Being that I am a language Arts minor, I am looking on useful ways to incorporate literacy in with my science lessons). The most basic way is finding a book on a topic a teacher is teaching and starting with that to get students to think about what they already know and the things they might learn about that day. We've all done it in our placement and isn't anything new.
This PDF discusses how to help ELL's in your classroom succeed in science with the use of Language Arts. Using "Words of Science" help students become familiar with science terminology, how it is used and will be able to use it themselves.
This website talks about three issues in Language Arts and how a teacher can try and improve students reading skills. It begins by asking the teacher a series of questions that has a teacher reflecting on the types of learners within their classrooms, seeing if Language Arts/literacy might be a possible problem in your classroom's success rate.
This website has a list of books and articles that have been linked to literacy and the science classroom. It is a great starting point for thinking, but teachers will have to either buy the books or find the articles online to continue their investigation of using literacy in their classroom with science.
While this is just one attempt at combining two curriculum to attain success, we as educators need to also recognize that we will be doing this with all of our content areas for our students. These websites are a great starting point, but it will take a lot more time to make sure we find more than just one content area to help our students succeed in others.
I think that it is extrememly important to incorporate different subjects into science. Literacy should be an important part of every subject! These websites you have found has great ways in which you can accomplish this. Even though books may need to be purchased, it will definitely benefit your students in the long run!
ReplyDeleteGood point here, Rebecca. We cannot have one without the other, either: in order to be successful in all subjects, reading comprehension is key. The more exposure in any way, shape, form, the better. I really appreciated the ELL site.
ReplyDeleteSince reading and ELL education are my endorsements, I really appreciated this post. It seems like I am always trying to incorporate literature into other subject areas. I had a chance to look at the websites you recommended, and while I found them useful and informative, there is some information/advice that should maybe be approached more cautiously- such as when to teach vocab and also at what point in a lesson to introduce a text. However, I agree with a lot of the info- especially teaching students strategies to navigate through a science text, and also finding developmentally appropriate texts.
ReplyDeleteI know many of us have been taught to open a lesson with a book about the topic, like you stated in your post, but I like how you went beyond that to tie the two subjects together. I think that it's great that you found a website with book examples for certain topics being taught. Although I try to come up with my own ideas as much as possible, it is nice to have a resource to fall back on when I'm stuck and cannot think of a source. I also think that figuring out new ways to incorporate ELL students into learning in the everyday classroom is great. I truly believe that without understand of language, it is extremely hard to understand science.
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