Lee, C.D., & Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy. New York, NY: Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Report Sponsor(s): Carnegie Corporation of
New York, “Advancing Literacy program is
dedicated to the issues of adolescent literacy
and research, policy, and practice that
focuses on the reading and writing
competencies of middle and high school
students.”
Author Affiliations: Carol D. Lee, Anika
Spratley Northwestern University
Publication Year: 2010
Framing Metaphor: Necessity of incorporating
reading instruction in content area courses.
Problem(s):
-Addresses the existence of differences
between reading in K-5 and reading in 6-12.
-Acknowledgement of the difficult transition
from learning to read to reading to learn
-Difficulties in reading expectations in
content areas (knowing specialized
vocabulary/concepts, comprehending
specialized text features, etc…) –Specifically
reading textbooks
-Beck outlines elements in social science and
science textbooks that make comprehension
challenging. (Failure to make logical
connections; Use of references that are
ambiguous, distant or indirect; The inclusion
of information that is irrelevant to the main
ideas; Density of ideas within individual
sentences.)
-Helping middle and high school students
Solution(s):
Key Solutions to problems that were
addressed from the reading;
-Freshman level courses aimed at struggling
readers –Strategic Literacy Initiative (p3)
-Acknowledges existence of strategies (that
are taught) for tackling the recurrent
problems of reading…and that teaching them
in the content of discipline specific
explorations involving the analysis of multiple
documents (difficult docs like textbooks and
primary sources).
- Using prior knowledge as a way of accessing
difficult texts
-Expanding the range of kinds of texts read in
content areas—expands opportunities to learn
content knowledge
Topical Focus: The Challenges of Adolescent
Literacy “…the transition from learning to
read to reading to learn.” pg 2
-Defined and illustrated what is entailed in
comprehending texts within and across
academic disciplines
-Examined what the empirical research base
says about reading comprehension generally
and reading in the disciplines specifically
-Briefly discussed the implications of the
research base for teaching and assessments
Main conclusion/solution developed by the
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Population Focus: Middle School and high
school students (adolescents and teenagers)
(especially struggling readers) develop
conceptual understanding of the knowledge
sources/features in texts, which help them
understand texts at a deeper level. p 10
-Comments on the lack of understanding of
math as a discipline with unique reading
requirements-strategies to improve reading in
mathematics (according to NCTM standards)
at the secondary level are still relatively
unexplored
-Mathematics as a unique language/form of
communication that must be recognized and
understood before complete comprehension
can occur
end;
-Moving past generic reading strategies to
more discipline specific reading strategies in
order to improve reading skill/comprehension
in the content areas.
In successful content area classrooms,
teachers organize instruction in routine ways
that;
-Reinforce conceptions of reading as a
meaning making process
-Provide guided support
-Shift responsibility for thinking/making
meaning to students, through guided supports
-Sequence discipline specific inquiry tasks and
the reading of a range of texts in ways that
build knowledge over time
-Focus classroom talk on how students make
sense of texts and how they use what they
learn from texts to carry out tasks
-Provide consistent supports
Create culture of high expectations.
Utilization of a variety of instructional routines
for before, during, and after reading including;
Teacher modeling
Organizers/pre and post reading
tasks/annotation guides
Other Observations:
-Varying requirements of a typical reader in
Science, History were covered, but
solutions/techniques for success in reading in
these disciplines was limited
-At the end, the sampling of current research
projects regarding adolescent
literacy/reading in the content areas was
interesting because they show a variety of
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different programs all taking part in studying
the methods good readers employ, in hopes of
taking the skills and techniques they exhibit
to students who are struggling as readers.
Brief Summary:
Key points
-Overall the article outlines the different kinds of reading done in each content area (including the differences and similarities between the
kinds of texts in each discipline)
-Outlines difficulties in social science and science courses (textbooks and primary source material)
-Encourages integration of reading instruction in content area courses, which meet diverse reading needs of students and teach all students to
reason in the complex ways that the disciplines require.
-Addresses the importance of learning to read literature and the problems that are inherent in how it is taught/how these problems contribute
to the difficulties that struggling readers face.
-Discussed samples of reading in each discipline and what is required with the different kinds of reading
-Discussed what students need to know and value in regards to their reading
From the research discussed;
-Reading strategies-pre-reading, predicting, testing hypotheses, asking questions, summarizing, accessing prior knowledge, etc… should be
utilized as a means of accessing/leading into more discipline specific reading strategies (prior knowledge, building specialized vocab,
deconstructing a text, posing deeper, more focused questions, etc…
ª ‘Crisis’ is a common metaphor used to frame the focus on adolescent literacy. Various types of crises can be employed: moral crisis,
economic crisis, achievement crisis, competitive crisis, technological crisis, etc. The framing metaphor is often not named explicitly, but is
implied or inferred in the language used to frame the argument that a certain problem exists. Thus, identifying the metaphor requires close,
critical, and/or deconstructive reading.
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