Disciplinary Literacy Confession: I’m annoyed when I think
I’m going to get my hands on another juicy disciplinary literacy piece, and the
authors are really talking about interdisciplinary literacy.
Don’t get me wrong—I appreciate interdisciplinary literacy,
and some of my own burgeoning work looks at how teachers can work together to
employ disciplinary literacy approaches, but sometimes I think authors do not
quite understand disciplinary literacy and fall on the familiar,
interdisciplinary literacy, in an attempt to join the conversation.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it :)
* “A disciplinary literacy
approach emphasizes the specialized knowledge and abilities possessed by those
who create, communicate, and use knowledge within each of the disciplines” (p.
7, Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2012). What is disciplinary literacy and
why does it matter? Topics in Language
Disorders, 32(1), 7–18.).
Figure from:
Shanahan,
T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents:
Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review,
78(1), 40-59.
