Planting seeds: To grow science disciplinary literacy skills we must layer basic and intermediate literacy skills across K–12

As a result of looking specifically at the work of science teachers within two related studies, we have come to two important realizations that we explore in this article. First, we argue that disciplinary literacy instruction can (and likely should) have a place in elementary, middle, and high school settings, promoting early habits of mind and norms of practice that blossom into more specialized disciplinary skills in later grades. Second, we argue that it is in the layering and intermingling of basic, intermediate, and disciplinary literacy skills across K–12 grade levels that students build solid, sophisticated, and ultimately discipline-specific literacy skills