Digited CLIL · The case
Why literacy is
every teacher's work
Reading and writing are not the language department's job alone. Here is the case, in short.
The problem
Reasoning outpaces writing
- Many students learn each subject in a second language.
- They often reason well aloud, then stall on the written page.
- The academic register is rarely caught by chance. It has to be taught.
First principle
Literacy is disciplinary
Each subject reads, writes, and reasons in its own way. A generic strategy bolted on from outside does not reach those ways. The subject teacher does.
- History weighs sources and argues cause and consequence.
- Science describes method and reports results with precision.
- Mathematics reasons in symbols, steps, and justification.
What the evidence points to
The same handful of moves
Guidance on secondary literacy converges on a short list. The pattern puts each into one unit.
- Teach the vocabulary of the subject, directly.
- Teach each discipline's own reading and writing.
- Use structured talk before writing.
- Model and scaffold extended writing.
- Notice and support struggling readers early.
From principle to practice
So, the pattern
The pattern turns these principles into something a teacher can do in one unit.
- Name the language students need, at three levels.
- Name the one analytical move the unit builds.
- Make the support standing furniture, in every room.
- Build the scaffold into one paper, for everyone.