Special Report
Reading & Literacy Video

Teaching Content and Supporting Reading Through Disciplinary Literacy

By Stephen Sawchuk & Lauren Santucci — October 28, 2024 4:39
102524 Disciplinary Literacy EDU BS

Reading is often taught as a generic skill that works the same in every context. But reading a poem and reading a scientific text make very different demands on the reader. Education Week’s latest special report delves into this idea of reading across disciplines.

Teachers don’t have to be experts on reading theory to support their students in this work. As researcher Tim Shanahan describes in this video, each discipline produces and communicates knowledge differently, and learning how to produce texts in those fields is part and parcel of teaching content.

Stephen Sawchuk is an assistant managing editor for Education Week, leading coverage of teaching, learning, and curriculum.
Lauren Santucci is a video producer for Education Week.
Related Tags:

Video

Classroom Technology Video Teachers, Try This: Digital Literacy Lessons for Elementary Students
Students are encountering technology at an early age. It's important they know how to interact safely with a digital world.
3:07
Photo of teacher helping students with their tablet computers.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Student Well-Being Video How Urban Schools Bring Lessons to Life Through Gardening
School gardens can connect classroom lessons with the wider world while offering lifelong learnings for students.
3:55
Student Well-Being Video What’s Behind the Political Criticisms of Social-Emotional Learning?
The Trump administration says SEL is being used to veil discrimination. What does that mean for schools?
Students from Suelllen Vesperman’s first grade class dance to the Macarena as they participate in an exercise through the InPACT program at North Elementary School in Birch Run, Mich., on March 2, 2023.
Students from Suelllen Vesperman’s first grade class dance to the Macarena as they participate in an exercise through the InPACT program at North Elementary School in Birch Run, Mich., on March 2, 2023.
Emily Elconin for Education Week
Student Well-Being Video The First Rule of SEL for Older Students? Don’t Be Boring
Middle and high schoolers are a much tougher audience for social-emotional-learning lessons.
2 min read
A high school student introduces herself to her classmates and guests in an AP research class.
A high school student introduces herself to her classmates and guests in an AP research class.
Allison Shelley for All4Ed