What Does It Mean to be Literate in a Discipline?

Published in

Literate Schools

3 min readOct 27, 2017

Literacy can have several meanings and interpretations. Someone may believe that literacy is having the ability to read or write, while others believe that literacy is being competent or knowledgeable in a specific area. Someone else could feel that literacy is not limited to just being able to read or write. Instead they may feel that literacy is possessing the ability to interpret and understand information from various context. Literacy can be viewed in various ways, and is specifically viewed from a certain scope within a discipline. Being literate within a discipline means that you possess the ability to understand, interpret, and analyze concepts, vocabulary, and content knowledge. Disciplinary literacy also involves critical thinking, and performance within the context of a given field.

The English Language Arts content area supports, and encourages literacy through the use of written and oral communication, the readings of text and content, and even language. Therefore, without the mastery of these skills you cannot claim to be literate within the English Language Arts discipline.

Here is a video that will show the importance of possessing mastery level skills to encourage disciplinary literacy.

This video is a depiction of literacy within the English Language Arts discipline. In the beginning of the video the man is seen purchasing a “Reading Matters” book and colored pencils. He is then seen attending an adult literacy class with other adults learning the ABCs. At the beginning of the video the man is learning to read with children’s book, and as his skills progress he is later seen reading multiple books that require the ability to read on an advanced level. This man eventually mastered his communication, reading and language skills, and progressed these skills until he could read his son’s book which was obviously his final goal. This is a great video that shows the process of improving the ELA skills that are required to be considered literate within the English Language Arts discipline.
As an English Language Arts teachers, it is our duty to focus on developing students skills, and understanding of English Language Arts concepts, and content information. The image below outlines some of the content information that is important within the English Language Arts discipline. These skills will enhance not only the level of literacy of a student, but it will help them to be knowledgeable within the content area. The mastery of these skills is important during the matriculation of grade levels. Without the necessary mastery level of the disciplines content information, and concepts students will have a difficult time with learning new content information and skills at the next grade level.

Disciplinary literacy is having the content knowledge and skills, and understanding the various concepts that are applied within that discipline. It is important for English Language Arts teachers to improve on these skills to increase the literacy levels of their students.

Works Cited

What Does It Mean to be Literate in a Discipline?

Written by Tiffany Jeffery