There are a lot of great things one can do to scaffold learning in terms of creating a classroom of disciplinary learners. Helping them engage with the necessary skills would be extremely helpful in developing their skills. For example, we have discussed the various skills in the different content areas that are used for disciplinary literacy. In math, having students use the many different strategies to help them go on a journey of self-exploration. Breaking down problems and going through the various parts is key in figuring through disciplinary literacy in math. In English, breaking down texts and going through the various literacy techniques is a focal component of disciplinary literacy. The disciplinary literacy skills used in English can be used in all subjects. Such tools are vital to other content areas, but students may not understand that they are using the tools. It is the role of the general education teacher to make students aware that the tools are being used in the content areas. In Science, there are disciplinary skills needed to conduct experiments and being truly engaged in the class. The problem I have had with this class and this curriculum is that I do not understand why I am now learning about disciplinary literacy in one of my last classes in college. Whether it is poor planning in terms of the school of ed faculty or just how it is set up, it seems a little ridiculous. Such a skill should have been taught earlier in my collegiate journey, so in my field experiences I could have focused on the disciplinary skills my host teacher was using. For example, I was in a mid-Atlantic charter school science class, and I am 100% convinced the teacher was using many disciplinary literacy skills. However, I am sure I was completely unaware he was teaching them. It seems to be that there are a lot of positives with teaching disciplinary literacy, but they are highlighted so little in pre-service teacher education. Unless I went looking for them in published articles, there would have been no way I would have found it.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Dennison77's Blog 
I also find it hard to believe that we are just now learning what disciplinary literacy is. From the articles we read, so many of them argued for it to be taught in high school, middle school and even introduced in elementary school. It is crazy that I almost went through college without knowing what it was. However, now that I have been introduced to it, while I was in field, I began to observe my teacher based on her disciplinary literacy. I noticed how she would speak differently to her low level math classes compared to her AP Calculus class. She would speak in math terms in both classes, which I know some people that do not know math would not be able to understand like her math students did. Disciplinary literacy should be introduced, spoken about and taught as early as possible because it is important for students to use it across all subject areas as it will help them to get a better grasp on what they are learning.
LikeLike
I think it is very important to be able to scaffold student learning. I do think there are many ways to scaffold student learning with disciplinary literacy being one of those ways. I agree that in order to truly have disciplinary learners, you need to build on their understanding and comprehension of the subject. You bring up an interesting point about the timing of this class. While I believe we have had some elements of teaching disciplinary literacy, it was never put to that name. It would have been useful when being taught how to teach science and history to know how to apply disciplinary literacy to those subjects. Doing it subconsciously does not help us grow as future teachers or pick up on the teaching of disciplinary literacy in our field observations.
LikeLike
Scaffolding students’ learning is crucial for their development. I completely agree that we must engage students into learning the content otherwise they will not be interested and their grades will suffer because of it. Engagement is key for success within the classroom. If we can’t keep them focused and interested on the content then how are we supposed to expect them to scaffold this information and interpret information in other ways? We as teachers must be masters within our discipline in order to be successful for our students. We need to be focused and very informed not just of the information, but the many different ways students may learn so we can be prepared to help all children who may think differently than we do. It is important for us to introduce disciplinary literacy as early as possible for students to start practicing this type of learning, that way, they can become better learners and will be prepared for their future careers whether that be going to college or entering the workforce. It is our job to prepare them for the real-world, and in doing so, disciplinary literacy and scaffolding their work will do just that.
LikeLike