PositionStatementonDisciplinaryLiteracyinSTEM

MeganMiklusicak,AbigailRyan,andCallianneTidwell

DescriptionofDisciplinaryLiteracy
Successfulscientistsrelyheavilyonobservationsandexperiments,whichrequires
interpretingdatasuchasprose,mathematicalcalculations,andvariousgraphs.Scientists
examineconnectionsbetweenthisdata,tofullyunderstandtheconceptsandexperiments.
Scientistsfullyunderstandhowtotransformprosetodiagramsorgraphstomaketheinformation
easierforotherstoreadandunderstand.Successfulscientistswritefordifferentaudiencesand
purposes.
Disciplineliteracyinmathreliesonmorelineartextsthanscience,andrequiresstudents
toswitchthinkingstylesastheydecodeEnglishgrammarandmathematicalrules.Inmath,
studentscouldtalkthroughtheproblemwhileworkingitoutontheboardtoshowknowledge
andunderstandingofthetopic.Likescience,mathstudentsalsoneedtoexamineanddefine
vocabwordstofullyunderstandconceptstobeabletomoveontomoredifficulttopics.Science
andmathconceptstendtobuilduponeachother,andcertainwordsmighthavedifferent
definitionsdependingonthesubject.

Texts,Tasks,andLiteracyPractices
Sciencetextsetsincludelabreports,experiments,journalarticles,andresearch
proposals,aswellasgraphsandmathematicalcalculations.Textfeaturesincludepurposefuluse
ofpassivevoice,longnounphrases,nominalizationofverbs,andtheuseoflanguagetosignalize
levelsofconfidence(Shanahan,2015,p.5).Disciplinarypracticesforscienceinclude
transformingprosetodiagramsorsomeothertypeofvisualrepresentation,learningscience
vocabulary,takingnotes,andunderstandingthelanguageofscience.Studentscouldalso
transformprosetodiagramsorvisualrepresentationstocheckforunderstandingoftheconcept
(Shanahan,2015,p.7).Studentsalsohavetoexamineanddefinevocabwordstofully
understandtheconceptstobeabletomoveontomoredifficultconcepts.
Mathtextfeaturesincludesequations,variables,andsymbols.Textsetsformathcouldbe
readingthelessonsinthetextbook,aswellasreadingaboutmathproceduresinmagazines.
Disciplinarypracticesincluderereadingequationswithappropriatedirectionality,learningthe
namesofvariables,learningaccuratedefinitions,detectingerrors,andrecognizingdistracting
information.Someprocessesandstrategiesforachievingcomprehensionoftextsinmathinclude
practice,readtheproblem,identifyalloftheinformation,drawapicture,andexplainthegoalor
answerintheirownwords(Shanahan,2015,p.5).


ImplicationsandRecommendationsforInstruction
Withinthisdiscipline,forbothmathandscience,studentsmustlearnhowtoreadcharts
andgraphs,makesenseofthematerialbeingpresented,andapplyittorealworldproblems.
Studentsmustalsoknowhowtoreadandsolveequations,aswellascreatediagramsandmodels
torepresentsuchdata.Instructionaldesignsforbothdisciplinesfollowthegradualreleaseof
responsibilityframework.Theframeworkincludesfocusedinstruction,guidedinstruction,
collaborativelearning,andindependentlearning(Fisher&Frey,2013,p.2).Thegradualrelease
ofresponsibilityframeworkisusedinlabsforscienceandforworkingmathproblems.


References
Fisher,D.&Frey,N.(2013).GradualReleaseofResponsibilityInstructionalFramework.
IRA
EssentialsIRA,
2
.
Shanahan,C.(2015)."DisciplinaryLiteracyStrategiesinContentAreaClasses."
ILAEssentials
ILAE
:118.Web.17Feb.2016.