Disciplinary Literacy in History: A Toolkit for Digital Citizenship

Students doubtless need basic strategies for decoding text. But if that’s all they have, their reading will be stunted. They may be able to render a passable summary, but they will remain spectators, passively gazing at the arena of knowledge production. If they are fortunate enough to make it to college, they will arrive there college unready, ill-prepared for the challenges that await them.

Disciplinary literacy restores agency to the reader. Consider the quintessential move in disciplinary literacy in history, the act of sourcing (Wineburg, 1991; 2001). Sourcing enjoins readers to engage authors, querying them about their credentials, their interest in the story they are telling, their position vis-à-vis the event they narrate. In every study of historical reading, bar none, sourcing is the touchstone that distinguishes expert from novice practice (e.g., De La Paz, Felton, Croninger, Monte-Sano, & Jackson, in press; Gottlieb & Wineburg, 2012; Monte-Sano & De La Paz, 2012; Mosborg, 2002; Leinhardt & Young, 1996; Nokes, Dole, & Hacker, 2007; Rouet, Favart, Britt, & Perfetti, 1997, Reisman, 2012; Shanahan, Shanahan, & Misischia, 2011; Shreiner, 2014; Wineburg, 1998).