Before this class, I didn't really understand what disciplinary literacy meant. I am finally starting to understand it the more we are reading and learning about it. As I was reading chapter one "Mentoring Students in Disciplinary Literacy" in Buehl's "Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines," I was very interested in the concept of reading being tied to identity. Something that I found very interesting was when Buehl states, "...teachers can directly through their language encourage the creation of new identities. "As a person thinking like a scientist, what might you suggest?" What did you notice as a reader when you read that passage?" (Buehl, 8). This reminded me of CI 402 when we went over how different reading strategies can be more engaging and beneficial for the reader. This also made me realize that it is important to use the appropriate language to promote different reading styles so that the readers get the most out of the assigned reading and know how to interpret it in a way that makes sense depending on how the reading is being analyzed.
As I was reading, "Disciplinary Literacy: What you want to know about it" by Zhihui Fang and Suzanne Coatoam, it gave me some clarification and helped me understand what Discipline Literacy actually means. I don't think that literacy should be taught as it's own discipline because I believe that students will get more out of literacy when it is integrated in different disciplines. Growing up, I remember reading and writing in all different subjects and I enjoyed it because it allowed me to explore reading through different subjects which makes it more interesting. I think this will help enhance the students in their learning because they are able to learn from different areas and gain different perspectives.
Posing questions or using the vocabulary that Buehl was mentioning in his chapter ties really well with this. Asking a student to think like a scientist if they are reading something in regards to science, or asking them to think like a specific character allows students to explore different perspectives and gain more insight on the reading that they are doing. They are not being limited and can get a lot more they are exposed to different disciplines.
At some of the schools that I have observed at reading was integrated in all subjects. One school in particular didn't have science. During their reading block, they read different articles and had really good discussions about the reading. They were very interested and dialogued with each other really gaining insight from each other's thoughts and perspectives. It was great to see.
My questions that I pose to you all are:
1. Do you think that literacy should be integrated throughout different disciplines or do you think that it should be taught as it's own separate discipline?
2. In your field placements, have you seen literacy being integrated in all subject areas or have you seen it taught as it's own discipline?
3. What are some ways that you might implement this in your classroom?
Resilda, I completely agree that when you link other subjects into literacy, it allows students to get to know more about these subjects while bringing them into their own writing. I see this currently at my placement at Ida B Wells.
ReplyDeleteThis also encourages students to bring up their own knowledge in connection to their personal experiences, expanding their knowledge. Your point of having readers focusing on specific vocabulary of each discipline is very important and something I see my teacher currently do before every story she reads.
I plan to implement this same strategy in my own classroom, partly because I'm sure I'm going to have to if I want to cover all the curriculum I want to share with my students. I also want them to realize that English and Language Arts really is composed of all different disciplines, and can easily be used together.
Literacy should be integrated in different subjects so that students can access and explain their reasoning and what they do. However, sometimes literacy can can take up the entire time. For example, in a science class students should not only be limited to reading and writing when they are in the class. They should be exploring, creating, and experimenting. They should be strengthening their understanding by"effectively using reading
ReplyDeleteand writing as generic tools for learning from content
area texts."
I see the use of literacy in the discipline of history many times. It is actual integrated for the common core. This is important because students need to be able to read stories about history and multiple narratives and be able to unpack them and reflect on them. Reading a map also is a type of literacy. I am in a classroom that includes reading, social studies and language arts. This classroom is purposely intergrading social studies and literacy.
Think about this way, if there is no literacy in math classroom, how could students read questions? if there is no literacy in science lab, how could students understand the procedure of experiments? Literacy is also important in gym because students have to read the instructions from the board (from my field work). Literacy basically covers all subjects in school and I think its beneficial for students to gather their prior knowledge and enhance what they are currently learning.
ReplyDeleteBing, I really like point that you make and the questions that you posed to me. I didn't think of literacy being integrated in gym. It's interesting that you mention that because now that I think about it, the gym teacher at my placement which is Ida B. Wells sent out a note home with my students explaining what they will be doing this school year. They will be learning and taking notes on different types of topics that pertain to P.E. With that being said, I can see how literacy is used in everything including a subject like gym. Thanks for your comment, it allowed me to view it from a different perspective.
DeleteHey Reslida,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I believe that literacy should be integrated into other subjects because it is just another great way to connect the students learning that may be math, science or social studies! I think it's also a great way to add more content into the classroom about subjects like social students and science that tend to be neglected due to the push of standardized testing. This way we can also as teachers find ways to connect literacy into the everyday lives of our students.
I have seen science and history content be brought into the classroom by using literacy and text as a resource. It is very sad that nowadays that we focus so much on pushing reading and math, but I think there are definite ways to creatively involve interdisciplinary lessons in our classrooms.
One way that I would like to do it in my own classroom is to find ways to connect the students' learning of math to other lessons like social studies or science to create a well rounded curriculum. I think it's awesome because when you use interdisciplinary teaching the students are constantly building on their prior knowledge and own learning.
Hi Becca,
DeleteI completely agree with you! The point that you made about social studies and science being neglected in school is very important. I never saw it in any of my previous placements. The first time that I am actually seeing social studies in the classroom is this year at Ida B. Wells. I really like your idea of the way you would incorporate this in your classroom. I really like how you pointed out integrating different disciplines together like math and social studies. That is very creative! Your lessons will be awesome in your classroom!
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ReplyDeleteI think literacy should be integrated throughout all the disciplines. I feel as if we use reading and writing in all the discipline areas. We read certain books and textbooks based on each discipline.
ReplyDeleteI think literacy should be integrated throughout all the disciplines. I feel as if we use reading and writing in all the discipline areas. We read certain books and textbooks based on each discipline.
ReplyDeleteResilda, you have some really good questions. I think it would be good to integrate some literacy instruction into the different disciplines. In my classroom right now we did a little bit of that the first week. During our science block we read an article on mosquitoes and had the class annotate the article. I think it is definitely important to have some special literacy instruction in the disciplines, but at the same time it will be crucial to still have activities and more hands on stuff like labs.
ReplyDeleteHi Resilda,
ReplyDeleteI personally think literacy should be integrated in all other subjects, just because reading might not be everyone's favorite subject. So instead of assigning a lot of reading homework, we can incorporate word problems into math, include articles about science or history for those who are more interested in math, science, and history. This way the students won't feel as obligated to read a subject they might dislike. On top by integrating literacy into other subjects of their interest, it will motivate them to read more as well. Like in my fieldwork, I have seen literacy being integrated into math. Like my teacher would write a word problem that is grammatically incorrect and the students are to correct the sentences as well as solve the problem. I thought her approach was very interesting because she is incorporating math and reading together.
I think that literacy should be taught within other subject areas because it is important for students to learn to understand and communicate within certain disciplines. I think not all students enjoy reading and would get the most out of just reading books but rather reading word problems and science labs and historical documents. All students think and learn differently and its important that we give students a variety of resources and ways to access the material. Personally, I do not know yet how I would incorporate this into my classroom. I do not feel like I am prepared enough to make a good plan. But I think that I would find a way to ask students in the beginning of the year to think about what they excel in and what they need more support in. I would probably have them complete there own little chart like from the Buehl book (the one that looks like a triangle with the arrows coming off) to see how I can best support them.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. At the beginning I also did not get what disciplinary literacy was but as I started reading I found it to be interesting. As for your questions, I believe that literacy should be implemented into all subject areas. For example, in social studies students are learning to write research papers while in science they are learning to write lab reports. Two very different disciplinary areas but literacy is used in both. I am going to try to implement as much literacy I can into different disciplinary areas.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way I had no idea what disciplinary literacy meant!
ReplyDeleteBut now that I do I realize how involved it is in our educational system at least from the schools i have seen. In my field placements, I have seen literacy integrated specifically in math and history lessons which i think is a great way to connect what the students are learning through out the day/year. In my eyes literacy is in everything so I think it'd be very difficult to not incorporate literacy to any other subject area.
As for my own classroom I love the idea of connecting history and literacy because i love learning about historic events/figures through books and stories.
I think that literacy should be integrated throughout different disciplines and not taught as its own.Similar to what you mentioned above, when students read and write like scientists ( or other subject areas) they are using their literacy in ways they don't realize. Literacy can be imbedded in other subject areas very conveniently because it's always used. Students can also gain more out of using literacy in different disciplines because they can discover all the different ways and forms they can be literate.
ReplyDeleteHey Resilda! Great post, I agree with most of our classmates. I think that literacy should be be taught in all disciplines instead of just literature. I remember growing up thinking how important literacy was in all subjects because if you didn't know how to read or write you would be able to access the information that was being taught in other subjects such as science and social studies. I think this is partially what helped me like literature so much. It's so vital, including to everyday life. It wasn't until I read Other People's Words that I realized that there are people who have to go about their daily lives being illiterate and how much harder it makes it do something as simple as paying a bill or figuring out how to get somewhere new.
ReplyDeleteHi Resilda!
ReplyDeleteI love your post, because I can definitely relate to it. I also didn't completely understand what disciplinary literacy meant, until reading this week's readings. I think that literacy should be taught in all disciplines, because it will only benefit the students by increasing their skills while also teaching them in the specific discipline. So far I haven't seen literacy being integrated into my discipline (science), but as a teacher I would definitely incorporate it into the discipline by having students follow various literacy strategies into informative readings.
Hi Resilda!
ReplyDeleteI love your post, because I can definitely relate to it. I also didn't completely understand what disciplinary literacy meant, until reading this week's readings. I think that literacy should be taught in all disciplines, because it will only benefit the students by increasing their skills while also teaching them in the specific discipline. So far I haven't seen literacy being integrated into my discipline (science), but as a teacher I would definitely incorporate it into the discipline by having students follow various literacy strategies into informative readings.