Youth Are Literary Scholars: What Tracing Aesthetic Practices and Interpretive Scales Suggests for Disciplinary Literacy in English Language Arts

Reading researchers have been engaged with K-12 disciplinary literacy instruction that spotlights the reading and writing of knowledge-producing communities. While research includes rich descriptions of professional scholars enacting meaningful disciplinary practice, questions remain about youth practices in some knowledge-creating communities, particularly those related to the school subject of English language arts. Drawing on theories of aesthetics and social life, this study investigates the disciplinary practices of 18 youth in a digital learning community focused on aesthetic interpretation. Youth participated in semi-structured interviews and verbal protocols. Findings illustrate that youth drew on shared social practices across interpretive scales in ways that both mirrored and diverged from professional scholars. Shared practices of this community included noticing, speculating, aligning, and diffusing. Youth employed these practices across, aesthetic, communal, and societal scales. This article contributes to ongoing efforts in disciplinary literacy and explores implications for social justice teaching and learning, particularly in English language arts classrooms.