Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Disciplinary Literacy (What You Want to Know About It)
To be honest, ever since the semester began I have been slightly confused on what the term disciplinary literacy even means. The readings kind of confused me even more, but then as I began reading this article, it clicked. I think that it makes a lot of sense to kind of spread the teaching of literacy across all subjects and to focus on the literacy of each subject separately. I think this makes sense because the article states that two-thirds of students struggle reading and writing texts that are in different content areas, so something has to change. Do you guys think that literacy should stay as its own discipline per say, or do you think literacy should be taught across the board? How else could we improve this?
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Hey Desirae, I really appreciate your honesty and I was pretty confused about disciplinary literacy too myself in the beginning!
ReplyDeleteSomething really important that I learned from the readings this weak is that language has many different uses and depending on what discipline you or your student are working with, they are using the different meanings of language as a tool to navigate, reason, and comprehend whatever text they are working with.
So for example, I know you're a math concentrator so think abut it this way, you use symbols (type of language) to solve and equation or follow a procedure. Also, in the Shanahan and Shanahan reading, they said that mathematicians emphasize rereading and close reading because every word has a very different meaning that function into how one approaches math.
I hope I didn't confuse you more :) But I definitely think it's important to teach disciplinary literacy because it goes beyond just teaching children about basic reading and writing skills!
I definitely agree with you Hallie! The language that we use while teaching different disciplines is very important. We need to work on expanding our students' vocabularies.
DeleteHi Desirae,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you on being confused about disciplinary literacy before reading this article. The article laid out the information in a way that I was able to understand the topic. To answer your question, I think that literacy should be taught across the board. It should be taught across the board because each subject has different forms of language. This means that students are learning different vocabulary words for each subject and need to be able to learn how to use them. Also, it allows the student to learn how to use the language as a tool. In other words, they are able to apply it in multiple situations. I still think after reading the readings for the week I still need to clarification.
I agree with you Tina. Each subject has very different forms of language, and I could definitely use some clarification as well.
DeleteHey Desirae,
ReplyDeleteI think that literacy should be taught throughout disciplines! I was also a bit confused on how to go about disciplinary literacy too at first. Though, now with a bit more understanding I find it very beneficial because different disciplines use different jargon. We as teachers are teaching literacy to help comprehend other main core subjects to enhance the learning of the students. I also like how disciplinary literacy explains how our students never stop learning and as teachers we can accommodate their needs as learners.
Hi Desirae,
ReplyDeleteMost definitely it should taught across the boards. Students need literacy in order to have high-level conversations and that involves learning new vocab and jargon. We need literacy to be taught across the board so they can be involved in academic conversations. Literacy can very easily be weaved into different contents if you make an effort to do so. One way to do this is to make sure that educators understand the fundamental importance of literacy so that they can implement in their styles of teaching, especially non-language art teachers in middle school.
Hi Desirae,
ReplyDeleteI do recall having literacy intergrated in all my classes. We always had to read for science, scientific articles, and it did help me expand my vocabulary. As for math we had to write essays of "how would you explain this to a 4th grader" in which we had to use simpler vocabulary, which is the hardest thing, but it was a great activity. I liked having to read and write in all subjects because it encouraged us to try new reading material one which I wouldnt have access in a daily basis. It also came in handy for college.
Hi Desirae!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that understanding disciplinary literacy has been challenging up to this point. I found that this article also helped me better understand it and gave me a better idea of what it would look like in a school. I do think it's important to implement literacy in every subject because students need to be able to understand and comprehend the vocabularies and content that different disciplines bring to the table. My CT brought up a good example of this when he was teaching math. The students were learning about place value and he relating it to literacy by saying it's like learning the alphabet. You need to learn the letters and how to say them before you can read and write. In the same way, you need to know the place value of numbers before you can use them to solve problems. Sometimes I find it difficult to implement literacy into math, but I thought this was a good example.
Hey Des!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, it was good! I am on the same page with you for disciplinary literacy. I didn't understand it at first, but these readings have been really helpful with my understanding. I think that disciplinary literacy should be taught all across the board. With students struggling to read or write and being below their own grade level, it's really heartbreaking to see, but I think that with the right teachers, the right motivation, and the right methods of implementing literacy into the students' every day lives, they'll be able to hold up to the standards that fits their grade levels. Implementing reading and writing to the subjects that we might be teaching or the subjects that we observe in, it'll help the students be able to comprehend everything that they are learning and it'll also help the teachers be able to understand where their students are in school.
I think that literacy should be implemented into all disciplinary areas. For example, in social studies students can learn how to write a research paper while in science students can learn to write a lab report. Reading is important and learning to read different ways (history books, math problems, etc) will be beneficial to all students.
ReplyDeleteHey Desirae,
ReplyDeleteI think that literacy should be implemented across disciplinary area but should also be taught as it's own subject. I feel like the fundamentals are literary should be taught in reading class but students should also be taught how to use specific was of literacy in specific areas. I think this would give students a chance to grab a better grasp in a particular discipline. Like a couple of classmates I think the hardest subject to incorporate literacy is math but it could definitely be done, this really takes me back to math last semester with Rico and how different his math was. Not only was he giving us access to literacy in his math but also social justice.