Disciplinary Texts: Science

Synthesis:

The focus of our texts for the past few weeks has been how to help our students navigate through different types of text. This week was all about science.

Hinchman and Thomas Ch. 17:
Throughout this chapter, we got to follow Eduardo through his 11th grade year in Mr. Brown's chemistry class. As a reader, I was able to see the amount of progress that Eduardo made during the year and the strategies that Brown used in the classroom to guide him. What a transformation to read about a student who lacked confidence and motivation to start the year to a completely different student who is a leader in the classroom. It seemed that many of Eduardo's don't-care attitude spurred from his previous struggles in school. As an ELL, Eduardo had been used to not succeeding, and had come to not expect anything more of himself. But as a teacher, Mr. Brown knew that Eduardo was capable of more!! He encouraged Eduardo and guided him towards success.

The best part of the chapter, for me, was reading about the Reading Apprenticeship classroom that Mr. Brown created. I had never heard of this term. This kind of classroom centers around "the frequency and nature of reading opportunities, explicit strategies instruction, collaboration and metacognitive support, and science inquiry" (313). His classroom created an open and honest environment for learning. Students were constantly involved in discussion with their classmates and Mr. Brown. Brown was able to "coach students through the otherwise invisible thinking processes of science" (313). He was able to get the students interested in the content and motivated to want to perform well in class.


Jetton and Shanahan Ch. 6:
Students can have a difficulty navigating science texts if they do not have support from their teacher. Some important points of the chapter include:

• the importance of explicit vocabulary instruction. The vocabulary in science texts is dense and words can have multiple meanings that students do not know how to interpret. 
• teaching students about the text structure and how to make sense of graphical information. Science is a subject that tends to have a lot of charts, graphs, pictures, and labels that supplement the reading. This can make reading science texts seem daunting to some students. Teaching students how to move through the text and understand it will help to improve comprehension and fluency. 
• students need to be able to write about what they learn. Students need to write "not only explanations but lab reports that included the parts of the scientific method (rationale and hypotheses, methods and materials, findings, and conclusions" (161). 

Reflections:
(text to text)
While I was reading the Hinchman and Thomas chapter, I was thinking about previous readings from this class, and also in my Culture, Language, and Literacy class. We frequently discuss the importance of conversation in the classroom and it's value, especially for ELL students. As teachers, we must let our students converse with each other about their ideas, and let them know that we want to hear what they have to say as well.

(text to self)
I have never heard of the term "Reading Apprenticeship classroom" but I know that this is the ideal type of classroom I would like to have. The encouraging, motivating, supportive, collaborative classroom environment that Mr. Brown has is I think what teachers should strive to create.

(text to world)
I have heard of teachers using science inquiry in their classroom before. In one of my classroom observations, I saw a teacher that had students keep a science journal that they could write down their thoughts about science experiments. I think this is a good way to incorporate writing into science and get students thinking.

Questions:
1.  Have you ever heard of a Reading Apprenticeship classroom? What do you think about it?

2.  The texts emphasized the importance of conversation in the classroom. How do we guide these discussions to stay focused on the content?

Thank you! :)