Literacy instruction is often assumed to be limited to elementary reading classes and secondary English and language arts classes. Reading and writing is relevant for all subjects, however (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Consequently, chronic student underperformance on standardized measures such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (e.g., NAEP, 2023) reading assessment has implications for student performance in a wide range of subjects, including math, science, and social studies. Difficulties encountered in reading cascade across the entirety of the curriculum, turning the school day into an extended struggle. Academic difficulties in elementary, middle, and high school are associated with challenging behaviors and poor post-school outcomes (Yan et al., 2024). 

Improving student academic outcomes requires effective general- and content-specific literacy instruction. Building on our previous post on vocabulary building strategies in content-area instruction, the next several posts will explore literacy instruction and related resources in subject areas such as math, science, and social studies. This post—the first in the series—briefly describes the role of literacy across subject areas and provides an overview of forthcoming material. 

Why Literacy Matters in Every Subject

Literacy is the ability to read, comprehend, communicate, interpret texts, and construct written arguments.  Subject specific literacy skills will be addressed in future posts:

• Mathematical literacy: Literacy in math involves skills required to solve word problems and describe steps in the problem-solving process. Recent scholarship suggests that effective instruction in word problems involves the integration of reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, language structure, and systematic problem-solving strategies designed to identify the operations (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.) specified within a problem (Aresnault & Powell, 2024). Recent approaches to word problems combine explicit vocabulary instruction and schema-based instruction, which is designed to help students recognize patterns in how problems are composed. These methods are more effective than key-word strategies and similar techniques that teach students to identify the type of operation required based on the presence of words such as “sum” or “difference.” 
• Scientific literacy: In science, literacy involves the comprehension of technical vocabulary and data. Research-based strategies to enhance comprehension of scientific texts include direct, explicit instruction in vocabulary and common scientific text structures along with scaffolded strategies for interpreting passages. Additional supports such as graphic organizers can help students demonstrate scientific knowledge (Barnes et al., 2024). 
• Social studies literacy: Literacy in social studies involves using and understanding complex vocabulary and texts, evaluating evidence, and supporting arguments based on sources (Ciullo et al., 2020). Memory aids focused on content acquisition, graphic organizers emphasizing the structure of information, and texts supplemented by audio and video clips are associated with retention and comprehension. 

Supporting students with literacy across different domains can provide students with the skills they need to excel. In our next post, we will focus on mathematical literacy and address the role of reading comprehension in problem-solving. 

About the Author

Seth King is an associate professor of special education and coordinator of the Special Education and Applied Behavior Analysis Programs at the University of Iowa. He is also affiliated research faculty at the Iowa Reading Research Center and the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health. He can be reached at seth-king@uiowa.edu.

References

Arsenault, T. L., & Powell, S. R. (2024). Intensifying language supports in word-problem schema instruction. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 57(2), 150–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/00400599211069555 

Barnes, Z. T., Schrodt, K., & Fields, R. S. (2024). Science, literacy, and students with disabilities: What middle school science teachers need to support students with disabilities in their classrooms. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 40(6), 586–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2023.2299672 

Ciullo, S., Collins, A., Wissinger, D. R., McKenna, J. W., Lo, Y. L., & Osman, D. (2020). Students with learning disabilities in the social studies: A meta-analysis of intervention research. Exceptional Children, 86(4), 393–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402919893932 

National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). NAEP 2023 long-term trend assessment: Reading and mathematics results at age 13. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40–59. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.17763/haer.78.1.v62444321p602101 

Yan, S., Liu, Z., Peng, P., & Yan, N. (2024). The reciprocal relations between externalizing behaviors and academic performance among school-aged children: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Educational Psychology Review, 36(4), 120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09955-1