By:  Danae’ Wirth

Lesson #1: If you are a science teacher in any capacity and you haven’t heard of NSTA you are missing a valuable personal and professional resource. NSTA holds regional and yearly conferences throughout the US as a showcase of best practices in science teaching and learning. The conference offers pre-conference full day Professional Development Institutes by leading organizations such as the National Science Education Leadership Association, National Science Resources Center, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to name a few.  The remainder of the conference is filled with individual workshops presented by a wide range of national recognized experts and teachers who have innovative ideas about science education.

Lesson #2: Session titles may surprise you. Where else can you find workshops around digital time machines, nanotechnology in the elementary classroom, forensic ecological investigations, and teaching science with iPads? It isn’t hard filling one’s conference schedule. This year’s conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, served over 10,000 participants and was the site of a Guinness World record for largest simultaneous science experiment. Though setting a world record is quite impressive, what impressed me most, as a self-proclaimed science conference junkie, was the range of offerings for teachers of all levels. If you think nanotechnology is for bench scientists, think again! In order to meet the demands of 21^st Century careers, we must teach comprehensible 21^st Century skills at every grade level.

Lesson #3: One can never be over prepared for the next big thing in science education. One overarching theme at this years’ conference was preparing students for college and  STEM career readiness and the Next Generation Science Education Standards – both of which we will be hearing a lot about in the next few years.

Lesson #4: While conferences provide opportunities for teachers to build teaching knowledge, they also build one’s science self esteem through mass collaboration and celebration of our profession.

So as you prepare to end one school year and (dare I mention it, yet?) begin another, take a moment to look for opportunities to remind yourself of how important you are as a teacher of science – whether those opportunities are far away at a conference or as close as your colleague down the hall.

Visit www.NSTA.org for professional resources and conference announcements.

About the Author

Danae’ served as a consultant on the development of Millmark Education’s ConceptLinks^®Inquiry program. She received her undergraduate degree in K-8 education with a minor in TESOL from Goshen College. She attended Notre Dame Archaeology field school and attained a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at Purdue University and a MA in Zoology from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Danae’ served as an English as a Second Language instructor at the high school level in Math and Science and has taught adult English language learners, Pre-school, First grade, Reading Recovery, and Science Curriculum Studies for Goshen College. She currently works through a Math Science Partnership grant specializing in science curriculum integration and as a professional development leader for Elkhart Community Schools /ETHOS. Her biggest joys are her four children, three grandchildren, and finding old things while digging in dirt.

By:  Danae’ Wirth

Great teachers realize the challenge of maximizing their schedules in effective ways and the need to integrate curriculum as authentically and meaningfully as possible. Science is a natural venue to integrate English Language Arts (ELA) standards because of its high interest subject matter. Yet often our attempts at integrating literacy in science end up as reading and writing about science. This isn’t necessarily bad, but we can make the most out of both by understanding the focus of the instruction and how reading and writing can increase content understanding. The term literacy is frequently thought of as referring to ELA, but it actually has application to all content areas. What is content literacy and how does one integrate literacy authentically across ELA and science curricula?

Content Literacy

Content literacy across all curricular areas includes:

• understanding concepts – standard outcomes students should know within a content area
• utilizing processes and procedures specific to the content area but also apply across content areas
• the acquisition and use of academic or content specific vocabulary
• content reasoning – being able to interpret, analyze, and reflect on the content
• communication – both oral and written

True integration maintains the purpose of the focused instruction. Reading and writing in science should be incorporated throughout the science activity in a way that maintains the content focus while practicing ELA skills. The following quote encourages this idea and merges well with the intent of Common Core Standards for Literacy in Science, which many states have already adopted.

“Science inquiry and literacy practices share important properties that make the integration of literacy and science particularly powerful” (Indiana K-6 Reading Framework, Jan. 2011).

Consider the phases of inquiry and how easily ELA goals can be woven throughout a lesson. I have chosen to use three common phases of inquiry into which most inquiry models fall; Inquiry Starters, Focused Investigation, and Sharing Understanding.

ELA Skills Expressed during Inquiry Phases

Inquiry Starters: Teachers set the purpose for the investigation, students raise questions and often there are components such as read alouds, choral and or independent reading. Demonstrations or other engagement pieces are used and the teacher may introduce domain specific vocabulary.

Focused Investigation: Students engage in designing and carrying out investigations, constructing models, and recoding observations, both collaboratively and independently. Teachers facilitate support for verbal and written language development by encouraging proper use of content vocabulary through modeling, word walls, interaction with text, as well as eliciting higher level reasoning by requiring evidence-based responses from students.

Sharing Understanding: Students engage in evidence-based arguments, and utilize self and peer evaluation in the assessment process. Assessment can be oral, written, or performance based to enhance communication skills. Teachers facilitate by using targeted prompts that elicit constructed responses and assure writing goals are met by allowing students to use a writing rubric.

It’s not hard to find correlations between ELA goals within the inquiry science investigation when strategies are explicitly used during these phases—it’s a win/win situation. Students gain not only science content knowledge but the authentic experience of reading and writing in the content area.

About the Author

Danae’ served as a consultant on the development of Millmark Education’s ConceptLinks^® Inquiry program. She received her undergraduate degree in K-8 education with a minor in TESOL from Goshen College. She attended Notre Dame Archaeology field school and attained a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at Purdue University and a MA in Zoology from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Danae’ served as an English as a Second Language instructor at the high school level in Math and Science and has taught adult English language learners, Pre-school, First grade, Reading Recovery, and Science Curriculum Studies for Goshen College. She currently works through a Math Science Partnership grant specializing in science curriculum integration and as a professional development leader for Elkhart Community Schools /ETHOS. Her biggest joys are her four children, three grandchildren, and finding old things while digging in dirt.

By:  Danae’ Wirth

Afterschool and summer opportunities have become the norm in many school systems across the country.  Additionally, teachers face the pressure to excel in English Language Arts and Mathematics to meet No Child Left Behind expectations.  Science, Social Studies,  Art, Music, and even Physical Education has been greatly reduced or forced out of the school day altogether in some K-5 schools. This has left middle school students with little or no basic science content or process knowledge.  The rigors of state assessments and the narrowing of the curriculum have forced educational systems to look for ways to expand learning past the school day.  While extended learning opportunities as a whole are proven effective in many ways, they cannot succeed without willing participants.  In order to increase participation it is important to understand what motivates students to attend, and what qualities students value in the extended learning setting.

What do students look for in extended learning opportunities?

In the studies I have read regarding this topic, the following terms are mentioned repeatedly; safe setting, comfortable environment, free choice, hands-on, child driven, and science related. Many studies mention science as a popular choice for such settings because the topics are broadly appealing to students and have real-life applications. Additionally, students desire programs that allow them the freedom to experiment with new content and materials without the pressure of academic expectations. Students also tend to seek out programs that involve a local community connection.

What do effective extended learning programs provide for students?

One study tracked students involved in voluntary, hands-on science programs in extended learning settings.  Researchers discovered (based on student interviews) that students in these programs not only learned science content but expressed interest in science careers and the belief that they could “do” science when before the program, they had little or no interest in either (Rahm, et. al, 2005).

Choosing Curriculum; where does one begin?

Choosing a well-developed published curriculum is a great way to begin. Extended learning programs rely on a teaching staff with a variety of backgrounds so a published curriculum can be beneficial for the instructors by saving them the time it takes to create the curriculum. The informal setting isn’t usually bound by the time constraints of the classroom, so instructors have time to complete the lessons and often find creative ways to extend them.

An even better choice in curriculum would provide activities that are accessible to a variety of learning styles. This includes an engagement piece, using hands-on materials, and reading, writing, and speaking to communicate and cooperate with others throughout the activity. Extensions would ideally be guided by the students’ interests.  Whatever the curriculum, the focus of any effective extended learning setting must remain on the interests and needs of the learners.

References

Rahm, J., Martel-Reny M.,  Moore, J. The Role of Afterschool and Community Science Programs in the Lives of Urban Youth. School Science & Mathematics [serial online]. October 2005;105(6):283-291.

Danae’ served as a consultant on the development of Millmark Education’s ConceptLinks Inquiry program. She received her undergraduate degree in K-8 education with a minor in TESOL from Goshen College. She attended Notre Dame Archaeology field school and attained a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at Purdue University and a MA in Zoology from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Danae’ served as an English as a Second Language instructor at the high school level in Math and Science and has taught adult English language learners, Pre-school, First grade, Reading Recovery, and Science Curriculum Studies for Goshen College. She currently works through a Math Science Partnership grant specializing in science curriculum integration and as a professional development leader for Elkhart Community Schools /ETHOS. Her biggest joys are her four children, three grandchildren, and finding old things while digging in dirt.

By:  Danae’ Wirth

Middle school science teachers understand how challenging it can be to make sure students understand the main goals and objectives of the science lesson. How does one make sure students arrive at the focus of the content when the nature of inquiry implies student-driven questions and investigations? What strategies can teachers use to reinforce concepts while students are conducting inquiry? What happens when the investigation goes “wrong”? When is it appropriate to be explicit in explaining the main objectives of the lesson?

According to the National Research Council (1995) students need both social and physical interactions to understand the nature of science and to develop scientific knowledge. The difference between “knowing that” and “knowing how” is dependent on the ability of the student to transfer declarative (factual) knowledge to procedural knowledge (Lawson et., al, 1989). The hands-on opportunities that drive the ConceptLinks Inquiry program give students the chance to learn through experience, however, this does not diminish the role of the teacher to provide key questions at the right moments and to sometimes even, dare I say it, explain what is happening.

Explicit instruction may be associated in many teachers’ minds with lecture, but in reality explicit instruction at its best helps students to understand the science content of the lesson by bridging the gap between knowing that something works (as a fact) and knowing how something works (through experience).  One way this can be accomplished is through effective questioning techniques. Utilizing effective questioning throughout the lesson can provide an opportunity for explicit instruction without hindering student investigation.  Effective questioning can also help students to understand discrepancies among outcomes of investigations and can help teachers decide what needs to be explicitly taught.

Knowing when and how to explain information to students effectively without robbing students of the opportunity of experience and discovery is an art. There are times when telling students information they need to know is appropriate and necessary especially when providing background information or introducing new materials and instructions. Have you been able to maintain a good balance of explicit instruction combined with student discovery? If so, what have been some useful techniques you used to implement this balance in your classroom? What are some challenges you needed to overcome in this implementation?

References

Lawson, A. E., Abraham, M. R., & Renner, J. W. (1989). A theory of instruction: Using the learning cycle to teach science concepts and thinking skills (NARST Monograph, Number    One). AZ: National Association for Research in Science Teaching.

National Research Council. (1995). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

About the Author

Danae’ served as a consultant on the development of Millmark Education’s ConceptLinks Inquiry program. She received her undergraduate degree in K-8 education with a minor in TESOL from Goshen College. She attended Notre Dame Archaeology field school and attained a MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at Purdue University and a MA in Zoology from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Danae’ served as an English as a Second Language instructor at the high school level in Math and Science and has taught adult English language learners, Pre-school, First grade, Reading Recovery, and Science Curriculum Studies for Goshen College. She currently works through a Math Science Partnership grant specializing in science curriculum integration and as a professional development leader for Elkhart Community Schools /ETHOS. Her biggest joys are her four children, three grandchildren, and finding old things while digging in dirt.

By:  Danae’ Wirth

Utilizing an inquiry-based curriculum is a great way to capture and maintain student interest in science content but combining classroom activities with a place-based experience can provide an authentic context for the content and open opportunities to discover local applications to classroom curriculum.

Inquiry and Place-based Learning

The term inquiry also has many connotations ranging from open and student driven to guided and teacher directed.  Though there is an appropriate place for unstructured (open) inquiry most middle level science curriculum is guided or structured. Place-based learning involves students visiting and interacting with a physical location, often in their local community. Although some content may be more difficult to connect to some local environments, many of the national science education standards for Physical, Life, and Earth and Space easily fit into field trip connections and local experiences. There is evidence to support the idea that place-based education when used in conjunction with structured inquiry can increase urban students’ understanding of science concepts (Endreny, 2009). This is also an excellent way to extend classroom concepts and apply knowledge to new situations as a part of the 5 E Model for Science Inquiry described in the ConceptLinks Inquiry Investigations Guides.

Making the Connection

I recently attempted connecting classroom inquiry with a place-based experience with two local eighth grade classrooms in a local urban school. Students were studying a new unit on water quality and were working with simulated water samples from a fictional town. Within three blocks of the school is a beautiful botanical garden developed on the site of a large well field for the city that supplies over 80% of the local drinking water. Only a few of the thirty-eight students knew the well field existed. We visited the site and took samples of the water from the well field ponds. In the lessons that followed, the students conducted a series of water quality tests, and met in small groups to review their results and notes they had taken from the site visit. This helped them to negotiate the meaning of specific terms and come to an agreement on what evidence was important to record in their notebooks. More importantly, when they conducted the same tests on the simulated samples in their curriculum, the students could relate personally to the activities and frequently referred to their local experience.

The Benefits

As a culmination of the Water unit, students were required to compose a written report based on all their activities and tests on the simulated water samples from their unit. Their teacher decided to take this one step further by having the students also compose a report for the director of the well field gardens about what they had discovered. The students intend to share results of their water quality testing on the ponds and to make recommendations for ways the maintenance staff can maintain the aesthetic aspects of the gardens while not harming the holding ponds located there.

It doesn’t take a fancy field trip or the expense of additional materials to make authentic extensions with local connections to the curriculum. It might just involve taking students a few blocks from the school to open up a world of experience they could never discover at the lab table.

References

Millmark ConceptLinks Inquiry Investigations Guide, pg. 9

Endreny, A. (2009). Urban 5th Grade Conceptions during a Place-Based Inquiry Unit on Watersheds. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 47(5), pp. 501-517.

About the Author

Danae’ received her undergraduate degree in K-8 education with a minor in TESOL from Goshen College and was certified Reading Recovery teacher. She attended Notre Dame Archaeology field school and attained an MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at Purdue University and a MA in Zoology from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. She has served as an English as a Second Language instructor at the high school level in Math and Science and has taught adult English language learners, Pre-school, First grade, and as an adjunct professor for science curriculum studies for Goshen College. She currently works through a Math Science Partnership grant specializing in science curriculum integration and as a professional development leader for Elkhart Community Schools. Her biggest joys are her four children, three grandchildren, and finding old things while digging in dirt.

Visuals have long served as a critical component of English Language Learning—and for good reason. Images can represent both the concrete (a house, a cat, a car) and the abstract (joy, anger, fear) in a manner that is immediately accessible. They open the door to labeling in both the native and the target language. By doing so, they help students make the transition from one language to the other.

Yet often, we as educators seem eager to hurry past the visual. After all, isn’t it the abstract—words written, spoken and heard—that are the real targets here? We look forward to books with fewer pictures, not more. An increased text-to-picture ratio is evidence of our students’ success.

Of course, there is no denying the truth of this last statement. But if focusing on text as the ultimate goal causes us to neglect the power of images to foster language acquisition and development, we have sold the power of the visual short. To realize the full potential of the visual, we need to broaden our concept of it, and to understand images less as simple illustrations of vocabulary and more as powerful language learning tools that correlate well with the way our students’ brains process knowledge. In his book Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge, educator David Hyerle puts it this way:

“When visual tools are presented alongside text or used by learners to find the patterns embedded in a wall of text, then the rich foundational structure of knowledge is unveiled.” (Hyerle, 2009)

Images as Springboards

To understand how this works, consider a simple image: a photograph of a house. On the surface, this represents an obvious opportunity for vocabulary acquisition. The word house is a key word, and undeniably useful. Perhaps less obviously, the image corresponds to all of the related associations—many of them visually-based that your students have stored in their minds. This represents a critical opportunity to evaluate a student’s prior knowledge and build background, but to use the visual to provide access to written and spoken language. Yes/no and embedded questions are the key, but the reference point is visual, and you will return to it again and again.

Start by asking some questions. What does the student know about houses? How does she express this in her own language? How much of this can she express in English? What can the student tell you about the house she lives in now? Invite the student to create a drawing of his or her house. Do this much, and you have allowed the student to use the visual to access the verbal. You have given student access to a critical function of English—describing. And you have allowed the student to bring his or her world into the classroom, and in doing so, given the student a stake in the learning that goes beyond vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension.

An Expanded View

Expanding our idea of imagery beyond pictures provides us with even more powerful tools. Maps are among the most critical of these. As students are working to find a place in their new community linguistically and culturally, they are also trying to find their place physically. Maps can open up a world of discussion about this. World, nation, state, and local maps all apply. Show me your country. What can you tell me about it? Show me where you live now. Where do you walk when you come to school? Once again, the image—in this case a map—forms a comfortable reference point that can be returned to again and again.

Perhaps one of the most powerful ELL tools is the graphic organizer—in part because of its versatility. Graphic organizers help students focus on structure as they read, provide students with tools they can use to help focus on text structure as they read; examine and visually represent relationships in a text; and to help students write well-organized summaries of a text. (National Institute for Literacy, 2001)

At an acquisition level, semantic webs can help students solidify understandings and grasp the meaning of idiomatic expressions. But once again, it is at the functional level that graphic organizers shine.

• Remember that house? Put it side by side with a photo of a student’s house, and provide a compare-contrast graphic organizer. You’ll have instant student investment. Indicator words such both, same, other, and different enter the dialogue in clear context.
• Show photos of events, and students can put them on a sequence chart or timeline, using indicator words like first, next, before, and after.
• Provide photos of different foods. Then invite students to use an organizer to categorize them. Once again, there is an opening with purpose, and an opportunity for expansion, as students discuss colors and shapes, textures and types.
• Show numbers of pens, pencils, and books using charts and graphs. You’ve entered the domain of mathematics in a real-world way.

Of course, giving students access to written and spoken English is still the goal.

A Visual World

Later on, your students will become more comfortable with the abstraction of words—written, spoken, and heard. Yet they live in a visual world, and their brains often organize information visually. They will never leave their visual skills behind, or what these skills give them—the ability to describe, define, compare and contrast, map, classify, and much more. In the case of ELL, pictures are worth more than a thousand words.

References:
Hyerle, David. Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge. Corwin Press, 2009
Armbruster, Bonnie B, Ph.D., et. al. Put Reading First. National Institute for Literacy, 2001