Teach how knowledge is read, discussed and expressed in each subject, then turn the principle into a practical school improvement cycle.
Disciplinary literacy concerns how learners read, write and communicate within a discipline. In this EAL portal, language goals accompany subject goals so learners can participate in the reasoning as well as complete the task.
Subject teachers model how knowledge is built and communicated in their discipline. EAL colleagues help identify language demands and scaffold participation. Leaders provide planning time, curriculum alignment and professional learning.
Provide accessible representations, meaningful vocabulary teaching, structured talk and genre models. Choose supports from learner evidence and check independence as they fade. English proficiency alone does not establish subject knowledge or a learning difficulty.
Ask who created the source, when and why. Compare it with other evidence.
Connect observations to a model, retain units and qualify conclusions.
Interpret symbols, identify conditions and explain why an operation is valid.
The EEF report provides the seven priorities. The actions and examples here are this portal’s EAL adaptation, not an EEF assessment instrument.
Take one authentic task and identify how an expert reads, writes and reasons. Model the usually hidden decisions.
Evidence: A task annotated with subject and language demands.
Related classroom support →Choose essential technical terms and cross-curricular academic words. Connect form, meaning, morphology and use in the unit; revisit them in talk and writing.
Evidence: Learners use the terms accurately in a new explanation.
Related classroom support →Preview purpose, activate relevant knowledge and model how to find, connect and evaluate evidence. Chunk by meaning and fade prompting.
Evidence: An independent explanation of a new text or source.
Related classroom support →Model planning, paragraph construction and revision for the subject genre. Use a manageable shared example, then move towards independent choices.
Evidence: A draft, revision and new independent response.
Related classroom support →Read a subject model to investigate how its evidence and language work. Use the same features in an original response.
Evidence: Learners explain and use an identified genre feature.
Related classroom support →Set a question, evidence source, roles and response expectations. Rehearse explanations and invite challenges supported by evidence.
Evidence: A reasoned oral contribution and an individual written check.
Related classroom support →Review the source of difficulty and match teaching to the need. Connect specialist support with classroom goals and monitor participation and independence.
Evidence: A coordinated review using classroom and diagnostic evidence.
Related classroom support →The sequence below is a suggested school planning cycle, informed by the report’s emphasis on subject plans, teacher development and curriculum alignment. The four phases follow the EEF’s flexible implementation framework; timings and examples here are local planning suggestions. Involve staff in the design, agree the purpose together and keep reviewing the evidence.
Subject leaders and EAL staff examine a unit, a text and anonymised learner responses. Invite learner perspectives. Decide whether the main barrier is subject knowledge, vocabulary, reading, writing, talk or a combination.
Select one year group, department and routine. Agree the essential practice, who prepares it, protected planning time and teacher modelling. Record what success and manageable workload will look like.
Trial the routine in lessons, use a focused peer observation and sample responses. Check whether the agreed practice occurred and whether learners gained access or independence. Adjust the support rather than adding several initiatives at once.
Review the pilot, refine materials and integrate the useful routine into unit planning and staff induction. Scale with training and preparation time. Stop or replace routines that do not address the chosen problem.
| Role | Concrete responsibility | Evidence to bring |
|---|---|---|
| School leaders | Protect time, align curriculum and remove competing demands. | Pilot capacity, workload feedback and scheduled review. |
| Subject leaders | Select the authentic task and model disciplinary practice. | Annotated task, model response and common criteria. |
| EAL / literacy colleagues | Identify language barriers and co-design support. | Skill-specific learner evidence and a scaffold fade plan. |
| Classroom teachers | Teach the routine and collect a manageable sample. | Responses showing reasoning and support received. |
| Specialist support staff | Coordinate targeted teaching where assessment shows a need. | Diagnostic evidence and progress connected to classroom tasks. |
Select a subject and a current priority to generate a starting action. Edit it using your learner evidence; the tool does not diagnose students or grade school performance.
Use this checklist to organise preparation. It reports completed actions, not effectiveness or a school rating.
Draft here, download an editable HTML copy, or print the guide and plan. Drafts are stored in this browser when available. Use anonymised observations.
Based on Education Endowment Foundation, Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools, by Alex Quigley and Robbie Coleman, especially recommendations 1–7 (printed pages 6–33). The uploaded filename was “Disciplinary Literacy.pdf”. This report addresses secondary literacy broadly; the EAL examples, audit prompts and implementation tools here are newly written adaptations, not official EEF tools.
Read the original EEF guidance and download the report → · EEF implementation framework →