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An Exploration of Disciplinary Literacy in Secondary English Language Arts

Briana T. Bandy

Arizona State University

An Exploration of Disciplinary Literacy in Secondary English Language Arts

Many students, and even old school educators, might find it difficult to understand the

concept of adolescent literacy instruction, and the importance of said instruction reaching beyond

the bounds of the English Language Arts concentration. The presence of literature in other

subject areas, math or art, for example, might not always be apparent, which makes research and

learning about disciplinary literacy convoluted. The steady standard of American education that

students learn to read until third grade, and from there read to learn best demonstrates the

relevance of literacy instruction in adolescence.

The challenges for educators expand further when we acknowledge that not only is there

literature to be found in every content area but that there are also many methods to approach

literature that vary in effectiveness based on the content area the text is a part of. This is an

educational concept called disciplinary literacy, which despite being around since the nineties, is

still widely misinterpreted and underestimated (Hynd-Shanahan, 2013). The power of

disciplinary literacy is still yet to be fully embraced, which is especially unfortunate in the field

of secondary education, where it is being placed on the back burner in favor of the path of least

resistance: teaching content area literacy (Spires, 2018). Both content area and disciplinary

literacy include a number of useful tools to benefit student learning (Hynd-Shanahan, 2013), and

a balance of the two is integral to students becoming effective readers, since the texts that come

with each content area are written from different lenses with different intentions that must be

accounted for while reading.

As previously mentioned, the expectation that beyond the third grade, students read in

order to learn is an example of content area literacy, and it is a standard imperative to student
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success. However, it does not invalidate the necessity of students continuing to engage with

English Language Arts. Smagorinsky explained, “There was a widespread belief that writing

knowledge is general, such that what English teachers teach is sufficient to educate kids about

writing, no matter what the task or community of practice it engages. That belief still exists”

(2015). The English language, in and of itself, is an art, and should not be reduced to a tool to

teach other subjects in schools, and reading and writing should not be simplified to the same

across all subjects. Practices that may at the surface level appear the same across the disciplines,

will all be approached in different ways. For example, a hypothesis and a thesis are both claims.

However, in science, you support a hypothesis using data from your own observations and

experiments, while in English, you support your thesis using evidence from outside sources. In

English, disciplinary literacy frequently focuses on the social and emotional circumstances

surrounding a text, whether that be the lesson the author attempted to teach in a short story, the

emotions a poem invoked in the reader, or the strategies a reporter used to persuade the viewer.

English Language Arts is, after all, an examination of the impact that writers have on readers,

and why and how they created that impact; literature is an examination of human relations and

communication. In English classes, students devise a puzzle from a text, and then use a

combination of the source text, outside references, and their own knowledge and experiences to

solve that puzzle. In her study of disciplinary literacy in English Language Arts examining the

ways readers approach texts in an English classroom setting, Rainey found that reading with a

puzzle in mind to solve was, “A critical feature of the work…The sorts of contexts that literary

scholars considered ranged widely and included…biographical information about the author, the

time in which the literary work was set, the academic scholarship that had been created and read
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in association with the work” (2017). English disciplinary literacy should offer students the skills

to read, write, and infer, with the purpose of communicating and defending an interpretation in

mind (Reynolds & Rush, 2017).

Reading, writing, rhetoric, speaking, and listening are all skills that fall under English

Language Arts, each presenting countless, unique challenges for students. Difficulties that span

several of these skills include grammar, structure, and language acquisition. Grammar is a

challenge in English Language Arts literacy because it is taught at a young age and not revisited

frequently enough, but is still subject to assessment in English while overlooked in other classes

thereby reinforcing incorrect usage. Sentence and even overall text structure present obstacles for

students as it involves planning ahead and seeing an overall picture, which might be difficult for

students who prefer stream-of-consciousness approaches and enjoy evolving, fluid arguments.

Finally, language acquisition is a particularly daunting barrier because understanding the fluid

meanings and usages of English vocabulary, and memorizing the arbitrary rules of English

sentence structure takes time on its own that many teachers and students don’t have the time or

resources for. English as a discipline is unique because literature in English Language Arts,

regardless of the form or genre, can be used to address many standards of education. For

example, a newspaper article could be used as an avenue to review grammar usage, analyze text

structure, practice general reading, or to expand vocabulary. A practice I plan to use in my

teaching capitalizes on the benefits of collaborative learning and self-reflection. Molly and Lee

found in their study of group work in English classrooms for language and literacy development

that group work allows students to build a culture of trust and comfort, allowing them to be

vulnerable and lean on each other’s strengths (2017). Thus, my strategy focuses on the benefits
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of collaborative learning. At the beginning of each year, I plan to ask my students what

challenges they feel most regularly impacts them in English, and group students with similar

answers. Throughout the year as the class engages with different texts, there will be designated

times, regardless of the current learning objective, for students to meet with their group and work

together to practice whatever concept of English Language Arts they struggle with the most.

Implementing this recurring practice encourages students to collaborate and support each other

through their shared challenges, and allows me to acknowledge each student’s struggles multiple

times throughout the year. This model is effective for English classes specifically as different

standards can be seamlessly taught using many different texts of the English discipline.
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References

Hynd-Shanahan. (2013). What Does It Take? THE CHALLENGE OF DISCIPLINARY

LITERACY. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(2), 93–98.

https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.226

Molle, & Lee, N. (2017). Opportunities for academic language and literacy development for

emergent bilingual students during group work. International Journal of Bilingual

Education and Bilingualism, 20(5), 584–601.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2015.1103206

Rainey. (2017). Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts: Exploring the Social and

Problem-Based Nature of Literary Reading and Reasoning. Reading Research Quarterly,

52(1), 53–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.154

Reynolds, & Rush, L. S. (2017). Experts and Novices Reading Literature: An Analysis of

Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts. Literacy Research and Instruction,

56(3), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2017.1299820

Smagorinsky. (2015). Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts. Journal of Adolescent &

Adult Literacy, 59(2), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.464

Spires, Kerkhoff, S. N., Graham, A. C. K., Thompson, I., & Lee, J. K. (2018). Operationalizing

and validating disciplinary literacy in secondary education. Reading & Writing, 31(6),

1401–1434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9839-4
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