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Reading to Learn in Science Grades 9-12

© Region 4 Education Service Center. 3 All rights reserved.

Reading to Learn in Science Grades 9 - 12

Concern for student success in reading to learn in the content areas is not new. In 1925, the National Committee on Reading published the statement that “each teacher who makes reading assignments is responsible to the direction and supervision of the reading and study activities that are involved” (National Society for the Study of Education). This realization that teachers should be teaching reading strategies in the content areas in order to support their students’ reading success has been repeatedly addressed in educational journals, conferences, professional development sessions and pedagogical discussions. Before reading about what research has to reveal concerning high school students’ learning to read and reading to learn, complete the Reading Anticipation Guide below.

Reading Anticipation Guide In the Before Reading column, circle either A for agree or D for disagree beside each statement. After reading this section about what research reveals, read the statements a second time and respond in the After Reading column.

Before

Reading Statements After Reading

A D High school science teachers are generally trained to teach reading strategies. A D

A D Expository science text reading is less demanding than narrative text reading.

A D

A D Students have difficulty interpreting and applying what they read.

A D

A D Science teachers are responsible for identifying reading strategies that support student comprehension skills.

A D

A D The Five-E Instructional Model describes how to teach reading in the science context.

A D

A D Learning to read and reading to learn are reciprocal processes. A D

A D Reading strategies to support student success generally focus on phases of cognitive processing.

A D

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Despite the recognition of the importance of students learning to read and reading to learn, little action has been taken (Barry, 1994) and only minimal content-focused training has been available to the high school science teacher. Successful, research-based classroom strategies that include graphic organizers, anticipation guides, vocabulary mapping, and discussion webs are still unfamiliar practices to many science teachers (Buehl, 1998-1999). Most research related to reading in the content area has not been targeted to produce specific conclusions about students’ reading success in the sciences (Irvin, Buehl, and Klemp, 2003). Reading in the sciences is inquiry based and constructive. Students construct their understandings based on what they know and what they read and experience. Science texts make demanding reading because they use complex, specialized language. Life science texts are primarily descriptive and technical. Physical science texts are more conceptual and theoretical. However, both life and physical science texts contain a large number of technical terms (Chall, Bissex, Conard, & Harris-Sharples, 1996). Thousands of high school students cannot read to learn from their academic science texts (Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko, & Hurwitz, 1999). The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests have been administered in each of the major content areas and in reading for over three decades (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002), and the results repeatedly demonstrate that students have difficulty with tasks that require interpretation or application of what they have learned. Percentages vary for content areas, but approximately 30 percent of students exhibit difficulty with content-area reading comprehension. This difficulty can be severe enough to prohibit even a basic level of competence (Campbell, Hombro, & Mazzeo, 1999). Most high school students do possess solid basic reading skills and solid basic decoding skills. However, many of these students are not prepared to deal with advanced vocabulary, complex ideas and language structure, and comprehension requirements embedded in their academic texts (Gunning, 2003).

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This section, Explain: Analyze the Strategies, is used to examine the explored applications of the individual reading comprehension strategies and to communicate the results. The explain phase allows for further development to provide additional meaning and to ensure correct terminology and application. Giving labels with correct terminology and demonstrating appropriate applications is far more meaningful and helpful in retention if it is done after a learner has had a direct experience. This explain section will help to identify the learner’s development and grasp of the reading comprehension strategies that have been explored. This section offers explanations and opportunities for further development of the strategies of text coding and SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) that are used to explore identifying main idea in expository reading passages. Additional support is offered to explain the summarizing strategies that use expository reading passages to practice summary writing and divided-page notetaking. The Inferential thinking strategies that explore the processes of Questioning the Author (QtA) and responding to the It Says – I Say – And So informational text chart are examined in more depth. Finally, the application of text comparisons strategies that apply graphic organizers and the reader connections of Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World are explained.

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Divided-Page Notetaking Strategy Taking notes from text is an important skill to help students complete summaries, write reports, make presentations, and identify relationships. The divided-page notetaking system is a convenient system to support the deciphering of expository text (Pauk, 2001). Preparing a written summary has been shown to improve comprehension (Brown & Day, 1983) because students are required to differentiate important and unimportant aspects of a concept. The divided-page notetaking, followed by a concept map or graphic organizer, helps students to prepare a written summary. A graphic organizer that is constructed after students complete the divided-page notetaking chart provides a format that models for students how to organize the summary report about what they have read and learned. The Key Point listing in the left column of the divided-page notetaking chart can become topic sentences for the summary itself. To implement the divided-page notetaking strategy for reading comprehension, the teacher should complete the following steps. Using divided-page notetaking:

1. Students use a two-columned chart or a vertically folded sheet of notebook paper to set up two columns.

2. Column one is labeled Key Point and column two is labeled Details. (Irvin, 2001).

3. Students read the text and identify important points to be listed in the left column of the paper. Students note details while reading and list those details in the right column.

4. Students translate the notetaking information from the chart into a concept map or graphic organizer to see the relationship of ideas.

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The following four pages illustrate the application of divided-page notetaking to the Summarizing Reading Sample: Relationships Among Organisms introduced in the Explore: Practice the Strategies section.

The table below is an example of a divided-page notetaking system chart for a summarizing activity.

Statement of Concept

Key Point Details

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Summarizing Reading Sample Relationships Among Organisms

Organisms do not live alone; they are always associated with members of their

own kind, and they are associated together with other species in defined ecosystems. These ecosystem communities are held together by the interdependence of their individual members. Ecosystem communities are composed of smaller groups called populations. Populations of two different species may interact with one another in a number of ways. Populations of organisms might compete for food, space, or other common needs, or they might live in some close association that benefits or harms one or the other. The interdependence and interactions that occur within an ecosystem involve organisms that exhibit predation, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. Predation

Predation occurs when one organism lives at the expense of another. A predatory animal feeds upon another by eating its entire body. When a hawk kills and eats a field mouse, the hawk is living at the expense of the mouse and is, therefore, a predator. In a predation

relationship, each population continually determines the size of the other. When there is an abundance of prey, predators thrive. As the prey disappear, the number of predators will

decline because their food supply diminishes. Parasitism

Parasitism is a forced relationship between two organisms. The parasite lives at the expense of the host, taking all and giving nothing in return, and possibly even causing injury to the host. The caterpillar eating the tree leaves is a parasite to the tree. The ideal parasite will withdraw just enough nourishment from its host to maintain its own good health. Often parasites reach a balance with their host so that the host

contributes what the parasite requires to survive but is not apparently injured by its presence. If the parasite removes too much from its host, so that the host becomes sick and dies, then the parasite is destroyed as well. Therefore, parasitism can be a

limiting factor if the number of parasites carried by a host becomes too large, causing the host to die. Commensalism

Commensalism is a loose association of two organisms where the advantage goes only to one member of the association, and the other is unaffected. The advantage may be shelter, food, transport, support, or even a combination of two or

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more of these. Commensalism literally means “at table together”; therefore, the relationship involves one organism getting food or food scraps while the other is unaffected. An example of this relationship is the remora fish and the shark. Remoras have a modified dorsal fin that acts like a sucker allowing the fish to cling to larger fish like sharks, tuna, and swordfish. While attached to the larger fish, the remora gains transport, protection, and food scraps. The shark doesn’t seem to suffer any adverse consequences from the remoras’ presence. Commensalism can also occur between two plants. In this relationship, one plant grows on or attaches to another living plant without harming it. The types of plants that can grow on another plant are called epiphytes. Epiphytes have aerial roots and get their moisture from the air. An example of an epiphyte commonly seen in the southern United States is the growth of Spanish moss in the tops of oak trees. The Spanish moss benefits from the relationship, but the oak tree is not affected in any way. Mutualism

Mutualism is a situation where organisms live together with benefit to both; they depend on each other. Flowers and their pollinators are a common example of this type

of relationship. The flower is a structure designed to attract a pollinator by its shape, color, and smell. The flower and its aroma provide a series of visual clues the pollinator associates with a food reward. If the reward is significant, the pollinator will most likely visit other plants of the same species. In this symbiotic relationship, a flower gets its pollen passed from one individual to another; in turn, the flower provides a food reward in the form of nectar.

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Divided-Page Notetaking Chart

Relationships Among Organisms

Key Point

Details

Ecosystems - where organisms live together

• Ecosystems are held together by

interdependence of individual members

Predation – one organism lives at the expense of another

• Predators eat the prey organisms • One population determines the size of

the other

Parasitism – one organism lives off another

• Parasites withdraw nourishment from

their host • Parasites can cause a host to die

Commensalism – one organism benefits from the association, the other does not

• Host organism is not affected by the

association

Mutualism – both organisms benefit from one another

• Two organisms depend on each other

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Divided-Page Notetaking Graphic Organizer

Relationships Among Organisms

Ecosystems

held together by interdependence of individual members

Predation Parasitism MutualismCommensalism

one organism

lives at the other’s

expense

predators eat

the prey organisms

one population determines size of the

other

one organism lives off another

parasites take

nourishment from hosts

parasites

can cause a host to die

one organism

benefits, but not the other

host organism not affected by

the association

both organisms

benefit from one

another

two organisms depend on

each other SNAPSHOT

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