Disciplinary Literacy and Struggling Learners

Faggella-Luby, M. N., Graner, P. S., Deshler, D. D., & Drew, S. V. (2012). Building a house on sand: Why disciplinary literacy is not sufficient to replace general strategies for adolescent learners who struggle. Topics in Language Disorders, 32(1), 69-84.

Background

The authors asserted that, while disciplinary literacy instruction has been represented as an ideal replacement for more general literacy instruction, it cannot replace general strategy instruction for struggling adolescent learners who do not have the foundational skills and strategies to learn proficiently.

Aims

The authors aimed to support their thesis by identifying trends in the research base for discipline-specific reading comprehension and composition strategies where struggling adolescent learners were included in the subject population.

Sample

The studies that were analysed looked at students in Grades 4-12, and were chosen on the condition that they involved struggling adolescent learners (including those with reading-related disabilities or students at risk of failure who read or wrote at least two grades below grade level).

Method

The study examined trends in several meta-analyses conducted in the last four years for discipline-specific reading comprehension and composition strategies. Each study included at least one reading or writing quality measure. Thirty-one reading strategy articles were found, of which five were judged to include discipline-specific strategies in reading comprehension. Seven out of 33 writing strategy articles were found with discipline-specific strategies in writing composition.

Findings

Although the five reading studies employed researcher-developed outcome measures, only one of the five studies targeting discipline-specific instruction could show that this method of instruction outperformed typical practice instruction. The authors contended that this finding questions the potential efficacy of discipline-specific strategies.

All seven writing studies showed evidence of the effectiveness of discipline-specific strategies, although one study showed that students' writing quality was not maintained across time or with another teacher.

Only one of the 12 studies involved content other than reading or writing related to literature indicating a dearth of studies on the outcomes of disciplinary literacy for struggling learners. Moreover, that study, which taught a strategy for composing historical texts, yielded better results for high- and average-achieving students, with struggling students showing minimal gains.

Implications

The authors assert a need to modify disciplinary literacy instruction to meet the needs of diverse and struggling learners, including those with language disorders. They cite the long history of research that supports general strategy instruction focused on mnemonics, reading, and composition to improve academic performance, and suggest that these general strategies be embedded within teachers' discipline-specific instruction to help struggling learners improve content area knowledge.

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