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All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address FEATURE usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Lauri J. Vaughan [email protected] Sue Smith [email protected] Meredith Cranston [email protected] 38 Knowledge Quest | What Makes a Literacy? All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Volume 44, No. 5 | May/June 2016 39 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Teachers become experts in in their fundamental purposes, summarizing or paraphrasing to their discipline and its writing specialized genres, symbolic efficiently incorporate secondary conventions after years of study. artifacts, traditions of commu- sources in an essay. The history However, we ask students who nication, evaluation standards of teachers also mentioned that their switch subjects five or six times a quality and precision, and use of students put too much emphasis day to change disciplinary lenses language” (2012, 11). William G. on transitions between ideas, felt every hour or so. We can imagine Brozo and colleagues explained: unnecessarily compelled to attach students’ feeling baffled: Why is “Unlike the outside-in approach of their discussion of a past event to an author’s nationality or temporal generic content reading, disciplin- a contemporary issue, and often context so important in history but ary literacy evolves from the inside took great liberties with their hardly rates a mention in science? out because the text itself and the interpretation of events. These are Why can nothing be said defini- goals for reading the text dictate the same skills English teachers tively about The Great Gatsby but the reading process” (2013, 354). strive to cultivate among young authoritative claims can be made In other words, rather than asking writers discussing literature. It about proof of the Pythagorean all teachers to take responsibility is no wonder students, even Theorem? for teaching their students the same conscientious students, are reading and information literacy confused. As an alternative to the established skills, ask content specialists to approach of integrating general- focus on disciplinary literacy and Applying Shanahan and ized information literacy skills teach reading in the manner their Shanahan’s definition of into projects and papers, consider disciplines demand. disciplinary literacy to an appeal directly to teachers’ information literacy requires expertise so that students can A recent discussion with high school development of skills beyond the develop skills within the framework history teachers about what they ability to simply read and write; of subject-specific content. As had to “unteach” their students it requires a broader definition Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia was revealing. They mentioned of literacy. Information literacy Shanahan have explained, dis- the propensity of students to depends on abilities to search, ciplinary literacy recognizes include direct quotations in identify, evaluate, parse, and that “disciplines differ extensively their writing; historians prefer effectively re-communicate information. It implies a broad level of fluency in confronting, handling, and communicating information in all its mediums, a set of skills we might refer to as disciplinary information literacy. The student who is disciplinarily information literate is able to access, identify, evaluate, parse, and effectively re-communicate information in a manner appropriate to a given discipline. Reframing our collaborations around disciplinary information literacy is not an unreasonable goal. Making our students explicitly aware of the differences between researching and writing in history versus English or science will help students code- switch as they move, physically and mentally, from discipline to discipline throughout their school day and assignments. With this 40 Knowledge Quest | What Makes a Literacy? All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Lauri J. Vaughan is the Upper School Campus librarian at the Harker School in San Jose, California. She is a member of AASL and is currently serving on the YALSA Writing Award Jury. She was awarded the Bay Area Independent School Librarians’ Founders Award for 2015. She regularly publishes book reviews in VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates). Lauri is also the past president of the Bay Area Independent School Librarians. Sue Smith is the library director at the Harker School in San Jose, California. She is a member of AASL. She was a contributor to Grow- ing Schools: Librarians and Profession- al Developers (Libraries Unlimited 2012), which was Teacher Librarian’s 2012 Best method, in collaborating with our of how information is handled by Professional Book of the Year and received LMC/ colleagues, we can help learners experts in the discipline and asks ARBA’s 2013 Best in Reference Award. become sophisticated participants students to assume the mantel of in the scholarly conversation. scholars, adopting the practices of mathematicians, journal- What might this look like in ists, playwrights, scientists, and Meredith Cranston practice? Imagine how you poets. Student perspectives that is the Upper School might support a science teacher are legitimized and positively librarian at the Harker frustrated with her students’ reinforced through practice will School in San Jose, attention to sensationalized only get better and more refined. scientific research on television Teachers see the bigger picture California. She is a news. Propose a lesson for young when they intentionally teach member of AASL. dramatists about why the latest students how to use information James Bond film was a box office like a historian (or scientist or hit but panned by critics. Use nerd artist or mathematician) rather jokes: What do World History than attempting a piecemeal Works Cited: students need to know to find attack on a specific information Queen Elizabeth’s nominating the literacy skill. Discipline-driven Brozo, William G., et al. 2013. “Content Area Reading and Spanish Armada for the ice bucket projects are by their very nature Disciplinary Literacy: A Case for challenge funny? more organic and better aligned the Radical Center.” Journal of with authentic inquiry. Most sur- Adolescent and Adult Literacy 56 (5): 353–57. Such an approach gets at the very prising of all, discipline-driven essence of individual disciplines information literacy projects Shanahan, Timothy, and Cynthia Shanahan. 2012. “What Is and appeals to a teacher’s subject also tend to be interdisciplinary. Disciplinary Literacy and Why expertise. Disciplinary infor- Academia may divide up the world Does It Matter?” Topics in Language mation literacy encourages the into specific subject areas, but real Disorders 32 (1): 7–18. cultivation of an understanding life does not. Volume 44, No. 5 | May/June 2016 41