How Do Teachers Teach to Both Curriculum and Literacy Standards?

If a school leader seeks to empower teachers to share the inside knowledge of their discipline with their students, it can be helpful to ask them to articulate what they do as readers and writers in their discipline. For example, allow time for a team of science teachers to identify what is unique about reading a scientific text, such as a scientific study or lab report. What skills are unique, and what skills are universal? Once teachers have the capacity to articulate what makes them academic insiders, they may feel better equipped to share that knowledge with their students.

Next Steps for Leaders

Most teachers in disciplines other than ELA do not have a background in how to teach reading or writing skills. As you contemplate how to approach the need for all teachers to be literacy teachers, use the following questions to consider your leadership approach to this challenge.  How might you introduce to teachers the need for all teams to include literacy instruction as part of their curricula? What information will you use to make the case for literacybased instruction to be a part of all content areas?  How might you start small, directing teams to integrate literacy-focused instructional changes in incremental, easy-tointroduce ways through professional learning?  Given there is no one-size-fits-all approach to disciplinary literacy instruction, how will you adjust your approach to fit the needs of specific subject-based teams?

In secondary classrooms, there are always more content standards and skills to tackle than there is time for—in even a full school year. So, when teachers hear they will need to introduce literacy instruction into their curricula, it’s understandable if they’re skeptical or feel overwhelmed. In talking with many teachers, we find they

often feel like they just need to keep pressing forward to complete the curriculum and don’t have time to add more. We know there is a lot of pressure to do this, and we know teaching and learning are demanding. Addressing this concern is about encouraging teams to think and work smarter, not harder. Literacy leaders should provide teacher teams with examples of how team members can use and adapt literacy strategies that also support curriculum content standards and skills.

We believe literacy and subject content work hand in glove together. They are mutually interdependent. By approaching teaching and learning practices that help students read complex disciplinary texts with greater understanding and grow in their capacity to synthesize their learning in writing, students will also learn to think more critically, problem solve more effectively, and more fully conceptualize the challenging expectations of secondary and lifelong learning. In this way, disciplinary literacy skills grow right alongside proficiency with essential standards and learning targets.

Next Steps for Leaders

It’s always a challenge to appropriately pace a curriculum for students while ensuring teaching of all essential standards, but educators haven’t taught students if they haven’t learned. In building literacy-focused initiatives, use the following questions to consider how you will respond to team members who question the viability of teaching literacy skills alongside course curricula.  The secondary-level books in the series provide many examples. What models of how to incorporate literacybased instruction into curriculum instruction will best support disciplinary teams? (Use the strategies in the secondary-level series books to help support your approach.)  How might you support teams in choosing, trying, and reflecting on the effectiveness of specific strategies?  How can you model and lead a reflective teaching culture that is responsive to learning?