Jen- I decided to make the next book club on the next two chapters because Chapter 4 is about writing and our writing demo is coming up!! It's time to start generating ideas :)
Hey Jen, so while reading chapter 3, I thought it was interesting that the book suggests that teachers encourage students to read science fition, fantasy, mystery, hoor, and biographies and atobiographies as long as the specific book is applicable to the science classroom. Personally, I have never had a science teacher encourage a "freetime" reading book, but I can see how it could be helpful. I remember in 9th grade when I was in Earth Science my teacher had us watch fun science movies during class on Fridays when we had it last period (I had a rotating schedule). By watching movies like Twister, The Apocalypse, and The Day After Tomorrow (we actually went to the movie theator to see that one in 2004), I was able to conceptualize the content we discussed in class. In our science content class, we reiterated how important constructivism is inside the classroom. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction. Watching these movies help me imagine how tornadoes, tectonic plates, the layers of the earth, and weather worked. Just yesterday, our professor was talking about how several years ago she was teaching a lesson on rivers, and although her students live right on the Hudson, most of them had never seen a river! I also think scientific books could help open up students' minds to science. Many students struggle in math and science instead of history and english. Reading science fiction can help bridge this gap for students struggling with science literacy.
On pages 58-64 they mentioned a lot of books in various subjects. I personally have not read any of them, have you? I think this idea is really interesting and I'm looking forward to talking about it at book club. Chapter 4, "Writing in Science", is very important. Especially as we both approach our demo project. Figure 4.1 listed questions students should answer before starting writing projects. I did not like this at all. I really think at the school level students should know how to write an analysis, a lab report, and a scientific abstract. Students at this level should also know how to find and use appropriate research in a lab report. This is where I would focus my time in the curriculum. Although I did not like that idea, I did like the idea about incorporating informal writing tasks in class on a daily basis. Figure 4.3 Learning Log Acitivy would be perfect for an exit pass that can be collected at the end of a class to assess students' literacy progress. The students would write down what they learned, what confused them, suprised them, a personal connection, or pose a question. The book also suggests that students keep a science notebook for all of their science writing. I liked this idea too! It reminded me of Freedom Writers. Formal Scientific Writing assignments can be difficult for adolescents because it requires a lot of scientific literacy. The book says on pg. 75 that in formal writing there should be precision, clarity, and brevity; the writing must be clear, accurate, and as brief as possible. This is very appropriate at the secondary level. Usisng the 5E model can be very helpful at polishing these skills in the classroom (Table 4.8 on pg 76). I think that they key to developing necessary writing skills is setting key expectations for what you want the students to be able to do successfully, and then practice until their work gets to that level.
Hey Ashley! Great idea btw having us post on the chapter that involved writing since our writing demo is next week! Writing in science is such an important component and I considered it one of my aspects as being able to identify a scientifically literate student. Chapter three had a lot of great ideas in it and these are ideas that I would personally bring into my own classroom. Although I feel like it is a lot to ask of a high school chemistry student to do extra reading since they already have a lot of work. I would make it a suggestion to read some science fiction books. It helps broaden their minds and also provides them with different aspects and angels to look at science. From my own experience I never had a science class that we were told to or even suggested to do ‘extra’ reading. And by extra reading I mean something like a book! I think this is a great idea. I would love to take my own students to the movies to see a movie that relates to the science content that they are learning! What a great idea and it’s a great way to break up the week. Chapter three had a lot of out of the ordinary suggestions for a science classroom. I spoke with my mentor teacher about if he would ever have his students read a book for his class. He said first and foremost there would be no time to have students read a book but even if there was he doubted that students would take the time to actually read it. And if he was to make it an extra credit type of assignment, he didn’t think that even his best students would take their own personal time to read a book. I agree with you Ashley, that maybe having students do readings and see movies that relate to science would help bridge some sort of learning gap…..
sorry..on the above comment I meant to say, that reading in science is very important...I believe that writing in science is important as well but I wanted to save that for my next post
As far as chapter four is concerned, writing is an essential part of scientific literacy. Writing does not only mean that a student can write words. Students also need to be able to write up lab reports, draw graphs, and write conclusions, and so much more! Writing is an everyday activity that many of us take for granted. As far as table 4.1 is concerned I found this extremely important. And I completely agree with Ash! If you are sitting in a High school regents level course, you SHOULD be able to complete an analysis, write a lab report and create an abstract. In my own definition of literacy I include analysis as an aspect of defining and distinguishing a scientifically literate student from an non-scientifically literate student. Science writing is something that only becomes more important as you proceed in your science ‘career’. My mentor teacher has students keep a separate book for all of their lab notes, lab write-ups, data, analysis of experiments and scientific conclusions from experiments. By having students separate this information from their regular notes; it not only provides organization but allows students to look at information that only pertains to their labs. The idea of ‘formal science writing’ really interested me, so I decided to look into it some more! Formal science writing is a highly organized paper. It is broken down into specific parts that allows for structure and organization. One website even said ‘Scientific research would be a virtually worthless pursuit were it not described in writing.” I found this quote to be very truthful! The whole point of doing a scientific write up is so someone who does not have the book or guidelines to your experiment, can read your write up and complete the work you did. In my own classroom I will stress the importance of being able to complete a science write-up and will help my students further their writing abilities by doing this. Writing in science is something that is on the rise and I believe that students will soon see a drastic increase in required writing in science classes everywhere! (hopefully!!!)
what if we worked with the english department to incorporate more of this fun science reading? Or, perhaps, summer reading?? I mean I know it is less likely students will read these books over the summer.... Jen, did you ever read any books for fun that really helped you conceptualize chemistry? When I think about Biology, I keep thinking about the magic school bus or Bill Nye the science guy...but again, these aren't books.
I think that's a great idea! If the whole idea behind Literacy is incorporating reading and writing into all subjects then we should work together with the English department to have more reading in the science curriculum. The English classes read books that pertain to social studies and history so why not have reading pertain to science and math as well. I'm not asking for a whole book to be read just on science but maybe having them reading science articles in English is not a bad idea! Allow them to analyze and interpret these articles!
I'm so glad I found these posts! I often reading the magic school bus so I found your discussion intriguing. I really think you are onto something - literacy does need to be a schoolwide endeavor. With the new common core standards, there is increasingly more emphasis on reading non-fiction, of which science readings would be a part.
Jen- I decided to make the next book club on the next two chapters because Chapter 4 is about writing and our writing demo is coming up!! It's time to start generating ideas :)
ReplyDeleteHey Jen, so while reading chapter 3, I thought it was interesting that the book suggests that teachers encourage students to read science fition, fantasy, mystery, hoor, and biographies and atobiographies as long as the specific book is applicable to the science classroom. Personally, I have never had a science teacher encourage a "freetime" reading book, but I can see how it could be helpful. I remember in 9th grade when I was in Earth Science my teacher had us watch fun science movies during class on Fridays when we had it last period (I had a rotating schedule). By watching movies like Twister, The Apocalypse, and The Day After Tomorrow (we actually went to the movie theator to see that one in 2004), I was able to conceptualize the content we discussed in class. In our science content class, we reiterated how important constructivism is inside the classroom. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction. Watching these movies help me imagine how tornadoes, tectonic plates, the layers of the earth, and weather worked. Just yesterday, our professor was talking about how several years ago she was teaching a lesson on rivers, and although her students live right on the Hudson, most of them had never seen a river! I also think scientific books could help open up students' minds to science. Many students struggle in math and science instead of history and english. Reading science fiction can help bridge this gap for students struggling with science literacy.
ReplyDeleteOn pages 58-64 they mentioned a lot of books in various subjects. I personally have not read any of them, have you? I think this idea is really interesting and I'm looking forward to talking about it at book club. Chapter 4, "Writing in Science", is very important. Especially as we both approach our demo project. Figure 4.1 listed questions students should answer before starting writing projects. I did not like this at all. I really think at the school level students should know how to write an analysis, a lab report, and a scientific abstract. Students at this level should also know how to find and use appropriate research in a lab report. This is where I would focus my time in the curriculum. Although I did not like that idea, I did like the idea about incorporating informal writing tasks in class on a daily basis. Figure 4.3 Learning Log Acitivy would be perfect for an exit pass that can be collected at the end of a class to assess students' literacy progress. The students would write down what they learned, what confused them, suprised them, a personal connection, or pose a question. The book also suggests that students keep a science notebook for all of their science writing. I liked this idea too! It reminded me of Freedom Writers. Formal Scientific Writing assignments can be difficult for adolescents because it requires a lot of scientific literacy. The book says on pg. 75 that in formal writing there should be precision, clarity, and brevity; the writing must be clear, accurate, and as brief as possible. This is very appropriate at the secondary level. Usisng the 5E model can be very helpful at polishing these skills in the classroom (Table 4.8 on pg 76). I think that they key to developing necessary writing skills is setting key expectations for what you want the students to be able to do successfully, and then practice until their work gets to that level.
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea btw having us post on the chapter that involved writing since our writing demo is next week! Writing in science is such an important component and I considered it one of my aspects as being able to identify a scientifically literate student. Chapter three had a lot of great ideas in it and these are ideas that I would personally bring into my own classroom. Although I feel like it is a lot to ask of a high school chemistry student to do extra reading since they already have a lot of work. I would make it a suggestion to read some science fiction books. It helps broaden their minds and also provides them with different aspects and angels to look at science. From my own experience I never had a science class that we were told to or even suggested to do ‘extra’ reading. And by extra reading I mean something like a book! I think this is a great idea. I would love to take my own students to the movies to see a movie that relates to the science content that they are learning! What a great idea and it’s a great way to break up the week. Chapter three had a lot of out of the ordinary suggestions for a science classroom. I spoke with my mentor teacher about if he would ever have his students read a book for his class. He said first and foremost there would be no time to have students read a book but even if there was he doubted that students would take the time to actually read it. And if he was to make it an extra credit type of assignment, he didn’t think that even his best students would take their own personal time to read a book. I agree with you Ashley, that maybe having students do readings and see movies that relate to science would help bridge some sort of learning gap…..
sorry..on the above comment I meant to say, that reading in science is very important...I believe that writing in science is important as well but I wanted to save that for my next post
ReplyDeleteAs far as chapter four is concerned, writing is an essential part of scientific literacy. Writing does not only mean that a student can write words. Students also need to be able to write up lab reports, draw graphs, and write conclusions, and so much more! Writing is an everyday activity that many of us take for granted. As far as table 4.1 is concerned I found this extremely important. And I completely agree with Ash! If you are sitting in a High school regents level course, you SHOULD be able to complete an analysis, write a lab report and create an abstract. In my own definition of literacy I include analysis as an aspect of defining and distinguishing a scientifically literate student from an non-scientifically literate student. Science writing is something that only becomes more important as you proceed in your science ‘career’. My mentor teacher has students keep a separate book for all of their lab notes, lab write-ups, data, analysis of experiments and scientific conclusions from experiments. By having students separate this information from their regular notes; it not only provides organization but allows students to look at information that only pertains to their labs. The idea of ‘formal science writing’ really interested me, so I decided to look into it some more! Formal science writing is a highly organized paper. It is broken down into specific parts that allows for structure and organization. One website even said ‘Scientific research would be a virtually worthless pursuit were it not described in writing.” I found this quote to be very truthful! The whole point of doing a scientific write up is so someone who does not have the book or guidelines to your experiment, can read your write up and complete the work you did. In my own classroom I will stress the importance of being able to complete a science write-up and will help my students further their writing abilities by doing this. Writing in science is something that is on the rise and I believe that students will soon see a drastic increase in required writing in science classes everywhere! (hopefully!!!)
ReplyDeletewhat if we worked with the english department to incorporate more of this fun science reading? Or, perhaps, summer reading?? I mean I know it is less likely students will read these books over the summer.... Jen, did you ever read any books for fun that really helped you conceptualize chemistry? When I think about Biology, I keep thinking about the magic school bus or Bill Nye the science guy...but again, these aren't books.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a great idea! If the whole idea behind Literacy is incorporating reading and writing into all subjects then we should work together with the English department to have more reading in the science curriculum. The English classes read books that pertain to social studies and history so why not have reading pertain to science and math as well. I'm not asking for a whole book to be read just on science but maybe having them reading science articles in English is not a bad idea! Allow them to analyze and interpret these articles!
ReplyDeleteoh and ashley, I used to watch Bill Nye the Science guy and the Magic School Bus but I cannot recall any instance in which I READ for Science.......
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I found these posts! I often reading the magic school bus so I found your discussion intriguing. I really think you are onto something - literacy does need to be a schoolwide endeavor. With the new common core standards, there is increasingly more emphasis on reading non-fiction, of which science readings would be a part.
ReplyDelete