This paper argues that the plan and study phases of lesson study are productive in helping educators with varied expertise and experience to explore scientific practices like modeling with ties to disciplinary literacy. Points are illustrated with data from a lesson-study cycle in science that two university-based teacher educators, one in…

This article reports on recent research which found that academic communication skills are a problem for a surprisingly large proportion of English-speaking Australian students. Despite the widely-held recognition of the importance of academic literacy instruction in Australian higher education, literacy skills have previously been largely…

Teaching engineering students how to effectively communicate using the language, representations, and tools specific to their discipline is important to their development as practitioners in their respective fields. This article describes a literature review of learning activities intended to teach crystal structure and crystallography and…

This article addresses the considerations on what they term "digitally supported elementary disciplinary literacy" in elementary grade (K-5) instruction. In doing so, the authors focus on the particularities of elementary instruction and what disciplinary literacy might look like in those grade levels, with a particular emphasis on…

Given the prevalence of digital tools and platforms as the primary pedagogical means through which to organize and deliver content in schools, this study examined how history teachers instructed students in digital literacies to develop their disciplinary knowledge through project-based learning. Although several studies addressing new literacies…

Disciplinary literacy approaches recently have been finding their way into early elementary classrooms (K-2) and preschool, but this idea still needs more careful study, discussion, and operationalizing before determining its value and place in the early grades curriculum. The purpose of this article is to describe a case of curriculum exploration…

In this essay, we described how we use mentor texts (MTs) to foster students' disciplinary literacy--reading, writing, thinking, and performing abilities in an area related to their problem of practice. We did this by carefully creating scaffolded learning experiences affording them with multiple, situated learning opportunities over time that…

Practical Implications: The authors argue that disciplinary literacy is a relatively new conception of literacy skills in various content areas, and therefore jumping immediately to exemplary practices is unwise. Instead the authors recommend collaboration and inquiry as tools to generate and refine practices thoughtfully over time. [For the…

Literacy development is an essential aspect of academic success. Educational institutions have worked to implement various strategies and initiatives to increase students' literacy skills. Understanding the insights of both students and teachers is important for utilizing these skills effectively and if they have impact. Implementing strategies…

In "Text Sets in Action: Pathways through Content Area Literacy," Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes reveal how text sets can prompt serious thinking far more effectively than a textbook or any single text. As the authors explain, exploring many texts leads teachers and learners to 'think more deeply, empathize more fully, and…

Historians often present their interpretation of the past in written accounts. In order to gain deeper knowledge of the discipline of history, students must learn how to read and write historical accounts. In this experimental pretest--posttest study, we investigated the impact of a domain-specific reading instruction followed by domain-specific…

Integrating content-area and literacy instruction in primary-grade classrooms creates authentic and engaging opportunities for students to build background knowledge and literacy skills. Furthermore, when students engage in meaningful dialogue about content-area topics they can discuss complex ideas and use content-specific vocabulary. These…

This study examines the experiences of preservice and inservice teachers who developed web platform posts for The Multiliteracies Project, which in part involved creating a multimodal pedagogical tool embedded in a lesson plan to explore a multiliteracies approach in diverse content areas. This research draws upon theory of Learning by Design to…

Research indicates that dialogic teaching promotes students content understanding, learning engagement, and democratic participation in classroom discussion. However, dialogic teaching is often misconstrued as a challenge for multilingual learners because there is a tendency to view them as lacking English language proficiency for sustained…

A disciplinary literacy framework suggests that content-area teachers are best positioned to guide students into discipline-specific ways of reading, writing, and communicating, such as teaching science students to write as scientists do. "Disciplinary literacy instruction" can move students beyond generic literacy strategies and prepare…