Which is a core component of disciplinary literacy in content-area classrooms?

• A. Generic vocabulary and broad reading strategies.
• B. Discipline-specific vocabulary, syntax, and text structures.
• C. Focus on computational fluency only.
• D. Ignore text structures.

Answer: (B)

Disciplinary literacy in content-area classrooms means teaching students to read and write using the language and ways of thinking particular to a field. That requires focusing on the vocabulary, syntax, and text structures that specialists use to convey meaning and build knowledge within a discipline. The best choice captures this by pointing to discipline-specific vocabulary, sentence patterns, and the common formats students encounter in the subject.

Generic vocabulary and broad reading strategies don’t prepare students to handle the specialized terms and the particular ways ideas are organized in a science article, a history argument, or a math explanation. Focusing only on computational fluency misses the literacy skills needed to interpret and construct discipline-centered texts. Ignoring text structures removes the roadmap students need to understand how arguments are built, how evidence is organized, or how explanations unfold in a domain.