Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum. It recognises that literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers of every subject to teach students how to read, write and communicate effectively.
As a Secondary English teacher, I am probably predisposed to find the concept of disciplinary literacy interesting. But I understand cynicism from those who have been subject to all sorts in the name of whole school literacy strategies. It feels a little ‘faddy’. So why is disciplinary literacy different?
Recognising subject specificity
Where some whole-school literacy approaches attempt a blanket approach for all, the starting premise for disciplinary literacy is that our subject disciplines are different. According to ELIS (2013): ‘The suggestion is that different disciplines (or subject areas) have thinking and language practices that are specific to them and that students are likely to be held back from a full understanding of the content of such disciplines to the extent that they do not master the related language and thinking practices.’
So rather than starting with a predefined approach and making it fit the subject, disciplinary literacy starts with the subject. The EEF pose these questions to reflect on:
What is unique about your subject discipline in terms of reading, writing, speaking and listening? What is common with other subject disciplines? How do members of this subject discipline use language on a daily basis? Are there any typical literacy misconceptions held by students, for example, how to write an effective science report? Are there words and phrases used typically, or uniquely, in the subject discipline?
The EEF have designed a useful reflection tool to consider reading:
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Download the curriculum reading discussion template
Literacy initiatives can feel like they are swimming against the tide of effective subject practice. The premise of disciplinary literacy is that it enhances existing practice.
Shanahan and Shanahan (2012) write: ‘With regard to language use, different purposes presuppose differences in how individuals in the disciplines structure their discourses, invent and appropriate vocabulary, and make grammatical choices.‘
The ways of thinking, communicating and understanding a subject discipline are the subject discipline.
For example, in the AQA GCSE Art and Design specification, they outline the need for annotation: ‘For example, as ideas are developed, explored and recorded annotations might relate to initial thoughts, practical considerations, the communication of intentions, responses to sources, critical reflection on personal work and self-evaluation.’
You might describe this as a literacy component of art, but where do you separate that from the subject? Where does the line exist between the thought and the act of annotation?
‘general literacy’ not enough
We might consider it enough to teach the content knowledge, the substantive knowledge of the discipline, and rely on generic literacy approaches such as reading strategies, spelling etc. The theory is that if we know things and have a good grasp of literacy skills, we can be successful.
But this ignores the ways that content and knowledge interact in the specific discipline. ‘Clarifying’ is defined in the KS2 literacy guidance report as ‘pupils identify areas of uncertainty, which may be individual words or phrases, and seek information to clarify meaning.’ There are general questions we might ask of any text to clarify e.g. are there any unfamiliar words here? But what we do with that question will change depending on the subject.
In a geography textbook, we might look at the glossary.
In a scene from Much Ado About Nothing, we might check footnotes.
In a scientific article, we might look for an appositive.
These are all situated in the context of the subject.
Disciplinary literacy shouldn’t be seen as the latest fad, pushed by someone that cares more about literacy than your subject. It is your subject.
The BAWESS project aims to investigate the nature of disciplinary language for successful writing in school exams across the curriculum. They will develop and share the first-ever discipline-specific large language database (corpus) of student-written texts in the exam years.
