Fostering Civic Reasoning Through Disciplinary Literacy

• Main Authors: Zhang, Jie, Lee, Grace, Iluore, Azizah C, Relyea, Jackie Eunjung, Wui, Ma. Glenda
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2022
• Subjects: Civic reasoning; disciplinary literacy; reading; writing; multilingual students; Education; Sociology
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/sa-faculty-pubs/123; https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2143
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

In this article, the authors introduce ways to use disciplinary literacy (DL) instructional strategies to foster civic engagement and reasoning for middle-grade multilingual students. Four phases of DL strategies—framing, reading, discussion, and writing—are illustrated with examples from an intervention project with sixth-grade multilingual students. The intervention features a 4-week Space Exploration unit designed for students to address a contestable and relevant civic question: Should the government increase or decrease funding for space exploration? Teacher instructional moves, reading selections, student discussion excerpts, and writing samples are presented to highlight the language-rich disciplinary teaching and learning in action and the benefits of multilingual students in their science, language, and literacy learning.