READING AND WRITING IN SCIENCEAtlanta Public SchoolsMay 24, 2013Jodi Wheeler-Toppen,Author of Once Upon a Life Science Book and Science the Write Way (NSTA Press)

INITIAL THOUGHTS

AGENDA Sample Lesson Why do students struggle with reading? Organizing

Reading and Writing Lessons as Learning Cycles

Your Turn: Outline a Literacy Learning Cycle Starting a Conversation with Strategies Helping students with prewriting

PART 1: SAMPLE LESSONPenguin Journeys--Corrections from Chapter 10 of: Once Upon a Life Science Book.

PENGUIN JOURNEYS: WILL YOURS SURVIVE?

Take a blank penguin (large or small)

Right now, it has bare feet. If you are worried that it will need some covering there, draw some feathers. If not, leave them blank or give them a solid color.

TRAVEL TO A TROPICAL ISLANDYour flock was caught in a storm and blown off course! You’re almost at the equator! Is a large penguin or a small penguin

better suited to live here? Are more or less feathers better for

warm weather?

TRAVEL TO A TROPICAL ISLANDBig, Extra Feathers

Big, No Extra Feathers

Small, Extra Feathers

Small, No Extra Feathers

Starting CensusRound 1Round 2Round 3

How did the population change over the course of the simulation?

WE’RE GOING TO READ AN ARTICLE ABOUT HOW REAL PENGUINS HAVE ADAPTED TO DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS.

BEFORE YOU READThis article involves a number of comparisons

and contrasts

Comparison Signal WordsIn the same wayJust likeJust asLikewiseAlsoSimilarly

BEFORE YOU READContrast Signal Words

HoweverIn contrastOn the other handConverselyWhereasBut, yet, while** Sometimes indicate a contrast

CONTRAST EXAMPLE

“Penguins, however, are built for swimming and diving.”

What’s the signal word? What kind of information probably came before

this sentence? After it?

CONTRAST EXAMPLEMost birds are built for flying, with lightweight, hollow wing bones. Penguins, however, are built for swimming and diving. They have heavy bones that make their wings work like flippers.

What’s the signal word? What two things are being contrasted? What makes them different?

AS YOU READ: Be watching for the comparison and contrast

signal words and be watching for what the comparison or contrast is.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Fennec Fox (smallest of all foxes)

Arctic fox, in winter

What physical adaptations do these foxes have that make them suited to their environments?What behavioral adaptations might be useful for them to have?

PRE-WRITING Should you use everyday language or

school/work language? What science words will you want to include? What writing words will you want to include? Make a quick list of some of your ideas. What

order will you want to present them in?

PART 2: WHY DO STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH READING?

The belief that reading is essentially a process of saying the words rather than actively constructing meaning from texts is widespread among many students. For instance, one of the students we interviewed looked surprised when he was asked to describe the topic discussed in a section of text he had just read.

“I don’t know what it was about,” he answered, with no sense of irony, “I was busy reading. I wasn’t paying attention.”

(Schoenbach, et al.; Reading for Understanding)

3 IMPEDIMENTS TO LEARNING FROM TEXT1. Students do not expect what they are

reading to make sense.

THINKING ALOUDAll Penguins—even those that live in the tropics—have thick waterproof feathers that keep them warm and dry in the water. These feathers are organized in a pattern called countershading. When they swim, the black feathers on their backs help them hide from any predators looking down from above at the dark ocean water. Similarly, the white feathers on their bellies blend into the light of the sky if they are viewed from below.

3 IMPEDIMENTS TO LEARNING FROM TEXT1. Students do not expect what they are

reading to make sense.

Try this: Thinking out loud.Start a conversation in your class about how you “figure things out” as you read.

IMPEDIMENT 2Somerset Draw with Durham Hands Notts the

TitleAfter bowling the home side out for 320, Somerset

were left needing 181 from 17 overs to guarantee the title. But, at 48-3, the chase was abandoned at Chester-le-Street and a draw agreed.

Fired-up Notts then took the three Lancashire wickets they required at Old Trafford to pick up a sixth bonus point and break Somerset hearts.

Eventually, Trego had Scott Rushworth caught behind and Benkenstein was caught at slip by skipper Marcus Trescothick off Charl Willoughby to set up the Somerset chase. They went to the crease not knowing if a draw would be good enough to hold off Notts and immediately lost Kieswetter, promoted up the order, when he was bowled by Somerset old boy Blackwell.

IMPEDIMENT 2: THEY LACK BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE ASSUMED BY THE TEXT. Concepts: “Some people were afraid

the condor would soon be gone.”

Non-science Vocabulary:Adequate ContradictTentative CharacteristicSubstance OffspringDeposit

(All words used in academic writing, but not very often in speech)

TRY THESE: Explore the concept before reading! Read the text yourself and think about

what underlying knowledge they need. Listen, listen to what they say about

the text. Talk to students about ways to “fill in”

background knowledge. You may want to try reading groups or

having students think aloud to each other.

Ferdie and Niddle gabbled on the plag, plag wert. “Pling,” Ferdie twaddled, “pling apie plee.” Niddle peedled and vang rue sot.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Where did Ferdie and Niddle gabble?

2. What did Ferdie twaddle?

3. What did Niddle do after he peedled?

*Critical Thinking:

4. Where else might Ferdie and Niddle gabble?

IMPEDIMENT 3

3 IMPEDIMENTS TO LEARNING FROM TEXT1. Students do not expect what they are

reading to make sense. (Try thinking aloud. Talk about how to make sense of reading in your classroom conversations.)

2. Students lack the background knowledge they need to understand the text. (Do the lab first! Think about what they might need to know before reading.)

3. They don’t have to read to do their school tasks. (Give them better tasks.)

PART 3: ORGANIZING LITERACY LESSONS AS LEARNING CYCLES

HOW MANY OF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE IDEA OF “LEARNING CYCLES” (OR “5E” LESSONS)?

(Engage)ExploreExplainExtend/ Apply(Evaluate)

READING FROM:

AS YOU READ: Be thinking about how the sample lesson we

did (on penguins) fits with the model described here.

IN SMALL GROUPS Take a few minutes to read through the

sample lessons described in this table. Then discuss the questions listed below it.

PART 4: YOUR TURN!

YOUR TURN! Use the handout to develop a general outline for

your lesson, using the 3 parts of a literacy learning cycle.

Use the remaining time to come as close as possible to being ready to walk in and teach that lesson. You may need to— Rewrite lab sheets so the lab can come first without

difficult vocabulary Identify exactly the page/ sections you want

students to read. Write the exact wording of questions you want

students to answer (a “question”, writing assignments, etc.)

Prepare grading rubrics, answer sheets, etc

SHARE Put the basics of your plan into our chart, to

be posted at: onceuponasciencebook.com

PART 5: STARTING THE CONVERSATION

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR THOUGHTS AS YOU ARE READING How do you know if you understand what you

are reading? What do you do to process the words as you

read them? If you have trouble understanding, how do

you try to solve it?

STARTING THE CONVERSATION: SOME PLACES TO START You will be given a strategy. Do you use this

strategy when you read? How? When? How could you introduce it to a class?

Prepare a 3 minute (or less) description of it that you could use with students.

Provide an example if it seems appropriate.

STRATEGY: FINDING THE MEANING OF NEW SCIENCE WORDS

Example ExplanationSoil can be washed away by runoff. Runoff is rain water that collects and moves across the ground.

The sentence after the term provides a definition.

Rain water that runs across the ground, called runoff, …

The new term is signaled with the word called.

Soil can be washed away by runoff, which means rainwater that runs across the ground.

The definition is signaled with the phrase which means.

FINDING THE MEANING OF NEW WORDS

Example ExplanationRunoff, or rain water that runs across the ground, ...

The word or after a comma indicates that the word and phrase mean the same thing.

Soil can be washed away by runoff. This movement of rain water across the ground …

This is the trickiest situation. The text doesn’t directly say what the word means, but implies it by using the word and the definition close together. In short, the meaning of a SCIENCE word is

usually found just before or after the word is used for the first time.

STRATEGY: THE INTERRUPTION CONSTRUCTIONSome erosion, such as the movement of glaciers or the force of a tropical storm, is hard to stop.

Some erosion, such as the movement of glaciers or the force of a tropical storm, is hard to stop.

The “interruption” adds extra information. Try reading the sentence without the interruption, and then add it back in.

STRATEGY: SIGNAL WORDS FOR EXAMPLES AND LISTS

ExamplesFor example,

LikeSuch as

To illustrateFor instance

e.g. (stands for the Latin exempli gratis and means for example)

SIGNAL PHRASES FOR LISTS

Signal ExampleStatement with a number There are 4 main

differences between monocots and dicots.

A statement followed by a colon

Use all of your senses: taste, touch, hearing, smell, and sight.

• This may seem very obvious. But the point is, when you see these signals, it should pose a question in your mind: what are the four main differences? Or what are the senses? Then you should be reading to answer that question.

STRATEGY: PICTURE IT IN YOUR HEAD When a description is given, with no

illustration, try to see if you can picture it in your head.

For example, the idea of countershading was described in the penguin article. To really understand, you would need to picture what the penguin and its environment look like from above and below.

STRATEGY: BUILDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Remember how important having enough

background is to reading? If you keep encountering sentences you can’t understand, you may not know enough to read that text.

Try to figure out what you need to know and ask someone about it.

Try reading something simpler on the topic (a children’s book or website) and then return to the text.

STRATEGY: STUDY DIAGRAMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS In some books, the pictures are just there to

be pretty. Not in science! Diagrams and illustrations often have more information than the words, and may show it more clearly.

Look over the diagrams before you read. When the words talk about a diagram (like

when it says “see figure 3.2” stop and study the figure.

STRATEGY: TALK YOURSELF THROUGH IT Science books can be complicated. They

often have lots of new information in each sentence. After you read a section, say back to yourself what you understood. A good way to start is to say “Ok, so this means that…”

This is a type of thinking aloud, with a focus on what the main ideas are.

PART 6: PREPARING FOR WRITING

TYPES OF PREWRITING QUESTIONS Science Ideas

What ideas will you want to include? What order should you put them in?

What science words will you want to include?

PREWRITING Audience: Are you explaining this to the

teacher (who really knows what happened) or to an outside audience?

Language: Should you use everyday or school/work language?

What writing words will you want to include? (A good way to follow up on signal words you

may have discussed)

Some useful writing words for writing about claims/ evidence: Because Therefore If… Then… However

“THEREFORE”: CONNECTS REASONING TO THE CLAIMWhat claim can you make about the movement of water when the egg was in the syrup?

Student: The egg was squished [ie, smaller] and we got more syrup than we started with.

Teacher adds: Therefore, water moved from the egg into the syrup.

“THEREFORE”: CONNECTS REASONING TO THE CLAIM Claim: What makes up the grasshopper’s

skeleton?

The skin. We looked and there’s no bones. The muscle connect to the skin. In people, muscle connect to the bones. Bones are our skeleton. Therefore, skin is their skeleton.

IF…THEN… HELPS YOU SAY WHAT YOU WOULD PREDICT TO HAPPENThere is something under there because some of the marbles bounced back. They would go through if there was nothing there. I think it’s square because they came straight back on all sides and we had a square shaped blank spot on our lab sheet.

If there was nothing under the cardboard, then the marble should go straight through.

However…

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! Feel free to contact me, and look for

materials, at onceuponasciencebook.com I would be delighted to have any feedback on

today’s activities. I am looking for field-test teachers for Once

Upon an Earth Science Book.