Disciplinary literacy instruction during kindergarten through second grade enables students to begin developing facility with consuming, producing, and learning from texts in academic disciplines across their school careers and for full civic participation. Extant intervention studies and descriptions of practice in the primary grades offer…

Wide vocabulary knowledge is associated with proficiency in reading comprehension and scores on tests involving comprehension. Yet assessments show that U.S. students at various grade levels have demonstrated no improvement in their vocabulary knowledge since 2009. Literacy expert Timothy Rasinski and colleagues argue that students need improved…

Positioning reading as a site of meaning negotiation, this article provides a detailed account of one multilingual, transnational student's literacy practices for personal, academic, and disciplinary purposes across spaces. Drawing on the notion of "disconnect," I examine the tensions and fissures that disrupt the flow of literacies…

Being literate in an academic discipline means more than simply being able to read and comprehend text; it means you can think, speak, and write as a historian, scientist, mathematician, or artist. Doug Buehl strips away the one-size-fits-all approach to content-area literacy and presents a much-needed instructional model for disciplinary…

This study investigates one school's approach to increasing high school graduation rates through the use of a school-wide support model. The leadership team at the study site sought to identify and address the primary barriers to graduation at that school. An assistant principal at the study site conducted an independent analysis of student-level…

What happens when middle and high school teachers who know their content very well are told they should be teaching reading and writing too? Is there a bit of resistance? A decrease in self-efficacy? An overturning of curricula? In "Disciplinary Literacy in Action," ReLeah Cossett Lent and Marsha Voigt show us a better way. In this…

Teachers' collaboration and interaction experiences combine great opportunities to exchange knowledge and skills to boost the rigor of lesson plans and impact student learning. This study explores pre-service and in-service teacher collaborations and their interactions in an attempt to create a Scaffolded Reading Lesson SRL plan for grade twelve…

Current reforms in content area education present new challenges for literacy educators. These reforms promote engaging students in the practices of the disciplines--teaching students how to participate in an activity in which disciplinary content is produced. Content area literacy (CAL) instruction that supports only the learning of general…

Reading comprehension refers to elementary children's levels of understandings of written text. Building on Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956), children can understand text at various levels including the literal, inferential, application, and evaluation. When teachers build on the levels of reading…

Reading comprehension models are being implemented in content-area settings to boost reading achievement. Yet, little research explores how such models are incorporated into teachers' daily instructional practice. The authors used extended observations and interviews to examine the integration of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), an…

The Common Core State Standards for English language arts expect that teachers will use narrative and informational texts to teach content area material across the curriculum. However, many teachers at all grade levels struggle to incorporate both kinds of text, especially given the vast amount of specialized content they are required to teach.…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2017) reported that literacy scores have not significantly improved in over 20 years. These scores have prompted investigations of instruction for improving literacy instruction, such as disciplinary literacy (DL), but research supporting DL implementation is limited (Fisher & Ivey, 2005;…

In today's differentiated classroom, each individual student receives from their teacher student-centered instruction and customized assignments to reflect their skills and knowledge. Teachers differentiate their assignments so each of their students may access the Common Core State Standards, interact with complex nonfiction texts, integrate…

Barry Gilmore, a principal at Hutchinson School in Memphis, Tennessee, has set out to create a culture of literacy at his school. In this article, he outlines 10 steps for fostering such an environment. Among other recommendations: publicly celebrate reading, create channels for booksharing, read and write across content areas, value disciplinary…

Information text can be utilized to enhance both reading and science instruction in the kindergarten classroom. These books bring abstract concepts to life for young learners, and can serve as the focal point for numerous topics of study. Although many teachers incorporate information books into their teaching, it is important that teachers…