Content Area Literacy

Beyond the Vocabulary List

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by Camriel Kostreva

What if vocabulary instruction helped students make meaning in a subject rather than simply memorize definitions? 

There are so many words students need to learn, and so many obstacles to teaching them well. As a teacher, I have found two challenges particularly difficult: 

  1. Choosing which words to teach explicitly.  How do we select words that strengthen content learning without taking valuable time away from the content itself? Students enter our classrooms with different vocabularies and prior knowledge, so not every student needs the same instruction. And with so many important words and so little time, vocabulary instruction can easily feel like an interruption to a lesson rather than an essential part of learning. 
  1. Helping students retain and apply what they learn.  Even after a great vocabulary lesson, students may forget the words or struggle to use them independently. Planning meaningful opportunities for students to revisit words while continuing to introduce new ones can feel overwhelming. 

Vocabulary instruction is challenging, but I believe it is worth the time and effort it takes to get it right. Vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in reading comprehension and students’ ability to access and learn disciplinary content (Brabham et al., 2012).

As a former high school English teacher and current secondary reading interventionist, I have spent years experimenting with vocabulary instructional strategies and tools. Some were helpful; others felt like a waste of time. Too often, the strategies that looked promising on paper felt disconnected from my instruction, required too many steps, or demanded more planning and instructional time than I could sustainably give.

That changed when I learned about disciplinary literacy and began rethinking my overarching instructional goal.

My goal isn’t simply to teach students a list of words—or even to cover a list of learning objectives. My goal is to help students develop the knowledge and strategies they need to become independent learners and active participants in their academic disciplines. 

Vocabulary instruction becomes much more powerful when we keep that goal in mind. Our job is to help bridge the gap between the knowledge, experiences, and language students bring to the classroom and the ways of thinking, communicating, and making meaning valued within the disciplines they are learning.

So, what does that look like in practice? 

Strategic, Student- and Content-Centered Word Selection

Choosing the right words to teach, and knowing when to teach them, is challenging regardless of the instructional strategy we use. I love words and believe they all have something to offer, but I’ve learned that I can’t teach them all and still keep content learning at the center. 

I’ve found that I get the most out of my vocabulary instruction when I prioritize words that students will encounter in an upcoming text, concept, or learning objective and that offer opportunities for connections beyond a single lesson. These words might include those with common roots and multiple meanings and are essential words for understanding instructional content. 

The key is to select words that do more than help students get through a single lesson. Vocabulary instruction should be integrated within and across content areas,  and it should be comprehensive (Blachowicz et al., 2006; Nagy & Townsend, 2012). We want students to recognize connections between the words they learn in class and the words they encounter elsewhere, gradually expanding their knowledge of language and their ability to learn new words independently.

My frustration with spending so much time on vocabulary without seeing a meaningful impact on students’ content learning began to ease when I gave myself permission to respond flexibly to student needs and let go of the expectation that I had to plan every learning experience in advance. 

Now, I begin with the content I want students to learn. Vocabulary instruction supports that goal; it doesn’t compete with it. 

At the beginning of a lesson, I typically introduce one to three words as a hook or gateway into the learning ahead. As we explore those words, students know to consider a bigger question: How do these words connect to the content we’re learning today?

Students make predictions about those connections, then revisit them at the end of the lesson to confirm or revise their thinking. Inferencing is an important skill in any field, but especially in reading and language learning (Blachowicz et al., 2006), and it’s a core skill students practice as part of my vocabulary instruction.

Words I preteach: These words are central to understanding the upcoming text or concept. They might come directly from the text, or they might be words that help students encapsulate the main idea or topic they’ll be learning about.

Of course, this is only a small part of vocabulary instruction. Much of the learning happens in context, and the words we address—and the time and strategies we use—depend on students’ needs.

That requires preparation, but it also requires flexibility. When previewing instructional materials, I try to put myself in my students’ shoes and anticipate which words or concepts might cause difficulty. I prepare possible ways to address those challenges, then adjust as I see what students actually know.

When we encounter an unfamiliar word, I ask students what they already know. If they understand it, we move on. If they don’t, I’m ready to help.

Words we discover in context: These include words that students find interesting and words I notice they are struggling to understand. As we encounter them, I teach them about the word and draw attention to previously taught words and roots that are relevant, helping students connect new learning to what they already know. Along with inferencing, building students’ morphological awareness and teaching students to think about words across contexts are two other central aspects of my vocabulary instruction. There is a significant correlation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension (Liu et al., 2024). Likewise, helping students create connections between words and contexts promotes the ability to think flexibility about words in order to generalize vocabulary and apply word knowledge in new contexts (Norman et al., 2023).

At first, letting go of rigid vocabulary routines made me anxious. I worried that students would study fewer words and miss opportunities for deeper word study. But I’ve found that when vocabulary instruction is grounded in content learning and responds to students’ needs, my students largely retain vocabulary learning and apply practiced vocabulary strategies independently. 

My students don’t complain about vocabulary anymore. More often than not, they’re excited to share connections between words with common roots and words they’ve encountered in other classes.

For my students and me, vocabulary has become a tool for understanding content rather than a disruption to it.

Keeping Vocabulary Visible & In-Use

We’ve all heard about the importance of repeated encounters with words. Research explores how often students need to encounter a word, the kinds of encounters that support learning, and the intervals at which those encounters should occur (Uchihara et al., 2019; Nakata & Elgort, 2021). We also know that understanding a word isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. A student might recognize a word without being able to define it, understand a word’s meaning without knowing how to use it appropriately, or recognize a familiar word in one context without understanding its meaning in another (Monster et al., 2021).

These are important considerations, but I found myself making vocabulary instruction unnecessarily complicated as I tried to plan and manufacture every encounter with every word. I felt as though I was failing my students whenever I couldn’t keep up.

When I refocused on content learning and meeting students where they were, I realized that many of these encounters began to happen naturally. I just needed to recognize and take advantage of them.

By selecting fewer, more purposeful words and letting student needs guide the rest of our word study, I’ve made vocabulary instruction more manageable. Words reappear naturally throughout lessons and across units. I make a point of highlighting them in texts, using them in my own speech, and encouraging students to use them in theirs. Keeping previously taught words visible in the classroom also reminds us to notice and revisit them. 

Opportunities to retrieve words, elaborate on their meanings, and connect them to new contexts can help strengthen word knowledge (Rice & Tokowicz, 2020). This more flexible approach has helped me create these opportunities for students without having to engineer every interaction. It has also made word study more enjoyable and encouraged students to become curious about language.

Rather than treating vocabulary as a separate task to complete, we make it part of how we learn, talk, read, and think.

Classroom Example: An Expedition for Meaning

This week, my students read a short text of about 600 words titled Lewis and Clark Go West. The lesson had three goals:

  1. Use knowledge of social studies values and goals to analyze the genre and structure of a social science text.
  2. Practice identifying main idea.
  3. Build background knowledge about a topic students are studying in their history course.

Here’s how vocabulary instruction fits into that lesson.

Vocabulary Pre-Teach: Expedition

I chose expedition because it appears several times in the text, captures an important idea, and offers opportunities to explore word parts, morphology, and how knowledge of roots can help us learn unfamiliar words.

I began by writing the word on the whiteboard. Students copied it into their vocabulary notes using a graphic organizer I had provided.

Then I asked them to look closely at the word. Could they identify any familiar words or word parts?

They identified ex- and -ion, and we discussed their meanings and explored other words containing those elements. I then introduced ped-/pod-, a root associated with the foot, and students considered how that connection might help us think about the meaning of expedition. We discussed how word parts can provide clues to meaning without always giving us the complete definition. 

Next, I shared the definition of expedition and gave examples of the word in use. The students then wrote their own example sentences using the newly learned word.

Before moving on, I gave them the opportunity to practice using their new understanding of the vocabulary word and its roots by exploring the word expedite. Students identified familiar word parts and used them to make an initial inference about the word’s meaning. After I shared the definition—to speed up a process—they compared the definition with their predictions and discussed the connection.

With our word study complete, we turned to the bigger question: How might expedition connect to our learning objective or today’s text?

Our learning objective was: “We will analyze the genre and structure of a social science text so that I can make inferences about the purpose of the text and identify the main idea.”

Some students suggested that we were going on an expedition to learn more about social studies or to discover how to identify a main idea. Others noticed the title of the text and used their background knowledge of Lewis and Clark to infer that the word referred to their journey.

Students had made an initial prediction, and they now had a reason to pay attention to how the word connected to the content.

This has become a familiar routine in my classroom, so students know what to expect. The entire activity took about 10 minutes.

Vocabulary In-Context: Responding to Student Needs

Before the lesson, I anticipated that students might struggle with the words intrepid, keelboat, adequate, and impede in the text.

For intrepid, adequate, and impede, I considered how students might break down the words, which familiar word parts might help them, what context clues were available, and where they might encounter the words again. I was especially excited that impede offered an opportunity to revisit a word part we’d discussed during our study of expedition.

Because keelboat was a specialized term that wasn’t central to the lesson’s learning goals, I planned to explain it briefly in context and point out the clues in the text that helped establish its meaning.

 I was correct in my assumption that students would struggle with those words, and I taught them as planned. However, when we encountered adequate, and I paused to ask students what it meant, students demonstrated that they already understood the word, so we moved on. 

This is an important part of responsive instruction: I can prepare to teach a word without assuming that I need to teach it. The goal isn’t to teach every word students might encounter. It’s to identify the words that might interfere with learning and determine what support students actually need.

As we moved through the text, other words and phrases needed attention, including confirmation, catalogued, and blind-devotion.

Several students seemed unsure about confirmation, so rather than immediately giving them the definition, I used a few questions to help them draw on what they already knew.

Me: “What other word does this look like?” 

Students: “Confirm.” “Firm.” “Does it use com-?”

Me: “Yes!” “What does con-, com-, col-, cor-, co– mean?”

Students: “Together!”

Me: “Yes! What does it mean if something is described as firm?”

Students: “To be hard.” “To be strong.” “Like, solid.”

Me: “Right. So, remind me, what does it mean when you confirm something to be true?”

Students: “You give evidence to make something more legit.”

Me: “Exactly. And confirmation is a noun representing that act.”

Students: “So confirmation means proving something is real?”

Me: “You got it! It’s the act of proving that an idea or statement is true. One last question, why does the author write that this was a ‘voyage of confirmation’?”

Students: (looking at the text) “Um, because they had to see if what other people said before was true.”

Me: “So they had to…what?”

Students: “Confirm it.”

This conversation took less than a minute, but it gave students an opportunity to connect familiar language to a new word and use the text to deepen their understanding. Rather than supplying the definition immediately, I used questions to help students activate prior knowledge, examine meaningful word parts, and test their developing understanding against the context. My questioning also helped scaffold understanding of the word, which helped prevent students from giving an inaccurate definition of the word that could create misunderstanding of the word among their peers.

If students hadn’t already learned about the con-/com- word family, I could have simply explained the meaning and asked them for a few examples of other words containing that word part. The point isn’t to force a particular strategy into every interaction; it’s to use what students know to help them make meaning.

We approached catalogued differently. Students already knew catalogue as a noun, such as a list of products in a shopping catalogue. I quickly pointed out that the word was being used as a verb in this text, meaning to record or organize information in a document.

Then we encountered blind-devotion. Students understood both words individually but were curious about what the phrase meant in context. I let them discuss their interpretations and build on one another’s ideas. I was ready to step in if they needed clarification, but they didn’t. Their examples demonstrated a strong understanding of the phrase.

The additional vocabulary conversations took no more than four minutes. Some words needed explicit explanation, some called for a quick reminder, and others provided opportunities for students to reason through meaning together. 

Wrapping Up: Connecting Words to Learning 

After we finished the lesson, students returned to their vocabulary notes. They added a second sentence, using expedition to describe something they had learned from the text and our lesson that day.

Then they shared with a partner whether they had confirmed or revised their initial prediction about how the word connected to the lesson.

This final activity took about two minutes.

Altogether, we spent approximately 15–20 minutes on vocabulary during the lesson. But those weren’t 15–20 minutes taken away from content learning. They were minutes spent deepening students’ understanding of the content, strengthening their knowledge of language, and practicing strategies they can use when they encounter unfamiliar words in the future.

That’s the difference I want vocabulary instruction to make.

Key Takeaways for Educators

  1. Keep content and students at the center. 

Choose words because they help students understand what they’re learning, not simply because they appear on a vocabulary list. Consider what students already know before deciding what they need to be taught. 

  1. Stay flexible and responsive

Prepare for the words students might struggle with, but be willing to adjust. Some words deserve explicit instruction; others need only a quick explanation, and some don’t need instruction at all. 

  1. Keep vocabulary instruction simple and purposeful.

You don’t need an elaborate activity for every word or a rigid plan for every encounter. A well-chosen word and a few thoughtful questions can go a long way. 

  1. Make words part of everyday learning.

Revisit previously taught words, point out connections, and use new vocabulary in your own speech. Encourage students to notice words, ask questions, and experiment with language themselves. 

Reflection Questions for Readers

  1. How could I embed vocabulary instruction more naturally into my content-area teaching?
  2. What opportunities could I create for students to interact with, revisit, and make connections between the words they encounter in class?

References

Blachowicz, C. L. Z., Fisher, P. J. L., Ogle, D., & Watts-Taffe, S. (2006). Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(4), 524-539. 

Brabham, E., Buskist, C., Henderson, S. C., Paleogos, T., & Baugh, N. (2012). Flooding vocabulary gaps to accelerate word learning. The Reading Teacher, 65(8), 523-533. 

Monster, I., Tellings, A., Burk, W. J., Keuning, J., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2021). Assessing children’s incremental word knowledge in the upper primary grades. Language Testing, 38(4), 532–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532220961541 

Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1002/RRQ.011 

Nakata, T., & Elgort, I. (2021). Effects of spacing on contextual vocabulary learning: Spacing facilitates the acquisition of explicit, but not tacit, vocabulary knowledge. Second Language Research, 37(2), 263–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658320927764 

Norman, R., Hulme, R. C., Sarantopoulos, C., Chandran, V., Shen, H., Rodd, J. M., Joseph, H., & Taylor, J. S. H. (2023). Contextual diversity during word learning through reading benefits generalisation of learned meanings to new contexts. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(7), 1658–1671. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221126976 

Rice, C. A., & Tokowicz, N. (2020). A review of laboratory studies of adult second language vocabulary training. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42(2), 439–470. 

Uchihara, T., Webb, S., & Yanagisawa, A. (2019). The effects of repetition on incidental vocabulary learning: A meta‐analysis of correlational studies. Language Learning, 69(3), 559–599. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12343 

Camriel Kostreva is a literacy specialist at Lander Valley High School, a rural Wyoming school bordering the Wind River Reservation. A National Board Certified Teacher, she holds a B.A. in English education and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction with a literacy emphasis. After six years teaching 7–12 ELA, she has spent the past eight years as an interventionist and literary specialist. Kostreva became a 2023 Wyoming Teacher of the Year state finalist for building a reading intervention program that helps secondary students close persistent reading gaps and that builds their academic success and self confidence. She co-leads her school’s disciplinary literacy professional development cohorts, participates in literacy-focused committees for Wyoming education, and presents nationally on rural literacy improvement. Publications highlighting her work include “Disciplinary Literacy Professional Learning at Mountain Lake High” (Kostreva & Brock, 2024),“Disciplinary Literacy Professional Learning in a Rural High School” (Kostreva & Nelson, 2026), and “Big Piney High School:  United Around Common Literacy Instructional Goals and Practices” (Makelky et al., 2026).

Social Justice as Discipline Reconstruction

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Unit co-designed by Katelyn Zarr and Jessica McCullough

On a color-coded anchor chart are the ways historians read, write, and think: they interpret primary and secondary sources, identify bias, compare and contrast accounts, and ultimately synthesize information from multiple sources to create accurate narratives and timelines (Lent, 2017). While a concise (and visually appealing) resource, these practices cannot be taken exactly as they are, especially in K-12 schools. Underpinning these practices is the fact that the sources, accounts, and information to be interpreted are often one-sided, missing or entirely misrepresenting perspectives. What is required of educators [and students], then, is that the disciplines themselves are approached as pathways to social change, by which their texts, practices, and ways of knowing are continually questioned and reconstructed.

In our fifth-grade Causes of the American Revolution History Unit, this took the form of seeking out the perspectives of Black Americans, which were limited within district-provided textbooks and readily accessible primary and secondary sources in online databases. The very process of hunting for inclusive texts opened up a conversation between me and my fifth-graders: Why are only some perspectives prioritized, and, in turn, how can we amplify the voices of Black Americans when studying United States’ history? The snapshots below not only capture our search for multiple perspectives but also our reflections on the importance of doing so.

Questioning disciplinary texts can lead to the construction of inclusive and accurate pictures of history. When examining the Boston Massacre as one ‘cause’ of the American Revolution, for example, I noticed that our district textbook centers Paul Revere’s engraving, “The Bloody Massacre,” where British soldiers are depicted armed, against a row of white colonists, some wounded, some reaching to help one another, and some fleeing the square. While a biased depiction of the event itself, as many colonists, too, threw rock-filled snowballs at the soldiers, a key participant, Black American Crispus Attucks, is missing from the scene. I searched for alternate depictions of the event, pairing Paul Revere’s engraving with John H. Bufford’s, “Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770,” which places Crispus Attucks front and center (Museum of the American Revolution, 2021). After joining the illustrations in a text set, my role in questioning texts, fifth-graders then compared and contrasted the accounts through a socratic seminar – drawing upon both to establish colonist and soldier involvement, infer deeper meanings, such as Attucks’ actions as a symbol of protection and independence, and contextualize the 13 Colonies as rooted in racism, a system perpetuated even in the media. By questioning which texts were included, and later, their contents, students were able to compare and contrast accounts to make sense of an event in its entirety and its connections to society at large.

Questioning disciplinary texts can amplify the joy and brilliance of Black Americans throughout history. Students’ inclusion and discussion of Attucks as a champion of independence and positive, social change left us eager to extend this work into writing. Using teacher, student, and librarian collected texts on Black Americans from the Revolutionary Era, including Crispus Attucks, Salem Poor, and Phillis Wheatley, students crafted biographies of their chosen ‘Revolutionary Hero.’ Only, when constructing the narratives or timelines of their hero’s role in the Revolution, students asserted the importance of learning from them today: Wheatley’s poems a means of social justice that can be continued today, Attucks an example of what it means to be a patriot, and Poor a symbol of unwavering bravery. By seeking out multiple accounts of history, students reconstructed the discipline by creating texts that amplified the perspectives and contributions of Black Americans that should have been included all along.

This Causes of the American Revolution Unit simply puts into action the pursuits of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s Historically Responsive Literacy Framework, where she asserts criticality, or examining and disrupting power structures, as a non-negotiable of teaching and learning (2023). Not only does criticality build empathy, connection, and perspective, but it allows us to understand the world [and the disciplines] entirely – to seek and sustain social justice. Beautifully, this often looks like pushing the disciplines themselves. As my fifth-graders engaged in reflective discussion on their reading and writing in consideration of multiple perspectives, they shared things like, “Why isn’t it [history] always done this way? Otherwise, we wouldn’t know the full story!” Their comments demonstrate the power of criticality as well as the brilliance and readiness of students to change the disciplines in the pursuit of racial justice.

References

Muhammad, G. (2023). Unearthing joy: a guide to culturally and historically responsive teaching and learning. Scholastic Inc.

Lent, R. (2017). Disciplinary literacy: a shift that makes sense. ASCD Express, 12(12).

Museum of the American Revolution. (2021, March 5). Boston massacre and propaganda: changing depictions of Crispus Attucks. https://www.amrevmuseum.org/boston-massacre-and-propaganda-changing-depictions-of-crispus-attucks. 

Jessica McCullough is a fifth-grade teacher in Southeastern PA. She is certified in grades 4-8, all subjects 4-6 and English Language Arts and Reading 7-8. She is currently a literacy M.Ed. student at West Chester University of PA with research interests in critical and disciplinary literacy.

‘Risky Texts’: Addressing the issue of race and historical marginalisation in the classroom

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By Sarah Ryan-Purcell

“I teach in an all-white classroom and so I don’t have any of your books in my classroom”

(Brooklyn Academy of Music Organisation, 2017).

As I listened to author Jacqueline Woodson share this quote from an unnamed educator during an interview on “difficult” subjects in young people’s literature, I felt exposed. I taught in an all-white classroom in Ireland last year. I don’t recall placing or using a single book by a Black author in my classroom. At the time, I might have reasoned – subconsciously – that such texts are more relevant in the American context. Suffice to say, I’ve come a long way. 

            My reading list is not the only thing that has changed since I commenced my Masters in Literacy Education at West Chester University, Pennsylvania. I have developed a whole new perspective on how knowledge is constructed, whose voices are represented, and what it means to prepare our students to participate in a diverse, yet unequal, world.

            I discovered Woodson’s picture books in the first semester of my Master’s program as Dr. Daris McInnis challenged us to select a ‘risky text’ which we could use as a read-aloud opportunity to engage in critical literacy with our students. I chose Mason’s (2010) These Hands, an intergenerational book in which a young boy named Joseph learns how his grandfather united with fellow Black labourers to protest racism in the workplace. Thanks to their actions, Joseph’s hands – and other hands the same colour as his – can do “anything in this whole wide world”! The choice felt risky, particularly for me. Since arriving to America, I have felt discomfort when discussing race with BIPOC students. I imagine that the students might be thinking, “Who does she think she is, teaching us about something she knows nothing about?”. However, over the past few months, I have learned to embrace this vulnerability. By allowing the students to see me learning alongside them, I shift the classroom dynamic. Authority becomes shared and knowledge becomes co-constructed. Enter: critical literacy.

            I started the read-aloud with a guided discussion of the front cover, using visual thinking strategies (VTS, 2021). One child excitedly exclaimed, “my skin!” as she pointed to the boy on the front cover of the book. Another student remarked that the boy’s skin colour would probably be a significant aspect of the storyline because “it always is”.

That comment lingered with me.

            Why is race “always” central when Black characters appear? Why are there so few books where Black children are simply present—neither celebrated nor victimized, but existing as fully realized protagonists? The answer, no doubt, lies in power. Perhaps an increase in publications of such books would mitigate the sense of ‘otherness’ that is still apparent in today’s society.      I was particularly uncomfortable discussing the contents of the fifth page, as I wondered aloud why the grandfather had not been allowed to mix the dough in the Wonder Bread factory. The students, though young, were keenly aware that this was a restriction placed on Black people by their white employers. At this point, we began to discuss instances of power in the story. Most of the students participating in this read-aloud were Black, and I felt a sense of guilt on the part of white people for the injustice represented in the story. The students readily noted that white people wouldn’t eat bread baked by a Black person, even if the Black workers were allowed to bake it. I felt almost as though I was further oppressing them as I prompted them to consider why white people wouldn’t eat bread baked by a Black person. They concluded that white people believed Black people ‘had germs’ and would ‘make them sick’. The students were not only offering their opinions. They were engaging in interdisciplinary meaning-making, drawing connections between history, social studies, and personal knowledge. Upon reflection, I realize the impact of that discussion in helping these students to own their history and learn about the oppression of their relatives in the not-so-distant past. However, in the moment, I felt as though I was unearthing generational trauma.  

            Our read-aloud session was an embodiment of critical literacy as the students interrogated historical social practices and analyzed dynamics of power in society (Lewison et al., 2008). However, one important aspect was absent from our discussion: taking initial actions to promote social justice. Consequently, my next step is to consider how I might develop this standalone read-aloud lesson into a critical literacy unit plan on racism and workplace discrimination. Racism is not simply a topic to be covered, but rather anti-racism and inclusion are values to be instilled across the curriculum, values which the students can uphold beyond their formal education. In reflecting upon this read-aloud, I am prompted to identify ways through which I could support my students to “disrupt the commonplace” and promote social justice in small but meaningful ways (Lewison et al., 2008, p.9). This is a question I do not yet have an answer to, but I shall pursue the answer across my career. 

            In conclusion, engagement with this risky text read-aloud challenged me to step out of my comfort zone as a teacher. By leaning into discomfort and allowing students’ voices to guide our discussion, I witnessed the power of risky texts to illuminate social injustices, leading students to connect historical oppression with contemporary realities. This experience has demonstrated that teaching about race and inequality is not simply a “nice to have” in the curriculum but is rather a moral necessity. As a result, I am committed to creating spaces where all students, particularly those from marginalized communities, feel valued and empowered to challenge the status quo. 

            I have come to understand that what is not in the classroom library can often tell you more about the classroom environment than what is available for reading. Furthermore, when educators embed dimensions of critical literacy into their classroom practice, they not only nurture critical thinkers but rather empower both themselves and their students to be agents of change. 

References

Brooklyn Academy of Music Organisation (2017, June 21). Jacqueline Woodson on “difficult” subjects in young people’s literature. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcRwYLHcyzc

Lewison, M., Leland, C., & Harste, J. C. (2008). Creating critical classrooms: K-8 reading and writing with an edge. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mason, M. (2010) These hands. Haughton Mifflin Harcourt.

Visual Thinking Strategies (2021) VTS, available: https://vtshome.org [accessed 03 May 2021].

Sarah Ryan-Purcell is a passionate primary school teacher from Cork, Ireland. Having obtained a B. Ed. in Education and Psychology at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Sarah is now pursuing a M. Ed. in Literacy Education at West Chester University, Pennsylvania where she is also working as a graduate assistant in the College of Education and Social Work. A proponent of discovery-based learning, Sarah loves to explore new countries, languages, and cultures, increasingly allowing these experiences to guide her classroom practice.

Fostering visual literacy skills with wordless picture books

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By Dr. Elke Schneider

What is visual literacy?

Visual literacy (VL) is a well-defined discipline that requires critical, aesthetic, and socio-emotional interpretation skills based on individual comprehension of visual images. These are all essential for being a successful literate citizen that can handle the massive visual flood of information related to image-rich digital media. For one, VL skills include the ability to identify and interpret messages explicitly or implicitly given through still images (photos, posters, drawings, paintings, sculptures) or moving images (videos, films, TV shows, performances). Critical, aesthetic interpretation of how visual features such as colors, visual perspectives, or specific art media (i.e., watercolors, collages, sketches, charcoal drawing) impact a reader/viewer emotionally is a crucial VL skills component. The expressive side of VL skills refers to the ability to create visual images that present information in either still images (drawings, sketches, graphic organizers/charts, photos) or moving images such as short video clips. According to research, both receptive and expressive VL skills are best taught explicitly.

Why do we need to explicitly focus on developing visual literacy skills?

In this day and age, the non-stop availability of visual imagery via digital devices presents students’ brains with the task to quickly, accurately and critically interpret massive amounts of visual imagery surrounded by no, minimal, or much printed texts. Therefore, it is paramount to assist students in learning to carefully filter through so much visual information so they do not fall prey to manipulation and misinterpretation of implicit or explicit messages embedded in visual materials. Moreover, research has shown that educators require more explicit training in strengthening students’ visual literacy skills. For middle and high school students, VL skills are essential in every subject area and thus are included in middle and high school ELA standards.

What are wordless picture books?

Wordless picture books (WLPBs) are books that present information solely through visual images. Some images may include wording as part of an image such as a poster with a message. Only book flaps and covers include traditional printed text such as book title, author name, publication information, and a summary about the book. Examples of WLPBs appropriate for middle and high school students are shared in Table 1. They include selective ideas for disciplinary integration in ELA, social studies, science/geography.  

Table 1: Examples of WLPBs for VL practice

Book referenceContent descriptionIdeas for use in content areas

Tan, S. (2007). The arrival. Arthur A. Levine Books.   
ISBN: 978-0439895293  
Virtual version: short https://youtu.be/vAay4myoEDE?si=KVj4wH2VR9mxl6pT    		Through detailed imagery in red charcoal drawings, readers learn about the emotional and physical hardships of one immigrant’s journey who in the end reunites with his family. Over 60 detailed images of immigrants of all ages in the end pages allow for varied, adolescent-appropriate critical aesthetic, social-emotional reflections.Social studies: migration history of the United States; relating images to historic events (i.e., WWI, II imprisoner treatments)

ELA: sequence of events for one or several characters, identifying emotions orally and in writing, cause-and effect, impact of different visual perspectives and aesthetics on the interpretation of visual information

Geography: identifying criteria for, cause and effects of ports of migration, drawing cause-effect graphics for geographic locations

Science: Using facial expressions of characters of various generations to discuss aging processes and causes; 

Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. Clarion Books.  
ISBN: 978-0618194575
Virtual version: https://youtu.be/3MTKWnxzqvM    		In intricately detailed, often fantasy-driven water-color images, readers follow a teen who discovers an old camera at the beach that reveals lives of those who owned it in the past.Social Studies: Identifying details of photographs for historic fact interpretations

ELA: Usingimage details, practice describing details of sequence of events, items and characters with reasoning, or cause-effect, meaning discoveries of factual and fantasy elements.

Geography: Researching where the camera was prior to getting to the teen with reasoning based on photographs in the camera.

Science: Researching flotsam items from the story and others that can be studied scientifically; discussing the impact of water, salt/nature on certain materials over time.

Wiesner, D. (2011). Tuesday. Clarion Books.  
ISBN: 978-0395870822
Virtual version: https://youtu.be/JtQ4DdzCZMA?si=aI2OrD-T2nE9wulJ  		On a Tuesday night, frogs fly on lily pads to town to visit the town causing confusion before returning to their pond. The next week, pigs seem to be doing the same. This fantasy is illustrated in colorful, realistic watercolor technique displaying expressive, detailed animal and human faces.Social studies: Impact of the unusual on communities; cultural symbolism of frogs/pigs




ELA: Discussing fantasy elements and their explicit or implicit message through colors, perspectives and actions in visuals; personality studies of characters; symbolism

Science: Discussing the importance of gravity; researching what dreams are and how imagery gets created in the brain; life cycles of frogs

Banyai, I. (1998). Zoom. Puffin Books           
ISBN: 978-0140557749
Virtual version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgi-RCEjOLw    		Via detailed, colorful images, readers are taken in surprising image sequences from a farm to a city, a ship, and an island providing ample practiceELA: Making predictions with supporting details and reasons; making hypotheses based on retracing evidence

Science: Discussing how hypotheses are made, on what revising hypotheses is based, and how hypotheses are tested based on detailed images

Geography: Discussing where on earth the different sites could be and how they could relate using details provided in the images

Social studies: Discussing differences, similarities and historic events that influence community lives; discussion of time period based on details in imagery

Banyai, I. (1998). Re-Zoom. Puffin Books       
ISBN: 978-0140556940		Readers are taken on a twisted image journey from an Egyptian pyramid to a jungle and a beach by zooming out of color-and-detail rich images that invite predictions turning page by page.ELA: Making predictions with supporting details and reasons; making hypotheses based on retracing evidence

Geography: Discussing where on earth the different sites could be and how they could relate using details provided in the images

Science: Experiencing how hypotheses are created and tested based on interpreting images; comparing jungle habitats to desert habitats in Egypt; discussing how perception is impacted by angles of selections if imagery;

Social Studies: Engaging in Egyptian culture studies based on detailed images and beyond

Why are wordless picture books useful in middle or high school?

Public misconceptions about WLPBs include that they are only appropriate for young children and not challenging enough to working for adolescent students. Moreover, explicit VL skills do not need to be taught explicitly. These misconceptions contradict research findings that highlight how interpreting WLPBs contain an intricate amount of explicit and implicit information that requires developed VL skills to comprehend. Furthermore, it entices middle and high school students to apply varied sophistication in oral and written engagement with these WLPBs. Research also points out many benefits for middle and high school students:

  • VL practice with WLPBs allows for in-depth engagement with essential middle and high school English Language Arts (ELA) Standards through VL practices such as retelling/summarizing image information, inferencing, predicting and revising prediction, compare-contrast, cause and effect interpretation of visual imagery.
  • These VL practices with WLPBs prepare students for applying acquired critical VL skills in other content areas such as social studies, geography, or science where a mix of visual and written information need to be processed and analyzed (see Table 1 for examples).
  • WLPBs offer learning standards-based critical literacy skills through VL practices regardless of reading, writing, and speaking abilities, content or socio-cultural or background. Thus, with WLPBs everyone has equal access to practicing their development of visual literacy skills, including multilingual learners.
  •  It is easier to activate intrinsic curiosity to engage with the visual information because everyone has an equal chance to engage uniquely with the content with a variety of acceptable interpretations rather than only one right answer.
  • ELA skills practices with WLPBs can be easily scaffolded. For students with more basic skills, only a select number of images could be used, simpler sentence frames for oral or written responses can be provided. More advanced students can benefit from and be challenged with more complex sentence structures to use, and more complex and detailed prompting questions. For ideas to prompt questions that strengthen VL skills with WLPBs, see Tables 2.  For sentence frames to be used when verbalizing interpretations of WLPB images, see Table 3.
  • WLPBs allow for easy assessment of students’ critical, aesthetic and social-emotional comprehension and interpretation skills without being hindered by low writing skills. Oral performance rubrics can contain criteria such as ability to (1) summarize sequence of events, (2) make and revise predictions, (3) formulate questions, (4) describe emotional impact of images, (5) draw inferences, (6) connect story parts to personal experiences/ other real-life events, (7) use detailed descriptors to relate social-emotional story components and express empathy.

Ways to foster active use of visual literacy skills using WLPBs

For each of the VL skills areas, namely aesthetic skills, affective skills, critical thinking, and text comprehension, the following tables provide a) ideas for questions to activate students’ in-depth engagement with a WLPB (Table 2), and b) sentence frames with simpler and more complex structures for students to use to share their interpretations including dialog structures to discuss similarities and differences in story interpretations (Table 3). The sentence and dialog structures can be available to students on flip charts, table tents or flash cards to use during discussion time with each other or in response to teacher questions.

Table 2: Questions to activate critical engagement with visual imagery

VL Skill areaAsk students …
Aesthetic skillshow the author created a certain mood (i.e. suspense, fear, worry, excitement, joy) with colors, perspectives, item or character details and how that impacts the reader/viewer.

to identify how the author created the images in a page or in the whole book

why they like or not like certain images

what question/s they would like to ask the illustrator? Why?
Affective skills (compassion, emotions, relation to self, world, others)how they experience characters, events and
why they feel like that

how they or others they care about were in the situation of certain characters in certain situations and why.

how they would change the story for a different or the same main message.

to relate to a character, story event, emotion presented based on a personal experience or what they have watched on TV/in movies before.

to create questions about a story step, character.
Critical thinkingto give reasons for opinions/interpretations and prompt for direct connection to details in the WLPBs.

to compare and contrast their interpretations with those of peers. Prompt them to get reasons that relate back to details in the imagery and their personal experiences.

to predict, or revise a previous idea

to make connections to other readings or learning experiences in other disciplines in school, or outside of school or world events

what they sense (smell, hear, taste, feel) when they look at certain pages and why that might occur

to share what the story means them personally and why. 

Table 3: Sample sentence frames for discussions that foster VL

VL Skills areaSentence frames for students
Aesthetic skillsSimpler structures:
The color/s make me feel…/ wonder if… /realize that…

I like the image on page…. because…

I feel I look at the page from (above, below). This makes me feel…

More complex structures:
I think the author used …. (water colors, thick paint, chalk, different paper) to make the reader think that…/feel as if….

The top down/bottom up/eye-to-eye level perspective causes an impression of…./makes the viewer experience…..

The color/s of… evoke the feeling of… because…
Affective skills (compassion, emotions, relation to self, world, others)Simpler structures:
The detail from image reminds me of … (something in my world, another character in a story/historic event, current event)

I feel for…. because….

If I were in this situation, I would….

More complex structures:
The expression of…/event on this page causes me to think about …

This story makes me want to …. help… by…..ing….

I can relate to… because I saw/read about… that…/I experienced something similar when….
Critical thinkingSimpler structures:
I wonder/would like to know why… /if…

I like/don’t like what…. did/happened because….

I predict/conclude that…  because

More complex structures:
Seeing…(detail from image), I wonder if/why/when…

Looking at (detail from image), I predict/infer/conclude that…

I agree/disagree with how … (character action) because….
Story comprehensionSimpler structures:
This page/story is about…./tells me that….

First, …. (action in story) and then…… (next action), then (next action). Lastly, (last action, resolution).…

More complex structures:
The main message of the story is….
I conclude this because…….catches my attention because….

Looking at… (detail from image), I get the impression that….

I think this story wants me to realize that….
T he story begins with….Then, …..Afterwards, … because…, the story continues with…, …
Finally, … (more variety of transitions and sentences)
    Dialog structuresExpressing Agreement
I agree with you because I felt/thought….

I also wondered about…/asked myself why….

I also interpreted…. to mean…

Expressing Difference
Interesting. I see this totally differently. I understood (evidence from story)…. to mean.…. because…

I understood/reacted to ….  differently. For me, …… because….

As opposed to your interpretation/prediction/inference/reaction,
I …predicted/inferred/ thought/felt…. because…

I hear you- but I see … (character/problem/…) differently.
For me, … because….

Comparing- contrasting
When I compare your interpretation to mine,

I see we overlap in…. But we see… differently.

While you think…, I think…… Why do you…?
How come?

Even though I agree with you on…. , I interpreted…. differently because… For example, …

Compared to what you said about…., I concluded….

Asking for clarification
What exactly do you mean when you say….?

Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are saying that…..

Am I understanding this correctly? You mean to say…..

Summarizing a peer’s comment
So, in sum, you think…. because….

So, from your perspective, … because….

So, your group interpreted… Therefore, you….

Referring to a section in the book (to provide evidence)
I infer/predict/ conclude that… I say that because on page x….

On page x/, do you see how the illustrator….? That makes me think/conclude/predict/infer that….  That gives me the feeling that…

On the right/left top/bottom/in the middle of page…/, I noticed that…

The…. on page x in the middle caught my attention because… This makes me think/predict/conclude/infer that….
For over 20 years, Dr. Elke Schneider has been a professor of literacy, special education, and multilingual learner education at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

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.

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!

Financial Literacy is Financial Behavior

Blog, Collaboration, Teaching

Flashback to our theme on Financial Literacy! Due to publisher error, Derrick Shepard’s blog was delayed. So, it is now time to hear how Dr. Shepard supports this quote by Jane Bryant Quinn: “No one is born with a mind for personal finances.” Read more about our author at the end of his blog.

Sit with the above quote for a second before moving on. What comes to your mind after you read it? What feelings are elicited? Does the quote speak to you, to the students you are trying to instill a sense of understanding of financial literacy?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019) defines “Financial literacy as knowledge and understanding of financial concepts and risks, as well as the skills and attitudes to apply such knowledge and understanding in order to make effective decisions across a range of financial contexts to improve the financial wellbeing of individuals and society, and to enable participation in economic life.”

The definition is holistic, but it is important to remember that a person’s understanding of financial literacy rests in their knowledge, understanding, attitudes toward financial literacy, and skills to implement a plan that incorporates all three. Now, revisit your thoughts and feelings about the above quote. Did anything change?

There is no denying that individuals need a basic understanding of financial literacy to navigate this capitalist society. Understanding how one’s credit score can impact everything from mortgage rates to credit card rates to the amount you pay for automobile insurance can help save money for the future. As educators, it is incumbent upon us to teach the 3 Rs and relay life skills, including financial literacy, to our students to help them grow into productive and responsible citizens. But how do we do it?

Our students live in a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year social media cycle that never ends. They are bombarded with messages every time they pick up their smartphones, and financial messages (e.g., how to make money) are prominent in the messaging. What I call “salespeople” (and I am being kind) promise riches with little to no effect. Ya, right. Other messages are more “old school” in that they speak to one’s athletic, musical, or artistic abilities to achieve the American Dream. Have you seen some commercials or music videos lately? An example of this is one of Toyota’s commercials for its Tundra Capstone. The actors promote the truck, which is nice and comes in at around $75000 as if it’s a status symbol to achieve to be accepted in the group. As educators, we know group interaction and acceptance are important for one’s development, especially during the pre-adolescent and adolescent years.

So, what messages are students receiving outside of the classroom regarding money?

Reflecting stopping point.

As educators vested in their students’ success, what do you know about them? I bet it’s a lot. You know their likes and dislikes. You know what their home lives are like to a degree. You know them, not as an aggregate reflection of a class roster. No, you know them as individuals with strengths and areas of growth. In knowing and considering this, remember this:

Financial Literacy IS NOT one size fits all.

To the best of your ability, you must consider individual demographics (e.g., racial identity, social class, ethnicity) when constructing an Individual Financial Education Plan (not be confused with an IEP, pun attended). Why is it so important that students’ financial education be individualized as possible? As Frederick Nietzche put it, “‘This-now my way: where is yours?” Thus, I answered those who asked me ‘the way.’ For the way-does not exist.!” As with an IEP, one’s Individual Financial Education Plan (IFEP) needs to be individualized because we all have different backgrounds, values, hopes, and aspirations.

I am not going to leave without some recommendations and resources.

            The Psychology of Money (2021) by Morgan Housel is a terrific resource for taking a deeper dive into why we make the decisions we make regarding money. I tweaked his recommendations from the book to fit your students’ age demographics.

  1. Have students not be too hard on themselves when things go wrong financially.

Setting financial goals is the first step, but as with any goal, things can, and most likely will, go wrong, and mistakes will be made. It is our responsibility to instill a sense of forgiveness in them.

  1. Focus on wealth and not the ego.

Students are bombarded with messages to spend money. You have to have that new phone. Making saving cool can be (is) hard while living in an instant gratification society. Media does not make it any easier. However, we still need to figure out what makes our students tick and how to circumvent those messages to the best of our ability. Again, we know our students better than some algorithms. 😊

  1. Time is their friend.

Saving $10 a month does not seem like a lot; however, compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. Use a time horizon calculator to show them what savings look like today and in the future. There are tons of time horizon calculators out there. Here’s one: https://smartasset.com/investing/investment-calculator

  • You can replace money, but you cannot replace time.

Time is as precious as money. You can always get back money, but time is gone. We must impress upon our students to use their time wisely when it comes to finances. I can imagine you already do this in your role as an educator. Just put a twist on it and add the money.

  • Be nicer and less flashy.

This gets into social-emotional learning. Housel (2020) states that one “is impressed with possessions as much as you are (p. 209). He argues, instead, that we are looking for respect and admiration from our peers (Housel, 2020). Having kindness and being respectful are other ways to gain respect from our peers.

  • Save, baby, save!

Go back to recommendation #3.

  1. Help your students define what “success” means for them.

I am going to address this recommendation with my counselor educator hat on. Part of being a good counselor is to be open and congruent with clients. As the saying goes, “Clients will only go as deep as you are willing to go with yourself.” With that in mind, we need to remember the core condition of Unconditional Positive Regard (for our students and ourselves) when we teach financial literacy. We need to be Congruent and be who we are with our students when we teach financial literacy, and, finally, we need to show Empathy for those, including ourselves, who are struggling to better themselves but not knowing what they do not know.

  • Help students define their “game.”

Financial success looks different for every student. What one considers a success may be an overreach or underreach for the next. There is no way. But, we can help our students reflect, critically think, and plan for a future that fits them.

Finally, I want to leave you with some financial resources that may assist you and your students in gaining a better understanding of personal finance.

The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) champions effective financial education. They are the independent, centralizing voice that provides leadership, research, and collaboration to advance financial well-being.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a U.S. government agency dedicated to ensuring you are treated fairly by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions.

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside the classroom.

  1. 15 Financial Literacy Activities for High School Students (PDFs) (moneyprodigy.com)
  2. https://www.kidsmoney.org/teachers/financial-literacy-activities-high-school/

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. The financial literacy journey is complex and ever-changing. But what does not change is our duty as educators to help our students grow and develop into the individuals we know they are capable of.

Dr. Derrick Shepard is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Martin. His research interests include multiculturalism in counseling, social class awareness, skills related to counselor preparation and pedagogical practices in counselor education and supervision.

Financial Literacy Policy Update

Blog, Teaching

Tori Young opens our March them with information that has shaped this addition to South Carolina High School Curriculum. Read more about Tori at the end of the blog.

Scrolling through social media, I often see young adults lamenting about why their teachers never taught them about taxes, credit, or interest rates. These adults feel lost and overwhelmed by the financial responsibility thrust upon them. While financial education may not look the same as it did fifteen years ago with Home Economics and Family and Consumer Science classes being defunded in several states, financial literacy is still integrated into many state standards through Social Studies and Freshman Readiness classes such as Economics or College and Career Readiness (CCR) classes. such as EPF.2.PR: “research and analyze the factors that impact personal income and long-term earning potential,” as an indicator in Economics and “students will be able to demonstrate productivity skills that will aid them in school and the workplace” as an objective in CCR.

            Financial literacy is one of the few skills taught in schools that has a direct application to life for each student at the moment of learning it and in the future, regardless of their career goals. Knowing how to manage a budget, keep a healthy credit score, take out and pay off loans, and consider healthy investments are something every American adult has to consider on some scale every day. To understand income and expenses, a bank versus a credit union, and credit and debit are simple terms in financial literacy, but understanding them can greatly impact someone’s financial success. Knowing what options are available and what they mean helps consumers make smart financial decisions for themselves and their families, as well as avoid being taken advantage of by banks, loan companies, and businesses.

            Lawmakers understand that when their constituents are financially literate, which means they can make better personal and business-related financial decisions, their states have greater economic success. Because of this, lawmakers over the past few years have begun to find ways to prioritize financial education through the standards of existing courses such as high school Economics and CCR courses that are already funded and required for graduation. Some states are even starting to require Personal Finance as a half-credit course, which teaches students how to balance a budget, plan for future expenses, understand banking and payment options, and choose appropriate loan and credit options for their personal goals. As financial literacy in middle and high school education is becoming a topic for our representatives, what should we know as teachers?

            As of December of 2023, only 25 states require at least a half credit of personal finance, with five states and Washington D.C. not including personal finance in their standards (Nex Gen Personal Finance). However, the past two years have seen exponential growth in financial literacy in high school education because more politicians have seen the importance of young people becoming financially literate. In South Carolina, back in 2022, lawmakers passed 1.101 (SDE: Graduation Requirements) to require an additional half credit of Personal Finance for graduation beginning with the current freshman class of 2023-2024 (SC Dept of Ed). To meet this requirement, many high schools in SC now require Business Ed, CCR, or Social Studies teachers to step in to teach the course. Not only do these courses help students as individuals to be financially successful, but they help their communities and states as well when everyone has a better understanding of their finances. While only half of our country is requiring this skill to be taught, it is promising that more states will be joining them in the near future.

            If you are wondering how this may apply to you as a middle or high school teacher, it has several impacts both in and out of the classroom! As a high school Economics teacher, I have found many skills from other disciplines necessary for my students to teach them personal finance effectively. We regularly calculate budgets, read data tables, and analyze graphs in class to analyze individual finance goals and overall economic patterns. Many of my students who struggle with personal finance struggle with mathematical and scientific literacy taught in the early years of schooling. For instance, the skills built in middle school science, learning about an X and Y axis, or in Algebra when dividing and working with decimals are crucial for students when they get to Personal Finance. You are building the infrastructure of financial literacy!

            Financial Literacy makes up the second standard in the current SC Economics standards for social studies. The motive is that “financial literacy is imperative in making individual economic decisions regarding spending, careers, and setting short- and long-term financial goals. Decision-making and marginal analysis tools are essential in evaluating possible financial options. The ability to make wise choices can impact one’s standard of living and future earning potential” (2019 SSCCR). In order to achieve this goal, Economics teachers rely on a foundation of disciplinary literacy across the general education courses. From ELA, we ask students to research reliable sources and read news articles to find key information about the job market to determine if their career choice is feasible and realistic. From Mathematics, we require the ability to add and subtract to manage expenses and balance a budget as well as read a graph to evaluate the highs and lows of the cost of living. And from Science, we are gathering data from sources and testing different financial choices repeatedly to come to a sound conclusion.

We can all agree the weight of financial responsibility is heavy, for everyone. In turn, when these students graduate and begin their careers, whatever that may be, these students will have the knowledge needed to navigate financial independence. And maybe one day, when they are extremely wealthy, they will remember those of us who helped them get there. 😉

If you want to learn more about personal finance and financial literacy or access free curriculum, resources, and games for students, check out www.ngpf.org. If you are an Economics teacher and your state has implemented personal finance into your standards, check out www.econedlink.org and www.everfi.net for great resources and learning modules!

Tori Young is a high school social studies teacher in Anderson, South Carolina. She is currently working on her Master’s in Instructional Design and Learning Technology at Anderson University.