Content-Area Literacy

Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing

Summary: Developed collaboratively among representatives from the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project, Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing describes the rhetorical and twenty-first-century skills that are critical for college success based on current research in writing and writing...

Cultural Landscapes for Literacies Learning: An Innovative Art Museum and Teacher-Research Community Partnership

Author: Ralph Cordova and Michael Murawski Summary: Documenting the cross-disciplinary literacy activities supported by a partnership between teacher-researchers and a local art museum, this excellent resource offers both activities and practical strategies for taking writing about art into the classroom using resources from local art galleries and online virtual art...

What’s Next: Possibilities for Literacy and Content Area Learning (NWP Radio)

Summary: This NWP Radio show captures the conversation among planners, presenters and participants in the 2010 National Reading Initiative Conference in New Orleans. The conference captured learning from NWP sites engaged in the National Reading Initiative. Of particular interest to teacher leaders looking at the reading/writing connection and disciplinary literacy,...

What Is Reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding

Author: Christine Cziko, Cynthia Greenleaf, Lori Hurwitz, and Ruth Schoenbach Summary: Reading is a complex process that involves much more than the ability to decode. This short article offers a foundational way to conceptualize what readers need to do as they develop proficiency in reading different kinds of texts for...

Disciplinary Literacy and Reading Across the Content Areas

Author: Art Peterson Summary: For teachers in the content areas, Elizabeth Birr Moje’s work provides strong guidance for improving disciplinary literacy. Moje’s argues that focusing on disciplinary literacy helps teachers understand the thinking and learning demands students face as they move through different content area classes that make up a typical high...

Teaching Reading: A Semester of Inquiry

Author: Antero Garcia Summary: Acknowledging that, in these early years of the digital age, “literacies are changing . . . a lot,” Antero Garcia notes that this “is a resource of a specific moment.” Student projects, blog posts, discussions, and more from Garcia’s course “Teaching Reading,” in which he and...

Joined at the Hip: The Joys and Travails of Teaching “Linked” Courses

Author: Matthew Teorey Summary: This article features one university’s program offering “Freshman Learning Communities” in which two instructors from different disciplines work together developing curriculum by coordinating two sets of complementary readings and assignments. In this cross-disciplinary approach, a community environment helps the students succeed in their freshman year. The...

Why I Write: Scientist Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn

Author: Timothy Ferris Summary: Ferris explains that he writes as a way to learn science and describes the vital role that science has played in changing the world for the better. He discusses how writing for general audiences can help scientists to “clarify their own thinking, by obliging them to...

Writing Across the Hidden Curriculum

Author: William Strong Summary: Pushing back against the “hidden curriculum” of school writing as teacher-centered and reductive, Strong asserts a model of student-centered writing to learn. This article explains the importance of writing across disciplines and gives practical examples of authentic content area writing skills. His 12-point description of the...

Students Write Tabloid Tabulations in a Math Gossip Magazine

Author: Joe Bellacero and Tom Murray Summary: If you are looking for an example of work that integrates mathematics and writing, this one is creative and supported through research related to math. This is a teacher and teacher-consultant’s account of a “writing and math” strategy used in the middle school...