Abstract of

Commentary
Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change

Elizabeth Birr Moje

[Elizabeth Moje expands on this commentary in a podcast available at www.reading.org/downloads/podcasts/II-Moje.mp3.]

In this commentary, the author argues for building disciplinary literacy instructional programs, rather than merely encouraging subject matter teachers to employ literacy teaching practices and strategies. Readers might wisely question a focus on disciplinary learning in a time when new media, literacies, and social networking practices are so powerful. The author's argument is that knowledge and skill in the subject matter of the disciplines is essential to young people becoming active participants in a democratic society.

Although literacy educators acknowledge the value and power of the knowledge, practices, and texts young people bring to school, it is also critical that we acknowledge the need to expand youth knowledge, practices, and texts. Disciplinary literacy instruction can help youths gain access to the accepted knowledge of the disciplines, thereby allowing them also to critique and change that knowledge. Beginning with disciplinary practices in efforts to integrate literacy instruction more fully throughout secondary schools may better position secondary school educators to draw from a range of new texts and practices available in the disciplines and in adolescents' everyday lives to generate critical learning opportunities.

Abstract from Moje, E. (2008, October). Foregrounding the Disciplines in Secondary Literacy Teaching and Learning: A Call for Change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.52.2.1