PDI-4: The Literacy and Inquiry Connection: Instruction that Scaffolds and Enhances Scientific Thinking and Understanding
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Salon L, Marriott Rivercenter Hotel
Cost: $150
Limit: 80
Grades: K–5
Recommended Pathway Sessions
Provider: The Writing in Science Partnership (WISP): Betsy Rupp Fulwiler, Kirsten Nesholm, and Ana Crossman; Wendy Saul, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Framing Questions / Outcomes
- How can we use visual, oral, and written scaffolding to support students in developing their scientific thinking and understanding as well as their scientific writing skills?
- How can we get beyond notebook formatting and procedural writing so students can think and write in more rigorous and sophisticated ways?
- How can modeling help students write specific genres of expository writing (e.g., scientific observations, comparisons, and conclusions)?
- What strategies help students learn the differences between creative and scientific writing?
- What does positive, constructive, formative assessment and feedback look like?
PDI Summary
Often when teachers "integrate" science and literacy instruction, higher-order science and literacy learning is absent. In ways that meet the Common Core ELA and Next Generation Science Standards, the teaching and learning of science and expository writing is a symbiotic relationship in the approach presented in this PDI. By strategically using word banks (to develop scientific vocabulary), graphic organizers (to organize students' thinking and visually represent science concepts), and writing frames (that scaffold thinking and language that are appropriate for different forms of scientific writing), students of all ability levels deepen their thinking and content understanding while learning to write specific forms of expository text (e.g., scientific observations, comparisons, cause and effect, data analysis, conclusions). Participants will learn how to use language structures and other strategies to scaffold students' learning of science content and scientific thinking and enhance their ability to write scientifically, all in the context of firsthand inquiry. Through group work, mini-lessons, discussion, and video, experienced practitioners will model and share research-based strategies for using scaffolding to enhance students' understanding of and skills in inquiry-based science and writing, and effective strategies for formative assessment of notebook entries. Participants will practice these strategies and receive materials for classroom use.
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Betsy Rupp Fulwiler describes this session:
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