Definition: Oral language is a spoken way to communicate ideas. All humans are born to talk, however; while all humans have the capacity to read/write it is more of a bonus to do so and all must be specifically taught. Verbal communication in children is much greater than reading comprehension. Therefore complicated ideas should be expressed verbally for younger students.

Application: listening stations- where the students listen to the teacher read a complex text, then the class discusses questions raised by the teacher. In a history classroom this could be students listening to the teacher read a primary source and then the class analyzes and discusses it. Presentations-students research something and then present it either to the class or in groups. In history, this could look like students conducting research on a historical figure and then presenting their findings to the class.

Equity: not all students may be able to speak English proficiently. Whether this is ELL students or students with a learning disability. This is something to keep in mind, and these students should be provided alternatives. Such as a translation in Spanish or a written transcript for students with hearing difficulties.

Definition: words are made up of individual sounds called Phonemes, students must understand this principle in order to properly read.

Application: Breaking up a word into its separate sounds and then being able to combine these sounds is imperative for competent reading. In a history classroom, this could take the form of the teacher modeling the phonemes by pronouncing them for an unfamiliar word and then having the class repeat the word slowly.

Equity: Many learning disabilities may affect a student's ability to do these basic phonics tasks, such as Dyslexia. To get around this and provide these students with the proper chance to succeed perhaps teachers could give a modified text with the phonemes for uncommon words, and/or give more time to these students to complete reading tasks.

Definition: Phonics- the relationship between spoken and written language, letters represent spoken language.

Print awareness- understanding the meaning of written language and things like how books are set up.

Fluency- Reading text effectively and effortlessly

Application: Phonics- This is like phonological awareness and in a history classroom the teacher could take the time to show how new unfamiliar words in a text are spoken by sounding them out and having the students practice their pronunciation. This would be a systematic approach. Print Awareness- History is full of books and reading material, so history teachers could make sure to explicitly show how historical books are organized and how students can better break them down to understand the content. Fluency- A history teacher could have students read out loud and offer assistance to aid in their reading fluency, this way the student doesn't get hung up on unfamiliar/difficult words.

Equity: Phonics- The first elementary school I attended skipped a year of phonics and this set me back for years in reading ability, so no schools should take shortcuts and should make sure to addictively cover phonics so all students have the chance to learn this basic building block. Print Awareness- A teacher could help ELLs by showing them how historical books are laid out which are written in their first language for better comprehension. Fluency- Again for ELLs teachers could have a translated version of a reading in their first language so they can use it as a reference to improve the speed and comprehension of reading in English. This way they don't get hung up on words they may not know or fully understand.

Definition: The ability to absorb, analyze, and make sense of a text. If one can not do this then they are not really reading, even if they can read the actual words on the page.

Application: There are several strategies for improving student comprehension. These are using prior knowledge, drawing inferences, form mental images, self-monitor, summarize/retell, and understand the text structure. This last one is particularly related to our disciplinary literacies course because it deals with understanding the way a certain text is organized. As a future history teacher, my textbooks and reading material will be laid out in a different manner than other classes. This is vital for students to understand so they can better digest the content. So history teachers should spend time showing kids how to navigate their specific text structure. They should also show students how to summarize and weed out unnecessary information so they do not become overwhelmed with names/dates.

Equity: There are several strategies to improve comprehension. A way to use these in an equitable manner could be to encourage each student to primarily use the strategy that works best for them. For example, a creative/artistic student would likely find that creating mental images or even drawing images is more effective for helping them understand the text than summarizing it in written format. Vise versa a student with higher verbal skills would likely learn more effectively writing that summary than drawing an image.

Definition: Vocabulary is all the words we need to understand what we hear/ read and be able to verbally communicate with other people. There are considered 4 types of vocabulary. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Application: Although a majority of vocabulary words will be learned indirectly, the direct teaching of important content words must take place. A way to help students become better at understanding words on their own is to teach them common root words. Other tactics like word walls and pre-teaching vocab before a unit are also very good.

Equity: There is a massive word gap between students of higher income and higher education homes and those of lower income with parents who have less education. Making it an important point to teach vocab outside of your content vocab could be something that could help close this gap.

Definition: writing is a very complex process, and might even be the most complex that students need to learn. It takes strong vocabulary; an understanding of genre, text structure, and voice; basic mechanical skills (grammar and punctuation); organizational skills; and higher-order thinking.

Application: As a future secondary teacher every student should definitely be able to write. However, some may not understand the differences in genre. This is where explicitly teaching students the differences here will be imperative for their comprehension moving forward. To do this the teacher could provide students with text about the same content but written in different genres. Such as one being a narrative and another being an informational text. On top of that, the teacher could have the students do a writing assignment in each of the genres.

Equity: It is important to keep in mind that not all students may be able to physically write due to a disability. Or perhaps not be able to write in English. In these instances, the teacher should always be accommodating to these students by letting them use technology like talk-to-text and translate to be able to engage in the writing assignment as the other students do.