Read, Write, Inquire: Disciplinary Literacy in Grades 6–12

In this practical guide, literacy experts show teachers how to use project-based inquiry to build students’ discipline-specific skills and knowledge in grades 6–12. The authors present a five-phase framework that incorporates their professional development experience working with over 3,000 teachers. By making the intuitive practices of the disciplines explicit within an inquiry process, students have opportunities to construct new knowledge by employing practices used by literary critics, scientists, historians, and mathematicians. Read, Write, Inquire responds to the current focus on disciplinary literacy across multiple sets of standards, offering a clear blueprint to help teachers meet these standards while also providing students with deep learning across the curriculum.

“This unique approach encourages students to adopt sophisticated literacy practices in the same way the disciplines developed them—as a natural outgrowth of knowledge creation.”
—Timothy Shanahan, distinguished professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago