Post #6 Reflection

Inquiry Question:  How can we better introduce disciplinary literacy in younger grades?

I believe that I have found a variety of ways to introduce disciplinary literacy in younger grade levels.   While I found that there is not an infinite amount of information related to disciplinary literacy in the elementary classroom, I still was able to find information that I think will benefit teachers. I hope that the information I found will help teachers to not see disciplinary literacy as something that is scary or too difficult to do.  I wanted to help teachers be able to realize that there are some simple things they can add to their lessons to enhance the disciplinary literacy experience.

When I was reading my professional text titled “Engaging Students in Disciplinary Literacy, K-6”, they shared some of the struggles with disciplinary literacy in the elementary classroom.  I think it is important to share these struggles because I think it could help motivate teachers to do more related to this and to help further research in this area.   Some of the struggles they shared were the following:

• The limited research base on disciplinary literacy in elementary grades
• Disciplinary literacy in the elementary grades is minimally defined
• Elementary children have little experience with informational text
• Norms of the disciplines – how experts think, act, talk, and write within their disciplines – have not been foregrounded in the elementary classroom

So as I reflect upon my findings related to my inquiry I also think of the struggles that would need to be overcome to properly implement this in the classroom.  I think some of the ideas I shared will help teachers to implement disciplinary literacy in their classrooms.

Resource:

Brock, C. H., Goatley, V. J., Raphael, T., Trost-Shahata, E., Weber, C. M., & Palincsar, A. S. (2014). Engaging students in disciplinary literacy, K-6:  Reading, writing, and teaching tools for the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.