This study examined EFL learners' attitudes and motivation towards learning English through content-based instruction (CBI) at a university in Thailand. Seventy-one (71) university students, the majority sophomores, answered a 6-point Likert scale questionnaire on attitudes and motivation together with six open-ended questions regarding learning…

The prominence afforded to literacy in the Irish Primary School Curriculum has received considerable attention in recent years, spurred by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings, governmental priorities, public commentary and academic debate. At times, this discourse has presented literacy as a separate and distinct entity…

Self-explanations are commonly used to assess on-line reading comprehension processes. However, traditional methods of analysis ignore important temporal variations in these explanations. This study investigated how dynamical systems theory could be used to reveal linguistic patterns that are predictive of self-explanation quality. High school…

This article presents strategies for locating and using digitally available primary source documents in the fields of Deaf history and Deaf cultural studies for instruction in a Deaf history class, traditional history/social studies class, or language arts class in lessons that incorporate the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/…

Effective and authentic communities of practice in schools have the potential to support teachers in improving their instructional practices around perennial challenges, such as improving the literacy skills of all students. But before they can achieve such goals, communities of practice take time to build, effort to sustain, and ongoing support…

Through the study of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, pre-service art teachers learn the about interdisciplinary design and the importance of using discipline-specific literacy strategies alongside the materials and methods of their craft. The creativity and enthusiasm with which these preservice teachers approached the work convinced us that…

The impetus behind the design and implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was to establish nationwide criteria in preparing students to be college or career ready by the end of high school. The standards require students to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate text across a wide range of disciplines. Essential to the mastery of the…

This paper presents a framework and methodology for designing learning goals targeted at what students need to know and be able to do in order to attain high levels of literacy and achievement in three disciplinary areas--literature, science, and history. For each discipline, a team of researchers, teachers, and specialists in that discipline…

Low achievement in reading is a concern in a suburban school in the southeastern part of Florida. In an attempt to combat this issue, the school's administration has focused on teaching disciplinary literacy in content area classes, specifically social studies. In addition, the state standards also require that social studies teachers meet the…

Often, teachers and administrators have questions about what it means to teach disciplinary literacy. This article addresses the most common questions and highlights the differences between disciplinary literacy and content area reading.

While educators and researchers agree on the crucial role of literacy motivation for performance, research on methods for accurately assessing adolescent reading motivation is still uncommon. The most used reading motivation instruments do not attend to the multiple content areas in which adolescents read. The present study examines a new…

An increasing number of children worldwide attend schools where the language of instruction does not match their native language, presenting significant challenges with learning the content and vocabulary of academic content areas (e.g., social studies, science). In the U.S., these students are designated as English language learners…

This investigation examined how middle school teachers implemented Word Generation, a cross-content vocabulary intervention and how the program affected student learning of academic vocabulary words. Participants included four content area teachers and their sixth-grade students. Students received vocabulary instruction in their social studies,…

Scholars contend that disciplinary literacy is a productive route for all secondary learners, including those identified as struggling readers, to build knowledge. Relatedly, scholars point to disciplinary literacy as a socially just alternative to decontextualized skill instruction and deficit positioning. Yet, little research has examined how…

This article examines two approaches to teaching content area literacy: a strategies approach focused on general practices of reading and writing and a disciplinary approach attuned to the particular discourses of particular domains. Basil Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device is used to critique both approaches' assumptions about…