D805 is a teacher-preparation course in WGU's secondary education programs. WGU's description says it is for candidates who want to strengthen literacy within specific secondary disciplines, examining how reading, writing, speaking and listening work differently in each, and that it is required in the secondary content education programs and assessed through a performance assessment.
The course does not teach generic reading tips. A chemistry lab report, a primary-source document, a proof and a poem each ask readers to do different things, and you must show that you know the difference for your own subject. This page treats D805 as the undergraduate version; a graduate version covers the same ideas for master's candidates.
Course at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| University | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Course code | D805 (undergraduate version) |
| Level | Undergraduate teacher preparation |
| Program area | Secondary content education (teacher licensure) |
| Subject area | Disciplinary literacy for grades 6 to 12 |
| Typical work | A performance assessment built around a literacy-rich lesson for your discipline |
What D805 Covers
WGU's competencies for this course, as listed in its program guides, focus on assessing and designing literacy practice for a discipline:
| Competency (summarized) | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Assess the use of literacy strategies for a discipline | Judge which strategies fit your subject's texts and why |
| Design learning activities that incorporate literacy | Build activities that use reading, writing and talk to deepen content learning |
| Plan authentic writing activities | Writing that mirrors what experts in the field actually produce |
| Propose improvements to a lesson plan using feedback and research | Revise a plan and connect changes to educational research |
The course also covers specialized language structures and text features in each field, the science of reading and the use of technology and digital literacy.
Key Concepts Explained
What Makes a Discipline's Texts Different
Each subject has its own vocabulary, text structures and ways of arguing. Science texts rely on precise terms, data displays and cause-and-effect explanation. History texts involve sources with perspective and bias. Mathematics texts compress ideas into symbols and proofs.
Example: In a grade 9 biology class, students read a short article with a graph. A disciplinary approach teaches them to read the graph title and axes first, then the claim, then the evidence, because that is how scientists read.
Literacy Strategies That Fit
Strategies should be chosen for the text and task. Pre-teaching key vocabulary, annotating a claim and its evidence, or using sentence frames for explanations are examples, but each needs a reason linked to the discipline.
Example: For a physics lab report, a sentence frame such as "The data show that ___ because ___" helps students move from observation to explanation, which is the core scientific move.
Authentic Writing
Authentic tasks resemble real disciplinary work: a lab conclusion, an argument from sources, a mathematical justification, a persuasive letter backed by evidence. They are more purposeful than generic essays.
Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them
| Task element | What it tests | How to approach it |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy assessment | Matching strategies to texts | Name the text, its features and the strategy that fits |
| Lesson activities | Instructional design | Describe each activity, its purpose and how students will show learning |
| Writing task design | Authentic writing | Specify audience, purpose, form and support for students |
| Revision with research | Reflective practice | Say what changed, why, and which research supports it |
A Planning Frame for Your Subject
Before writing, fill in a simple frame for the lesson. It keeps the discipline at the center of the plan.
| Element | Your answer for the lesson |
|---|---|
| Text students will read | Type, length, reading demand |
| Disciplinary feature | What readers in this field look for |
| Strategy | What students do and why it fits |
| Writing product | Form, audience, success criteria |
| Supports | Vocabulary, models, sentence frames |
Where Students Get Stuck
- Generic strategies. A strategy that works in any subject is not disciplinary.
- Vague classrooms. Name the grade, the topic and the text.
- Writing as an afterthought. Authentic writing is its own competency.
- Research left out. Link revisions to evidence, not just opinion.
Study Tips for D805
- Collect two or three real texts from your subject and note their features.
- Write the success criteria for student writing before designing activities.
- Use the rubric wording for headings.
- Look at the elementary literacy course (D690) only for contrast, not as a model.
How We Help with D805
Send your subject and grade level, the task instructions and rubric, and any draft. A writer with teaching experience can prepare a worked model lesson for study, explain disciplinary literacy with examples from your field, or review your own plan. See our education assignment help guide for how orders work.
GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Model work is for study and reference; what you submit must be your own under WGU's academic integrity policy, and no outcome is promised.
We do not complete licensure exams or classroom placements. Orders are written from scratch with free revisions within the scope of your original request, and a full refund if late.
Make Sense of Your D805 Task
Share the task, rubric and draft lesson. A writer prepares a worked model for your subject you can study.
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Frequently Asked Questions
WGU's description says Secondary Disciplinary Literacy is a required component in its secondary content education programs.
Through a performance assessment task, according to WGU, for both undergraduate and graduate versions.
Yes. Your lesson should reflect the texts and ways of thinking in your own discipline.
Research on how people learn to read, which the course integrates into literacy instruction.
Yes. WGU's master's teaching programs include the same course content under a different code.
General literacy builds shared reading and writing skills; disciplinary literacy teaches how each subject reads, writes and argues.