DISCIPLINARY LITERACY AND ITS ROLE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LITERACY SKILLS
What is disciplinary literacy?
The Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Guidance report (EEF, 2019) refers to disciplinary literacy as ‘an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum’, recognising that ‘literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers of every subject to teach students how to read, write and communicate effectively’. The report states that as young people progress through their secondary education, ‘there is a growing need to ensure that students are trained to access the academic language and conventions of different subjects’. This is what disciplinary literacy aims to do – to support students in developing the subtle but important differences in reading and writing in subject-specific ways.
The reason the EEF has placed disciplinary literacy as the number 1 recommendation for improving literacy within secondary schools is that focusing on how students can get better at reading, writing and oracy within each subject area will then ultimately lead to students who have improved global literacy skills. This, in turn, will improve their performance within the subject at the same time. The PiXL Disciplinary Literacy package is designed to help schools think about and reflect on disciplinary literacy provision in their settings, as well as to consider some practical measures that will help facilitate this success.
