Disciplinary Literacy for English Language Arts

A focused professional-learning page for English language arts teachers on genre, interpretation, multiple texts, argumentation, vocabulary, and discussion.

Use this page with the Ohio companion open. The right-side resources connect the video directly to tools for literary argument, text sets, academic language, and classroom discussion.

Watch video Ohio course companion Viewing guide PDF Simple View blog

Literacy Across the Disciplines English Language Arts hero card

Playable video and right-side resources

Support interpretation, evidence, and disciplinary discussion.

The video shows how ELA teachers can make genre expectations, perspective-taking, academic language, and interpretive argumentation visible without flattening the richness of literary work.

English Language Arts

Supporting English Language Arts Literacy

Ohio Literacy Academy on Demand video

Open video in Drive YouTube source

The ELA video emphasizes the wide range of genres, texts, modalities, and interpretive tasks students encounter. It focuses on argumentation, perspective-taking, connective language, text sets, vocabulary nuance, and discussion protocols that help students move from own-side interpretations toward more integrative arguments.

The literacy demand changes across novels, poems, plays, essays, graphic novels, informational texts, and multimedia text sets.
Argumentation requires language for weighing evidence, considering alternative interpretations, and connecting ideas across paragraphs.
Text sets and discussion protocols can give struggling readers entry points while pushing stronger readers toward integration and perspective-taking.

Resources aligned to this video

Ohio ELA course companion Open this first. Use it to capture notes, answer the reflection question, and identify an action step after the video.
Companion Ohio PDF
Presentation handout The discipline-specific handout for the Ohio Literacy Academy video.
Handout
The Simple View of Reading and Disciplinary Literacy Use this blog post as the conceptual bridge: decoding may be similar across subjects, but language comprehension changes by discipline.
Blog
Building a Literacy Culture Viewing Guide Use the guide to orient the watch-reflect-plan cycle for this page.
PDF
Argumentation Sheet Use for literary argument, counterargument, rebuttal, and integrative perspectives.
Google Word PDF
Connectives Chart Supports the connective language students need for adversative, additive, and causal reasoning in literary analysis.
PDF
ELA Sentence Frames Use to support evidence-based discussion and interpretive writing.
PDF Word
ELA Annotation Signposts Discipline-specific annotation moves for noticing interpretive moments and preparing for discussion.
Front Back
Reading and Writing in the Disciplines Annenberg Learner resource with discipline-literacy examples for English and other content areas.
Web

Department reflection

What kind of interpretation do students need to make in your next unit?
Which connectives or sentence frames would help them compare interpretations more precisely?
Where could a short text set or multimodal source deepen the central text rather than distract from it?

Suggested use

Turn the video into one concrete classroom move.

Choose a current text and decide whether students most need support with evidence, perspective-taking, genre knowledge, vocabulary nuance, or discussion norms.

Before Pick the interpretive move.

Name the reading move students need to practice: infer motive, compare perspectives, analyze language, evaluate credibility, or support an interpretation with evidence.

During Watch with a unit in mind.

As the video discusses argumentation, text sets, vocabulary, and discussion, mark the point that connects most directly to your next lesson.

After Build one scaffold.

Use an argumentation sheet, sentence-frame set, annotation signpost, or connective list to make that interpretive move easier to attempt.

Source credit: Ohio Literacy Academy / ReadOhio / Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. This page embeds or links to source materials and companion classroom resources rather than hosting mirrored copies. Resource links are placed next to the relevant video so a content-area teacher can watch, reflect, and open the most useful tools from one place.