Students need the content demands of the curriculum and how it is communicated deliberately and explicitly unlocking.
Disciplinary literacy – the idea that each subject has its own unique language, ways of knowing, doing, and communicating – is an important area of professional knowledge for every teacher. An integral part of implementation planning for disciplinary literacy is protecting time for curriculum discussion. Here are some useful starting points:
- Have staff been given time to use their collective expertise to discuss and unpick what reading, writing and speaking look like in their subjects?
- How are curriculum/subject leaders supported to facilitate this discussion?
- Are there subject specific literacy plans, rooted in the discipline, that address barriers to accessing the curriculum related to reading, writing and communication development?
- Is ‘disciplinary literacy’ coherently aligned with curriculum development?
- Have staff been trained in how they might model how to think like an expert in their subject?
Senior leaders and curriculum leads can use the disciplinary literacy tree resource on the EEF’s website, in conjunction with a blank downloadable curriculum discussion template, to support staff to discuss the often unique and specialised ways that experts communicate in their subject area.