Monday’s class session made me think more about the importance of the science teacher to take on the responsibility to nurture students that are able to read and comprehend science text in order to get at at the content. As shown in the pyramid by Shanahan and Shanahan (2008), just re-emphasizing the basic literacy skills won’t really help the student to understand the disciplinary specific literacy skills necessary for comprehension of the subject material. I believe we can go one step further on this pyramid as shown below and integrate the citizenship and societal components. This specifically shows science however, this can be applied to all subject matter. As students are already engaged in the community they live in, we can take the reading materials one step further into their lives perhaps by using the newspaper to read articles in class from the perspective of a scientist or understanding the bacteria levels in Lake Michigan to know when you can go swimming. Showing students that science is in their everyday lives will help to ease the fear some may have with content material.
Image borrowed from http://serc.carleton.edu/nnn/numeracyprojects/examples/32020.html
I enjoyed the Shanahan and Shanahan (2008) article because of the specific examples it presented. Even the process of coming up with various disciplinary reading strategies was helpful and useful in the classroom (think aloud). I’ve never really thought of reading different disciplines in such specific ways, I just remember reading, re-reading and creating bullet notes. Use of the graphic organizers as well as concept maps would have really helped me to gather the main idea from the text. I expect having these tools would really help with comprehension and possibly alleviate stresses in constantly re-reading as I did when I was in high school and these tools can actually be used in any subject. However, during our discussion session in our discipline, we came up with several reading strategies that are important specifically to science. Therefore, while some strategies can be used across disciplines, it is essential to recognize the difference between the disciplines in order to further promote the problems solving skills necessary within the discipline. For example, we discussed that determining the various variables and control group presented in a scientific article/research is especially important to science. The methodology of the experiment is just as significant as the data produced which is specific to the field of science. Also, data analysis becomes key to decipher scientific text. As a scientist, I am always questioning the text and article (what’s being tested? is there a control? who’s funding the testing? do the outcomes make sense?) as I am reading which also helps with my comprehension. As educators, in the beginning we can develop prompts to help students read this way by offering graphic organizers and providing these types of questions for the students to answer as they are reading the text. As we implement the Gradual Release of Responsibility, we can hope to have the students reading the text without the use of the graphic organizers, or have the students formulate their own questions/answers as they are reading the text. One other reading strategy I found on the Teaching Channel that I thought was an interesting and quick way to begin a science text is shown in the video below.
The final aspect of disciplinary reading that stuck with me during the class activities is the increasing importance of bringing supplemental text into the curriculum, possibly as extra credit work. During the reflection and discussion of our literacy autobiographies, our group discussed the importance of having an array of science text available to the students including many non-fiction books to help expose the students to various aspects of science and science literacy. In all honesty, science textbooks are pretty terrible and though they cover the content, they aren’t written in a manner that really captures the attention of the reader (in most cases). But exposing the students to other ways that science is communicated through various types of fiction and non-fiction books can present new vocabulary and discipline specific concepts to students in a context that is interesting to them. References: Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 79(1), 40-59. Literacy Triangle: http://serc.carleton.edu/nnn/numeracyprojects/examples/32020.html
You are totally right when you said that science textbooks are pretty terrible. They don't engage the students and overall tend to be very boring. I really like the video about the word clouds. This is a super cool idea and I can see myself using this in my own classroom. The teacher in the video gave it to his students beforehand so they can get an idea of what phrases or words might be important. This reminds of the metacognitive bookmark we talked about last week. It gives students an idea of what to look for and expect too. Maybe as the semester goes on the teacher could present the world cloud after the class reads the article? That way it can transform from helping the students prepare for a reading to being a tool that helps them check their understanding.
I really think that you explained the problem in teaching science very well. As a student can be very proficient in literacy, the introduction of totally new vocabulary in teaching science may be overwhelming. It is important to keep an active exposure to new terms in the classroom so that the students can become comfortable in adding these new words and concepts to their vocabulary. Graphic organizers and concept maps help to simplify a concept so that the students can grasp the idea more easily. I would always encourage my students to seek out additional information because they may find a certain writers presentation of certain materials more understandable and it may be more appropriate for their level.
I thought your idea of using graphic organizers and concept maps to adjust students to scientific content and literature was a great solution. These resources will help the entire classroom become develop literary skills, while also differentiating for students that require extra academic help. I agree that all textbooks should be supplemented with other resources, such as videos, labs, power points, and other interactive learning strategies. As teachers we need to find new and exciting ways to engage our students. Something as simple as making a word cloud for our students before they read, can alleviate stress and increase motivation and interest. You have right idea of always being one step ahead, and providing multiple forms of instruction to our students.
You are totally right when you said that science textbooks are pretty terrible. They don't engage the students and overall tend to be very boring. I really like the video about the word clouds. This is a super cool idea and I can see myself using this in my own classroom. The teacher in the video gave it to his students beforehand so they can get an idea of what phrases or words might be important. This reminds of the metacognitive bookmark we talked about last week. It gives students an idea of what to look for and expect too. Maybe as the semester goes on the teacher could present the world cloud after the class reads the article? That way it can transform from helping the students prepare for a reading to being a tool that helps them check their understanding.
ReplyDeleteI really think that you explained the problem in teaching science very well. As a student can be very proficient in literacy, the introduction of totally new vocabulary in teaching science may be overwhelming. It is important to keep an active exposure to new terms in the classroom so that the students can become comfortable in adding these new words and concepts to their vocabulary. Graphic organizers and concept maps help to simplify a concept so that the students can grasp the idea more easily. I would always encourage my students to seek out additional information because they may find a certain writers presentation of certain materials more understandable and it may be more appropriate for their level.
ReplyDeleteI thought your idea of using graphic organizers and concept maps to adjust students to scientific content and literature was a great solution. These resources will help the entire classroom become develop literary skills, while also differentiating for students that require extra academic help. I agree that all textbooks should be supplemented with other resources, such as videos, labs, power points, and other interactive learning strategies. As teachers we need to find new and exciting ways to engage our students. Something as simple as making a word cloud for our students before they read, can alleviate stress and increase motivation and interest. You have right idea of always being one step ahead, and providing multiple forms of instruction to our students.
ReplyDelete