Disciplinary literacy within the agricultural content area includes, but is not limited to, the proper use of terminology and the ability to inform others about agriculture. Using their resources, students will read, comprehend, and apply their knowledge towards the agricultural industry. Within all agricultural classes, literacy allows students to best understand the concepts being discussed and ultimately allows them to be actively involved in spreading agricultural literacy.
Three skills that my students need to learn in order to act like a member of my disciplinary community include active listening, a hands on mentality, and the ability to think and analyze information independently. Being literate in agriculture goes hand in hand with each of these skills. Active listening is the idea that students will stop and listen to what I have to say before they jump to a particular task or conclusion. Being able to listen to others, who are teaching you about a given subject, allows you to become literate in that particular subject area. By doing so, students can expand their vocabulary and be better able to define information to others. Having a hands on mentality within agriculture goes a long way towards literacy. Someone who is unable to get their hands dirty and put their knowledge into practice is missing out on half of the content. Taking the literacy gained from listening, students should apply that knowledge towards the hands on experience. Not only does hands on experience make someone a reputable source, it also allows them to practice their newfound knowledge within a real life setting. Having hands on experience gives students the experiences necessary to back their literacy towards the content. Finally, the ability to analyze information independently goes a long way in the agricultural industry. An agriculturalist will struggle to be successful if they are unable to decipher what is right and what is wrong. Often times, the media makes agriculture out to be something that it is not. Students who are able to analyze information on their own, reply to it with dignity and class, and ultimately share about their experiences and education to those who are not literate have truly done their part to spread the importance of agriculture. To conclude, literacy in agriculture looks like the ability to take your knowledge and apply that in a hands on and effective way while also having the knowledge and ability to help back the industry when others voice their thoughts and concerns. By listening, applying their skills, and thinking for themselves, students can become literate in agriculture.
Karl Montague - EDUC 416 
Hi, Karl! Thanks for sharing your first blog post! I appreciate the connections you make between disciplinary literacy, your discipline, and how your discipline is portrayed in the media. You provide real-world examples of issues that currently face your discipline.
In regards to disciplinary literacy and three key skills at the core of your discipline, I think what you have identified as two of your three skills are actually two aspects of disciplinary literacy – engaging in the oral discourse of the discipline (“actively listening”) and doing the work of the discipline (“getting their hands dirty”). I would encourage you now to think of skills associated with those two primary aspects of disciplinary literacy. For example, what might “doing” agriculture look like for animal science, FFA, horticulture, etc.? What skills are associated with this “doing”? Similarly, what specific listening, reading, and writing skills are crucial to those in the field of agriculture? I encourage you to continue to think about these questions as you engage in EDUC 416 this quarter.
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