Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding ...

Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding: Dynamic and Interactive Strategies for Helping Your Students Meet the Common Core State Standards Heather Cotanch and Rebecca Abbott The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley sites.google.com/site/scienceseminarsequence

International Reading Association Convention April 22, 2013, San Antonio, TX

A Few Words About Us

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Let’s find out about you! —  Stand up if you are —  —  —  —  —  —  —  —  — 

an early elementary grade teacher (K-3) An upper elementary grade teacher (4-5) Middle school teacher (6-8) High school (9-12) Reading specialist/literacy coach Curriculum specialists Principals Higher Education Other

Where We’re Heading Today We will take part in sequence of instruction that infuses literacy instruction into science instruction This abbreviated three-day sequence includes three parts:

— Reading and evidence collection — Talking (Science Seminar) — Writing (An evidence-based scientific argument)

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Goals of Today’s Activities Engage in an instructional sequence that will allow your students to… — Think critically about science ideas — Read actively and gather evidence — Revise and build ideas through a Science Seminar — Write a scientific argument — Participate in activities that represent important components of the CCSS.

The Common Core State Standards provide the guiding frame for Integrated Literacy Instruction Students demonstrate Independence as they…

Write Read

Talk About Something

From the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, and Language.

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

The Common Core State Standards Provide the Guiding Frame for Interdisciplinary Literacy

College and career ready reading …requires an appreciation of the norms and conventions of each discipline.

From the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading: Grades 6-12 Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

Workshop Agenda 9:00 – 9:15: Welcome and Overview 9:15 – 9:50: Reading & Gathering Evidence 9:55 – 10:30: Science Seminar 10:30 – 10:45: Break 10:45 – 11:20: Writing 11:25 – 11:45: Implementation, debrief, and conclusion

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Reading and Collecting Evidence

Are biofuels a good alternative to fossil fuels?

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Sample annotated text

Question to keep in mind

What types of organic matter ?

How would I live without biofuels. We use them for a lot!

Read and Annotate

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Discuss in Pairs —  Discuss your notes from the reading —  Have your partner help you answer a question —  If you don’t have a question share one interesting point you learned

What are fossil fuels and where do they come from?

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Video Evidence: Fossil Fuels Listen to information in the videos. —  As you listen, collect evidence in the left hand column. —  After the the video, jot down inferences you can draw from the information you learned. —  You’ll use these notes during our class discussion and writing. — 

Where do fossil fuels come from? What are the challenges in using fossil fuels for energy?

What are biofuels and what are they made out of?

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Video Evidence: Biofuels •  •  •  • 

Listen to information in the videos. As you listen, collect evidence in the left hand column. After the the video, jot down inferences you can draw from the information you learned. You’ll use these notes during our class discussion and writing.

—  What are biofuels? What are they made out of? —  What are the challenges in using biofuels for energy?

Second Read: Making Connections Return to the article and tell your partner what connections you made between the article and the video.

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Reading in Science Science texts require active reading Students examine ideas with a critical eye Science texts come from multiple sources in a given topic area

Pose questions and make connections Highlight, underline, circle key ideas Determining what is most important Gathering evidence in response to a key question Includes short articles, textbooks, visual representations, simulations, and videos

Argumentation: Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning Claim •  A statement that answers a question. Evidence •  Support for a claim gathered while reading, investigating, gathering data, or examining scientific models. Reasoning •  Connecting ideas that can include science principles that help explain the evidence.

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Sorting Evidence —  You will receive an envelope with a collection of ideas

—  Based on evidence you’ve already collected, choose a claim you will work with

—  Read each piece of evidence carefully —  Sort each evidence strip evidence into —  More Convincing & Less Convincing —  Choose 5 ideas from the More Convincing pile and tape them to your cardstock

Science Seminar

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

What Is a Science Seminar? Students run the conversation.

Class discussion to answer a question or explain a phenomenon

•Use evidence •Listen to each other •Respond to each other •Agree/disagree with reasons why

Purpose of a Science Seminar •  Build shared understanding •  Prepare to support a claim with evidence, in writing

Students practice •  Using many sources of evidence •  Text, video, evidence sorts •  Firsthand Investigations •  Making connections and synthesize across text and experience •  Communicating ideas clearly •  Examining competing claims

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Accountable Talk Framework •  Important to learning literacy in the content areas (McConachie & Petrosky, 2010)

•  Supports development of students' reasoning and

verbal expression skills

(Michaels, O’Connor, Hall, & Resnick, 2002)

Scaffolding Accountable Talk Add a new idea with evidence •  I think _______ because… •  My evidence is… Agree/Disagree and use evidence •  I agree/disagree with _____ because... •  I am now convinced that ___ because... Ask a question •  What is your evidence? •  Given this evidence, how sure are you? How could you be more sure? •  Do you agree or disagree with what _______ said? •  I have a question for _______ about… •  Could you say more about that? •  Could you give us an example? •  I wonder…

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Let's do a Science Seminar

Benefits of Student-toStudent Talk All learning is social. • 

Knowledge is collaboratively constructed through social interactions Vygotsky (1978); Bakhtin (1982, 1986), Gee (1996) and many, many more.

Students engaged in classroom talk have •Deeper understanding •Higher-level thinking •Better communication skills •Improved quality of discourse •Social-emotional/affective benefits Amasi (1996); Gambrell (1996)

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Time to Take A Break See you back here at 10:45

Writing a Scientific Argument

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Why Write Now? •  Capitalize on an authentic situation for writing •  Science seminar provides built-in scaffolding •  Leverage new evidence to support a claim •  Give students a chance to make an individual • 

argument Students may shift their thinking, if applicable

"The Neglected R" Informational writing gets short changed in our school day, especially in the content areas (National Commission on Writing, 2002).

Yet… •  Writing is an important academic and communicative skill (Alexander & Jetton, 2002; Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2004). •  Writing supports conceptual development (Rivard, 1994; Prain & Hand, 1996).

•  Students can develop skills that help them to better communicate their ideas

(Keys, 2007; Graham &

Perin, 2007).

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Scientists and Argumentation

Structure and Features of a Scientific Argument •  Begins with claim that answers a question •  Provides evidence from multiple sources •  Uses reasoning to connect ideas together •  • 

Scientific principles Explaining the evidence

•  Purpose is to convince audience that claim is • 

reasonable based on the available evidence Uses scientific vocabulary and language

•  • 

Biofuels, carbon, atmosphere, resources Therefore, as a result of, we can conclude that

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Example Argument Claim Biofuels are not a good alternative to fossil fuels. I read that most existing technology uses fossil fuels, and it does Evidence not seem feasible to quickly develop new technology using biofuels. Although biofuels are made from natural sources, the increased production will eventually Reasoning harm local ecosystems. In addition, the creation of biofuels will affect food prices, which creates additional environmental problems.

Claim

Evidence

Reasoning

Evidence

Reasoning

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Writing a Claim Biofuels ARE a good alternative to fossil fuels.

Biofuels are NOT a good alternative to fossil fuels.

Claim

Including and Justifying your Evidence — 

— 

— 

Reflect back on the evidence you have gathered and the science seminar. Use your notes to help you. Choose you now think is the strongest evidence to support your claim. As you write, link evidence together using reasoning -- science ideas that help explain the evidence you have used.

Evidence

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Evidence

Evidence

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Argumentation Rubric Guide students in writing quality arguments, make criteria explicit

Revision Checklist Help students review their writing on their own or with a peer

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Examples of Student Writing In your packet -- student arguments on a variety of topics. Choose one topic and compare Student A and Student B. Discuss with someone near you: o  What are the strengths in this student’s writing? o  What could be improved the next time this student writes an argument?

Summary and Implementation

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Debrief

• 

What connections did you notice across the sequence (gathering evidence, science seminar, writing an argument)? What was exciting to you?

• 

What was challenging for you?

• 

Career and College Readiness CCSS Students demonstrate Independence as they… —  Engage in close reading of text for meaning —  Participate in a range of conversations with diverse partners —  Integrate and evaluate information —  Build strong content knowledge —  Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline —  Value evidence —  Gather information from multiple sources —  Acquire and use academic and domain-specific vocabulary

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Common Core State Standards: Reading and Gathering Evidence Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

—  Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific

claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

—  Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes

or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

* From College and Career Anchor Standards for Reading

Common Core Anchor Standards: Listening/Speaking Comprehension and Collaboration

—  Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

—  Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

—  Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

—  Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

—  Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks,

demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Common Core Anchor Standards: Writing

Text Types and Purposes

—  Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

—  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the elective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Production and Distribution of Writing

—  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

—  Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

—  Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Bottom Line The Common Core Standards call for a great deal of higher level thinking - we need to provide opportunities for kids to engage in this kind of thinking.

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Suggestions for Implementing a Science Seminar Sequence for Your Class —  — 

Consider the topic and question carefully Provide access to multiple sources of evidence

— 

Provide enough time for students to think and process

— 

This is a culminating activity - should be used at the end of a unit of study

— 

Scaffolding - modeling, sentence starters, graphic organizers, walk through the process

Designing A Question Topic: Space Science/Solar System Question: Is Pluto a Planet? • 

Are there multiple possible answers to the question?

• 

Are there multiple sources of evidence available?

• 

Will students be applying something they've learned and explored?

• 

Is the topic interesting and engaging to students?

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Using Reading, Talk and Writing to Support Scientific Understanding

IRA Conference, San Antonio April 2013

Implementation • 

How can you see this sequence fitting in to your classroom?

• 

What topics might you use?

• 

What supports would students need?

Thank you! Find out more about our project: www.scienceandliteracy.org

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