Running Head: Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy 1

Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy

Arianna Roemke
Arizona State University
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Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy

Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy

My philosophy regarding Disciplinary literacy certainly has shifted and transformed

throughout the course of this class. Originally, if asked, I would have said disciplinary literacy is

just being literate in your content. I had thought that literacy in an ELA class was just being

literate, and able to read and write, in science class it was learning how to read the periodic

table, so on and so forth. Now I recognize that it is far more than just knowing or learning how

to read, it is “creating knowledge, communicating it, and critiquing it.” (Hynd-Shanahan 2013).

Disciplinary literacy is teaching the innerworkings of reading, it’s communicating the thought

process and reasoning behind identifying and evaluating the importance of literary devices, it is

giving students the behind the scenes steps to building that knowledge. This is why it is

important for us as teachers to do a think aloud so we can model and explain all of the little tiny

steps that we do not think about when we have done something for so long. An example that

has helped me is, if someone has never boiled water before, telling them “boil some water”

means absolutely nothing to them. We need to break it down into the small steps, “Grab a pot,

fill it halfway with water…” much the same is how we deliver instruction to new concepts, and

the literary processes.

As educators, we need to make sure what we are doing in our instruction and resources

is there to help students develop their skills and literacy in our content area. What we bring

into the classroom, our materials, expertise, and content knowledge needs to be applied in a

way to maximize the benefits our students get such as gaining a deeper understanding of the

importance of their literacy. Doing this further deepens a students’ understanding and helps

them connect what they are learning today in ELA with something they learn next year in
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Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy

another class. In the selection of our texts we need to ensure that we are choosing diverse

lateral reading opportunities. “Content area reading, and disciplinary literacy offer different—

and sometimes divisive—perspectives on teaching students to read subject matter texts”

(Brozo, et al 2013). As we begin to dive deeper into some topics it is crucial to examine texts

that offer different points of views. Take the founding of America as a topic you would read

about in an ELA environment, not only would you want to expose your students to the writings

of John Locke, and Thomas Paine, but also reading the Supreme Courts Ruling on the

Naturalization of U.S. Citizens, Harriet Jacobs, and Maria Stewart. Reading and examining all of

these authors and texts together would give a student a far better, more rounded perspective

of the founding of America than just reading a few pieces of writing from the founding fathers.

While reading some of Stewarts work can be upsetting, the content and knowledge acquired

from engaging with the text probes students to critique other works from other people.

Disciplinary literacy also doesn’t have to be just in the form of a novel or article, literacy

can be watching a video and pulling out key details or interpreting how an image interacts with

a chosen text. The list and potential goes on and on, we don’t need to think so analogue with

our texts, we have a vast array of opportunity to do different things with the use of technology.

We can give them a podcast to listen to one person’s perspective and they can then hear that

person’s perspective. Then the student gets to determine how that medium differs and how

information is given and received as the form of a text changes. Stressing the importance of

disciplinary literacy is immensely difficult, that is why if we can get students engaged in it on

their own they can form and assign their own value to it as not only is literacy imperative to our

acquiring and application of new knowledge, but also critical to our everyday life.
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Philosophy on Disciplinary Literacy

Work Cited:

Brozo, G. William, Moorman Gary, Meyer Carla, & Stewart Trevor (2013). Content Area Reading

and Disciplinary Literacy A CASE FOR THE RADICAL CENTER” Journal of Adolescent &

Adult Literacy 56(5) International Reading Association (pp. 353–357)

Hynd-Shanahan, Cynthia (2013) “What Does It Take? THE CHALLENGE OF DISCIPLINARY

LITERACY” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 57(2) International Reading

Association (pp. 93–98).