Exploring Disciplinary Literacy

Rooted in Social Justice: Part I By Dr. Rosalyn Shahid, Wayne RESA, and Melissa Brooks-Yip, Washtenaw ISD The first in a series telling the history, purpose, and direction of the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12.   While the Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 were presented to the educational community in 2016, did you know the roots go back to 2008?  In 2008, Dr. Elizabeth Moje was called as an expert witness in The Right to Read Case in Highland Park, MI . Her testimony addressed two essential questions: What does instruction look like when it’s serving adolescents well? and What must change to produce equal access to literacy?  Answering these questions became the impetus for drafting what would become the   Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy: Grades 6-12 .  From its inception, the intent of the 6-12 Essentials has been to provide a roadmap for secondary ...

Mathematical Literacy?  Disciplinary Literacy?  We Need and Want Both. By Kathy Berry, Monroe County ISD; Cherron Ramsey, Wayne RESA; Marcus Deja, Kent ISD; Brad Thornburg, Gratiot-Isabella RESD; and Karen Reister, Traverse Bay Area ISD Think for a moment about literacy in the mathematics classroom.  What comes to mind? Do you immediately see word walls of mathematics vocabulary?  Writing in math journals?  Vocabulary strategies?  Or do you think of students connecting ideas from geometry and algebra together to solve and model problems?  Maybe you envision students individually and collaboratively analyzing a problem situation and determining multiple possible solution paths.  For each of us, our own past learning and experiences influence our reactions to “literacy.” It may be helpful to pause and seek clarity around the ideas of students becoming mathematically literate while using the tools of disciplinary literacy .  We want all stude...

Cheerios, Science, and Disciplinary Literacy By Wendi Vogel, Science Consultant, Kent ISD, DLE Task Force Committee Member (Note: This blog post is written to introduce the DLEs, produced by GELN/MAISA, to educators. It could be used for individual learning, in a PLC, a staff meeting, department meeting, or professional learning opportunity as well. Eating cheerios while reading is strongly recommended.) Have you ever eaten a bowl of Cheerios and noticed when you get toward the end of the Cheerios, they “stick” together in groups, or end up near the edge and stick to the sides of the bowl? If not, take a look at the picture above, or try it yourself! When looking at this “Cheerio effect,” it makes me wonder:  Why does it do this?  Do other cereals do the same thing?  Does the bowl matter?  Does the liquid matter?  What if I use whole milk? Skim milk? Carbonated liquid?  Do leaves do this if they land in a pond?  Is there some kind of force acting on th...

Oakland Schools: Building our Interdisciplinary ISD Team By Andrea Zellner, Literacy Consultant; Jenelle Williams, Literacy Consultant; Geraldine (Gerri) Devine, Mathematics Consultant; Stacie Woodward, Social Studies/Disciplinary Literacy Consultant; and James Emmerling, Science Consultant It was finally here: the document that we, as secondary and disciplinary literacy consultants, had all been waiting for. We’d watched with envy as the K-5 Literacy Essentials had transformed teaching in the elementary grades with a focus on inquiry, student engagement, choice reading, and authentic writing. But how would these principles translate into the 6-12 grades? Would it have the same impact given the distinct and unique the demands of teaching in the content areas? We had watched with dismay as year after year, our focus on “Writing Across the Curriculum” and “Reading Across the Curriculum” devolved into rote use of Cornell notes and other listless worksheets that did little to further our s...

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...