Literacy Across Content Areas
What this domain tests
You must understand how to build reading, writing, speaking, and thinking skills within subjects like science, social studies, and math. Key concepts include disciplinary literacy (how experts read in each field), text features (headings, diagrams, captions, graphs), academic vocabulary, writing to learn, and using multiple sources and text types.
Concepts to master
Disciplinary literacy means reading like a historian (sourcing, corroborating, contextualizing) or a scientist (attending to methods, data, and evidence). Text features carry meaning and should be taught explicitly. Academic vocabulary (Tier 2 and Tier 3 words) needs direct instruction and repeated use. Writing to learn-quick writes, summaries, learning logs-deepens content understanding. Integrate reading and writing with content objectives rather than treating literacy as a separate add-on.
Traps to watch for
Items may treat generic comprehension strategies as sufficient for every discipline, ignoring discipline-specific reasoning. Distractors may suggest teaching content vocabulary in isolation without connecting to concepts. Watch for answers that add literacy work unrelated to the content objective, or that ignore text features students need to interpret graphs, timelines, or diagrams.
Rule of thumb
Ask: "What does a reader in this field actually do with this text?" Instruction should mirror that reasoning-sourcing evidence in history, interpreting data in science-while supporting vocabulary and text features explicitly.
Worked example
In a history unit, students compare two accounts of the same event. Rather than only summarizing each, the teacher asks who wrote each source, when, and why-modeling sourcing and corroboration, the reasoning historians use.