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Disciplinary Literacy in Action

How to Create and Sustain a School-Wide Culture of Deep Reading, Writing, and Thinking

By: ReLeah Cossett Lent, Marsha McCracken Voigt

How do you get content area teachers on the same page about literacy? By  trusting that discipline-specific literacy skills will naturally arise—or will they? With this book, you get a professional learning plan to assure they do. Field-tested for more than a decade, this is ready made PL at its best, sure to instill innovative reading and writing schoolwide.

Product Details
  • Grade Level: PreK-12
  • ISBN: 9781544317472
  • Published By: Corwin
  • Series: Corwin Literacy
  • Year: 2018
  • Page Count: 368
  • Publication date: September 17, 2018

Price: $39.95

Price: $39.95
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Description

Description

“Much of the professional literature has focused on what disciplinary literacy entails; this valuable contribution explores how it can be implemented in complex school settings.”

—Doug Buehl, Author of Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines

 
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 sequel to ReLeah’s bestselling This Is Disciplinary Literacy, the authors provide educators with what they’ve wanted all along: a framework that keeps their subjects at the center and shows them how to pool strengths with colleagues in ongoing communities of professional learning (PL) around content-specific literacy.

 

In each chapter, and with a blend of lively disciplinary literacy teaching ideas and razor-sharp insights on developing teacher efficacy and leadership, ReLeah and Marsha take educators through a powerful PL cycle they can replicate in their school. The authors know it works not just because the research says so, but also because they have spent years refining the model in schools, districts, and regions. With this book, you will be ready for

  • Collaborative learning that preserves discipline-specific content yet keeps innovative daily practices of reading, writing, thinking, and doing at the forefront
  • Planning by autonomous literacy leadership teams with administrative support
  • Implementation augmented by peer and disciplinary literacy coaching
  • Reflection that leads to ongoing collective problem solving

In the end, it all comes back to how content teachers can best help students use literacy in all its forms to learn more deeply. With Disciplinary Literacy in Action, you have a proven framework for doing just that. This is the resource to lean on as you work to ensure all students use literacy as a tool to think, create, and communicate in any endeavor.

Author(s)

Author(s)

ReLeah Cossett Lent photo

ReLeah Cossett Lent

ReLeah Cossett Lent was a middle and high school English, social studies, and journalism teacher before becoming a founding member of a state-wide literacy project at the University of Central Florida. While there, she worked with a team to develop Florida’s Reading Endorsement courses and coordinated literacy leadership teams in schools across the state. She is now an international consultant— speaking, writing, and providing workshops on topics ranging from literacy to leadership teams. She has authored 11 books on all aspects of literacy, including engagement, disciplinary literacy, and literacy leadership teams. Her most recent books are the bestsellers This is Disciplinary Literacy: Reading, Writing, Thinking and Doing. . .Content Area by Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy in Action: How to Create and Sustain a School-Wide Culture of Deep Reading, Writing, and Thinking.


While she often provides keynote addresses and one-day workshops, her most productive work has been through multi-day residencies in schools, districts and consortiums. As an example, she has created numerous professional learning initiatives in and across districts for content-area teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators with in-school follow-up. The significant increase in student achievement and teacher leadership demonstrated the effectiveness of such a disciplinary literacy approach. She recently facilitated a year-long literacy leadership initiative in a high school, and the principal termed the experience “transformational” in terms of teacher learning and transfer to the classroom. They plan to expand the model throughout the district.


ReLeah
believes strongly in facilitating student ownership and active learning, most often through powerful collective efficacy as teacher teams engage in problem solving.


ReLeah
has been the recipient of several educational awards, such as intellectual freedom awards from both the National Council of Teachers of English and The American Library Association. She also received the prestigious PEN First Amendment Award and was awarded the Florida Council of Teachers of English (FCTE) President’s Award for “significant contribution to the teaching of English in the State of Florida.”

Marsha McCracken Voigt photo

Marsha McCracken Voigt

Marsha Voigt has 30 years of experience as a diagnostician and teacher, working with kindergarten through college-age students who struggled with literacy. She now focuses on professional development and serves as a consultant and literacy coach. In their article, “Growing Leaders from Within,” she and ReLeah describe their first year of working together to facilitate a truly collaborative literacy learning community.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of Figures


Acknowledgments


About the Authors


INTRODUCTION


     What to Expect From This Book

CHAPTER 1: DISCIPLINARY LITERACY AND COLLABORATIVE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: A PARTNERSHIP THAT WORKS

     Literacy Initiatives and PLCs: What Went Wrong?

     Collaborative Disciplinary Literacy Learning: A Story of Success

     Meet Our Disciplinary Literacy Learning Community

     Benefits of Collaborative Disciplinary Literacy Professional Learning

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 2: UNLOCKING DISCIPLINARY LITERACY

     What Is Literacy in the 21st Century?

     Content Area Literacy Versus Disciplinary Literacy

     Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in Action

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

HOW TO CREATE A SCHOOL-WIDE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINARY LITERACY


CHAPTER 3: CREATING A SCHOOL-WIDE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINARY READING

     Why Read in Every Discipline?

     Wide Reading in All Disciplines: There’s No Downside

     Reading Strategies: When and How

     Vocabulary: The Key to All Content Reading

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 4: CREATING A SCHOOLWIDE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINARY WRITING

     Exploring Disciplinary Writing

     Writing to Learn in the Discipline Areas

     Following the Pros: Disciplinary Mentor Texts

     Feedback: From Master to Apprentice

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 5: CREATING A SCHOOL-WIDE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINARY THINKING

     Learning to Think in Disciplinary Ways

     Curiosity Drives Disciplinary Thinking

     Students and Teachers: Thinking Like Insiders Together

     Making Disciplinary Thinking Visible

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

HOW TO SUSTAIN A SCHOOL-WIDE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINARY LITERACY


CHAPTER 6: BUILDING DISCIPLINARY LITERACY (DL) LEARNING COMMUNITIES

     The Problem With PLCs

     Fixing the Problem Through DL Learning Communities

     Tips for Creating Interdisciplinary

     Common Subject Literacy Learning Communities

     The All-Important First Meeting

     Supporting DL Learning Communities

     Moving Toward Collective Efficacy

     Sustaining DL Learning Communities

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 7: WHAT MATTERS MOST IN A DISCIPLINARY LITERACY (DL) LEARNING COMMUNITY

     Collective Inquiry

     Autonomy and Authority

     Meaningful Collaboration

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 8: FROM TEACHER LEARNER TO TEACHER LEADER

     Disciplinary Literacy Develops Deep Leadership

     Disciplinary Literacy Leadership Roles

     The Power of Disciplinary Literacy Leadership

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

CHAPTER 9: LEADING THE DISCIPLINARY LITERACY CHARGE

     Administrative Leaders as Learners

     Disciplinary Literacy Coaching: The Glue That Holds It All Together

     Fostering Disciplinary Literacy Dialogue

     Resources for Continued Learning

Coda


Appendix A: Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts


Appendix B: Disciplinary Literacy in Math


Appendix C: Disciplinary Literacy in Science


Appendix D: Disciplinary Literacy in Social Studies


Appendix E: Disciplinary Literacy in Art


Appendix F: Disciplinary Literacy in a World Language


Appendix G: Disciplinary Literacy in Health


Appendix H: Disciplinary Literacy in Music


Appendix I: Technology or Digital Literacy


Appendix J: Disciplinary Literacy in Physical Education


References


Index


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