September 18th: 2nd Class Meeting

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In our second course meeting we examined theories and practices for integrating literacy into science. Some of the topics that we discussed in this meeting were expanding the concept of adolescent literacy to include critical thinking and the new literacies, research about secondary school writing, and best practices for teaching students who are acquiring English.

One of the main points of my presentation about adolescent literacy is that reading and writing should be integrated throughout science courses because they support and extend student learning. Research shows that the more ideas are manipulated, especially with writing and critical thinking, the more likely students will understand and remember them. Unfortunately research conducted by Applebee and Langer indicated that writing isn’t being used very much in school; when it is required it is only for brief assignments of less than a paragraph in length. Research further shows that the new digital literacies should be integrated into classroom instruction to engage, motivate, and improve students’ learning.

We simulated three teaching practices during the evening: Our warm-up consisted of an alphabet chart in which you were asked to brainstorm and list all the words that came to mind about “hormone.” After about five minutes I asked you to share your personal list of words with a partner. Next you and your partner shared with two other people who were sitting nearby. Everyone received sufficient time to share and discuss his or her vocabulary items with others. The full class sharing  of items from the alphabet chart was impressive because of the science knowledge our class has. Alphabet charts can be used throughout the grades. Although they seem simple, they can be effectively used as warm-ups or introductions to lessons or even as an assessment tools to discover what students know or have learned about a particular topic.

After break we shared another teaching strategy called, Post-it Poll. With this strategy the teacher gives each of the students a post-it and directs them to write a personal statement about a topic and why they have chosen that particular position. Give students several minutes to think and write. Then they are to place their post-its on a spot on the classroom wall. After everyone is done have students stand/sit near the position representing their point of view and share their ideas with the others who think similarly as they do. Have them select a presenter and conduct a classroom debate. In our simulation we reacted to whether there is a relationship between exercise and clear thinking/memory; the topic was taken from a science experiment that was described in the NYTimes.

The third teaching strategy for the evening was the “Mind Map.” This was embedded within a lesson about teaching students who are acquiring English. A volunteer presented a mini-lecture in Spanish (The Snowy Day) and we were to think about all the ways he might change the presentation methods so that we would be better understand by an ELL. To do this, we participated in small group work in which each group composed a “Mind Map” with the ideas to teach teach more effectively when ELL learners were in our classrooms.