Literacy in Science

A statement that resonates with me as I think about content vs disciplinary reading is that in the early elementary years of formal education, children are learning to read whereas they are reading to learn during their secondary education.   Without having been introduced to the concept of disciplinary reading before, I am very interested to learn how disciplinary reading, as it relates to science teaching, can focus our students to begin to think and learn as scientists. Content area literacy uses reading and writing to teach the information contained within the subject. The general reading strategies learned early on in younger grades are utilized during content area literacy. These tools include asking questions, setting goals, previewing texts, making and verifying predictions, and activating prior knowledge. It is said that these strategies can be applied across all content areas. Classrooms that utilize discipline related texts have a unique set