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STEM and Literacy - Click the link below and then select "open in new window"

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STEM and Literacy - Click the link below and then select "open in new window"

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Interviews in the Field Demonstration Lessons - Close Reading

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Posted on by tdwolsey

The Literacy in the Disciplines Interview Project

Cynthia H. Brock interviewed Cal Anderson of SpaceX and Joe Assof of Health Sciences High and Middle College about the intersections of literacy, mechanical engineering, and mathematics in this video series.

In Part I, Cindy, Cal, and Joe discuss some of the expectations and demands of language in the mechanical engineering field.

In Part II, the team converses about how the ideas they discussed in Part I might look in the classroom. At two points in the conversation, Joe provided video of his students in the classrooms. Look for the callout to take you to the classroom videos or view them separately, below.

In this video, Joe Assof works through a complex problem with a group of 11th graders where they have to understand the context of the problem and what is being asked in order to understand how to apply the mathematics. Notice how the students use language to support their understanding in mathematics.

Joe is working with an outstanding group of students who use close-reading to understand two short word problems in this video. The students are using an annotation scaffold to guide their thinking as they read and discuss the word problems.

Next, W. Ian O'Bryne, College of Charleston, interviews Kurt Becker, Utah State University, about intersections of engineering education, design, STEM, and literacy.

You may also access this set of videos in the Interview Series that have to do with STEM topics as a playlist on YouTube.

Soon, I will have these interviews uploaded as podcasts to iTunes or GooglePlay, so stay tuned!

Filed under: disciplinary literacy | Tagged: Anderson, Assof, Brock, engineering, interview, literacy, mathematics, SpaceX, Wolsey |

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The Literacy in the Disciplines Interview Project Cynthia H. Brock interviewed Cal Anderson of SpaceX and Joe Assof of Health Sciences High and Middle College about the intersections of literacy, mechanical engineering, and mathematics in this video series. In Part I, Cindy, Cal, and Joe discuss some of the expectations and demands of language in...

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I can remember the first time that writing across the curriculum was officially introduced to our middle school staff. Let's just say it was not met with open arms.

Nevertheless, over the years, our middle school has done a phenomenal job of collaborating and introducing different ways for our students to write across the curriculum.

Writing across the content continues to be a central conversation among teachers and administrators. More specifically, how do teachers implement cross-curricular writing and what does it look like?

To begin, here are some books on writing across content areas to consider adding to your already robust " to read" pile.

►Content Area Writing by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke

►Content Area Writing that Rocks by Rebecca G Harper

►Texts and Lessons for Content-Area Reading (with More Than 75 Articles from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Car and Driver, Chicago Tribune, and Many Others) by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels and Nancy Steineke

►Ask, Explore, Write! An Inquiry-Driven Approach to Science and Literacy Learning by Troy Hicks, Jeremy Hyler, and Wiline Pangle

Yes, there is a shameless plug for my upcoming co-authored book here. Although my list above may be missing other favorite and helpful books on this topic, the first three I've included are ones that I have used and heard great things about. I hope our book will fill a useful niche in the ongoing discussion about how we can use writing in any subject to deepen learning.

Over the past several years my school colleagues and I have developed two major cross-curriculum projects. One is a research paper that is done with a social studies Civil War unit and the other is an argument essay students write in conjunction with a year-long science project. These projects are complex and it has taken years for us to develop them to where they are currently.

In the space I have here, I'd like to share a few simpler cross-curriculum writing ideas that could easily be implemented and help interested teachers begin experimenting with writing as a learning tool outside the ELA classroom. (The first one - science notebooks - is explored in more depth in our new book.)

Science Notebooks

I teach ELA and science. One particular strategy I use with my students is implementing notebooks into my science classroom.

I now ask them to acquire a sketchbook for science class, large enough to use throughout the year. Prior to this year, I'd just used regular composition notebooks. Unlined sketchbooks allow and encourage students to not only write but use the space to draw pictures, doodle, and create graphs and charts.

I also encourage my students to carry their notebooks with them everywhere they go. This would include when they do labs, experiments, are taking notes in the library, or when we go out on school grounds for certain lessons. Below is an example of a student's science notebook. Although it isn't on a sketchbook, it still shows how students are writing and drawing pictures.

Implementing science notebooks into a science classroom doesn't have to be complicated. I do encourage teachers to do more with a notebook than just having students simply do a warm-up writing every day. In my opinion, a single activity doesn't help the students see value in why they are doing more writing in science.

I am speaking from my own teaching experience when I first implemented cross-curricular writing in my science classroom. At the time, my students wouldn't take it seriously and only saw it as one more thing to do. Now, students see the notebook as a valuable anchor tool for all the things we do in science.

A great resource to consider for science notebooks is a book co-authored by one of my National Writing Project colleagues Kim Jaxon titled Composing Science: A Facilitator's Guide to Writing in the Science Classroom. There is a chapter dedicated specifically to how to use science notebooks. Also, there is a companion website - it's a great resource you can use to implement writing into your science classroom with or without the book (buy the book if you can!).

Graphing, Tables, and Charts

Earlier I mentioned how my students use their notebooks for much more than answering a simple writing prompt. One of the best ways teachers can implement more writing into any classroom is by having students draw and interpret graphs. You can do this in social studies, science, or math class.

One of the most challenging ideas for students to learn is how to interpret data they have put into a table or chart. This data may have come from a lab or a science experiment they have done in class.

After students have interpreted that data, they have to choose the type of graph that best represents the data they have in their chart or table. As you can see in the student example below, they have recorded their data on the left side of the notebook and on the right-hand side they are testing different ways to display the data to best represent their findings.

Along with composing graphs, students can write about the graphs and describe what the graph is displaying and how they interpret it. In addition, I really enjoy having students look at two different graphs and do a comparative analysis.

This doesn't have to be a long writing assignment. A simple 6-8 sentence paragraph will do, explaining the similarities and differences they see and what could cause the changes they observed.

In my classes, this not only helps students when they have to write their argument paper later in the year, it's a skill that can be used when they take standardized tests in the spring.

You don't need to grade - but please reinforce

Implementing more writing into science, math and social studies doesn't have to be difficult. And it doesn't require content area teachers to grade areas like spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. On the other hand, it does mean making a commitment to having students practice good writing skills in all content areas and not just in the English classroom.

Too many times I hear teachers tell me how students don't feel they have to carry those skills into other classrooms. "That it is just an English thing." By implementing more writing into other content areas - and encouraging your students to "write like you do in English class" - students will gain an understanding that good writing skills are relevant in all areas in and out of school.

No matter whether the activity is big or small, I believe it truly is everyone's responsibility to help students have the best writing skills possible. A few grade-free notes about spelling, word choice and sentence structure will reinforce the message.

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Writing to Learn in Your Science Classes

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I can remember the first time that writing across the curriculum was officially introduced to our middle school staff. Let's just say it was not met with open arms. Nevertheless, over the years, our middle school has done a phenomenal job of collaborating and introducing different ways for our students to write across the curriculum.

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History Lessons | Stanford History Education Group

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This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues and learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

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Sample from Reading Like a Historian - Stanford

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There was a time when children went off to school expecting to read in every class, whether it was mathematics, science, or history. It simply was a given that reading in all the content areas had an impact on learning. This truth has resurfaced in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and teachers are realizing these new standards set much higher expectations for student learning than we have held in the recent past.

The CCSS aim to move students toward reading more nonfiction by engaging them in increasingly complex texts as they move through school, while at the same time, helping them develop discipline-specific literacy skills. In Teaching Reading in the Content Areas, 3rd edition, there are five recommendations from research that, if implemented thoughtfully and systematically, will help improve students' reading comprehension. With each recommendation that follows, I've made a suggestion for getting started.
1. Explicit instruction in effective comprehension strategies
Even though science, mathematics, and social studies all demand distinctive reading and writing skills, one instructional practice that is important for all readers, and particularly adolescents, is teacher modeling. When
teachers model strategies, they give students a kind of "sensory template." The " Think-Aloud," for example, is a strategy where teachers model the type of thinking a specific task requires. As students watch and listen to their teacher's actions and words, they are able to visualize using the strategy.
2. Increase open, sustained discussion of reading content
When teachers encourage students to brainstorm ideas together and ask each other questions, students grow more aware of their cognitive processes, which strengthens their ability to select and use appropriate comprehension strategies. As important, when they engage in large-group discussion, they mine the shared knowledge of the class. The Socratic Seminar is a strategy that promotes debate, uses evidence from the text, and builds on another's thinking. In a Socratic Seminar, each student has an active role: half the class sits in an inner circle and engages in a discussion while the other half sits in an outer circle and assesses their peers' discussion skills.
3. Set and maintain high standards for text, conversation, questions, and vocabulary.
Traditional vocabulary activities asked students to look up definitions of words in the dictionary and use the words in sentences; while this approach may be better than skipping vocabulary altogether, it is not an evidenced-based approach. This six-step approach for direct instruction of vocabulary is better:

Provide a brief explanation, description, or example of the new term.

Ask students to restate, in their own words, the explanation, description, or example.

Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term.

Engage students in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the new term(s).

Occasionally ask students to discuss the terms with one another.

Periodically allow students to play games that use the new terms.

4. Increase students' motivation and engagement with reading.
Although research does not identify specific motivational techniques for particular types of students, it does support choice, social interactions, and important and interesting learning goals. Teachers in any content area can give students choices of research topics and then assign debates. Because most students enjoy argument, they become motivated and engaged readers, but they need coaching from teachers on how to have meaningful debates. Teaching students to use frameworks, such as Proposition Support Outlines, helps them organize their research and arguments. While outlining, they analyze the different types of evidence an author presents and learn to be critical readers who can recognize different viewpoints, theories, hypotheses, facts, opinions, and debatable assertions.
5. Teach essential content knowledge so that all students master critical concepts.
As students improve their knowledge in a specific area, their ability to understand the associated
reading material also improves. As a content-area teacher, you are much more likely to improve students' ability to independently comprehend the reading material when you use instructional routines that support students' understanding of content-area vocabulary, concepts, and facts. After students read about a topic, ask them to perform or construct something by following a multistep
process or procedure.

Teachers can prepare students to succeed in college or build solid careers by sharing a variety of strategies, explaining their value, and repeatedly modeling and having students practice them. By learning to read effectively, students not only learn the content they need to master, they also come to value reading and learning.

Order Teaching Reading in The Content Areas: If Not Me Then Who, 3rd edition from ASCD.
Written by Vicki Urquhart, co-author of Teaching Reading in the Content Areas, 3rd edition.

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Yes Johnny, We Expect You to Read in School Today - McREL International

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There was a time when children went off to school expecting to read in every class, whether it was mathematics, science, or history. It simply was a given that reading in all the content areas had an impact on learning.

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Chronology - Civil Rights Movement Photos

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Chronology - Civil Rights Movement Photos

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Teacher Plan

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Civil Rights Movement Photos Teacher Materials

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Effective and Efficient Teaching

By Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes

Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented-and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area. The authors are leading experts who provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, strategies, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material. Sample lesson plans, lively examples, and reproducible checklists and teacher worksheets enhance the utility of the volume.

This title is part of the What Works for Special-Needs Learners Series, edited by Karen R. Harris and Steve Graham.

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Explicit Instructions | Effective and Efficient Teaching

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By Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented-and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area.

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Adolescent literacy, adolescent literacy research, reading and writing strategies, MG and YA text, adolescent literacy videos

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Read, Write, Think, Talk Like a Mathematician

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for History

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for History

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for Mathematics

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for Mathematics

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for Science

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Disciplinary Literacy Case Study for Science

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Fairfax Network - Fairfax County Public Schools

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The Power of Literacy: Read, Write, Think, Discuss—Disciplinary Literacy

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Application:  Disciplinary Literacy Strategies in the Mathematics Classroom

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Application:  Disciplinary Literacy Strategies in the Mathematics Classroom

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Application Disciplinary Literacy in Mathematics

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Application:  Disciplinary Literacy Strategies in the Science Classroom

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Application:  Disciplinary Literacy Strategies in the Science Classroom

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Application Disciplinary Literacy Strategies for Science Classrooms