Developing Readers and Writers in Science

1. Developing Readers and Writers in Science 7 Strategies to Use in The Scientific Classroom

2. Reading and Writing in the Science Classroom. . . . . .Why? • Reading, Writing, and Comprehending in the Science Classroom (Jigsaw Article) Appendix 1.1

3. Fix it Up Strategies • What’s confusing? • Why is it confusing? • Read article using the Mark Confusion codes Appendix 1.2-1.3

4. Double-Entry Journal • Double-entry journals give students a way to interact personally with the text, by reflecting on and writing about their understanding of the material they are reading • Discuss their thoughts and explain how reflecting in writing can help them consider the material more thoroughly. Appendix 2.1-2.2 (COPS)

5. Think Alouds • The think-aloud strategy asks students to say out loud what they are thinking about when reading Science text, or simply responding to questions posed by teachers or other students. • Watch the video of this strategy in action! Appendix 3.1

6. Sum it Up! When You Ask Your Students to Summarize, What Usually Happens? • they write down everything • they write down next to nothing • they give me complete sentences • they write way too much • they don't write enough • they copy word for word

7. Sum it Up! What do you Want Them To Do? • pull out main ideas • focus on key details • use key words and phrases • break down the larger ideas • write only enough to convey the gist • take succinct but complete notes Appendix 4.1-4.3

8. Sketch to Stretch • Episodic notes provide an opportunity for students to visualize and condense their thinking • Purpose: Identify most important topics/moments; show cause-effect and organization of information. • Determine the most crucial information, events or people in the text, article, or assigned reading. • Draw in the box what happens and what you “see” in the text. Be as specific as possible. Please use your imagination and creativity • Remember these are notes, not works of art: try to capture the action and important details of the moment. • Explain (in the notes section under the box) what is happening and why it is important. Appendix 5.1

9. GIST: Generating Interaction Between Schemata & Text • Schemata is defined as a plan or purpose. So we might say we are trying to figure out the plan or purpose for what the author has written. This is just a fancy way for saying that we want students to use the GIST strategy in order to learn to connect what they already know, with a logical prediction about the outcome of a story, or the purpose of a reading selection. Appendix 6.1