Olivia Champagne

RDG 323

September 4th, 2022

Disciplinary Literacy Paper

Literacy. It is a term that, for much of the population, only has a modicum of credence in

reference to reading, writing, and, in short, academic endeavors. Rather, literacy has many more

far-reaching definitions and categories than simply reading and writing. Having said that, literacy

can be defined as “...unique tools that the experts in a discipline use to participate in the work of

that discipline’” (Chauvin & Theodore, 2015, p. 2). This definition is a glancing term that does

not quite define the entirety of literacy in the context of education. In this context, it describes a

disciplinary expertise that can usually be achieved through vigorous study or a solid education,

and it can extend to any number of possible skills for a student to pick up. This topic is

significant for educators because not only is it our responsibility to make sure our students leave

our classroom with a proficiency in our own discipline, but also in disciplines that will benefit

them in their lives and education that they may not learn elsewhere. The important of

disciplinary literacy is quite expansive and has many different reasons for its importance.

The importance of adolescent disciplinary literacy lies with the fact that these are skills

that students must learn in order to survive and thrive on their own after graduation. To do this:

“The International Literacy Association maintains that effective engagement is the critical

component of literacy instruction for adolescents. To effectively engage adolescent students

means offering them the opportunity to use literacy in meaningful ways, interact with a variety of

texts, participate in assessment for and as learning, and experience a community of learners in

and out of school” (Engagement and Adolescent Literacy, 2019, p. 1). As it says in this text,
teachers do not have to plan explicit lessons in order to completely impart different literacies

outside of their content area. Rather, it can be something that is incorporated into the course

content and wound into the already made content discipline in order to impart more depth onto

the students. To effectively engage young adults into the content literacies, it is necessary to

engage them into the content, even if the particular literacy is not necessarily the one that they

enrolled into the course for.

Specifically to my own disciplines, English and History, there are more specific ways to

impart disciplinary knowledge in each section. For example, “Focuses(ing) on how reading and

writing are used in the discipline being studied. It ‘emphasizes the unique tools that the experts

in a discipline use to participate in the work of that discipline’” (Chauvin & Theodore, 2015, p.

2). While the basic skills of learning to read and write is not my intention as a high school

teacher, it is important to consider that perhaps some students need support in those areas, while

others need to upgrade their knowledge and proficiency to the next level. “It becomes

increasingly clear that as readers, we do not read all texts with equal competence, need, interest,

and enthusiasm. Obligation texts, in particular, can be problematic for us. What happens to us as

readers when we are obligated to stray outside our identities to tackle texts that do not reflect our

preferred ways of thinking and interacting with the world?” (Buehl, 2011 ,p. 6) Even if a student

does need support in these areas, maybe areas that are below their grade level, it is still the

responsibility of the educator to pick up the slack dropped by others and to provide the quality

education that that student deserves and needs.

However, “Twenty-first-century literacy poses four major challenges for students and

their teachers” (Goldman, 2012, p.90). Number one relies upon students being able to not only

read what a text, specifically a content heavy text, but also to comprehend what it has to say.
This means that comprehension must take credence over other skills, but not absolutely take the

value from it as a whole, which means while you must value comprehension and analysis, you

cannot take away important from the content literacy. Furthermore, students must also be able to

use the information they have processed in order to apply the knowledge they have learned.

Application is often a difficult step, to apply the knowledge they have learned to further their

education can be difficult to parse. Thirdly, students must be able to navigate the wider and

wider expansion of knowledge that accompanies technological advances. The knowledge you

provide will only be useful if students are able to grasp the consequences and especially if they

can come to understand the ever-expanding library of knowledge that the world has to offer. And

finally, students must be able to connect the information and knowledge they have gained and

continuously be able to connect it with other content throughout their entire academic careers.

This connection, the final step, is how students can take the knowledge they have applied, and

understand how it can apply to other facets of life, school, and even their future careers.

Disciplinary literacy in my discipline, English Language Arts, primarily revolves around

literary literacy, but simply saying this diminishes literacy to the point that it is oversimplified

and does not receive the amount of work . Not only do these students need to leave well-

education on literature and literacy in English, but they must also understand and be able to

analyze content that does not necessarily interest them. “Learning to read involves mastering

basic procedural reading skills that enable readers to recognize written words, pronounce them

correctly, and read with reasonable fluency (see the articles in this issue by Nell Duke and

Meghan Block and by Nonie Lesaux). Reading to learn involves moving beyond these

procedural reading skills to acquire information from Text” (Goldman, 2012, p. 91). Learning to

Read and Reading to Learn are two similar terms with very different outcomes and expectations,
each leading the students to different skill sets and proficiencies. While learning to read helps

students to master the language and educational pursuits, reading to learn ensures that students

can analyze content and use the content to further their educational pursuits. While both are

important, our goal as teachers is to move from learning to read to reading to learn, changing

intention for a better, more in depth understanding and result.

Having said that, socialization and classroom culture is important to students to further

themselves in the disciplinary literacy of the English Language Arts. This is because “Classroom

culture socializes intelligence: Intelligence is socialized through community, class learning

culture, and instructional routines” (Disciplinary Literacy A Design Principles by Core Academic

Area, 2010, p. 213). While intelligence is not directly linked to literacy, there are definite

connections between the two, whereas literacy is pushed forward by intelligence, and literacy

enhances intelligence, by socialization, community, and classroom culture. Disciplinary literacy

is an important topic for many groups in society, from teachers, to students, to professors, to

administrators: how we handle this topic and encourage its education is how we can create a

society that is constantly improving and moving forward towards a better educational system.

References

Buehl, Doug. (2011) Mentoring Students in Disciplinary Literacy. Developing Readers in the

Academic Disciplines.

http://www.missionliteracy.com/uploads/3/4/4/5/34456187/buehl_article_ch1_dev_read_

academic_disc.pdf
Chauvin, Ramona. Theodore, Kathleen. (2015) Teaching Content-Area Literacy and

Disciplinary Literacy. SEDL insights. https://sedl.org/insights/3-

1/teaching_content_area_literacy_and_disciplinary_literacy.pdf

Engagement and Adolescent Literacy. (2019) International Literacy Association.

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-engagement-

and-adolescent-literacy.pdf

Goldman, Susan. R. (2022) Adolescent Literacy: Learning and Understanding Content.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ996190.pdf

McConachie, Stephanie. M. Petrosky, Anthony R. (2010) Disciplinary Literacy A Design

Principles by Core Academic Area. University of Pittsburgh of the Commonwealth

System of Higher Education.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118269466.app1