Week 6 Readings

            In the readings for Week 6, the primary focus was an introduction to the ideal of disciplinary literacy. In the book “Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines”, Doug Buehl talks about how it is important for educators to ensure their students learn how to read in many academic disciplines.

In Chapter 1, Buehl gives an overview of what it means to be disciplinary literate. He begins the chapter by giving ways to identify what type of reader a person is and how to identify what type of academic identity a person has. It is important to know what type of academic identity a person has because this can allow for teachers to identify this in their students. The chapter gives a model of disciplinary literacy (basic, immediate, and disciplinary literacy) that educators should strive to work together to ensure that all students reach disciplinary literacy, even though some students may have stronger literacy in one particular area of academia than another. I understood this to mean that it is important that students obtain the necessary structure and tools, which Buehl mentions as in the “Gradual Release of Responsibility” in order to be able to take any academic reading and be able to comprehend and interpret it.

In Chapter 2, Buehl begins a more in-depth look at how readers and comprehension in terms of complex texts. In the chapter, he talks about pseudoreading, which I found interesting because I have, and at times still am, guilty of reading some texts with these characteristics. However, I think it was very important to understand the seven comprehension processes of proficient readers. Reading through these processes helped me identify which I do in my everyday academic reading and which I need to improve on. Also, it gives me more of a visual in terms of what educators should look for in students and how to help improve in students. Also, understand the complexity of academic text, including discourse, is important to understand because as educators we should always remember that our students will always look at vocabulary that we see as simple as complex and foreign. This is where scaffolding can be useful in helping students become more literate in science texts.

I have a question that I am curious for everyone’s perspective. How would you incorporate disciplinary literacy in the classroom? My approach is that it would have to be intertwined in a curriculum that would satisfy the district in which I teach as well as including the different aspects of modeling and critical thinking. Let me know what you think.