Running Head: English Literacy 1

RDG 323 English Disciplinary Literacy Paper

Cutler Goodwin
9/4/21
Arizona State University
Running Header: English Literacy 2

The Importance of Adolescent Literacy

The importance of adolescent literacy factors in developing and then soon establishing

what students should be able to comprehend. “Disciplinary literacy, at its core, is designed as a

method for helping students to understand the language of the full community of the content area

(Reynolds and Rush, 2017, 1). Through the use of disciplinary literacy, educators must create

ways to improve and conquer comprehension towards the specific content area in which they

teach. Disciplinary literacy allows educators to create tasks and skills that tie into comprehension

but in a more complex and detailed manner.

Though disciplinary literacy is very effective towards establishing skills and

comprehension, results have and do vary. “One key underlying finding in studies with experts

and novices reading literary texts is the difference between comprehension and interpretation”

(Reynolds and Rush, 2017, 4). Through the use in one study of differentiating and understanding

comprehension and interpretation resulted in effective understanding of the terms.

Comprehension and interpretation are not the only methods towards disciplinary literacy.

Disciplinary literacy allows educators to build stronger understandings of what each and

every one of our students are capable of in the provided content areas. As well as understanding

what the students need to improve upon in the content area in a more complex and detailed

manner. “Expert readers in these studies did more with their readings, and kept pushing for depth

as they read; novice readers, on the other hand, seemed ready to pronounce a meaning quickly,

and move on” (Reynolds and Rush, 2017, 5). Reading is important to all provided content areas
Running Head: English Literacy 3

towards disciplinary literacy. Through each content area, reading is important in terms of

exploring terminology that is associated with the specific content area.

Disciplinary literacy is not always the most accurate. Like any sets of studies, findings

and results will vary. Important actions that educators should establish for themselves includes

conscientiousness and in-depth analyses. It is important for educators to truly question what each

and every one of their students should be able to master withing the provided content area. In

terms of English language arts, educator’s primary goals for their student’s academic goals

within this specific content area mainly comes down to reading and writing. However, like any

discipline within any content area, English as a subject has varied overtime. “The discipline of

English has come under continual revision over the years, with various summits held to

reconsider its status and component activities. The field’s evolution, occasionally at relatively

revolutionary speeds, makes it difficult to define what counts as the province of ELA”

(Smagorinsky, 3, 2015). It is also important for educators to take notice in the fact that English as

a content area for disciplinary literacy will differ but as mentioned before can also be effective

towards academic skills.

An Explanation of Disciplinary Literacy within English Language Arts

There are standards and guidelines towards providing accurate and effective ways in order for

students to truly succeed within any academic field. “Without understanding how and why

experts read literature in their lives, we cannot expect students to achieve at high levels and

develop a full understanding of the discipline (Rainey and Moje 2012, 85). It is important, in this
Running Head: English Literacy 4

case with English as the subject area, it is important to establish a step-by-step process. The goal

should be for improved comprehension in reading literacy. Of course, this would be overtime.

Some examples of incorporating English through disciplinary literacy is finding ways to

incorporate components of English in an expanded process. Examples of this include complex

lessons on poetry, Shakespeare, reading a novel and exploring the novel through analysis and

depth, Along the way educators should continue to accurately and effectively question what each

and every student should need to succeed in the subject area. With English, there are specific

challenges students face. This especially applies to a English being taught in a secondary

education setting.

Supporting Students in English Discipline

There are many ways in which teachers can provide beneficial academic support for

students who may and more commonly do struggle with English as an academic discipline.

There have been many effective strategies to support students in English as an academic

discipline. “Recently, scholars have constructed a framework, the READI (reading, evidence,

and argumentation in disciplinary instruction) framework of knowledge informing literary

reading, to guide instructional approaches for teaching literary reasoning and argumentation (Lee

& Goldman, 2015)” (Rainey, 5, 2016). Every student needs support towards English

comprehension. It truly does not matter if they have exceptionalities or not. Each and every

student within a classroom needs support in one way or another. Support for students for English
Running Head: English Literacy 5

as a discipline has been updated and studying in great depth. “With clearer empirical

understandings about the markers of current scholars’ participation in the social and cultural

community of literary studies, the work of Lee, Levine, and others seeking to develop

instructional approaches that support all students’ uptake of literary literacy practices might be

furthered (Rainey, 5, 2016). There are always specific questions that should be and are asked by

teachers and experts themselves. “What are problems that practicing literary scholars grapple

with? Are there inquiry-based practices that seem to rise above specific literary scholars’

theoretical orientations? How might educators use instructional approaches and heuristics with

students to advance goals of literary inquiry and participation?” (Rainey, 5, 2016). Questions that

are proposed and analyzed by teachers and experts themselves, helps to further research and

findings. Once the research and findings based off questions like these are put together, the more

support is found for the students own English comprehension as a complex academic discipline.

Through English as a discipline, literacy is looked at as a puzzle. “Seven literary scholars

described their approaches for teaching students to construct literary puzzles.” (Rainey, 15,

2017). The puzzles as many scholars call it are their specific strategies for utilizing English as a

complex discipline within education. Another effective strategy towards English as a discipline

in which they use is through having students provide claims. “One way that some scholars

described supporting students’ attempts to write original interpretive claims was to encourage

students to use an unfolding essay structure so each essay ended in a different or more

complicated place than it began” (Rainey, 15, 2016). The research similar to a discipline is less
Running Head: English Literacy 6

basic and better as a complex form of studying and finding the answers that are beneficial

towards academic solutions.

The more research and findings are made and establish, the more English as an important

academic subject area can be truly and more accurately understood. Similar to a discipline itself

(as it is defined), the process of English, needs to be understood. How can someone understand

English without following the guidelines of disciplinary learning? The more engaging but also

comprehensible manner of studying and teaching English. There can be the more findings and

better results towards learning for a student can occur within a secondary academic setting. The

understandings of English as an academic subject can be utilized outside of the classroom as

well. However, the specific research towards truly understanding English subject matter. This

includes reading, writing, spelling, analyzing Shakespeare, Novel analyses. “Indeed, there is much

yet to learn about disciplinary literacy in the school domain of ELA. Yet, this study offers helpful

language for some literary literacy practices and teaching approaches that could be further explored by

researchers and taken up by teachers and teacher educators committed to forwarding disciplinary literacy

teaching in K–12 classrooms” (Rainey, 18, 2016). English is truly an engaging subject. English as a

subject establishes escapism with understanding. There is a lot of emotion tied into connecting

with characters who we read and write about.

Running Head: English Literacy 7
References

Rainey, E. C. (2016). Disciplinary literacy in English Language Arts: Exploring the social and

problem-based nature of literary reading and reasoning. Reading Research Quarterly,

52(1), 53–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.154

Rainey, E., & Mojie, E. B. (2012). Building Insider Knowledge: Teaching Students to Read,

Write, and Think within ELA and across the Disciplines. Nation Council of Teachers of

English, 1(1), 71–90.

Reynolds, T., & Rush, L. S. (2017). Experts and Novices Reading Literature: An analysis of

Disciplinary literacy in English language arts. Literacy Research and Instruction, 56(3),

199–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2017.1299820

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