How Secondary Disciplinary Teachers Integrate Literacy Strategies to Improve Outcomes on State Assessments

According to recent research, secondary disciplinary teachers’(DTs) role in increasing disciplinary literacy skills is vital. The problem in this urban school district in the Southern United States was that middle school DTs acknowledge they struggle to integrate literacy strategies in their specific disciplines to improve reading outcomes on state assessments. Guided by Shanahan and Shanahan’s disciplinary framework and Knowles’s theory of andragogy, the purpose of this study was to investigate DTs’ perceptions on integrating literacy strategies to improve reading outcomes on state assessments. A basic qualitative design was used with 10 purposefully selected secondary DTs using one-to-one, semistructured interviews. Data were coded with open and axial codes and then thematically analyzed, resulting in the following themes: DTs (a) integrate students’ previously taught literacy skills in their specific disciplines; (b) select literacy strategies based on previous reading levels, reading skills and vocabulary; and (c) select reading strategies for improving elements of their disciplines by considering students’ digital literacy and technology skills. The findings were used to develop the 3-day professional development for DTs to effectively integrate disciplinary literacy strategies. The findings and project have implications for positive social change as they may result in increased teacher confidence as teachers could increase their skills through professional development and might use integrated disciplinary strategies more frequently. That in turn, might help the students build needed academic skills and may foster more participation in a disciplinary culture to shape skills required of involved citizens.