Missed the live webinar? You can now access the recording of “Performing Poetry: How Music Shapes Poetic Analysis”! Held on April 24, 2025, this insightful session led by Catheryn Cofield explored the powerful connection between musical literacy and deeper poetic analysis for grades 6-12 educators. Discover practical strategies to illuminate complex elements of spoken word and poetry, such as cadence and structure, using the universal language of music. Learn how to reinforce key reading skills and enhance student engagement, as presented by music educator Catheryn Cofield. Click the link below to watch the recording and unlock new ways to connect your students with poetry!
About the Author
Ms. Colfield is a first-year teacher serving at Chester Middle School in Chester, SC. She graduated from Anderson University in 2024 with her bachelor’s in Vocal Music education and is currently serving as both a general music teacher and choir director at her school. She believes musical literacy is a key component of any competent music program and one of the greatest tools that a developing reader can have.
What happens when we invite students not only to analyze a poem but to become the poem?
This is the question I return to—again and again—when I think about the role poetry plays in our classrooms. Not just in English class, but across the disciplines. In Science, Math, History, even in research methods. When we bring poetry into these spaces, we aren’t just making room for creativity—we are making space for presence. For embodiment. For students to find language for what has felt unspeakable (Cutts, 2020; Summerhill, 2020). In my NCTE article, Embracing Every Hue: Using Our Narratives to Cultivate Healing (Phelps, 2023), I wrote about the power of narrative and poetry as a form of liberation—especially for young people of color who have been asked to shrink themselves to fit into white-washed educational molds. I believe that poetry invites us—and our students—into the radical act of naming. Naming the joy. The ache. The history. The hope. Across all disciplines, this act of naming becomes a reclamation of self and story.
Poetry as Critical Methodology in Every Classroom
Poetic inquiry is more than a practice; it’s a methodology rooted in resistance. It honors what Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz (2021) calls “The Archaeology of Self,” demanding that students and educators alike excavate the layers of identity, memory, and place that inform our learning and teaching. When I invite students in a science classroom to write a poem from the perspective of a cell, or ask them to personify the periodic table, I’m not diluting content—I’m deepening it. I’m asking them to see scientific concepts as more than formulas on a whiteboard. Poetry offers language for wonder. For awe. For complexity. The student who writes, “I divide, I replicate, I hold multitudes” is learning not only cellular biology but also something about multiplicity, about existing as more than one thing.
Similarly, in social studies classrooms, poetry becomes a site for critical questioning. I’ve seen students use found poetry and blackout poems to confront primary source documents, challenging the omissions of history and unearthing voices buried in the archive. In my NCTE blog post, Exploring Identity Through Poetic Inquiry (Phelps, 2024), I shared how poetry became a bridge for students wrestling with who they are and how they have been shaped by their sociopolitical contexts. These cross-curricular moments show us that poetry doesn’t have to be contained within the boundaries of English Language Arts—it can transform every classroom into a space of inquiry, advocacy, and healing.
The House in the Sky: A Case of Multimodal Poetics
In my various courses for pre-service teachers, I use a poetic prompt called House in the Sky, inspired by Kyle Liang’s How to Build a House (2018). I ask students to imagine a home not bound by gravity—a metaphorical structure that holds their stories, traumas, dreams, and pedagogical values. It’s a practice that invites vulnerability, but also possibility. I’ve read poems from future educators about growing up in food deserts, about navigating linguistic shame, about being the first in their family to go to college. Through metaphor, these future teachers begin to name the invisible architecture of their identities. And that naming transforms how they understand their role in the classroom.
They begin to ask:
What kind of home am I building for my students? Whose stories are centered in the curriculum? Whose pain is ignored? Whose joy is allowed to be loud?
This is the kind of critical reflection that poetry makes possible. It isn’t just an expression—it’s excavation. It’s the start of a pedagogical stance grounded in care, criticality, cultural responsiveness, and radical honesty (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1970; Gay, 2019).
Strategies to Begin
For educators seeking to bring poetic inquiry into content-area classrooms, here are a few starting points:
Science: Have students write persona poems from the perspective of atoms, ecosystems, or scientific innovators. Encourage metaphor to unpack abstract processes—like comparing DNA replication to musical rhythm or memory.
Math: Ask students to write “I am” poems about their relationship with mathematics. Use metaphor to describe concepts like symmetry, infinity, or equations that changed the world. What does a struggle with fractions feel like? How does one narrate a moment of mathematical clarity?
History & Social Studies: Use erasure or found poetry with historical documents to highlight whose voices were omitted. Invite students to write ekphrastic poetry in response to artifacts or photographs from key moments in history.
Research & Inquiry: Incorporate reflective poetic journaling throughout the research process. Ask students to write poems as they collect and interpret data—honoring the emotional, ethical, and embodied dimensions of their learning (Leavy, 2015; Barone & Eisner, 2012).
These practices don’t detract from rigor—they reveal its humanity.
Every Hue Speaks: Radical Love & Healing
bell hooks reminded us that “the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility” (hooks, 1994, p. 12). Poetry, when used intentionally, can help us tap into that possibility. It invites students to bring their whole selves into the room—their grief and their brilliance, their anger and their aspirations. As I’ve written elsewhere, poetry makes healing possible in places where pain was once unnamed (Phelps, 2024). It makes visible what dominant narratives have tried to erase. So, I leave you with this poem—an offering, a reminder, a declaration:
Every Hue Speaks By Darius Phelps
I am the ink that refuses to dry, the verse that lingers long after the page has turned.
I am the echo of stories once silenced, now rising— unashamed, unshaken.
Do not ask me to shrink into grayscale, to press my voice into the margins, to soften my edges so they fit neatly into a world that fears their sharpness.
I have seen what happens when color is erased, when tongues are taught to whisper instead of roar when truths are bent into palatable shapes for those who would rather not taste their weight.
But here— in the rhythm of our reclamation, in the cadence of our collective breath, we write ourselves whole again.
We name both the wounds & the wonders. We let joy & grief walk hand in hand We let resistance & rest sit at the same table. We let love carve out a home where erasure once stood.
This is the work. This is the knowing.
This is the unbreaking, the unfolding, the remembering of every hue—
every shade of self, every layered truth, every voice that refuses to be forgotten.
& so, we write. & so, we heal. & so, we rise—
in every hue, in every word, in every breath that dares to say: We are still here.
References (APA 7)
Barone, T., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts based research. SAGE. Cutts, Q. (2020). Poetic approaches to qualitative data analysis. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/education_pub/145/ Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. Ramos, Trans.). Herder and Herder. Gallas, K. (1994). The languages of learning: How children talk, write, dance, draw, and sing their understanding of the world. Teachers College Press. Gay, G. (2019). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press. Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. Jossey-Bass. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge. Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. Liang, K. (2018). How to build a house. Swan Scythe Press. Liang, K. (2024). Good son. Sundress Publications. Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press. Phelps, D. (2023). Embracing every hue: Using our narratives to cultivate healing. Language Arts, 102(3), 199–204. https://doi.org/10.58680/la202332602 Phelps, D. (2024, December). Exploring identity through poetic inquiry. NCTE Blog.https://ncte.org/blog/2024/12/exploring-identity-through-poetic-inquiry/ Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2022). An archaeology of self for our times: Another talk to teachers. English Journal, 111(5), 21–26. https://doi.org/10.58680/ej202231819 Summerhill, D. B. (2020). Mausoleum of flowers. CavanKerry Press. https://www.cavankerrypress.org/product/mausoleum-of-flowers/
About the Author
Darius Phelps (he/him) is a poet, writer, and scholar whose work centers the liberatory possibilities of poetic inquiry, culturally responsive pedagogy, and critical literacy. A former elementary school teacher and now professor, he mentors pre-service educators in reimagining classrooms as spaces of resistance, restoration, and radical love. His scholarship amplifies the voices of historically marginalized students, exploring how poetry can serve as both pedagogy and prophecy. Drawing inspiration from Black literary traditions, personal narrative, and student testimony, Darius uses his own poetry to foster healing, identity reclamation, and joy in the margins. His work has been featured by NCTE, School Library Journal, and many others where he continues to advocate for education that honors everybody, every story, and every voice.
One goal of school science learning is to apprentice students into the discipline. As teachers, we engage students in the multiple ways they can leverage the discourses of science so they can understand the ways science explanations can be structured and communicated to others. The Framework for K12 Science Education also suggests that students need to be aware that they are thinking scientifically.
All of this means that we need to provide learning opportunities that bring the literacies of science into the classroom in ways that help make this apprenticeship accessible to all students. It also means that we have to be clear with students when they are using these different literacies. One example of literacy in science is the development and use of models to represent, explore, and explain phenomena. Models are more than just drawings handed in at the end of a lesson for a grade. Modeling supports student learning by uncovering areas that need more clarity, encouraging question-asking, and motivating investigation. Modeling as a sharing practice also allows all students to see assorted, unique, and sometimes powerful representations of the same phenomenon. This sharing of initial and then developing models gives all students access to different ways of thinking.
One example of an initial model related to a high school unit is included in Figure 1. The model documents multiple relationships and uses many representations including drawings, arrows, various scales, and even a drawn set of thermometers. In this model some relationships that would help to fully answer the question “Why are the sea levels rising?” are not included. This is an initial model and it helps students to see what they don’t yet know and imagine the investigations they would create that would provide evidence for adding those ideas. While creating this model in a group, students shared their ideas in writing and orally, grappling with what they had previously learned to explain their initial ideas. Literacy around modeling is also developed as groups of students identify the critical relationships and representations to be used collectively within the models.
Following the development of small group models, teachers are encouraged to create a class consensus model. By negotiating meaning, through whole group scientist talks, of various representations to show relationships (such as various arrows or lines, words, and system components), students engage in the powerful talk of scientists. Sometimes, students are provided lists of words or components to include in their models. However, this teacher-guided practice steals students’ opportunity for science literacy development. Rather, if we are guided by the idea that we want to position students as apprentices to the work of science, then we need to engage them in (scaffolded) opportunities to flex their developing understanding of the literacies of the field.
Modeling is a disciplinary literacy that needs to be supported in the classroom and should grow over time. The progressions of learning suggested in the Framework clearly indicate that modeling doesn’t wait until high school. Kindergartners can model pushes and pulls and over time these models become more sophisticated until physics students include vector diagrams and equations as part of their modeling to explain. The phenomenon might not even change – perhaps physics students are still modeling pushes and pulls, but the level of sophistication of students’ mental models and drawn models will grow.
As a literacy, modeling needs to be about representations of relationships. Students’ models are not static but made dynamic by showing others how they see the relationships in the world and then capturing those relationships visually. In any unit of study and with any phenomenon, initial models are likely to lack some of these powerful relationships. This inability to model how the world works highlights potential student questions and investigations to be conducted. Knowledge developed through the investigations is then used to update and perhaps defend the next iteration of the model. The model in Figure 1 will change as students learn more, add more relationships, and increase their mechanistic understanding of why sea levels are rising. Because this is high school, students will also answer the question at different scales, using their developing understanding of changes at the molecular level.
Modeling is only one of eight Science and Engineering Practices identified in the Framework for K12 Science Education and used in the NGSS. It has become a beneficial part of science learning and science disciplinary literacy. In addition to seven additional Practices, the Crosscutting Concepts offer a lens into disciplinary literacy in science. We should continue to investigate how these literacies of science can support students as they grow in their ability and interest to explain the world like scientists.
Reference
National Research Council. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.
About the Author
Mary is the Executive Director of the Michigan Math and Science Leadership Network and a leader of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials initiative in Michigan. She has authored textbooks, provides NGSS professional learning and leadership support across Michigan and the US. Currently, Mary is a co-PI on an NSF grant called Learning in Places. When she’s not organizing, writing or providing learning opportunities she can be found working elbow to elbow with science teachers in the classrooms.
Disciplinary Literacy (DL) is an orientation to the work of teaching that (re)claims a focus on action: knowing how to do, to use, to apply, to act, to verb. This requires an instructional focus on process and application over receiving and demonstrating knowledge. It is therefore a form of resistance to the version of schooling that is ruled by accountability metrics – where tests, credits, and other metrics have become a school’s reason for being rather than tools to measure and improve it. In this way, it is radical: it affects the fundamental nature of what teachers imagine can and should happen in class with students. And, its absence is a signal of the slow creep of oppressive policies that can become naturalized as how we ‘do school’ in the US.
In too many middle and high school classrooms, content knowledge has been divorced from the communities that produce, apply, and critique it outside of classroom settings. In that divorce, we have lost the connection to the purpose that motivates and the audience that gives meaning to the structure of the text and task (See Figure 1).
Figure 1. An expanded purpose-audience-format triangle
A DL orientation is essentially a suit for custody – for deeper connection – to each of these. Otherwise, it requires educators to work against the grain of typical curricula and related tasks (e.g. testing and test preparation, data collection, and classroom sorting). We have to pause business as usual to do a standalone project that brings authentic context into focus. We have to look up from representations of knowledge and re-present or re-frame them in ways that allude to their purpose in the world.
In my experience, instruction that is oriented towards application and use exists as the exception rather than the rule in core academic classes. However, it is more likely to be found in the courses that do not count for graduation or in the enrichment opportunities that are reserved for those who do well: a choir that performs, an auto shop that repairs, a science elective that grows or conserves, or a language class that visits another culture. I suspect that this is because these areas are the least tested and the most likely to have educators or curricula directly connected to the doing: playing music for performance rather than for a quiz on what it includes; fixing a car to make it run again, rather than for a matching test on the names of engine parts. The more academic and abstract knowledge is, the less likely it is to stay connected to use. These tenuous marriages of knowing and doing exist on the margins of academic experiences as reminders that specialized literacies are not necessarily harder than general literacy.
Texts reflect the particularities of their purposes, processes, and the conditions in which they were produced. For example, jazz musicians are likely to play off of a lead sheet rather than a full score showing every detail of every instrument’s parts. They need a text that shares a basic structure across collaborators so that they can improvise within it. Conductors need a detailed account of every part so that they can understand how all parts contribute to the whole and understand everything that might be happening simultaneously. The texts match the tasks. Though a conductor’s score might seem infinitely more challenging than a single part or a simplified lead sheet, their use of it may actually be quite simple. Unlike a lead sheet where each symbol contains a lot of information that might be highly consequential, conductors are really only following patterns across pages and parts – not reading every symbol of every line.
This is similar to the way that an actor might do a close reading of a single part of a single scene with lots of repetition of their own lines but would never try to read 30 pages of a play that way for homework. A director might likewise review a scene to visualize blocking. This process may not prepare them to do the kind of activity that might be found in an English classroom divorced from the text’s uses (e.g. a quiz question on a vocabulary word found on one of the pages they skimmed), but it will prepare them for the work they are doing with the text. Their purpose for reading influences their process for reading, and the amount or type of text with which they engage. The way we orient ourselves to the task of reading a text assigned for English class sets and limits students’ access to the context, meaning, and motivation. The literate process (e.g. reading for blocking, close reading, skimming for patterns, extrapolating from summary) may actually be a simpler cognitive task if it is specified instead of general. And, specialized tasks are more likely to resonate with a set of purposes and meaningful contexts. When texts are connected to a discipline – communities that produce, critique, and interpret them – students have the benefit of the sense of purpose and meaning to support their motivation and guide their inferences.
Disciplinary connection is not a feature of the text itself, but of the framing or relationship between the text and what students are doing with it: is their activity connected to a purpose and process that align with the particularities of some use? Or are they reading a text for a generic reason that is divorced from any specific purpose and process? This divorce makes the reading inherently harder because we use the larger context to predict and confirm meaning, and the larger purpose to ignite and sustain motivation.
About the Author
Dr. Gabriel is Professor of Literacy Education at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. She is author of more than fifty refereed articles, and author or editor of seven books for literacy teachers, leaders, and education researchers. Rachael currently teaches courses for educators and doctoral students pursuing specialization in literacy, and is Editor in Chief of The Reading Teacher. A former teacher and reading specialist, Rachael’s research is focused on: literacy instruction, leadership, and intervention, as well as policies related to teacher development and evaluation. Her current projects investigate how educators and school leaders build collective capacity, state literacy policies, and discipline-specific literacy instruction.
Inspiration: Why Data Interpretation and Analysis?
When I was first introduced to the concept of disciplinary literacy last semester, I found myself reflecting on my own educational experiences. I’ve always felt like I processed information differently from my peers. I often struggled to understand certain concepts and found myself repeatedly reteaching to myself what I had learned. Over time, I realized I had never fully understood my learning style and how it affected my academic success. This realization made me think about my future students. I never wanted them to feel the same way I did—to feel like they weren’t “smart enough” because they couldn’t identify their learning style. I wanted to create a classroom environment where all students could thrive, no matter how they learned.
For my final project in Multiple Literacies in Secondary Education, I was tasked with exploring a literacy skill focusing on its application in a specific discipline. As part of the assignment, I had to design a project where I took on the role of an agriculture teacher, teaching other agriculture educators about a literacy strategy they could use in their classrooms. After much thought, I chose visual comprehension as my literacy skill as I’m a visual learner myself. However, as I dug deeper into the research, I found a significant gap in resources related to agricultural literacy. There was very little research connecting disciplinary literacy with agriculture. Recognizing how vital data in agriculture is—especially in areas like plant and soil sciences—I decided to take a STEM-based approach and adapt the research to fit the agricultural context. Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) often relies on data analysis, which pulls together basic concepts from chemistry and biology. Without it, we can’t make informed decisions in farming, sustainability, or food production. So, I decided to explore this gap and make it the focus of my project.
Lesson Development: Structuring the Nearpod Lesson
When I first started developing my Nearpod lesson, I felt overwhelmed. The task seemed daunting, and I wasn’t sure where to begin. But then I shifted my perspective. I realized that one of my strengths is lesson planning—I love it! So, I approached the project like I would any other lesson: what’s the main topic (importance of agricultural literacy and visual comprehension in AFNR), and how can I teach it effectively? I structured the lesson to guide educators through understanding the connection between literacy and data interpretation in agriculture. I wanted to make sure that teachers could not only grasp the concept but also apply it to their own classrooms.
I began by explaining what visual comprehension is—the ability to understand, interpret, and extract meaning from visual representations of information. This includes images, diagrams, symbols, charts, graphs, maps, and other visual aids. Visual comprehension is a critical skill in education, as it helps students process complex data, recognize relationships between elements, and draw meaningful conclusions without relying solely on text. In agriculture, this skill is especially important for interpreting data related to crop production, soil quality, livestock growth, and environmental factors. For example, students might analyze weather maps to predict climate patterns, study livestock growth charts to assess health trends, or interpret soil composition diagrams to determine nutrient levels. By strengthening students’ visual comprehension skills, educators can help them navigate and analyze agricultural data more effectively, improving their overall agricultural literacy.
After establishing the importance of visual comprehension, I introduced how data in agriculture—whether it’s about crop yields, soil quality, or livestock growth—can be interpreted through visual means, such as graphs, charts, and diagrams. From there, I incorporated faded scaffolding, a strategy where teachers provide support initially and gradually reduce it as students become more independent. I chose Nearpod because it allows for real-time interaction. The platform provided an opportunity for educators to engage with the content at their own pace, ask questions, and even participate in a matching game to reinforce the concepts.
Disciplinary Literacy Connection: Why Does This Matter in Agriculture?
Disciplinary literacy in agriculture is crucial. It’s not just about reading and writing—it’s about thinking critically and analyzing data, skills that are essential in any agricultural or STEM-related field. This lesson connects literacy skills with real-world applications in agriculture, helping students develop problem-solving abilities vital for solving pressing issues in the agricultural industry. As global populations rise and the demand for food increases, the agricultural sector faces more complex challenges. One of the most pressing issues is climate change, which directly impacts food production through rising temperatures, shifting weather patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes.
These changes threaten crop yields, disrupt planting and harvesting cycles, and contribute to soil degradation, making it harder to sustain food production. Addressing these challenges requires innovative solutions driven by data analysis and critical thinking. We need thinkers and problem-solvers who can interpret data to make informed decisions—whether it’s optimizing crop production, implementing sustainable farming practices, or assessing environmental impacts. By integrating faded scaffolding, we help students build their independence so they can think critically about agricultural issues, analyze data, and develop solutions. This method prepares them for real-world problem-solving in agriculture and beyond, equipping them to tackle climate-related agricultural challenges and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Impact: Why is This Lesson Important?
This lesson is important because data interpretation is at the core of solving many challenges in agriculture specifically and science generally. The ability to analyze trends, patterns, and data points is not just a useful skill—it’s essential for the sustainability of food production systems around the world. For agriculture students, especially those entering the workforce, the ability to interpret agricultural data is a key competency. This lesson empowers them to see the bigger picture, connecting literacy to real-world agriculture.
Beyond the classroom, these skills prepare students for a wide range of careers in the agricultural and STEM fields. Agronomists, for example, study soil and crop health, using data to determine the best ways to grow the food we eat every day. Precision agriculture specialists use technology like drones and GPS mapping to help farmers apply fertilizers and water more efficiently, which helps keep grocery store prices stable and reduces environmental impact. Agricultural engineers design better irrigation systems and farm machinery to improve food production, ensuring that fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains make it to consumers’ tables. Even beyond the farm, these skills impact daily life. Food scientists analyze production data to ensure that the milk, meat, and packaged foods in stores meet safety and quality standards. Agricultural economists study supply chains and pricing trends to help farmers and businesses keep food affordable. Environmental consultants work to balance agricultural production with sustainability, ensuring that future generations can continue to rely on farming for food, fuel, and fiber.
By helping students develop these critical thinking and analytical skills, we are not only preparing them for careers in agriculture but also ensuring that consumers continue to have access to safe, affordable, and sustainably produced food.
Final Thoughts: What Did I Learn from This Experience?
Throughout this project, I discovered a noticeable lack of research on disciplinary literacy in agriculture, particularly in relation to data interpretation. I believe this gap exists because agriculture education is often region-specific, with AFNR (Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources) classes only offered in certain districts and locations. However, as the global population continues to grow, the importance of agriculture—both as a science and as a vital industry—has never been greater. Agriculture is deeply rooted in scientific principles, from soil chemistry to genetics and environmental sustainability, making literacy strategies like faded scaffolding and data analysis essential for student success.
These strategies will help prepare future agricultural professionals to interpret complex information, solve real-world problems, and address the challenges facing the industry. Looking ahead, I am excited to apply and test these methods in my methods block, helping students develop the critical thinking skills necessary for success in agricultural science.
About thePresenter
Alicia Machuca is a senior dual majoring in Interdisciplinary Agriculture and Education at Sam Houston State University. Passionate about teaching, she is dedicated to creating an accessible and meaningful learning experience for her future students. Alicia’s goal is to represent and uplift students who share similar backgrounds and experiences, ensuring that every child feels valued and empowered in the classroom. She hopes to inspire a love for agriculture in her students, just as it has inspired her.
Explore how to leverage quality NGSS curricula to enact disciplinary literacy in your 6-12 classroom with this recorded webinar featuring Mary Starr, Executive Director of the Michigan Math and Science Leadership Network. Discover the hidden disciplinary literacy within NGSS-aligned materials and learn how to incorporate additional opportunities using science and engineering practices. This session focuses on helping science learners recognize and utilize literacy practices in their own learning. Watch now to gain valuable insights from this free webinar, originally presented on March 15th, and funded by a grant from the South Carolina Middle Grades Initiative.
About the Presenter
Mary is the Executive Director of the Michigan Math and Science Leadership Network and a leader of the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials initiative in Michigan. She has authored textbooks, provides NGSS professional learning and leadership support across Michigan and the US. Currently, Mary is a co-PI on an NSF grant called Learning in Places. When she’s not organizing, writing or providing learning opportunities she can be found working elbow to elbow with science teachers in the classrooms.
Stephanie: As a literacy teacher educator whose scholarship has primarily focused on agricultural literacy development in K-12 classrooms over the last 5 years, I have been fortunate to meet many dedicated, amazing K-12 Mississippi classroom teachers. Through four United States Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA) grants on professional development in agricultural literacy, I’ve been able to work with a wide range of teachers including gifted education, social studies, all elementary subjects, mathematics, welding, library, college-and-career readiness, science, and agriculture education. One of those rock star teachers is Mrs. Tammie Marlow, a 7th grade science teacher at Cleveland Central Middle School, in Cleveland, MS located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Tammie is an award-winning science teacher; she recently was awarded the Rural Teacher of the Year for her congressional district in Mississippi (an award given from the Program for Research and Evaluation for Public Schools housed at William Carey University). She participated in two of my USDA/NIFA grants in summer 2022/academic year 2022-2023 and summer 2023/academic year 2023-2024. The Agricultural Science Professional Development [ACRE] program focused on animal science, with a heavy emphasis on livestock, plant science, meat science, literacy instruction, and teacher leadership. The Agricultural Science Professional Development 2.0 [ACRE 2.0] program focused on poultry and food science, socio-emotional learning, and literacy instruction. Over those two years, Tammie took many of the ideas presented in these professional developments and incorporated them into her 7th-grade science class, expanding the curriculum to include a large focus on hands-on agricultural education. Below, I interview Tammie about her work at Cleveland Central Middle School in order to share with you many of the ways she has incorporated agriculture lessons into her classroom instruction.
Tammie, can you please share with readers your reasoning behind starting the Home-Garden-Science Club?
Tammie: The district that I teach in is the last district to consolidate in Mississippi. This brought many challenges, especially combined with the timing of the Covid epidemic. We are the only middle school in our district, and we serve as a bottle-neck transition to 6 local elementary schools plus students that move in from outside areas. Students were placed in this new environment and did not know their peers in this educational transition time in their lives. They didn’t have any time at school for downtime to visit and get to know each other. With this realization, my family and I decided to start an after-school program that would give them a safe place to meet, make new friends, and learn practical skills that will make their lives better. We called it Home-Garden-Science Club because we did everything including experiments, planting gardens, teaching students how to sew, holding cooking classes, and doing crafts together.
Picture: A student in the Cleveland Central Middle School Home-Garden-Science Club
This after school program has grown into an outdoor learning space that encompasses an outdoor classroom with electricity, a plowed field, an orchard, a tractor with attachments, multiple gardening tools, a three-door tractor shed with electricity and water, new fencing, and a greenhouse. This is a testament that people want to help, and when they see things happening, they will help. When we first started, we had students stand in line waiting their turn to use a hoe and shovel. We had to teach students how to use a water hose to water plants. You cannot assume that students know how to do what you know. It still amazes me to think that this all started from letting kids meet after school one day a week to have a safe place to have fun together and learn.
Picture: Students working in the garden at Cleveland Central Middle School
Stephanie: That sounds wonderful, Tammie. I know the students have enjoyed working in the garden and seeing the fruits of their labor with the produce it has yielded. Can you share with me some in-class, hands-on agriculture labs you have done with your students that have made an positive impact on their agricultural literacy development?
Tammie: Most students really enjoy lessons that they are involved in and take active parts in leading the learning activity, especially the labs that include food. I facilitate student-lead lessons in as many classes as I can. I believe students learn better when they have fun, can relate information to their personal lives in the real-world, and are physically active in the lesson with hands-on activities, literacy activities, maps, collections of specimens to explore/investigate, Guest Speaker interaction, field trips (actual and virtual) and labs that reinforce the standards. Project-based learning works well for all of my classes. Hydroponics, Micro-Green Farming, and Earth Cycles are 3 project-based lessons that we completed this year. Students really enjoyed constructing wildlife habitats. MSU Extension officers taught my 7th grade students how to use both power tools and hand tools in order to build the habitats.
For example, one of our state standards in 7th Grade Science is: “Explain how disruptions in cycles (e.g., water, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen) affect biodiversity and ecosystem services (e.g., water, food, and medications) which are needed to sustain human life on Earth.” Together with an Ag student from MDCC, a USDA specialist, and my co- 7th Grade Science Teacher collected soybeans while at their prime and planned a Legume Lab for our students. Students were first given a pretest on soybeans and other legumes. The need was clear; they needed hands-on experience with soybeans or other legumes. Soybeans make up the number 1 top-row crop in Mississippi and come just behind poultry on the list of agricultural commodities. Most students didn’t know what soybean plants looked like even though they live in a rural area surrounded by large soybean farms. We held the Legume Lab outside and the USDA specialist showed us how they use toothpicks as a tool in the soybean programs. Students were given toothpicks to dissect the soybean plants which are legumes. They were to locate and dissect the nodules that house Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria that are responsible for Nitrogen Cycling into usable forms for living things. This was probably one of the most valuable labs conducted by our 7th Grade Science students. They completed lab sheets, and we took lots of pictures to serve as evidence of their findings. These students now know what soybeans are and how important they are as a food source along with information they learned about Nutrient Cycling. We now grow soybeans, with the other plants, in our school garden and the Home-Garden-Science after school club cares for them. This is a much-needed lab for not just rural students but for every student. Students need to be educated about the importance of nutrient cycling, our land. and where our food comes from.
Picture: Students engage in the Legume Lab in class.
Further, I was so shocked to learn during ACRE that the Mississippi Delta is in the middle of a food desert. According to Uproot Mississippi (2024), Mississippi has been considered the most food insecure state for the last decade. Bolivar County, where Cleveland resides, had a population of over 6,500 individuals who experience food insecurities as of 2022, and an annual food budget shortfall of over $4,000 (Feeding America, 2025). Food insecurity is prevalent in this area where people don’t know when they’ll get their next nutritious meal that they can afford. This is the area where I was raised, and I never thought about food insecurity.
Stephanie: I was shocked to learn about food deserts and their prevalence in Mississippi as well. I know this has become an important topic to you. Can you describe ways in which your students have learned more about food deserts?
Picture: Students engage in the Legume Lab in class.
Tammie: I was raised on a 5-generation farm and we always had large gardens that we called “patches”. We had a “pea patch”, a “pumpkin patch”, a “green patch”, a “corn patch”, and other mini fields where we grew food for our families and the community. I have learned in my adult years that most people don’t live where they can grow their own food. After learning about the food deserts, I developed a research project for my students on food deserts and solutions that each student can be a part of. Because of this realization from the ACRE influenced project my 7th grade students are working with our community to plant a student-community food forest to help fight against food insecurity in the food desert in which we live.
Picture: Students presentation on overcoming community food insecurity.
As part of the solution students want to plant this food forest in a place where everyone could harvest fresh free food anytime they want to. The place they decided to do this was our local park because it has the land to plant the food-plants on and plenty of parking that would be safe for everyone. Students also learned that planting more trees can help with climate change by removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which will lessen the greenhouse effect. This can in turn keep our weather from having great fluctuations, decreasing droughts and floods. I am so proud of what my students have learned and their desire to help others. Students learn about problems, but they also need to learn how to be part of the solutions.
Picture: Garden beds at Cleveland Central Middle School
Stephanie: Last question Tammie. Can you provide me with an example of how you have intentionally provided opportunities for your students to reflect as a demonstration of their learning?
Tammie: Finally, as I introduce my students to real-world science problems, and they play a role in forming solutions, I have incorporated more literacy instruction teaching it with “more zest” in my classes after the training that I received in ACRE and ACRE 2.0. For example, to get students to write and learn more deeply about vocabulary, I use strategies such as journaling, ABC brainstorming sheets and Frayer models. In teaching my science vocabulary, I have put a greater emphasis on teaching my students morphology–affixes (prefixes and suffixes and root words).
Students also write lab reports after engaging in real world labs. We engage in close reading of various sources. I also have implemented a talking ball in class to help facilitate class discussions. Students have engaged in oral presentations and poster projects as well. This focus on literacy, coupled with the extensive hands-on learning in my science classroom (both indoors and outside) has provided my students with opportunities to deeply learn scientific and agricultural content as well as be able to communicate effectively about that content because I’ve prioritized the importance of reading, writing, and speaking like a scientist or agriculturalist in my classroom as well. Ultimately, I believe as teachers, we need to make sure that we aren’t just teaching content but how to be good stewards of our world. We only have these precious students for just a little time, we need to make sure we make the most of teaching them and giving them opportunities to be good stewards. I want to challenge every teacher to take part with their students in planting a food forest to help feed our world… one plant at a time.
Stephanie M. Lemley is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Leadership in the College of Education at Mississippi State University. Her research agenda focuses on increasing agricultural literacy, through hands-on learning and instruction with agricultural texts, in the K-16 population. She can be reached at smb748@msstate.edu.
Mrs. Tammie Marlow is an award-winning science teacher at Cleveland Central Middle School in Cleveland, MS. She has taught for 25 years in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and North Carolina. In North Carolina, she was a parent liaison that tutored students after school, helped students in classes, and filled in for teachers. In Louisiana, she taught HeadStart in Plaquemine Parish and used the Pacing System in a Christian Outreach School for students that lived in the Marsh (we had a School-Boat instead of a School-Bus to transport our students). Tammie has taught US History, 8th grade science, Biology, Biology II, Aquatic Science, Science Skills, Environmental Science, and Forensics. She can be reached at tmarlow@cleveland.k12.ms.us.
How do you support literacy development alongside content goals in middle and high school? Join Dr. Rachael Gabriel from the University of Connecticut in ‘Developing Literacies for Doing the Discipline,’ presented by Literacy in the Disciplines 6-12. This webinar explores discipline-specific literacy instruction, providing a framework to position students as active participants in authentic disciplinary activities. In our February 2025 webinar, Dr. Gabriel will guide us beyond traditional strategies, focusing on situating literacy within the purposes, audiences, and formats of each subject, and deepening our understanding of disciplinary ways of using text.
Watch the webinar below to enhance your awareness of disciplinary text use and support students in navigating diverse text types and purposes across their learning.
About the Presenter
Dr. Gabriel is Professor of Literacy Education at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. She is author of more than fifty refereed articles, and author or editor of seven books for literacy teachers, leaders, and education researchers Rachael currently teaches courses for educators and doctoral students pursuing specialization in literacy, andis Editor in Chief of The Reading Teacher. A former teacher and reading specialist, Rachael’s research is focused on Steracy instruction, leadership, and Intervention, as well as policies related to teacher development and evaluation. Her current projects investigate how educators and school leaders build collective capacity, state literacy policies, and discipline-specific literacy instruction
Discipline Literacy focuses on how students read, write, and critically think about content in a certain field. To me, the most important way to teach is through modeling so that students can see and understand the expectations. Fisher and Frey (2020) highlight the importance of reading comprehension strategies, collaborative discussions, and writing-to-learn activities. These enable students to process information more deeply and develop expertise in their subjects.
Food and Nutrition connect to particular skills within the disciplines of Science, Math, and English. In our class, we cover many different standards that build and support one another. In this post, I will share our Food Truck Project where we apply the principles learned in Foods & Nutrition 2 by focusing on nutrition science, food safety, and meal preparation for diverse consumers.
Connecting the Food Truck Project with DL
As students dig into their Food Trucks, they engage with hands-on, interdisciplinary experience with various disciplinary literacies not just about the recipe they want to carry out but as a global phenomenon as each student develops skills and knowledge in a diverse approach that is interconnected to the world. This project links to numerous disciplines and content areas that allow students to apply and engage in different fields. The project challenges students to think critically, creatively, and analytically. Take a look at all the ways this project connects with literacy and other disciplines:
Science and Sustainability: Students investigate the ingredients they will use in their Food Truck recipes. Students create a concept of sustainability, food production, and the impact of climate on the global food system. Students share the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, the role of nutrition in personal and public health, and the importance of ensuring access to nutritious food for all; therefore, they connect their learning with real-world concerns about food and the environment.
Economics and Business: Students create a lean canvas model to support their Food Trucks. This model type is a tool designers use to map out a business or product’s key actors, activities, and resources, the value proposition for target customers, customer relationships, channels involved, and financial matters. It gives an overview to help identify requirements to deliver the service and more. Students research the food industry in different regions, understanding the food production, distribution, and consumption from where their truck region is based. This connects the global business landscape with hands-on entrepreneurial learning.
Cultural Connections: Students research and explore different global food traditions to understand how different cuisine reflects history, geography, and cultural values. As students understand these influences, they learn about the diverse perspectives and the global food systems.
Communication: Students use their communication skills by presenting their food truck concepts and writing promotional content. They learn to create marketing material that reflects cultural sensitivity and global awareness. This process involves developing marketing materials such as advertisements, social media posts, or flyers that not only showcase their menu but also reflect cultural sensitivity and global awareness.
History and Geography: Students learn historical and geographical influences on food as students trace ingredients and recipes through trade routes and migration. This shows students how food is a powerful tool for the world to understand as it is interconnected to history and cultures.
Mathematical Literacy (Scaling Recipes): Students use measurements and conversions to scale a recipe for a larger or smaller crowd. They adjust recipe measurements based on the food truck’s expected serving size and customers. Students research the ingredient list for a dish and work together to calculate the total cost of producing one serving. They then scale it up to 50 servings for staff on Food Truck Day.
Cooking: Students have a chance to prepare their menu item, ensuring they can execute it effectively under time constraints. They learn kitchen skills and techniques that align with the culinary discipline.
Life Skills: Students take on different roles—chef, server, cashier—allowing them to practice not only cooking but also customer service, teamwork, and handling food truck logistics. This aspect emphasizes the project’s interdisciplinary nature, involving skills in business, communication, and teamwork.
Community Engagement: On the day of the food truck event, students serve their menu items to school staff or possibly even fellow students. This is a fun, community-building experience and an opportunity for students to showcase their learning.
Writing: Students reflect on their experiences working on their Food Truck project, focusing on individual and teamwork contributions. Students reflect on their performance and identify ways of improvement. Students reflect on their experiences and how they relate to the standards covered in Food and Nutrition 2.
How Do I Enact this in my Classroom?
You may wonder how I set up this project in my classroom. First, students are divided into six different groups. These groups are created by the students with my guidance. Then, as a group, they work collaboratively to plan a menu that showcases their global cuisines while emphasizing health and social responsibility. Students collaboratively research and choose dishes from different cultures that highlight diverse culinary traditions and meet health-conscious guidelines. They must select recipes that offer a variety of nutrients, focusing on whole, unprocessed foods and ensuring the menu includes a good balance of macronutrients. Students discuss the environmental impact of food production and try to incorporate locally sourced, seasonal, or sustainably produced ingredients. Doing so allows the students to appreciate how different cultures approach food.
They also discuss who takes on which roles and when they will switch off. Roles include recipe development, budgeting, and marketing, allowing them to practice workplace readiness skills. As a team, the group moves beyond hypothetical discussion, and they take on the chef role as they cook their menus for school staff and students. This allows students to move beyond learning and discussing and ensure they follow sanitation and proper food handling techniques as they prepare their dishes.
Students also create presentations to share their culinary creations and the cultural significance behind them, enhancing our understanding of food’s role in cultural identity. Students reflect on their projects within their groups and individually to demonstrate how they connect to what they have learned, consider growth areas, and develop ways to self-improve for future projects. Therefore, this project reinforces our classroom learning and prepares them for real-world culinary careers.
If you’re a teacher looking to implement a Food Truck Project with a focus on culture and global awareness in your Food and Nutrition class, here’s how you can approach it:
1. Define Your Project’s Scope
This project concerns students working collaboratively to create a food truck business plan that showcases global cuisines while emphasizing health, sustainability, and cultural awareness. The ultimate goal is for students to apply what they’ve learned in food safety, nutrition, and meal preparation to a real-world entrepreneurial project, integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines.
2. Organize Your Students into Teams
Divide the class into groups (around six students per group). Each group will handle different roles—menu planning, marketing, budgeting, recipe development, and food prep. Let students have a say in forming their teams but provide guidance to ensure a balanced mix of skills and interests.
3. Research Global Cuisines and Nutritional Aspects
Each group will research a global cuisine to explore the historical, geographical, and cultural influences on food. Students will also consider the nutritional aspects of their chosen dishes and how to create balanced, health-conscious options.
4. Develop a Lean Canvas for the Business
Students will create a lean canvas model for their food truck to build an entrepreneurial mindset. This business tool helps them map out critical aspects like the target market, cost structure, value proposition, and sales channels. This model connects them with real-world business concepts and teaches them how to approach running a food business.
5. Address Interdisciplinary Connections
The project links to multiple disciplines:
Science: Students explore the science behind nutrition, food production, and sustainability.
Math: Students practice scaling recipes, converting measurements, and calculating costs.
English/Communication: Students write promotional content, create marketing materials (e.g., flyers, social media posts), and present their concepts to peers and staff.
Social Studies/History: They research the history and geography of the cuisines they’re exploring and how food travels through trade and migration.
Life Skills: Students learn teamwork, customer service, and logistics in a real-world setting.
6. Plan and Execute the Menu
Each group collaboratively designs a menu that balances health-conscious recipes with cultural authenticity. They will:
Consider how to prepare these dishes while following food safety protocols.
Discuss the environmental impact of the ingredients and try to source them sustainably.
Where possible, select locally sourced, seasonal, or organic ingredients.
Practice cooking and preparing dishes while keeping within their budget constraints.
7. Present and Serve
On the day of the food truck event, students can serve their food to staff and/or students. This allows them to practice their food safety knowledge and engage with the community. Students can share their presentations about the cultural significance of their menu items, explaining the dishes’ history and geographical context.
8. Reflect and Assess
After the event, students reflect on their project—individually and as a group. They’ll evaluate what went well, identify areas for improvement, and think about how this project connects to their future careers in culinary arts, nutrition, or business. They will also write about the learning process and the interdisciplinary connections they made throughout the project.
9. Build Real-World Connections
This project isn’t just about food; it’s about developing skills students can use in their everyday lives and future careers. They will learn to think critically about food systems, culture, and health, gain experience in marketing, budgeting, and customer service., and understand how food production impacts the environment and global health.
This project is designed to be a cross-curricular, hands-on learning experience that prepares students for the challenges of the real world while connecting what they’re learning in the classroom to issues like sustainability, cultural appreciation, and global awareness. By making learning interactive and tied to real-world experiences, you’re not just teaching them about food and nutrition—you’re empowering them to become responsible, informed global citizens and future leaders in their fields.
Good luck, and I’m sure your students will find the project engaging and inspiring!
Final Thoughts:
I believe my job is to connect their learning with my content area and other disciplines by engaging students in real-world experiences and learning. I believe that students need to connect their learning to other disciplines because this allows them to see what they are learning in a broader context. This will enable them to connect, understand, and engage in different reading, writing, and critical thinking approaches.
About TammyJo Hays
I am a Career and Technical Education instructor specializing in Family and Consumer Science for students in grades 9 through 12. I’m married to my high school sweetheart and the proud mom of two amazing boys. My family and I love creating lasting memories through camping, traveling, or simply enjoying an ice cream outing together. I believe the connections we build leave a meaningful mark on our journey, shining brightly for others to see. Faith and love for one another are at the heart of everything I do.
As I have been interacting with educators within classrooms and leading district professional learning, it has become apparent to me that despite a great deal of research energy being placed into distinguishing disciplinary literacy (DL) from content area literacy (CAL), this distinction has not carried sufficiently into professional learning practices. In fact, these ideas are still significantly conflated, with DL largely being represented by vocabulary instruction within subject-specific courses. While this can be an entry point for teachers seeking to embed DL practices into their instruction (Savitz, et al., under review), it is limiting and misrepresents DL’s opportunities for real-world problem-solving, interdisciplinary development, and critical thought. The subsequent goal of this blog, as well as the next three month’s themes, is to return to the defining and conceptualizing of DL from a practical standpoint.
Distinguishing Disciplinary Literacy and Content Area Literacy
Helping teachers and future educators distinguish DL from CAL is one of the challenges within the literacy coursework. Recognizing this is an oversimplified concept, I often begin by having students identify DL as the “what” of their teaching – the knowledge, skills, language, discourse, practices, and habits of mind contextualized to and specific within the subject areas (Ippolito et al., 2024; Lent & Voight, 2019). CAL, on the other hand, is the “how” of teaching; it constitutes content-neutral strategies and tools used to support students in attaining knowledge of the content (McKenna & Robinson, 2014; Ortlieb et al., 2024).
To help students better understand the concept behind DL, I ask them to follow a set of instructions they are given auditorily. They are told to follow these instructions to the best of their ability: “Virabhadrasana I, Prasarita Padottanasana, Trikonasana, Parivrtta Trikonasana”. I am usually met with dumbfounded looks. Then, I present the instructions in English: “Warrior I, Intense Leg Stretch, Triangle, Reverse Triangle.” Here, I often get students standing with their arms making a triangle over their heads. While students can decode the words – they understand the concept of a triangle or warrior – and some may even recognize the words are associated with yoga, most are not able to connect the words to the kinesthetic actions needed to perform these yoga poses (Morrison, 2024). This is because the task for this yoga sequence – and for literacy practices in specific disciplines – is not just to acquire information from a text but “rather to embody it in dynamic three-dimensional space, as it unfolds over time, in concert with other individuals” (Chandler-Olcott, 2017, p.151).
I then ask students to demonstrate their understanding of CAL and DL within their own subject area. One of my students, Angelina, explained it this way:
They [DL and CAL] are similar in that they both involve an understanding of how to navigate the topic. Disciplinary literacy involves understanding how the specific content area works—common vocabulary words that may not have the same meaning in other contexts, how to analyze and correct form in a P.E. setting, how to tell the difference between a rondo and trio in a music theory setting, or how to structure a haiku in a language arts setting, among other things. In short, it is everything one needs to be fluent and knowledgeable in the discipline. Content area literacy, however, is all about analyzing, synthesizing, summarizing, and questioning. It is the tools (sic) one needs to think critically about the information to gain a greater understanding of the content…This helps to reinforce the material, provoke focused thought, and engage the students in active learning, as is the goal of content area literacy.
Figure 1: Venn Diagram Showing Student Interpretation of DL and CAL
Another student, Alexis, demonstrated his conceptualization of CAL and DL through a graphic organizer (Figure 1). As can be seen in his example, he has shown the complexity and interaction of CAL and DL while also explaining the distinction between them. He identified content-neutral literacy strategies, like anticipation guides and accountable talk, as well as cross-disciplinary student practices, the 5 Es, as CAL used to support students’ learning. He explained that DL, in his case music literacy, is not just about the vocabulary and ability to read notation or the ability to play notes on a page. As he points out, DL is about students’ ability to “take a piece of music, study it, perform it, and fix any mistakes so they can put on the best performance they can.” In this example, we see how DL becomes about the complex “embodiment” (Chandler-Olcott, 2017, p. 151) of text because a performer who does not have strong DL will not be able to make the immediate pivots and corrections necessary within a performance circumstance.
Figure 2: Student Representation of Disciplinary Literacy and Content Area Literacy
Shifting the “Thinking Like” Mantra
Building on this idea of text “embodiment,” one of the prime mantras of DL has been to have students “think like experts” within the specific discipline, e.g. to “think like scientists” or “think like mathematicians” (e.g. Lent & Voigt, 2019). However, instruction within subject areas is really less about “thinking like an [expert]” and more about inhabiting the habits of mind – the perspectives and worldviews – that align with the discipline. It is about solving real-world problems and engaging in real-world experiences using the knowledge and epistemologies of specific disciplines in contextualized ways.
Here is a way I think about this. Four years ago when I moved to Texas, I decided to be a beekeeper because… “Save the bees!” I entered into this field with little knowledge and no skills related to beekeeping. However, as I have progressed in my learning to care for and provide for my hives, I have had to approach problems that arise in ways I would never have previously considered. Yes, I use vocabulary related to beekeeping – swarm, drone, absconding – and yes, I have gained a conceptual understanding of how bees gather pollen, make honey, and communicate with each other. However, I have had to gain knowledge through the reading, writing, communicating, and viewing practices master beekeepers engage in. This includes reading many, many articles, working with a mentor, and watching way too many YouTube videos at 1 AM in order to gather information that helps me make decisions that significantly impact the welfare of my hives. I have learned to “read” brood patterns on my frames to determine the health of my queen and make decisions about what I might need to provide the hive to ensure her strong production or, sometimes, her replacement. I have learned what bearding looks like and, given particular factors, if that means I have a potential swarm situation or if the bees are just getting fresh air.
Perhaps more importantly, I have noted my shift in thinking about my environment as it has become more “bee-centric”. I am adamant about planting native pollinator-friendly plants within my yard including using tiny purslane succulents as groundcover in lieu of mulch in order to feed the honey bees through Texas summer droughts. I do not spray or even pull out dandelion “weeds” because they are often the first food bees have in the spring. I see bees in other places and closely examine them, garnering information about their health and production from these observations. In essence, my view of the world has changed, and I operate in it differently because of my gaining DL on beekeeping. What is important here is that I have gained DL in beekeeping to conduct discourse with other beekeepers and to solve the problems we are all faced with (e.g. varroa mites, hive beetle infestations) through an embodiment of the discipline.
As we teacher leaders, teacher educators, and professional development leaders work toward greater DL implementation within classrooms, it is important for us to realize that discipline-specific vocabulary instruction – while a good entry point – is far from encompassing the complex and multifaceted conceptions undergirding DL.
References
Chandler-Olcott, K. (2017). Disciplinary literacy and multimodal text design in physical education. Literacy UKLA, 51(3), 147-153.
Ippolito, J., Dobbs, C., Charner-Laird, M, Uttaro, J. & Williams, J. (2024). Disciplinary Literacy Inquiry & Instruction (2nd ed.). Harvard Education Press.
Lent, R.C., & Voigt, M.M. (2019). Disciplinary literacy in action: How to create and sustain a school-wide culture of deep reading, writing, and thinking. Corwin Literacy.
McKenna, M.C. & Robinson, R.C. (2014). Teaching Through Text: Reading and Writing in the Content Areas. Pearson.
Morrison, J.D. (2018). [Paper presentation]. Disciplinary literacy in the “othered” courses: Valuing the related arts’ and physical education’s literacies. South Carolina Council for Teachers of English (SCCTE) conference. Kiawah Island, SC.
Morrison, J.D. (2024). Disciplinary literacy in the visual arts. In E. Ortlieb, B.D. Kane & E.H.Cheek (Ed.), Unpacking Disciplinary Literacies: From Research to Practice. New York, NY: Guilford.
Ortlieb, E., Kane, B.D. & Cheek, E.H. (2024). Disciplinary Literacies: Unpacking Research, Theory, and Practice. Guilford Press.
Savitz, R., Kane, B.D., Brown, C., Morrison, J.D., Aldrich, C. & O’Byrne, W.I. (in review). Secondary teachers’ self-efficacy in disciplinary literacy.
About the Author
Dr. Jennifer D. Morrison is an Associate Professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She was previously at the University of South Carolina. Her experiences include being a middle and high school English teacher, gifted education resource teacher, and instructional coach. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno, in Language, Literacy & Culture. She is a National Board Certified Teacher (AYA/ELA) and supports National Board candidates across the country. Additionally, she is an alumnus of the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Theater in Washington, D.C. and has won multiple awards for teaching and writing include NCTE’s Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Award and AERA’s Dissertation Award in Research on Teacher Induction. She has been published in a range of journals including English Journal, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Educational Leadership, and Reading Research Quarterly. Currently, her research focused on adolescent, digital, multimodal, and disciplinary literacies as well as narrative and qualitative methodologies.
