Education Commons^™

Literacy Across The Disciplines: A Way To Re-Engage Secondary Students, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, the author describes the opportunities present with leveraging disciplinary literacy approaches, in terms of re-engaging teens with learning. The author also provides several cautions for literacy leaders to keep in mind.

Teachers' Conceptions And Enactment Of Disciplinary Literacy In Elementary Science Instruction: A Comparative Case Study, Melissa P. Mendenhall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This case study explores elementary teachers’ conceptions and enactment of disciplinary literacy in elementary science instruction and the interaction between the two. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to describe how four fifth-grade teachers view literacy appropriate to science. Participants for this research were invited to participate by responding to an online survey and were selected based on criteria. Data sources include interviews, teacher artifacts, and observation. Qualitative data were coded, the codes compared to ideas in the field (overall themes), and global themes were generated as sense making tools to describe trends found in each case, case comparisons, …

Why Word Problems Are Hard For High School Math Students: Problem Formulation And Disciplinary Literacy, Emily Charlotte Elliott

Senior Theses

This thesis is an extensive literature review designed to better understand the obstacles high school math students encounter when solving word problems (WPs). While many high school students find math difficult in general, students especially struggle with WPs. Often they are unable to provide correct solutions to WPs even when they are successful in solving computational problems using the same mathematical concepts (Cummins, 1988). Data from the 2007 National Survey of Algebra Teachers suggests that solving WPs is one of the skills that students are most unprepared for when entering Algebra 1 (Hoffer et al.). Additionally, many students try to …

Centering Community In Disciplinary Literacy Implementation: One District’S Story, Jenelle Williams, Stacie Angel, Jennifer Wilcox, Angela Church

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, the authors describe the various ways they have centered community while implementing disciplinary literacy in their district. They outline how the work began, the role of professional learning, and the systemic approaches that are effectively moving the work forward. This story offers an alternate approach to implementation--one that honors educators' expertise, differentiates approaches, and develops collective efficacy.

Disciplinary Literacy In Practice: Examining How English Teachers Read Literary Texts, Matt Cantrell

Literacy Practice and Research

This study investigates the viability of disciplinary literacy by (1) examining whether English teachers can use disciplinary methods to read a disciplinary text and (2) identifying possible relationships between teacher training and the use of disciplinary approaches. In total, 21 English instructors thought-aloud as they read an unfamiliar poem, and two independent raters evaluated each transcribed response as either “Disciplinary” or “General” depending on the types of reading strategies demonstrated using a rubric generated from previous expert-novice studies in literary reading. This study found that ten (10) of the 21 participants used at least one disciplinary method to make sense …

Putting Out Fires Through A Re-Grounded Critical Literacy: Slowing The Spread Of Misinformation Through Teacher Education, Noah Asher Golden, Breanna Couffer

Literacy Practice and Research

In this essay, we discuss the challenges teacher educators face when preparing secondary teachers to educate adolescent learners in an age of seemingly-ubiquitous online mis- and disinformation. Mis- and disinformation about COVID-19, the climate crisis, or even the shape of the planet Earth are abundant in our mediasphere, and teacher educators can play a central role in supporting secondary-level learners in navigating the multiple and conflicting claims they come across. We explore a literacy teacher education approach that marries discursive analysis with empirical investigations, and share an example of critical textual analysis bolstered by scientific investigation.

What Can We Learn From The Different Understandings Of Mathematical Literacy?, Svein Arne Sikko

Numeracy

Mathematical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy, matheracy, disciplinary literacy, and content-area literacy are among a plethora of terms used to link mathematics and literacy. In addition to this abundance of terms, the content of the terms is not precise, and in some cases the terms are used interchangeably. I delve into this landscape and dissect the meaning of each of them. From such an analysis of mathematical literacy, numeracy, and quantitative literacy, we learn about the importance of quantitative practices and elementary mathematics in society, including both how mathematics is necessary for everyday life but also how it can be used …

High School Biology Teachers' Integration Of Argumention In The Context Of Disciplinary Literacy Coaching, Ashley Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Scientific argumentation is a core scientific practice. Although scientific argumentation has been linked to increased learning of scientific content, improved reading, writing, and critical thinking, traditional science classrooms have not included scientific argumentation. Teachers often have little experience learning or teaching science through argumentation and need support to integrate this complex practice of science into their classrooms. This study compared four high school biology teachers’ instruction of scientific argumentation as they worked with a literacy coach. Data were collected through interviews, audio recordings of classroom instruction and literacy coaching sessions, and artifacts. After analyzing the data, several key findings stood …

Taking Up The Work: Snapshots Of Disciplinary Literacy Instruction, Part I, Laura Gabrion, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

This article is part of a series devoted to unpacking disciplinary literacy instructional practices for educators at all levels. Here, we explore the role of disciplinary literacy instruction at all levels, in light of recent changes to Michigan's teacher certification grade bands. This article provides suggestions for getting started with addressing disciplinary literacy in instruction, as well as practical examples of what this might look like within English Language Arts classrooms.

Teacher Of Literature And Literacy: Rethinking Secondary English Language Arts, Jenelle Williams, Laura Gabrion

Michigan Reading Journal

This article aims to explore the complexity of instruction in secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classes, addressing the role of teacher identity, educator preparation programs, equity and access, and the role of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy in the Secondary Classroom. We suggest that there is a possibility to attend to both teaching literature and literacy within middle- and high-school ELA classrooms and provide a vision for working toward this balance.

Reading And Writing Like A Scientist: Implementation Of Disciplinary Literacy Strategies In A Middle School Science Classroom, Cameron K. Boyette

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined what happened when disciplinary literacy strategies were implemented in a middle school science class along with the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of these strategies. The researcher implemented disciplinary literacy strategies that went along with the scope and sequence for seventh-grade science at the time of implementation of the study. She collected data through surveys, observations, and interviews with students and teachers. Data were analyzed through the constant comparative method and coding. When disciplinary literacy strategies were implemented, students showed compartmentalization of reading and writing to their ELAR classes. Teachers showed negative perceptions of their students’ literacy abilities. …

Grey Clouds And Silver Linings: Professional Learning For Secondary Educators During Covid-19, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Teachers’ Perspectives About Students’ Productive Textual Engagement In Social Studies, Jacquelynn S. Popp, Paula Di Domenico, Joanna Makhlouf

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Because close reading and critical analysis of multiple sources is central to social studies, understanding teachers’ perspectives about productive textual engagement is imperative. This comparative study explored twelve 5ththrough 11th-grade social studies teachers’ perspectives about supporting students’ textual engagement via think-aloud interviews. Teacher-participants read hypothetical vignettes representing four paradigms of instruction with texts in social studies classrooms. Participants ranked the vignettes, provided reasoning about their value, and reflected on their own practices in relation to the paradigms. Participants placed higher value on fostering students’ historical literacies and civic literacies than on supporting students’ content-area literacies or traditional content acquisition. There …

The Relationship Between The Next Generation Content Area Reading Professional Development Program On The Effectiveness Of Teaching Literacy Strategies In High School Biology Classes, Tia Pridgen Brown

Dissertations

The need for effective content area reading teachers have continued to increase since the introduction of one public school districts’ Content Area Reading Professional Development (CAR-PD) in 2006. In 2011, modifications were made to improve the program, and it became known as the Next Generation Content Area Reading Professional Development (NGCAR-PD). The purpose of this program evaluation is to investigate the relationship between NGCAR-PD certified Biology teachers and their ability to implement reading strategies with science content effectively. The context of this inquiry is a mid-sized public school district that has implemented the program since 2006 at the middle and …

Teacher Perceptions And Implementation Of A Content-Area Literacy Professional Development Program, Osha Lynette Smith, Rebecca Robinson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators equip students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle-level content-area teachers’ perspectives on a district-led literacy professional development program and their implementation of the literacy strategies they learned. The conceptual framework included Bruner’s constructivist, Bandura’s self-efficacy, and Knowles’s andragogy theories. These theories informed the investigation of adult learners’ perspectives regarding the way they learn and gain confidence in providing literacy instruction. Eleven English, math, science, and social studies teachers participated in the study through individual interviews. Data were …

Peer Review In Online Professional Communities To Support Elementary Disciplinary Literacy Planning, Jaime Colwell, Valerie Taylor

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This chapter reports the results of a qualitative case study focused on elementary pre-service teachers' perspectives on planning for disciplinary literacy using peer review in an online professional community (OPC). Seven pre-service teachers enrolled in an eight-week asynchronous, online content literacy course served as participants. Results indicated pre-service teachers' valued extended opportunities for reflection in the OPC and appreciated diverse backgrounds and experiences offered by their OPC colleagues. However, perceived challenges remained that are important to consider when incorporating peer review cycles into online asynchronous coursework. This study considers these perspectives in light of designing and planning online coursework in …

Two Birds, One Stone: Integrating Communication Proficiency Development Into Existing Academic Courses, Yehudith Weinberger

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This article discusses the pedagogical knowledge required to develop students' communication proficiencies as part of their academic experience, proposes a method of doing so, and illustrates that method using a recent example. Using the case-study approach, first, the challenge is presented while its complexity in the context of academic studies is analyzed. Then, with implementation of the conceptual framework of “disciplinary literacy,” an original solution is offered in the form of a rolling multistage task in a seminar course that was a part of the master’s in teaching program. The rolling multistage task revolves around the development of the pedagogical …

Sixth-Grade Elementary And Seventh- And Eighth-Grade Middle School Teachers' Knowledge And Beliefs About Science Literacy, Melissa P. Mendenhall

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Grades 6-8 teachers knowledge and beliefs about science literacy and instruction that develops science literacy, in both the fundamental and derived senses. All Grade 6 elementary teachers and Grades 7-8 middle school science teachers from five school districts in the Mountain West region of the U.S. were invited to participate by responding to an online survey consisting of open response questions and critical instances. Data were analyzed using an immersion style of coding. Findings suggest a majority of teachers view literacy as reading and writing and text as something that is …

Exploring How Secondary Pre-Service Teachers’ Use Online Social Bookmarking To Envision Literacy In The Disciplines, Jamie Colwell, Kristen Gregory

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study considers how pre-service teachers envision disciplinary literacy through an online social bookmarking project. Thirty secondary pre-service teachers participated in the project through an undergraduate literacy course. Online bookmarks and post-project reflections were collected and analyzed using a constant comparative approach to determine emergent themes. Results suggest varying levels of disciplinary knowledge among pre-service teachers, influences of pre-service teachers' envisionments on posted bookmarks, and considerations about standardized testing in disciplinary literacy instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed in light of these results.

A Social Semiotic Analysis Of Instructional Images Across Academic Disciplines, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Melanie Landon-Hays

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Framed in theories of social semiotics, this descriptive multiple case study examined the images used by six middle-school teachers during one school year as they each taught two different subject areas: earth science, language arts, mathematics, and/or social studies. Using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual grammar to analyze these images, this study identified discipline-specific patterns in how 1,132 images realized assumptions in regards to the ideational and interpersonal metafunctions of communication. A content analysis suggested discipline-specific differences in the presumed social distance between the content of the images and the students, as well as discipline-specific differences in assumptions about the …

Exploring How Secondary Pre-Service Teachers' Use Online Social Bookmarking To Envision Literacy In The Disciplines, Jamie Colwell, Kristen Gregory

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This study considers how pre-service teachers envision disciplinary literacy through an online social bookmarking project. Thirty secondary pre-service teachers participated in the project through an undergraduate literacy course. Online bookmarks and post-project reflections were collected and analyzed using a constant comparative approach to determine emergent themes. Results suggest varying levels of disciplinary knowledge among pre-service teachers, influences of pre-service teachers' envisionments on posted bookmarks, and considerations about standardized testing in disciplinary literacy instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed in light of these results. Copyright (c) by the authors.

Meeting The Challenge Of Disciplinary Literacies, Marion Meiers

Marion Meiers

A Case Study Investigating Secondary Science Teachers' Perceptions Of Science Literacy Instruction, Phyllis Ann Blackmon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project study addressed the lack of inclusion of discipline literacy pedagogy in secondary classrooms in a rural school district in eastern North Carolina. Discipline literacy practices are recommended in the Common Core Standards for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. The district had implemented content area reading strategies across content areas, yet no significant progress in secondary students' reading abilities had been demonstrated in statewide or national assessments. The conceptual framework that drove this study was disciplinary literacy, founded by the literacy research of Shanahan, Shanahan, and Zygouris-Coe. Within a qualitative case study method, this investigation of 8 secondary …

Prospective Secondary Teachers' Conceptualizations Of Literacy And Literacy In Their Content Areas, Jane Costello Bonacci

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

Middle School Teachers’ Discipline-Specific Use Of Gestures And Implications For Disciplinary Literacy Instruction, Amy Wilson-Lopez

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Framed in theories of social semiotics, this descriptive multiple case study examined six middle school teachers’ use of gestures during one school year as they each taught two different subject areas: earth science, language arts, mathematics, and/or social studies. The data, which included field notes and photographs from 354 lessons and 151 video-recordings of lesson segments, were analyzed using constant comparative methods and multimodal concordance charts. The analyses indicated discipline-specific differences in types of gestures, frequency of gestures, and centrality of gestures to the teachers’ messages. Earth science depended on a variety of iconic and deictic gestures, the latter of …

Using Disciplinary Literacies To Enhance Adolescents' Engineering Design Activity, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Emma Smith, Daniel L. Householder

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This comparative case study describes the literacy practices of two groups of adolescents as they sought to solve authentic problems through engineering design processes. Three types of data were collected as the groups addressed these problems: video- and audio-recordings of their conversations; adolescent-generated products; and pre- and post-challenge interviews. The authors used existing coding schemes of engineering design activity to identify when the adolescents enacted different stages of engineering design, as well as a modified form of constant comparative analysis to identify the literacy practices that corresponded with each stage. The analysis indicates that applications of literacy practices at each …

Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Literacy Professional Learning: An Amalgamation Of Adolescent Literacy, Mathematics Teaching, And Adult Learning, Janet L. Larson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study uses practitioner research to examine secondary mathematics teachers’ learning of literacy integration practices in the context of a district-wide literacy professional development series. The author, a secondary mathematics curriculum and instruction facilitator in a large, Midwestern suburban district, engaged in a two-year partnership with seventeen Mathematics Teacher Facilitators (MTFs) who taught literacy practices to their colleagues via a train-the-trainer model. This study provides an explicit rendering of professional development practices and ongoing, job-embedded learning vignettes of six MTF’s experiences in (a) teaching literacy practices to their colleagues and (b) how they learned and enacted these practices in their …

Teachers' Beliefs, Knowledge, And Implementation Of Disciplinary Literacy Pedagogy In Three Advanced Placement United States History Classrooms, Stephanie Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this inquiry, I investigated three Advanced Placement United State History teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and implementation of disciplinary literacy pedagogy in their Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) classrooms. My interest in disciplinary literacy evolved from my own experiences as a high school social studies teacher and middle school intensive reading teacher. With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, whose emphasis is, in part, on discipline-specific literacy, across the United States in 2014-2015, I recognize the need for research relevant to discipline-specific practices in the classroom. I want to contribute further to the understandings of disciplinary literacy pedagogy. …