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Reading and Writing Like Scientists: Toward Developing Scientific Literacy in Project-Based Science

Reading and Writing Like Scientists: Toward Developing Scientific Literacy in Project-Based Science. Elizabeth Birr Moje LeeAnn M. Sutherland Joseph Krajcik Phyllis Blumenfeld Deborah Peek-Brown Ronald W. Marx National Council of Teachers of English Annual Meeting November 19, 2004.

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Reading and Writing Like Scientists: Toward Developing Scientific Literacy in Project-Based Science

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  1. Reading and Writing Like Scientists:Toward Developing Scientific Literacy in Project-Based Science Elizabeth Birr Moje LeeAnn M. Sutherland Joseph Krajcik Phyllis Blumenfeld Deborah Peek-Brown Ronald W. Marx National Council of Teachers of English Annual Meeting November 19, 2004

  2. Acknowledgement • This report is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, under Grant No.REC 0106959 Amd 001. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

  3. http://www.umich.edu/~mojehttp://www.hi-ce.org For more information:

  4. Purposes of the Project • To engage middle-school students in developing scientific explanations of phenomena they investigated in project-based curriculum units • To engage students in the processes and practices involved in data analysis and representation • To engage middle school students in reading across multiple text types and genres • To study the effects on students’ • conceptual knowledge of science, • scientific literacy skills and practices, and • general reading skills and practices.

  5. Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives • Socioconstructivist and sociocultural theories • Discourse theories • Content-area/disciplinary literacy theories • Project-based learning (Project-Based Science)

  6. Curriculum Design • Project-based units around driving questions: • What affects the quality of air in my community? (air quality/chemistry) • How can good friends make me sick? (communicable disease/biology) • What is the water like in our river? (water quality/chemistry/ecology) • How can I make new stuff from old stuff (chemistry)

  7. Overall Scientific Literacy Curriculum Design • Explicit focus on [some] conventions of scientific communication, emphasis on written communication of explanations • Emphasis on data representation and analysis • Emphasis on scaffolded multiple text genres

  8. Curriculum Design: Explanations • How to write a good scientific explanation: • Make a claim about the problem. • Provide evidence for the claim. • Provide reasoning that links the evidence to the claim. • Use precise and accurate scientific language. • Write clearly so that anyone interested in science can understand the explanation.

  9. Curriculum/Research Design: Explanations

  10. Conclusions & Implications of the ExplanationWork • Explicit attention to the conventions of scientific communication is related to the improvement in students’ content knowledge and scientific literacy abilities • ..Quant Findings Explanations 2004.ppt • ..\Pre Post Student Explanations.ppt • Explicit attention to conventions MAY lead to reifying conventions • ..\Student Explanations Across Discourse Communities.ppt • Explicit attention to conventions requires concomitant attention to the nature and appropriateness of conventions in different discourse communities

  11. Curriculum Design: Data Representation and Analysis • Collecting data systematically and rigorously • Representing what one is observes in data collection • Translating first-level representations into other forms of data representation • Interpreting and synthesizing data from different representations • Using data in making written explanations (see explanation writing)

  12. Curriculum Design: Scaffolded Multiple Text Genres • Scaffolded integration of multiple text genres and forms of representation around single concepts • Constructed expository text • ..\IRA\EXP TEXT from reader.pdf • Constructed narrative text (i.e., case studies) • ..\..\Textual Tools Study\Rust Case Nov 04.doc • Real-world texts • ..\NSF\Rust article with call outs NSF 2004.doc • Visual images • Hands-on (firsthand, see Palincsar & Magnusson, 2001) experiences

  13. Where are we going next? • Development of and research on learning activities designed to engage students in conversations about conventions of explanations in different communities • Development of and research on reading activities designed to support students’ engagement with and production of science texts • Design of pre/post formal and informal reading diagnostics designed to assess changes in students’ ability to read science text

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