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What’s Science Literacy

Johnathan Welch

RDG 323 Professor Haddy

9/6/2020
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Expanding Literacy

Everything is constantly changing overtime especially within the educational field and

the literacy in which teachers demonstrate to their students. Literacy is traditionally defined as

the ability to comprehend reading and writing. More specifically though, it’s the comprehension

of knowledge within a specific field. An example of literacy would be knowing the rules on how

to drive a car or being able to cook specific recipes in a kitchen. According to CDoerrStevens,

there are three different levels of literacy including basic, intermediate, and disciplinary each

increasing in the complexity of their nature (2017). A student driver who’s getting their permit

would fall under basic literacy because they’re just learning the rules and regulations of driving a

car on the streets. As an instructor, there are two types of literacy in which we try and

communicate to our students, such as Content Area Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy. Content

Area Literacy is seen as the middle ground that is created after the initial building block.

Disciplinary Literacy is the most complex to teach and is specific to that area in which it applies.

Content Area Literacy helps create a different set of strategies that may be used

interchangeably between different disciplines. The main goal is to promote reading

comprehension of students. Teachers model the processes and then allow students to engage

these practices either independently or in smaller groups (International Literacy Association,

2017). A few various strategies that are currently implemented are “activating prior-knowledge,

asking questions, monitoring comprehension, and creating visualizations” (Buehl, 2013). These

strategies can be seen during daily instruction within the classroom because they have become

common practice. Disciplinary Literacy is more complicated than Content Area Literacy in that

the set of unique strategies are only meant to be used within that discipline. This can “how

students interpret and produce text” or “the production, sharing, and analysis of knowledge”
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(CDoerrStevens, 2017). An example would be a student in a history class being able to label

certain countries in Europe and their capitals. It’s vital to create these strategies for students to

utilize within the classroom so that later in their life they’re prepared to handle situations in a

similar way.

In today’s modern era, there is another literacy that is coming into fruition called Digital

Literacy. This has a higher focus base on how to use digital tools whether it be for academics or

skills that will benefit students later. While technology is becoming increasingly more advanced,

it’s still relatively new to us as a species. However, with the desired skills of digital literacy

becoming more critical to obtain a job in the 21st century, it is up to teachers to find new, unique

ways of teaching students this literacy. Teachers are still figuring out digital literacy as well

because of how new it’s. This means that they’re learning with students as well on how digital

literacy works. At first all they had to know was how to utilize a projector. It has gotten more

complex with instructors creating digital platforms for students to complete their assignments

and the navigation of Google Drive. Jobs are now looking for basic understanding of how to

navigate Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as a few other digital tools.

The Development of Scientific Literacy

Disciplinary Literacy in Science classrooms has been challenging the past couple of years

primarily because text has not been utilized at its fullest potential. A significant number of

instructors present their material through laboratory instruction or PowerPoint presentations.

Labs are most useful when physically manipulating objects is essential to the students learning.

A PowerPoint helps keep the teacher aligned with what is supposed to be taught but should not

be read off of word for word. The instructor digs deeper into the content and refers to the

PowerPoint when necessary. Author Zhihui Fang (2013), claims that text has been “underused”
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in the classroom space due to misconceptions that have been created about the quality of science

textbooks. Students who’re not given text cannot participate in social practices limiting the

amount of engagement they can participate in. It’s recommended that teachers obtain trade books

which are quality books that are “scientifically accurate, up-to-date, and devoid of stereotypes”

(Fang, 2013). These books portray what practiced science looks like in addition to providing

students with an adventure that is unobtainable in a classroom.

Other authors with similar concerns including Susan Feez and Frances Quinn address the

barrier between student success based on literacy role. In order to develop teaching strategies

that benefit students learning science, you need to enroll in science courses beyond the first two

years of college. Without taking those courses, teachers could “limit their capacity to teach

literacies effectively” (Feez & Quinn, 2017). The reason for this is the lack of strategies being

modelled that apply for science courses specifically. However, it’s extremely difficult to

incorporate teaching strategies for science literacy because of how much goes into them. Specific

language must be used as well as images that go into the “teaching of science successfully” (Feez

& Quinn, 2017). On top of this, the teacher needs to be descriptive about the content in which

they’re informing individuals on.

Engaging Students Literacy

Trying to have students engage with a new concept or literacy material is always

difficult. The goal though to make it less difficult is applying it to things that students can relate

to and is creatively interesting to them. One idea that teachers can implement into their

classroom and is cross curriculum are Book Discussion Groups. This is an easy way for students

to get involved in reading and learning content at the same time. Depending on the teacher’s

methodology, they can ask students to create project based off of the material they’re reading,
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identify certain parts in the book that resonate with them, apply specific aspects of the material to

their lives, etc. Zhihui Fang (2013) mentioned that those who read similar books in a group can

share their responses and take part in different roles. A few of the roles include historian,

translator, investigator, and fact finder. Personally, this is something that I would incorporate

into my classroom teachings because it develops students reading and can either be done

physically with a har copy book or digitally.

Another great concept which can be utilized in any subject classroom are graphic

organizers. There are a variety of organizers that can be produced depending on the outcome that

one is looking for. Graphic organizers visualize connections between concepts as well as

encouraging students to extract key details from the text (Roman, Jones, Basarba, & Hironaka,

2016). A concept map is a great example of a graphic organizer. It picks out key information that

will help the student grasp the content and be able to remember it for quizzes or other texts. The

authors of Helping Students Bridge Inferences in Science Texts Using Graphic Organizers, state

that “equipping students with tools and methods such as these… is useful for supporting

students’ understanding of texts” (Roman, Jones, Basaraba, & Hironaka, 2016). Once instructors

develop these skills with their students, they will be able to have them work independently on the

material with limited supervision.

Content Area Literacy and Discipline Literacy vary because Content focuses more on

general strategies that can be used in various content areas while discipline narrows in on what

works for one specific subject. Digital literacy can impact this in a positive way because the

material is online and accessible in many locations. The downside of digital literacy is that not

all students have access to this material and can negatively impact them later on.
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References

CDoerrStevens. (2017). Content Area Literacy vs. Disciplinary Literacy Minilecture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH49UMw02Jc&feature=emb_title

Fang, Z., (2013). Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Disciplinary Literacy in Science. Vol.

57, Issue 4. https://ila-onlinelibrary-wiley-

com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.250

Feez, S., Quinn, F., (2017). Teaching and Teacher Education. Teaching the distinctive language

of science: An integrated and scaffolded approach for pre-service teachers. Vol. 65.

https://www-sciencedirect-

com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/science/article/pii/S0742051X16304267

International Literacy Association. (2017). Literacy Leadership Brief. Content Area and

Disciplinary Literacy Strategies and Frameworks.

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-content-area-

disciplinary-literacy-strategies-frameworks.pdf?sfvrsn=e180a58e_6

Roman, D., Jones, F., Basaraba, D., Hironaka, S., (2016). Journal of Adolescent & Adult

Literacy. Helping Students Bridge Inferences in Science Texts Using Graphic Organizers.

Vol. 60, Issue 2. https://ila-onlinelibrary-wiley-

com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.555