The pandemic changed students interactions in the classroom, and one practice may offer solution  

For the Ingham Intermediate School District, learning has never been so innovative. 

Fall 2023 witnessed the introduction of an important proposal to move education in a new, stronger direction, based primarily on insider knowledge within a specific domain. 

This process, which has become increasingly important in schools throughout Michigan, is known as disciplinary literacy.  

Based on the language and thought processes of experts from different subject industries, disciplinary literacy is a unique approach to subject learning that pushes professionals to think more fundamentally about how to break down work through the lens of their field.  

Test scores for major subject areas have revealed that student language and literacy skills tend to level out around middle school, leading many districts to look to disciplinary literacy as a possible solution. This response comes following prolonged changes to learning prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“One thing that came out of the pandemic is it’s more and more important to engage students, and students are struggling with disengagement because that’s a social or a learned behavior,” said Rick Cook, English Instructor for the Ingham Intermediate School District. “So disciplinary literacy is a good answer to engagement problems. It helps students be engaged.” 

Analysis of student performance by licensed educators has substantiated that the simplified nature of disciplinary literacy will offer students a more digestible approach to content in various areas, not just those subjects taught in the classroom. 

“Every one of their fields has literacy even if they may not think about it explicitly like that,” Cook remarked. “A mechanic doesn’t realize there’s literacy involved in what he’s doing because he’s a mechanic.” 

The Ingham Intermediate School District, located in Mason Michigan, has undertaken countless measures to understand and incorporate disciplinary literacy into the curriculum. These efforts include improving student engagement and equity outcomes and helping educators meet the required preparation standards. 

The district made pivotal efforts to accomplish this, including a search for a secondary consultant. The consultant was tasked with facilitating communication of the fundamentals of different fields in a way that is understandable for children and educators alike.  

Jessica Martell, a former educator with experience in secondary English language arts, was hired as the Secondary Consultant in March 2023. Since joining the team, Martell has made significant strides in redefining how educators and students consider the learning process. Martell brought many new ideas and evidence at the monthly district board meeting in March 2024, including information on disciplinary literacy and plans for its recognition district-wide. 

“I taught in accordance with these practices in my classroom and so now I’m just trying to help other teachers in the service area,” Martell added. “We are trying to get teachers in other content areas to recognize the skills that are specific to those industries.” 

“We want to help them see that it’s not something new in addition to everything else, but it is more of how you should teach everything else,” she said of the district’s plans to share information with educators. “Even though it’s a new requirement, the concept isn’t a new one.” 

After attending a disciplinary literacy retreat, Martell joined the disciplinary literacy task force in fall 2023. Her experience on the task force has familiarized her with useful tools for incorporating disciplinary literacy efforts more explicitly into daily work. This has fostered the development of core workshops and networks targeted at addressing particular areas where instructors can outline and identify the fundamentals of their specialties.  

“For the first time in probably a decade, we have secondary literacy networking happening in Ingham County,” stated Cook, referring to the networks’ moving influence in redirecting the educational system in the area.  

And the new training being introduced could not come at a better time, says Martell, citing how AI is “changing the way we interact with information.” 

As these new forms of technology continue to alter how information is relayed and consumed within the classroom, the conversations at the district level continue to evolve.  

“I think that’s both an opportunity and a challenge. Recognizing the needs of our students that we’ll have to meet in that ever-changing environment,” said Jason Mellema, district superintendent.  

With the explicit implementation of disciplinary literacy and measures like it, it is hoped that the future curriculum can be strengthened even further in coming years.