Disciplinary Literacy

What is it?

“We are no better, or worse, at understanding Iraq from instant video than the Brits were at understanding America from salty, soggy mail. Whatever the speed of the news, the speed of understanding never seems to change, perhaps understanding is shaped not by our ability to get the news but by our ability to digest it.”

- “The Right Man: Who Owns Edmund Burke” By Adam Gopnik The New Yorker July 29, 2013.

What is Disciplinary Literacy?Disciplinary Literacy is not just using“generic reading and writing strategies to learn about science, math, history and literature.”

Disciplinary Literacy is the use of discipline-specific practices to access, apply, andcommunicate content knowledge.  

Content teachers will • emphasize aspects of literacy that they

have not often emphasized in the past (these are disciplinary standards—the idea is not teach students general reading skills and strategies, but to teach unique or specialized aspects of literacy use in the disciplines)

• make sure students have opportunities to engage in the challenging reading and writing of the disciplines in ways that are appropriate to the disciplines (text needs to be an important part of the instructional routines of these subjects)

http://www.updc.org/assets/files/professional_development/consortium/folder/sept2013/ccss-literacy-in-disciplines-summer-2013.pdf

What is it?Vocabulary Strategies:• Science – look at the Greek and Latin roots– Botany: annual, biennial, perennial

• History – figurative and metaphorical language– Gilded Age, Middles Ages vs. Dark Ages

Writing: My daughter is a scientist and when she went to college she had to learn how to write all over and it was hard and she struggled. - HCPSS Science Teacher

How does this impact my class and instruction?

So what is CCSS text?

Textbooks?

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The HouseThe neighbors' dog will not stop barking.He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark

that he barks every time they leave the house.They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.I close all the windows in the house

and put on a Beethoven symphony full blastbut I can still hear him muffled under the music,

barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,his head raised confidently as if Beethoven

had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,sitting there in the oboe section barking,

his eyes fixed on the conductor who isentreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectfulsilence to the famous barking dog solo,that endless coda that first established

Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Billy Collins

So is this text according to the CCSS?

Yep – and here’s why . . . We need to know this stuff!

Going beyond the textbook

Madonna and Child, ca. 1300Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian, Sienese, active ca. 1278–d. 1318)Tempera and gold on wood, with original engagedframehttp://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/virg/hd_virg.htm

Giovanni Bellini - Venice? 1433 /1436 – Venice 1516Madonna and Child (Alzano Madonna)[Madonna col Bambino, detta di Alzano]c.1488oil on wood panel 84.3 (h) x 65.5 (w) cmAccademia Carrara, BergamoBequest of Giovanni Morelli 1891http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/Renaissance/Default.cfm?IRN=202356&BioArtistIRN=36999&MnuID=SRCH&ArtistIRN=36999&ViewID=2

Of the two pictures provided for you, one was painted in the Medieval Period and the other was painted during the Renaissance. Write a short essay explaining which painting was painted in each period. Be sure to cite evidence from the “texts” to support your answer.

Text Dependent Questions

• They don’t assess whether the information is correct – they assess a student’s ability to analyze text.

So go back to our art question . . .

The Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/resources/Rsrc_001625.pdf

Madonna and Child, ca. 1300Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian, Sienese, active ca. 1278–d. 1318)Tempera and gold on wood, with original engagedframehttp://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/virg/hd_virg.htm

Giovanni Bellini - Venice? 1433 /1436 – Venice 1516Madonna and Child (Alzano Madonna)[Madonna col Bambino, detta di Alzano]c.1488oil on wood panel 84.3 (h) x 65.5 (w) cmAccademia Carrara, BergamoBequest of Giovanni Morelli 1891http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/Renaissance/Default.cfm?IRN=202356&BioArtistIRN=36999&MnuID=SRCH&ArtistIRN=36999&ViewID=2

Of the two pictures provided for you, one was painted in the Medieval Period and the other was painted during the Renaissance. Write a short essay explaining which painting was painted in each period. Be sure to cite evidence from the “texts” to support your answer.

Moving…..From…..• Writing from a personal

perspective… I think, I feel.

• Teacher interpreting text.

• Reading only textbooks.

• Identification and memorization of facts.

• Using a single text to gather information.

To……• Evidence -based responses both

orally and in writing.

• Students immersed in “the work.”

• Increased close reading of a variety of informational texts.

• Analyzing, synthesizing, and critiquing information.

• Multiple sources of information.

Website and Video

• https://msde.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgkKKDUoU58