark, DE: Author.

Munger, E. (n.d.). Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and

Practice. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/

literacypractice/chapter/10-twenty-first-century-perspectives-on-adolescent-literacy-and-

instruction/.

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2014). Teaching History and Literacy. Retrieved January 22,

2021, from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en.