In other disciplines, however, students are often viewed from deficit models: They do not possess the requisite level of literacy to read disciplinary texts; they lack the prerequisite content knowledge to participate in disciplinary practice. In privileging content knowledge, educators frequently disregard students’ innate literateness and their varied literacy practices to make meaning.

Assuming that the students already have content learned is not the only issue. The teacher should have found a way to test what they know and then help those who were a bit behind. Underestimating the students could be just as bad as forcing advance knowledge on them.

Teacher candidates do take coursework in their discipline, but they may not take courses that teach them how experts create knowledge, communi- cate it, and critique it.

Some teachers may assume that they are the experts of their field. This can blind them and unintentionally blind their students as well.

The experiment with the two boxes reminds me of a psychological experiment. Researchers would have an infant crawl across an elevated section of floor. There would be someone at the end encouraging the infant to crawl towards them. What the infant didn't realize was that a section of the floor was clear plastic and the pattern at the bottom, from the infant's perspective looking down, made t to be one solid floor. The infant saw only the same pattern everywhere, so it was not afraid of the big difference in height as it traversed the false floor.

1. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

This article seems to favor the content before performance type of learning that we discussed last class.

Much that each human being knows about the world is acquired informally, but mastery of the accumulated knowledge of generations requires intentional - learning, often accomplished in a formal educational setting.

Some students may feel pressured to study in the beginning due to the demands of life and picking ideas up at a fast pace to keep up with the rest of society.

For figure 2 in the commentary, I would probably add a section for the reader to list how the quote would apply to modern times.

It's true that the content is important, but you need to remember how a first time reader may not be able to interpret it so easily.

The quote about secondary teachers on page 1 does not add up. How can the teachers not show interest in teaching literacy if they themselves had to read different info about their field of study in a unique way?