Ok...so who's bright idea was it to take 3 science classes at the same time??? Oh yah...that was me! Oops! I was thinking that this would be a piece of cake because I have the summer off and can work on my classes online during the day! All I have to say is YIKES!!! They all seem to be overloading on me right now and I need to catch my breath!
So after reading the Science and Literacy: Tools for Life article for one of my science classes I am feeling pretty darn good about myself as a teacher and very proud of my school district. I feel that we do a very good job aligning our science and literacy curriculums! It is so important that we think of reading and science on the same level. If you do not have the concrete literacy skills then how can you expect to understand anything in science. Science is ever-changing and there is a lot of reading and research involved in this area. Another thing that is important is that you need to be able to connect what you are reading with your everyday life. If you or your student aren't able to connect the information to your life and have some meaning out of it it will not remain in your long term memory. Students need to have a compelling reason to read, write, listen, and speak, and meaningful science content offers just that. We are always pushing our students to be self-motivating problem posers and problem solvers and when you have a strong combination of literacy expectations in the science classroom you will see huge success!
"Students need to have a compelling reason to read, write, listen, and speak, and meaningful science content offers just that."
ReplyDeleteWhen I started teaching I had great ambitions to get away from simply using the text books, but of course in my first couple years, I couldn't escape it and actually found them quite useful. The only issue I have found is that both our science and social studies textbooks are used in both 4th and 5th grade so they are written at a pretty high level. Some of our 4th graders come in September with a reading level below 2nd grade. My struggle then is to find meaningful science content written at all levels, or to find ways to better explain or "act out" the higher level content.
I hear you, Carrie! When working on my MSSE I could never manage more than 2 courses at a time. I admire your ability to juggle 3!
ReplyDeleteYour problem-solving comment reminded me of an activity I am getting ready to do with my first year general biology college students. It's from the Subjects Matter book and is called List-Group-Learn. I've used it with highschoolers and middleschoolers, too, and it works really well across all levels. Give students a list (or have them create a list from their textbooks) of twenty terms having to do with an upcoming unit. Working in groups of no more than three, have them write one term on a Post-It and then direct them to group and label the terms by what they think they mean. NO looking them up and no "starts with an 's'" or "words we don't know" groupings :) I usually provide large sheets of colorful construction paper for them to group and label on. Have them share their groupings aloud with the class as it helps with pronunciation. Refer back to the groupings occasionally throughout the unit and allow students to redo their groupings. (I usually ask the groups to sketch their work of art at the beginning and end of each of these revisions.) Students tell me that they love this and really get a lot out of it.