Disciplinary Literacy

by Dr. Steve Masyada

My turn to blog! Hi! My name is Dr. Steve Masyada (I just earned it, so I can at least use it a couple times before it’s pretentious, right?), and I am a consultant with the Social Studies Section within the Division of Curriculum and Instruction at my friend and yours, the Department of Public Instruction. There are so many things that I could talk to you about, but I thought for my first blog post, I would focus on literacy. Because reading, of course, is fundamental. So, we have all heard about traditional concepts of literacy, and as good teachers we do a pretty decent job overall of getting our kids prepared as readers and writers. How many of us, however, have paid attention to the idea of disciplinary literacy? Moving forward into the next school year, much of our work here in the section will be focused on helping teachers at all levels, but especially in the elementary grades, develop ways to approach disciplinary literacy in their classrooms. 

What is Disciplinary Literacy?

In simple terms for our purposes, disciplinary literacy refers to the ways in which the different disciplines within the social studies consider the world. A historian considers the world differently from a political scientist, who in turn views through a different lens than a geographer, who sees the world in a light different from a cultural anthropologist, who most certainly has a different take than an economist! Beginning in kindergarten and going all the way through the high school courses, we should be helping our students understand the different ways in which each ‘lens’ can be used to develop questions, research and explore topics, and consider ways in which we can interpret primary sources. Actually, I have a wonderful graphic for you here! In this graphic, you will find a description of each of the lenses and the types of questions that some considering something through that lens might ask!  Over the course of the next year, we want to spend more time with you exploring how disciplinary literacy, as we illustrate in the graphic, can work for you. Click here for a full sized version of the graphics below.

Resources for Learning More

Naturally, we in the Social Studies Section have begun compiling a number of resources for you to use as you explore the elements of disciplinary literacy. 

Our Webinar Series: Did you know that we hold FREE webinars at least 4 times during the school year? We do, and we want you to come! Webinar Four on this page was developed to expose participants to disciplinary and you can find a number of relevant research and resource links under that webinar (please be aware that we are still transcribing and videoizing (is that a word?) the webinar itself, but the presentation is there!). You will also find links to our webinars on inquiry and the C3 Framework on that page! 

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework: On this page you will find the newly released College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework. This Framework, a model for standards and curriculum development, contains a significant section on disciplinary literacy and its role in quality social studies instruction. While we here in North Carolina are NOT using it to create new standards, it DOES inform our work with curriculum! Check it out! 

Summer Institute 2012 Resource: This site, used during NCDPI’s 2012 Summer Institute, contains some quality videos discussing literacy within the social studies disciplines and also includes a very good document discussing what it actually means to be disciplinary literate.  I encourage you to explore the site deeper as well. You find a number of useful links from that wonderful summer of twenty aught twelve! 

Contact Us! 

Well, sadly, my time here on the blog is done for now. Please know that any questions you have concerning this or any other issue relating to the social studies can be answered by any of our consultants! Contact information can be found at this link. We hope to hear from you! 


Dr. Steve Masyada is currently a K-12 Social Studies Consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. He currently serves as one of the NCDPI representatives on the NCAEE Board, and has spent over 12 years in public education, 10 of them in the classroom. He recently earned his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, with a focus on civic education. To learn more about social studies in North Carolina, visit their wikipage here. Steve is a tweeter, and you can follow his tweets @SocialStudyMasy. He hopes to hear from you soon!