Blog Post 3

• What are the strongest arguments for and against taking a disciplinary approach to teaching reading at the elementary levels?
• There are many strong arguments for and against taking a disciplinary approach to teaching reading at the elementary levels. To begin, in Shanahan’s article, she stated that just reading can only go so far. Summarizing and contextualizing is easy, but there is no advancement after that if disciplinary literacy is not taught. I believe that disciplinary literacy should be taught in elementary school. I agree with Shanahan when she says that elementary school should prepare students for disciplinary reading.
• What Discourses, social languages, genres, and/or cultural models help to shape your focal discipline? 
• Discourses and genres help to shape my focal discipline of math. The discourses that help to shape my discipline is not only the definitions within textbooks, but written and real life examples, as well. There are genres that also help. For example, English and being able to read and write plays along with my discipline of math. If a student did not know how to correctly read a word problem, there would be no way of setting up a formula to find the solution.
• Think back to experiences in your focal discipline—how were you taught? Do you believe your teachers exposed you the processes by which experts created knowledge in your focal discipline?
• Thinking back to experiences in math, I was taught in many ways, which makes sense because I had many different teachers. I do not believe that my teachers exposed me to the processes by which experts created knowledge in my focal discipline. I say this because I feel as if they themselves do not the processes by which experts created this knowledge.

Shanahan, C., & Shanahan, T. (2014). Does disciplinary literacy have a place in elementary school? The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 636-639.

Spires, H. A., Kerkhoff, S. N., & Graham, A. C. (2016). Disciplinary literacy and inquiry: Teaching for deeper content learning. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(2), 151-161.

Gee, J. P. (2001). Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 44(8), 714-725.