Exploring Disciplinary Literacy

It's All About Inquiry: Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Disciplinary Literacy Essentials   By Melissa Brooks-Yip, Coordinator of Instruction, and Amy Olmstead-Brayton, Coordinator of Assessment Services, Washtenaw ISD With the adoption of the Michigan Social Studies standards in the spring of 2019, we began receiving requests for support as schools and districts considered how their social studies curriculum may need to change. In preparing for our work, we realized that while many teachers were aware of at least one of the guiding documents, their depths of understanding varied. For this reason, most were not considering how all three documents could be used as tools to guide instruction and assessment. Additionally, we had to honor the fact that while we all agreed with the guiding principles described in the C3, the day-to-day practices in our classrooms and schools looked much different. We came to understand that in order to have classrooms dr...

The Journey Begins By Dr. Laura Gabrion, Literacy Consultant, Wayne RESA Shortly after Mary-Lu Strimbel and I were hired at Wayne RESA, our colleague Dr. Rosalyn Shahid asked us to reserve time for the Disciplinary Literacy Task Force work. Disciplinary...literacy? We trudged up to an ISD in the middle of the state to acclimate to the research, the document, and the work ahead. Our first Disciplinary Literacy Task Force meeting was a blur of information, objectives and urgency. At that point, even though the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in the Secondary Classroom document had not yet been released to the public, the Task Force was actively engaged in designing a professional learning model for pilot districts.  Read-Think-Talk-Write   As all good consultants do, we set up an intensive book study framed by inquiry and protocols. If we were to play an implemental role in state- and county-wide work, we needed to catch up...quickly....