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Centering Student Learning Through Disciplinary Literacy: Food Trucks with a Culture and Global Focus

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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.

The “How” of Content Area Literacy and the “What” of Disciplinary Literacy

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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.

Disciplinary Literacy: How it Started…How it’s Going

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How it Started

Once upon a time, there was an educational concept called disciplinary literacy. It changed and grew over time, experienced some setbacks, yet still offered hope for a better educational future for adolescent learners. Since this is a blog post about literacy, we may as well use story structure to our advantage–setting, characters, events, and even a little bit of conflict along the way. Like many stories (but certainly not all), it will be told in time order and according to the narrator’s understanding. For this reason, I hope that you will forgive any errors of fact or omissions.

While our story begins in 2008, it is only possible due to previous efforts of a wide cast of characters focused on researching literacy across many, many decades. For our purposes, however, we will only rewind to 2008. Prior to 2008, literacy was commonly understood as the ability to read and write in varied contexts, with an emphasis on the ability to decode texts and use information effectively. Efforts to support and extend students’ literacy abilities focused on reading and writing across the content areas, with slogans such as “all teachers are teachers of reading and writing.” While this understanding of literacy is certainly accurate, it is also incomplete. Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan published “Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy” in 2008, seeking to articulate the idea of a literacy progression from basic literacy to intermediate literacy and finally to disciplinary literacy. In this work, they highlighted distinct literacy practices required in disciplines such as history, science, and mathematics. For example, scientific fields value precision, technical vocabulary, and the interpretation of data and visual representations. History involves sourcing, contextualizing, and corroborating documents to construct narratives about the past. In mathematics, experts rely on symbolic representations, concise explanations, and logical reasoning. Within the field of literature studies, there is an emphasis on exploring multiple representations, figurative language, and themes. Their article called for teachers to explicitly model and scaffold the reading and writing practices of their disciplines.

However, literacy exists within interactions among the learner, task, and context. Enter the work of Elizabeth Birr Moje, who co-authored “The Complex World of Adolescent Literacy: Myths, Motivations, and Mysteries” in 2008 with Melanie Overby, Nicole Tysvaer, and Karen Morris. This work dispelled the myth that adolescents were not engaging in reading outside of school and articulated the need to connect students’ interests with academic literacy tasks by naming that youth are motivated to read texts that resonate with their personal interests, social identities, and cultural background. Building upon this work, Moje published “Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change,” which advocated for developing disciplinary literacy instructional programs. This call emphasized that disciplinary literacy can provide all students with access to the specialized knowledge, skills, and practices of various fields, thus promoting educational equity.

As energy grew around the new concept of disciplinary literacy, additional researchers entered the scene. Instead of providing a broad definition of disciplinary literacy, some researchers offered explorations of particular components of disciplinary literacy. For example, Zhihui Fang and Mary J. Schleppegrell introduced the role of functional language analysis as a tool for educators to help students navigate complex disciplinary texts in 2010 with “Disciplinary Literacies Across Content Areas: Supporting Secondary Reading Through Functional Language Analysis” in 2010. Suggestions for application in various content areas include the following:

  • Science: Functional language analysis can help students unpack dense noun phrases and technical terms in order to understand complex concepts.
  • History: Analyzing the use of passive voice and nominalizations can reveal how historical events are presented and interpreted.
  • Mathematics: Understanding the precise language and symbolic representation aids in comprehending mathematical reasoning.

Also published in 2010, “Reading in the Disciplines: The Challenges of Adolescent Literacy” provided further insight into the specific literacy demands across various academic disciplines, contrasting content-area and disciplinary literacy examples. Additional ideas explored in the report include naming the difficulty that many students face as they transition from foundational and intermediate literacy skills to the advanced literacy demands in secondary schools; this difficulty is often compounded by increasing text complexity and assumptions that students already possess the skills needed to engage with complex texts. Researchers Carol D. Lee and Anika Spratley contributed to this publication and other research over time.

While many researchers were engaged in research and publication regarding disciplinary literacy over the next five years, the field was still lacking in a unifying framework that offered the promise of shifting educators’ overall approach to instruction in pedagogy. In 2015, Moje published “Doing and Teaching Disciplinary Literacy with Adolescent Learners: A Social and Cultural Enterprise.” This article provided the unifying structure that was sorely needed in the field–a teaching heuristic characterized by the 4Es: engage (engage students’ interest), elicit/engineer (identify existing skills), examine (guide students to critically examine texts, problems, or data), and evaluate (help students assess the quality of their work and thinking). This heuristic articulated not only the role of engaging adolescents in meaningful work aligned to their lives and community needs, but also the role of educators in planning for intentional instructional practices that apprentice students into the types of cognitive practices valued in various discourse communities.

Research continued after 2015, with many researchers digging deeper into the specific ways of not only reading and writing, but also speaking, listening, viewing, and thinking in various academic disciplines. While Sam Wineburg began researching the role of literacy within the field of history well before 2015, his work continues to be considered essential for educators in the field. As previously mentioned, the work of Fang and Schleppegrell focused on the literacies in scientific fields, along with Annemarie Palinscar and others. Deborah Ball, Judit Moschkovich, and Beth Herbel-Eisenmann provided insights into the intersection of language, literacy, and mathematics as well. Across the wide body of research into the concept of disciplinary, several key elements emerged:

  • Focusing on the language and literacy demands valued in various academic disciplines and professions, with a goal of making such literacy expectations visible to students through modeling.
  • Shifting toward student-centered learning for authentic purposes and audiences, with the teacher serving as the knowledgeable other, scaffolding and facilitating students’ learning.
  • Developing content knowledge alongside epistemological knowledge (understanding the ways disciplines construct and validate knowledge).

With such valiant research efforts, a reader might expect widespread implementation of disciplinary literacy. However, this was not the case. In many middle- and high-school settings, teaching content without attending to the literacy demands continued to be the status quo. Why was this the case? Perhaps it was due to the misunderstanding that disciplinary literacy was the “pinnacle” of literacy development, and therefore, not within the purview of “typical” or “struggling” learners. Perhaps it was the belief that disciplinary literacy approaches were simply a newly-branded version of content-area literacy approaches. Possibly educators were still struggling to identify what it might look like to align secondary settings to better support disciplinary literacy.

And, of course, there was a crisis called the COVID-19 pandemic that most certainly played a key role in this story. Nevertheless, the work continued.

How it’s Going

It is not a secret that, historically, key players in academia have tended to identify as White, upper-middle-class scholars. Unfortunately, this has prevented society from having a nuanced understanding of areas of study. Thankfully, we are starting to see broader representation in academic research of disciplinary literacy, both in terms of the students and educators serving as the primary focus of research efforts, as well as in terms of the researchers themselves. Since our story is a short story, we will only introduce a few such researchers here.

In “Culturally Sustaining Disciplinary Literacy for Bi/Multilingual Learners: Creating a Translanguaging Social Studies Classroom,” Garcia and Schleppegrell (2021) explore the intersections among disciplinary literacy approaches and culturally sustaining pedagogy; specifically, high-quality disciplinary literacy learning opportunities across subject areas that engage students in critically examining the world around them, interrogating accepted knowledge, contributing their own perspectives to shape that knowledge, and sustaining and developing the literacies needed to do this work.

Published in 2022 by Susan Watts-Taffe and colleagues, “Disciplinary Literacy in Action: High School Students Doing Research for Change” describes how disciplinary literacy practices were enacted among youth within the context of Youth Built Change, a science based program incorporating principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Highlighting two YPAR projects, one conducted in a predominantly Black and Latino/a suburban school and one conducted in a predominantly White rural school, specific examples of the disciplinary literacy practices of Believing, Knowing, Doing, and Communicating are illustrated.

Rachael Gabriel, a professor of literacy education at the University of Connecticut, has made significant contributions to the field of disciplinary literacy through her research and publications. Her 2023 book, Doing Disciplinary Literacy: Teaching Reading and Writing Across the Content Areas, emphasized the importance of engaging students as active participants in the authentic activities of each content area, such as conducting experiments in science, analyzing primary sources in history, or solving real-world problems in mathematics. In addition to offering practical suggestions for educators on implementing disciplinary literacy, Gabriel’s body of work integrates culturally sustaining pedagogies and neurodiversity inclusion within literacy approaches.

What’s Next

Our story doesn’t end here. Longstanding researchers in the area of disciplinary literacy, Christina L. Dobbs, Megin Charner-Laird, Jacy Ippolito, and Christine Montecillo Leider, recently published Critical Disciplinary Literacy: An Equity-Driven and Culturally Responsive Approach to Disciplinary Learning and Teaching. This book introduces a new theory of CDL that combines critical and disciplinary literacy approaches into a cohesive framework. It remains to be seen what sort of impact this work might have on the widespread implementation of disciplinary literacy.

All stories are certainly affected by the events that do happen, but they are equally affected by the events that did not happen. Our story is no different. There has not yet been a deep focus on defining disciplinary literacy in English language arts beyond literary analysis up to this point. Perhaps a new cast of characters will enter the field in the coming years, providing rich nuance to our current understanding. Research into the impact of COVID-19 on learners’ cognition and motivation and disciplinary literacy approaches might also add to our story.

Regardless, our story of disciplinary literacy is far from finished. What started in 2008 with the goal of articulating literacy practices beyond generic, content-area approaches has progressed to a varied field of study seeking to provide a deep understanding of specific sub-categories of disciplinary literacy study. To Be Continued…

References

Moje, E. B., Overby, M., Tysvaer, N., & Morris, K. (2008). The complex world of adolescent literacy: Myths, motivations, and mysteries. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 107–154. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.78.1.54468j6204x24157

Dobbs, C. L., Leider, C. M., Ippolito, J., & Charner-Laird, M. (2024). Critical disciplinary literacy: An equity-driven and culturally responsive approach to disciplinary learning and teaching. Routledge.

Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2010). Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(7), 587–597. https://doi.org/10.1598/jaal.53.7.6

Gabriel, R. (2023). Doing disciplinary literacy: Teaching reading and writing across the content areas. Teachers College Press.

Garcia, M. H., & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2021). Culturally sustaining disciplinary literacy for bi/multilingual learners: Creating a translanguaging social studies classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 64(4), 449–454. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jaal.1129

Lee, C. D., Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy. Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Moje, E. B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1598/jaal.52.2.1

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40–59. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.78.1.v62444321p602101

Watts-Taffe, S., Vaughn, L. M., & Jacquez, F. (2022). Disciplinary literacy in action: High school students doing research for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(4), 331–341. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jaal.1211  

About the Author

Jenelle Williams is a Literacy Consultant within the Leadership and Continuous Improvement unit at Oakland Schools, an intermediate school district supporting the 28 districts in Oakland County, Michigan. She joined the organization in 2017 following 18 years of experience in public schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has served as a classroom teacher, IB Middle Years Programme Coordinator, teacher leader, and educational technology coach. An IB Educator and Examiner since 2013, Jenelle leads professional learning workshops and marks e-assessments for the International Baccalaureate Organization. She holds an Education Specialist in Leadership degree and a Master’s degree in Reading and Language Arts through Oakland University. In addition, Jenelle serves as an Adjunct Professor in Grand Valley State University’s Graduate Program and a co-editor of The Michigan Reading Journal, a publication from the Michigan Reading Association. Jenelle is passionate about supporting teachers, building leaders, and central office administrators in the area of secondary literacy, and she is especially excited to be able to support Michigan’s work around disciplinary literacy through her role as Co-Chair of the statewide Disciplinary Literacy Task Force. She can be reached at jenelle.williams@oakland.k12.mi.us, and on Twitter at @JenelleWilliam6 and @GELN612Literacy.

Taking a Leap of Faith: From Content Area Literacy to Disciplinary Literacy

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If you are reading this, you are probably an educator like me; your expertise is in the field of education. As we studied to be teachers, we also had to take other courses as well and had to comprehend challenging texts in those courses. It’s possible that these texts looked like a foreign language at times; they did for me!  Attaching meaning to texts in each discipline was unique, and hopefully, your teachers were like mine, where they combined disciplinary literacy practices with content area literacy strategies as a part of their instructional process. [In general, content area literacy is the use of reading strategies across disciplines to comprehend what you read in any discipline, such as how summarization is a skill that can be applied regardless of content or field] These strategies blend into disciplinary literacy as content-area teachers begin to adapt the reading strategies for their specific discipline so that students are reading and writing as experts. For instance, while students in all disciplines can annotate a text as they read, how they annotate, and the types of codes they use will differ based on discipline. So, where does this leave disciplinary literacy in my eyes, and what does this mean for education?

Too often, we misunderstand the similarities and differences between content-area and disciplinary literacy, with people thinking they are disparate terms. While content-area literacy strategies support student comprehension, disciplinary literacy practices guide students to read, think, and communicate like experts in each discipline. However, within the disciplines, texts are specialized; vocabulary is precise. Reading strategies must morph to meet the challenge of reading and engaging with these diverse texts to move beyond surface-level or basic comprehension. The ability to read and communicate as an insider of certain disciplines results from reasoning, sociocultural practices, and engaging in inquiry as appropriate to the discipline (Carnegie Learning, 2024). These abilities grow stronger with teacher support, and disciplinary learning is practiced as students engage in the process of learning. The result is that teachers aren’t telling students what to do, what to know, and what to think; they are giving students the resources to acquire knowledge and the opportunities to apply it in new situations.

Personal Reflection of my Childhood Learning

And while I know this information now, I did not always understand the need for content area and disciplinary literacy. Therefore, I decided to reflect on my literacy teacher’s journey, and I invite you to think about what you remember about your journey, too. For instance, did you listen to someone read to you?  Did you tell your own story to go with the illustrations in a picture book?  Did you sing the alphabet and then match sounds with letters representing that sound?  A healthy balance of these actions develops decoding and comprehension proficiency in the primary grades.

I learned about purposeful reading in the upper elementary grades—for entertainment or information. The text changed format, and its complexity grew. The way I read changed depending on what I was reading. My teachers modeled reading strategies for learning key vocabulary terms and for remembering complex concepts. Some teachers modeled unique practices specific to the discipline.

Personal Reflection as a Teacher Educator

Moving forward in my reflection, I reminisce about my teacher-educator experiences and consider the necessity of blending content area and disciplinary literacy so that all students can engage with their learning.

For almost ten years, I taught a required literacy recertification course, Content Area Literacy for Middle and High School Teachers.  Ironically, I was also teaching college students who had graduated from high school and were underprepared for English Composition or College Algebra. I found myself working to develop literacy proficiency from two perspectives. It was enlightening. My college students demonstrated a lack of basic comprehension of text (content-area literacy); my in-service teachers taught through PowerPoint presentations, not expecting students to engage in a wide variety of complex text or purposeful learning that is part of the discipline (disciplinary literacy). Their students were graduating with the information teachers had vetted, not the ability to acquire and construct information independently.

About partway through those years, I became acutely aware that my teachers’ course was too focused on content-area literacy and not giving disciplinary literacy the attention it deserved. I had begun searching for a new textbook; the recent publications no longer used the two terms synonymously. My approach to content area reading and writing needed to make this change also. I began to differentiate content area literacy from disciplinary literacy with my in-service teachers while maintaining a blended approach using both. At the same time, my college expected me to teach integrated reading and writing to my underprepared college students as preparation for the discipline-specific texts they would encounter in their programs of study. I needed to blend the reading process, the writing process, content area literacy, and disciplinary literacy into an instructional model for constructing meaning from a wide variety of texts, both print and nonprint, for a wide variety of disciplines.

Disciplinary Literacy in Action

It appeared to me that many of my college students lacked the background knowledge and prior experiences to approach complex, disciplinary texts. We used class time for discussions, building shared knowledge to attack complex text. I layered key terms onto students’ vocabulary as they “read” images and other appropriate nonprint texts I had curated to elicit discussion.  I guided their responses with open-ended questions, urging students to view the topic as an expert: Who might use this information? For what purposes?

Our primary reading source was an anthology of disciplinary texts: art, chemistry, history, psychology, biology, and literature. Students could apply content-area strategies while reading independently to grasp the general understanding of what they were reading. They discovered that reading diagrams was important in chemistry, timelines in history, examples or case studies in psychology, figurative language in literature, and images in art. Each discipline also carried its own key terms; familiar words took on new meanings appropriate to the discipline.

Responding to the text in each discipline became more than a test or writing a summary.  Again, I used an open-ended question to guide students’ responses; what will you do with your new knowledge?  Their thoughts, connections, and curiosities provided opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of real-world situations. According to Angela M. Banks, a doctoral student at Central Connecticut University, reading proficiency and disciplinary knowledge go beyond comprehension; they require complex skills: analysis, synthesis, organization, and evaluation (2024.) These skills are evidence of disciplinary literacy.

The Takeaway

My “underprepared” college students may have missed the high school experience of engaging in disciplinary literacy across their classrooms.  They may or may not have been using content-area literacy strategies to gain a general understanding of a text. However, my class taught them how to blend the two to be more proficient college readers and writers. Providing this experience prepared them to construct meaningful information through complex text. Content-area literacy doesn’t end as disciplinary literacy begins; it blends into disciplinary literacy as students build competence and confidence to think like an expert.

Because the term disciplinary literacy is ever-evolving, I encourage you to return often to LiD’s blog as its writers continue to explore disciplinary literacy and what it looks like in the required and elective courses that students are choosing.

For additional information on the difference between CAL and DL, I refer you to

What Is Disciplinary Literacy and Why Is It Important?  Carnegie Learning. https://www.carnegielearning.com/blog/what-is-disciplinary-literacy/#:~:text=Disciplinary%20literacy%20is%20about%20reading,in%20important%20ways%20for%20students. 

Shanahan on Literacy, https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/disciplinary-literacy-the-basics

Reference

Banks, A.M. (2024). Training Secondary Teachers in Content-Disciplinary Literacy: A Blended Model for Meeting the Literacy Needs of Students in the Secondary Classroom. https://www.proquest.com/openview/da444e8e3146381b5d090c2338ae4a2c/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar

About the Author

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After over 20 years in higher education, Charlene Aldrich officially retired in 2024.  She remains connected to the literacy community through Literacy in the Disciplines, 6-12; she spends her spare time at Pet Helpers in Charleston, SC, a no-kill shelter for fostering and adopting dogs, cats, and small animals. 

The Science of Reading: From Full-on Belief to Skepticism

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In 2021, while teaching 5th grade in an elementary school in North Carolina, the Science of Reading movement took over NC. From 2021 until 2023, I was required by the state to complete the two-year-long LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) program by Lexia Learning. While many teachers grumbled about the intensive training, I was often the positive one saying that I enjoyed the training and had learned so much from it. I was amazed at the story of how Mississippi drastically increased their reading scores after teachers completed this training and implemented it in their elementary classrooms. Hearing this information from esteemed scholars, I was optimistic about what this could do for NC schools. Unfortunately, I had fallen prey to the narrative that the LETRS way is THE only way.

Flash forward two school years, and I am now a Certified Reading Specialist working in a middle school with readers in grades 6-8. I earned a Master’s Degree in Reading and Literacy Education which taught me to research for myself. Through my program, I learned about the Reading Wars that have been going on for decades, which frequently change how reading is taught in elementary schools and how this feeds into middle school (like using the Science of Reading approach to help those who are not on grade level). However, before taking masters courses, I had not previously learned to question things and read about both sides, at least not when it came to recommended instructional practices. I listened to what I was told to do by my peers and administrators and went with it (and let’s be real, I still do in many ways since I want to keep my job, but I do it with a new outlook and include other practices, too). I trusted what I was told by those at higher levels than me, like most of us do. I think very highly of those who work above me and didn’t stop to consider that they were also doing what they were told.

So, what is there to question about the Science of Reading? Dr. Paul Thomas of Furman University states in his article series We Teach English in Times of Perpetual Crisis, that “Currently, no peer-reviewed, experimental/quasi-experimental studies show LETRS training improves student achievement in reading” (2024, pg. 16). Additionally, much of the research shared at the training connects to the founders and funders with only a few external data sources and studies. This is important if the goal is to say that one type of reading instruction, documented by the science of data exploration and analysis, is better than others.

That is not to say that LETRS is all bad. There are some GREAT pieces of information and strategies used in LETRS. For instance, LETRS taught me teaching cohesive devices to connect ideas in complex sentences, explicit vocabulary strategies, and comprehension strategies that can be used in upper elementary and middle grades. However, and this is a big revelation here, I have come to realize that this does not mean it is right for every student, in every classroom, across all grade levels. LETRS often provides a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching reading, and this is not an equitable way to teach all students who may or may not need all aspects of LETRS instruction. I also wonder about the types of texts emphasized in this program and how that impacts all students. Only using decodable texts that match a phonics lesson leaves out the opportunity for using culturally responsive texts that reach and reflect diverse students and their experiences, especially when thinking about this implemented through the middle grades. These lessons often do not consider linguistic diversity such as various dialects or accents, either. And, I dare say they even leave out our more advanced readers who do not need repetitive phonics daily. Therefore, I am learning how to question things, even when they sound good at first, and to explore potential biases with an awareness that I need to use critical literacy skills when I read articles and research all things connected to reading and the Reading Wars..

Through conversations about this topic with a friend, I started thinking about how I teach my ELA classes. Sure, there may be some strategies that LETRS taught me that are beneficial to some students, but there is much more that needs to be taught, especially at the secondary level. There are countless articles out there about the best way to teach reading (hence, the term ‘Reading Wars’ that indicates the back and forth of this), but the truly best way (in my humble opinion) is to take a little bit from everything. From my experience, teachers in the schools I have worked in ARE doing this! We read books, teach morphology, vocabulary, comprehension strategies, how to understand things in context, and more, intentionally thinking about the content and standard requirements and the students sitting in our classrooms. When it comes down to it, teachers are doing what they are supposed to be doing…which brings me back to the Science of Reading movement. One of Dr. Thomas’s main concerns with the Science of Reading is how it paints a narrative of ineffective teachers and takes away teacher autonomy. While the phonics-based LETRS, one enactment of the Science of Reading movement, may benefit K-2 classrooms, upper elementary may be better off using a more differentiated approach. Of course, it depends on the make-up of students in the classroom, and that’s where our teacher expertise comes in. We know our students. We know what works best for them, and we should be trusted to teach them in an equitable manner using a variety of approaches that cover all aspects of reading.

At this point, you may wonder why I wrote this blog post, as it shares my story of learning. I hope to encourage teachers to research for themselves when new policies and initiatives are introduced in their state. This is not to say to go against them but to teach with an outlook that understands both sides of the coin and multiple narratives regarding what works best for your students. Being informed on the good and the bad of policies set into place by others will allow us to teach with an equitable lens for all learners.

References:

Thomas, P.L. (2024, September). We teach English in times of perpetual crisis: The media continue to misread teaching reading and literacy. English Journal, 114(1), 14-19. https://publicationsncte.org/content/journals/10.58680/ej2024114114

About the Author

Olivia Moore works at East McDowell Middle School as a Reading Specialist. Her undergraduate and Master’s degrees are from East Carolina University – Go Pirates!! Her passion is reading, and she is determined to help all of her students feel confident with reading. Those who don’t enjoy reading just haven’t found the right book yet!

Are You Financially Literate?

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Investor's hand holding a coin with a tree growing on the concept of financial and investment success.

As we close out 2024, it seems fitting that we visit another recent policy that touches on the overall literacy of our students – fiscal responsibility.  Dr. Kavin Ming offers us reminders that explicit instruction in specific topics is necessary for students on their transition to young adulthood. How do the courses in your school systems measure up?

Why Financial Literacy Matters            

I remember my first experience with credit as clearly as if it were yesterday.  At my first college event, there were booths everywhere with vendors inviting me over to their tables.  I could get a t-shirt, or a tote bag, or many other goodies if I signed up for a credit card.  I never had a credit card before, and I did not know how credit worked.  I wanted the gift, and so I signed up…    

As of December 2023, 25 states require students to take a financial literacy course for high school graduation.  Financial literacy is a vital skill that young and older adults should strive to master. It empowers individuals to make informed decisions about their finances, which can lead to a more secure and prosperous future. In this blog, we will explore key aspects of financial literacy that young adults should be aware of, including managing debt, using credit cards wisely, creating and sticking to a budget, saving for the future, and responsible spending.  We also discuss the financial literacy gap and ways to bridge that gap.

Understanding Debt

Debt can be a significant obstacle to financial well-being if not managed properly. Young adults often accumulate various forms of debt, including student loans, credit card debt, and car loans. It’s essential to understand the following concepts regarding debt:

  1. Types of Debt:
    • Good Debt: This includes loans for education or investments that have the potential to increase your future earning potential, such as a mortgage for a home or a business loan.
    • Bad Debt: Debt incurred for non-essential items like luxury goods or vacations, often with high-interest rates.
  2. Interest Rates: Pay close attention to the interest rates associated with your debts. High-interest debts can quickly snowball and become unmanageable. Aim to pay off high-interest debts as soon as possible.
  3. Credit Score: Your credit score is a numerical representation of your creditworthiness. Paying bills on time, managing credit responsibly, and maintaining a good credit history can lead to a higher credit score, which can help you secure better loan terms and interest rates.

Using Credit Cards Wisely

Credit cards can be a double-edged sword. When used responsibly, they can offer convenience, rewards, and the opportunity to build credit. However, misuse can lead to financial troubles. Here’s what you need to know:

  1. Credit Card Basics: Understand the terms and conditions of your credit card, including the annual percentage rate (APR), credit limit, and fees. Avoid maxing out your credit card, as this can negatively impact your credit score.
  2. Credit Score Impact: Make timely payments and keep your credit card balances low. These actions positively affect your credit score. Conversely, late payments and high credit card balances can harm your credit.
  3. Responsible Spending: Use credit cards for planned expenses that you can pay off in full each month. Avoid using them for impulse purchases or non-essential items. Only charge what you can afford to pay back.

Budgeting

Creating and sticking to a budget is a fundamental skill for managing your finances effectively. A budget helps you track income and expenses, ensuring you live within your means. Here’s how to get started:

  1. Income and Expenses: List all your sources of income and categorize your expenses. Be thorough and include everything from rent and utilities to entertainment and dining out.
  2. Set Financial Goals: Establish both short-term and long-term financial goals. These can include saving for an emergency fund, paying off debt, or saving for retirement.
  3. Track and Adjust: Monitor your spending regularly and adjust your budget as needed. Use apps or spreadsheets to make tracking easier. Staying on top of your finances will help you make informed decisions.

Saving for the Future

Saving money is a key component of financial literacy. It provides you with a financial safety net and enables you to build wealth over time. Here are some key points about saving:

  1. Emergency Fund: Prioritize building an emergency fund with at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses. This will protect you from unexpected financial setbacks, such as medical bills or job loss.
  2. Automate Savings: Set up automatic transfers to your savings account each month. This makes saving a habit and ensures that you consistently put money away.
  3. Invest for the Long Term: Consider investing in stocks, bonds, or retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA to grow your wealth over time. Start early to take advantage of compound interest.

Spending Wisely

Responsible spending is the final piece of the financial literacy puzzle. It’s about making conscious choices with your money to achieve your financial goals. Here’s how to be a wise spender:

  1. Differentiate Needs and Wants: Before making a purchase, ask yourself if it’s a necessity or a luxury. Prioritize needs over wants, but allow yourself some indulgences occasionally.
  2. Comparison Shopping: Research and compare prices before making significant purchases. Look for deals, discounts, and coupons to save money.
  3. Avoid Impulse Buying: Impulse purchases can quickly derail your budget. Implement a 24-hour rule: Wait a day before buying something non-essential. You may find that you no longer want it.

The Financial Literacy Gap

While financial literacy is crucial for everyone, there is a significant financial literacy gap that needs to be addressed. This gap disproportionately affects certain demographics, leading to financial disparities. Here are some key factors contributing to the financial literacy gap:

  1. Education: Access to quality financial education varies, and not everyone receives formal instruction in personal finance. This lack of education can lead to financial illiteracy.
  2. Income and Socioeconomic Status: Individuals with lower incomes often have limited access to financial resources and services, making it challenging to improve their financial literacy.
  3. Age: Young adults may lack the financial knowledge needed to make sound decisions, while older adults may struggle with adapting to evolving financial products and technology.
  4. Cultural and Ethnic Differences: Cultural and language barriers can hinder access to financial education and services, particularly among minority groups.
  5. Gender: Gender disparities in financial literacy persist, with women often having lower financial literacy scores than men.

Bridging the Financial Literacy Gap

To address the financial literacy gap, collective efforts are needed. Here are some strategies for bridging this gap:

  1. Accessible Education: Provide accessible financial education programs in schools and communities to reach individuals of all ages and backgrounds.
  2. Online Resources: Offer online resources, such as websites, videos, and apps, to make financial education easily accessible to everyone.
  3. Targeted Outreach: Develop targeted financial literacy programs for underserved communities, including low-income individuals and minority groups.
  4. Financial Inclusion: Promote financial inclusion by ensuring that everyone has access to affordable banking services and financial products.
  5. Advocacy and Policy: Advocate for policies that support financial education initiatives and protect consumers from predatory financial practices.

Conclusion

Financial literacy is a lifelong journey, and it’s crucial for young adults to start early. By understanding debt, using credit cards wisely, budgeting, saving for the future, and spending responsibly, you can take control of your financial destiny. Remember that financial literacy is a skill that can be continually improved through education, practice, and making informed decisions.

References:

  1. CapitalOne. (2024). What Are Credit Cards and How Do they Work? https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/how-credit-cards-work/
  2. CapitalOne. (2023). Good Debt vs. Bad Debt: What’s the Difference? https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/good-debt-vs-bad-debt/.
  3. CNBC. (2023). Here’s how much money you should have saved at every age. https://www.cnbc.com/select/savings-by-age/
  4. Forbes Advisor. (2024). Average Credit Card Debt Study 2023? https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/average-credit-card-debt/.
  5. Forbes Advisor. (2022). How to Make a Budget: 5 Time-Tested Approaches. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/how-to-make-a-budget-time-tested-approaches/
  6. Ramsey Solutions. (2023). Which States Require Financial Literacy for High School Students? https://www.ramseysolutions.com/financial-literacy/states-require-financial-literacy-in-high-school
  7. The Balance. (2022). 10 Tips for Using Your First Credit Card. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/tips-for-starting-out-with-credit-960187

About the Author

Dr. Kavin Ming is a Professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She is currently serving as the Department Chair in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. She teaches undergraduate literacy methods courses and graduate content area literacy and practicum courses. Kavin’s research interests include at-risk student populations, culturally responsive pedagogy, content area literacy instruction, and multisensory teaching of literacy skills. Kavin can be contacted at mingk@winthrop.edu.

We Teach English in Times of Perpetual Crisis: Selling a story of reading (and literacy)

Blog, Teaching

As a preview of his upcoming webinar, Dr. Paul Thomas shares compelling statistics and insight into historical reading wars. His response? Encouraging teacher voice in light of legislation that is poised to erase teacher autonomy and serving the individual needs of students.

Dr. Thomas is a Professor of Education at Furman University in rural South Carolina. His experience in teaching English in public schools preceded his tenure in higher education. He is widely published and the recipient of the George Orwell Award and Divergent Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies.

Click here to read his blog

Unlocking Literacy Across the Curriculum: Coaching Disciplinary Literacy

Blog, Teaching

Dr. Fran Rogers and Dr. Wanda Littlejohn

Literacy extends beyond English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms—it’s essential in every subject, from science to history, math, and the arts. Disciplinary literacy focuses on equipping students to read, write, and think like experts in each field. By integrating discipline-specific literacy strategies, we enhance student learning across all subjects. To support this, we can leverage Diane Sweeney’s Student-Centered Coaching Model, which shifts the focus from simply delivering content to achieving specific student outcomes.

But how can instructional coaches effectively guide teachers in incorporating disciplinary literacy strategies? By blending Student-Centered Coaching with co-planning, co-teaching, and insights from experts like Jim Knight and Elena Aguilar, we can create a powerful framework for elevating literacy instruction across disciplines.

What is Disciplinary Literacy?

Stephen Sawchuk in Education Week (2024) suggests that the concept of disciplinary literacy extends beyond simply reading and understanding the vocabulary associated with each content area. Implementing disciplinary literacy practices equips students with the skills needed to navigate and interpret the texts and concepts unique to each academic discipline. In an interview with Sawchuk, Tim Shanahan described disciplinary literacy as “the recognition that each field has a different body of text and different types of text that readers have to read, and that readers really have to have a different stance,” highlighting the need for specialized approaches to literacy. This goes beyond general reading comprehension; it’s about empowering students to approach science like scientists, history like historians, math like mathematicians, and art like artists. Each discipline has its own language, ways of thinking, and methods for analyzing and communicating ideas.

For example, scientists prioritize precision and evidence, historians emphasize sourcing and perspective, mathematicians focus on logical reasoning, and artists explore symbolism and creative interpretation. In ELA, students dive into analyzing themes, character development, and literary devices.

To effectively implement disciplinary literacy, educators must adopt approaches that prioritize student learning and mastery of discipline-specific skills. This is where good instructional coaching models become invaluable in driving meaningful progress.

Using Student-Centered Coaching to Drive Disciplinary Literacy

Diane Sweeney’s Student-Centered Coaching Model focuses on student learning rather than teacher performance. In this model, coaching centers on student work, using it to inform and guide the instruction provided by the teacher. It emphasizes setting student-centered goals, utilizing data to drive instruction, and measuring progress based on student outcomes. When applying this approach to disciplinary literacy, the question shifts from “What strategies can we teach?” to “How can we ensure students master the literacy skills specific to each discipline?”

To make this model actionable, we can draw on the coaching stances, dispositions, and stems from Jim Knight and Elena Aguilar to guide our work. This approach allows us to blend these frameworks in a way that supports teachers in integrating disciplinary literacy across content areas.  This link provides steps for Instructional Coaches to co-plan and co-teach with student-centered disciplinary literacy goals and various coaching approaches and dispositions in mind. This link provides possible Disciplinary Literacy coaching questions organized by discipline.

In his interview with Sawchuk, Tim Shanahan shared his experience co-teaching with a laboratory science teacher, highlighting the overwhelmingly positive response from students. To create similar positive learning moments, let us now explore specific examples of how disciplinary literacy can be applied across different content areas to enhance student learning through the Student-Centered Coaching Model.

Disciplinary Literacy Lessons Across Content Areas

1. English Language Arts (ELA): Analyzing Themes and Literary Devices

Student-Centered Goal Example: “Students will analyze how authors use literary devices to develop themes.”

Lesson Idea: Use Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian to explore symbolism. Co-plan a close reading where students annotate for the various literary devices and discuss their impact on the theme of isolation.

Coaching Tip: Co-teach by modeling a think-aloud on identifying literary devices, then observe students as they practice the skill.  Co-teach by modeling a think-aloud on word choice and its impact on theme then observe students as they practice using the assigned text.

2. History: Evaluating Primary Sources

Student-Centered Goal Example: “Students will analyze primary sources for bias and perspective.”

Lesson Idea: During a unit on the American Revolution, co-plan a lesson where students compare the Declaration of Independence with Loyalist responses.

Coaching Tip: Use a “One Teach, One Coach” approach. While the teacher leads a primary source analysis, the coach observes how students identify bias while progressing toward the learning target.

3. Science: Reading Technical Texts

Student-Centered Goal Example: “Students will extract key information from scientific articles.”

Lesson Idea: Co-plan a jigsaw activity where students read and summarize sections of a text on ecosystems, becoming “experts” on different parts. The students will then use a Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning graphic organizer to show their understanding of ecosystems.

Coaching Tip: Team-teach to model strategies for decoding complex vocabulary and text features and model how to write high-quality, scientific claims.

4. Math: Using Academic Vocabulary

Student-Centered Goal Example: “Students will use precise mathematical language in their explanations.”

Lesson Idea: Co-plan a lesson where students write about their problem-solving process using specific vocabulary.

Coaching Tip: Model how to incorporate academic language in explanations, then provide feedback as students practice.

Final Thoughts

By centering our coaching on the Student-Centered Coaching Model and incorporating insights from Jim Knight and Elena Aguilar, we can create a collaborative and empowering approach to disciplinary literacy. Knight (2019) emphasizes that, while collaborating with a coach, teachers should maintain significant autonomy over their learning. This allows teachers to engage meaningfully with their curricular goals. Additionally, Aguilar (2016) asserts that coaches should prioritize listening and allow teachers to drive the conversation. Through co-planning, co-teaching, and focusing on student outcomes, we ensure that literacy skills are integrated across disciplines, fostering deeper learning and student success.

Let’s continue to unlock the power of literacy across all classrooms—one co-planned lesson at a time. Happy coaching! If you would like to see a sample coaching cycle rooted in disciplinary literacy, click here. If you would like to see ways coaches can reflect on coaching practices that best support teachers in “making it stick,” read this blog.

Sources

Aguilar, E. (2016, September 27). 20 tips for new instructional coaches. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-tips-new-instructional-coaches-elena-aguilar

Education Week. (2024, October). What is disciplinary literacy? Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-disciplinary-literacy/2024/10

Harris, Leanna. “How to Make Sure Coaching Sticks.” Student-Centered Coaching, 19 Nov. 2024, www.dianesweeney.com/how-to-make-sure-coaching-sticks/.

Knight, J. (2019, November 1). Why teacher autonomy is central to coaching success. Volume 77, Issue 3. Retrieved from https://ascd.org/el/articles/why-teacher-autonomy-is-central-to-coaching-success

Sweeney, D. (2011).  Student Centered Coaching:  A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals.  Thousand Oaks:  Corwin Press

About the authors:

Dr. Wanda Littlejohn has 24 years of experience in the field of education.  Currently, she is an Instructional Specialist at Carolina High School where she provides ongoing support and professional development for teachers.
Dr. Fran Rogers is an experienced educator in Greenville, SC with a diverse background in middle school and high school education. She has served in various instructional positions at the school and district levels, including classroom teacher, instructional coach, and Secondary Academic Instructional Specialist.

Deep Learning to Inform Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Teaching

Blog, Teaching

Judy Paulick, University of Virginia

Students’ families and communities have shaped them into who they are and what they bring with them to their classrooms. When teachers access those vast resources and connect curricula, teaching, and classroom communities to students’ cultures and experiences, students thrive and so do their teachers. But learning about students—especially beyond surface-level information—can be challenging. And figuring out how to translate what’s been learned into culturally responsive/sustaining teaching can be equally challenging.

               The most important part of this process is understanding what, exactly, culture is—our own and our students’. Yes, culture is holidays, clothing, music, language, and food. And all of that is important—essential, even—to who people are. Representing and nurturing those aspects of students’ identities in the classroom is necessary. But culture also includes things like how we engage in conversation, how we communicate nonverbally, our notions of time, ideas about competition and cooperation, and what is seen as fair or honest. It’s knowing and understanding these kinds of things about ourselves and others—and understanding that there are multiple “good” and “right” ways of doing all of these things—that undergirds culturally responsive/sustaining teaching. Imagine, for example, you have a student who will not look you in the eye when you are speaking to them or another student who talks over their classmates during discussion. Mainstream, dominant cultural models might cast those students as disrespectful, when their families and communities have taught them that these actions are actually respectful. When teachers simply interpret behavior through that mainstream, dominant lens, they are missing out.

               So how do we learn about students’ (and their families’ and communities’) assets and cultural models? First, we need to be deeply reflective about who we are. What are our cultural models—what do we view as “good” and “normal”? What are our biases? And how might we shift our thinking to be broader and more inclusive? Next, we need to engage with families and in communities. Family engagement is not simply about families engaging with and in schools; it is also about teachers engaging with families and communities beyond the bounds of the school. Asset-framed, relationship-building home visits with families are one very powerful way to center families’ stories, learn about their cultural models, and redistribute power. The Parent Teacher Home Visit organization (pthvp.org) provides an excellent framework and resources for getting started with home visiting. Teachers can also have conversations with families on the sidelines of students’ games and recitals. Teachers can attend community events, visit houses of worship, and otherwise spend time in the community. Learning people’s and communities’ stories—through conversations, books, blogs, etc.—is key to the work of building trust and learning about assets and cultural models. The learning is ongoing and invigorating work; it is never truly done. Cultures are dynamic and shifting, and there is always more to learn.

Once teachers have begun to learn about students’ assets and cultural models, they can more robustly inform culturally responsive/sustaining teaching. Culturally responsive/sustaining teaching, according to scholars like Django Paris and Geneva Gay, does the following: honors students’ multilingualism and multidialectism and values communities’ language practices; incorporates students’/families’/communities’ assets and cultural models into teaching (planning, instruction, assessment, classroom community) and nurtures those assets and cultural models; and develops students’ awareness of and activism against injustice. I have seen content area teachers engage in the following culturally responsive/sustaining practices, and there are countless others:

  • Explicitly incorporating and highlighting the contributions of scientists, mathematicians, politicians, etc. from students’ cultural and identity groups and underrepresented identities;
  • Exploring/critiquing issues of justice related to the content area and students’ cultural and identity groups;
  • Including students in decision-making about activities, assessment, and the classroom community;
  • Inviting community members to support lessons, share ideas, etc.;
  • Incorporating home languages and dialects whenever possible (e.g., translanguaging).

Where to begin? With curiosity and humility. Students, families, and communities are an endless source of wealth and inspiration if we are able to see it!

Judy Paulick is an associate professor of elementary education at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. Before becoming a teacher educator, she was a classroom teacher in Compton, CA and Boulder, CO. Her research and teaching focuses on preparing teachers to engage with families and communities and use what they learn to inform culturally sustaining language arts instruction.

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Fostering Growth Mindset Through Literacy Practices: A Guide for Collaborating with School Counselors to Promote Student Success

Blog, Collaboration, Teaching, Uncategorized

Erin Clarke, Counseling Department Chair, Rudolph Gordon School

The Rudolph Gordon Counseling Team

School counselors play a pivotal role in shaping the academic and emotional success of students. At Rudolph Gordon School (RGS), we believe one of the most powerful ways to support student development is by cultivating a growth mindset — the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset isn’t just about perseverance; it’s about seeing learning as a continuous journey rather than a fixed outcome.

At the heart of RGS’s effort to promote this belief is the Gator Wellness Program, led by Joy Hawkins and her dedicated team. This program focuses on integrating growth mindset principles into everyday literacy practices. By connecting the dots between emotional resilience and academic achievement, the Gator Wellness team empowers students to embrace learning with an open mind and a spirit of determination. Here’s how we make that happen at RGS:

1. Introducing Growth Mindset Literature

A great story can teach lessons that last a lifetime. At RGS, we ensure students have access to books that promote perseverance, resilience, and the power of learning from failure. Through titles like Your Fantastic Brain by JoAnn Deak and The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, students are introduced to characters who face obstacles and grow through effort. 

These stories serve as springboards for conversations in the classroom, where students discuss how the characters’ growth mirrors their own experiences. Teachers are trained to weave growth mindset themes into discussions using resources provided by the collaboration between the Gator Wellness team, school counselors, and RGS librarians. This shared effort creates a literary culture where students see challenges as opportunities for growth, not roadblocks.

2. Facilitating Reflective Writing

Writing provides a powerful tool for self-reflection and growth. At RGS, all teachers — not just those in English Language Arts (ELA) — are encouraged to incorporate reflective writing into their classrooms. By asking students to write about moments when they struggled and how they overcome these challenges, we help them internalize growth mindset principles. 

Prompts like “What did you learn from a recent challenge?” or “How did a mistake help you improve?” push students to focus on effort rather than outcomes. Students are taught how mistakes can propel us into reflection and growth, rather than shame or guilt. Monthly “Gator Pulse” check-ins include these reflective writing activities, creating a consistent practice of self-evaluation and growth across all subjects. This practice enables students to see mistakes not as failures, but as learning opportunities that pave the way for future success.

3. Using Growth-Oriented Language

Words matter, and at RGS, counselors and teachers model growth-oriented language in every interaction with students. Whether discussing academic progress or behavioral growth, counselors use phrases like, “You worked hard to get this far” or “What strategies could help you next time?” This language shifts the focus from innate ability to effort and problem-solving. 

In addition to academic language, behavior enrichment lessons incorporate restorative conversations to help students understand that growth happens through mistakes. When students make behavioral missteps, they are guided through reflective discussions, encouraging them to “fail forward” and learn from their choices. This supportive environment builds the emotional resilience students need to thrive both academically and personally.

By integrating growth mindset principles into literacy practices, school counselors at RGS play an essential role in empowering students to embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, and understand that learning is a lifelong process. Through books, writing, and everyday language, counselors and teachers work together to nurture resilient learners—students who are ready to tackle academic and personal hurdles with confidence and perseverance. 

At RGS, we know that when students believe in the power of growth, they unlock their full potential—not just in literacy, but in life.

Want a 1-pager with these ideas? Check it out here!

Erin serves as the school counseling department chair and the 7th-grade counselor at Rudolph Gordon School. She holds a Psychology degree from Clemson University, a Master’s degree in Professional School Counseling from Liberty University, and a Doctoral degree in Professional Leadership from Converse University. Erin is deeply committed to the well-being and success of every student, always prioritizing their needs above all else. 

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