Building Disciplinary Literacy Through Popular Fiction

• In Event: 73.038 - Creative Instructional Practices in Teacher Education

Abstract

The goal for this study is to discern affordances of using popular fiction to connect aims of the Common Core (2010) with science-specific content and process standards in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking. Results indicated asking PSTs to develop inquiries around popular fiction text not only supported their building of disciplinary literacy, but also legitimized the place for popular culture text in the formal classroom. Without positioning literacy as a bully in the curriculum or overly additive, PSTs illustrated there are numerous ways to logistically structure scientific inquiry to include and authentically underscore disciplinary literacy.

Authors

• Kristin Leigh Cook, Bellarmine University

• Elizabeth G. Dinkins, Bellarmine University