Disciplinary Literacy & EduPaths

In collaboration with MAISA's General Education Leadership Network (GELN), the 6-12 Disciplinary Literacy Task Force has developed professional learning courses in EduPaths to support the Essential Practices for the secondary classroom.

Each course walks you through the research that supports the Essential Practices and introduces strategies that can be implemented at the middle and high school levels.

For up-to-date information on the 6-12 Disciplinary Task Force, visit the MAISA Leadership Networks.

This foundational course explores some of the basic concepts that drive this work and also discusses connections to other instructional frameworks. We define literacy and disciplinary literacy, and name the shifts in instructional practices that support student-centered teaching and learning that help students take on "disciplinary identities" while maintaining their cultural integrity.

Course two explores student-centered, disciplinary literacy instruction with a focus on purpose setting and the use of problems, questions, or phenomena to drive instruction. It looks at how to tap into students’ communities, experiences, and funds of knowledge in this process. The two areas of focus correspond to Practices 1 and 9 in the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction.

This third course explores ongoing formative assessment and the development of summative assessments that take a strengths-based approach to measure students’ use of disciplinary literacy practices. These areas of focus correspond to Practice 8 in the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction.

Course 4 explores identifying, developing, and analyzing resources and text sets. These areas of focus correspond to Practice 2 in the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction.

Course five, part 1, focuses on the process of developing text-based activities and discussions with an emphasis on disciplinary reading and Essential Practice 3.

Course five, part 2, continues this conversation about the process of developing text-based activities and discussions with an emphasis on disciplinary reading and Essential Practices 3 and 5.

Part 1 of the sixth course addresses prioritizing disciplinary writing as we establish compelling reasons for writing. We also tap into student self-efficacy in writing and communication while investigating Essential Practice 4.

Part 2 of course six explores the role of informal and formal writing and how we can teach both types of writing in each discipline. We will pay particular attention to Essential Practice 6.

This final course explores why we should focus on vocabulary and how to target words for instruction, as well as how this focus shifts across disciplines. We also address the role speaking and listening play during vocabulary learning while living into Essential Practices 7 and 10.