Implementing a disciplinary-literacy curriculum for US history: learning from expert middle school teachers in diverse classrooms

Abstract

In recent years, educators in the USA have emphasized disciplinary literacy as an essential path forward in cultivating adolescents’ understanding of subject matter in tandem with literacy practices. Yet, this agenda poses challenges to teachers who have been tasked with its implementation. Here, we examine two expert US history teachers’ efforts to implement curriculum that integrates reading, writing and thinking in history with academically diverse eighth graders. We conduct qualitative analyses of teacher observations and interviews as well as student work. This analysis provides insight into several issues that emerge in efforts to teach disciplinary literacy in history classrooms: the nuances of teachers’ use of curriculum materials created by people other than themselves, teachers’ appropriation and adaptation of curriculum materials and teachers’ understanding of curriculum materials and disciplinary literacy goals. We find that teachers’ knowledge of the discipline and attention to students’ ideas allowed them to skillfully adapt the curriculum to better meet students’ needs and push students’ thinking. Orienting teachers toward disciplinary learning, ensuring a foundational understanding of their discipline and providing teachers with tools to teach disciplinary literacy are important steps to help students meet the demands of the disciplinary literacy agenda.

Keywords:

• social studies education
• teaching history
• literacy
• teacher knowledge

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education [grant number R305A090153].

Notes

1. This finding is based on analysis of their work using both analytic and holistic rubrics and consideration of the length of their papers.

2. Activities important to students’ learning included reading and annotating primary sources, generating plans in advance of composing, and writing essays that attempted to integrate specific disciplinary features such as the explanation and evaluation of evidence.