At the beginning of the semester I didn’t see the importance of incorporating literacy into a science classroom, nor did I know where to begin to do such a thing. I wholeheartedly believed literacy belonged in the language arts classroom and it was the job of ELA teachers to educate students on reading strategies and literacy practices. After reading Subject Matters and various other journal articles on the importance of literacy across all subject areas, my views on incorporating it into a science classroom have shifted.
Reading is all around us, whether it be through passages, diagrams, or charts we are constantly using different reading strategies to decode what’s in front of us. I think teachers tend to be hesitant when they hear about bringing literacy into the classroom because they think that means analyzing and teaching kids how to comprehend long passages, and it absolutely can mean that, but oftentimes, it’s understanding something that’s much more common to their subject area. It could be looking at a graph in math, understanding a diagram in science, or comprehending a timeline in social studies. I think the most helpful activity we did this semester was the lesson plan that incorporated a reading strategy. Not only did it get me to begin thinking about lesson planning, something we haven’t really touched upon in our other classes, but it also made me look through the lens of an ELA teacher and brainstorm different ideas on how to explain scientific topics. It was also helpful for me to see other reading strategies in practice and begin to visualize what I may do in my classroom someday. These strategies are an integral part of scaffolding information for students. They help students “explore the active mental work necessary to make sense of all this rich material” (SM, pg.87).

I also enjoyed the discussions and activities we did on textbooks; should we use them or not? Growing up I remember my favorite teachers using textbooks only on occasion, and only as a final delivery of information. “Textbooks continue to be overused and should be supplemented generously or replaced with other reading materials where possible” (SM, pg.53). Supplemental instruction is incredibly important when curating an engaging lesson. No student wants to read more than 3 pages of a textbook, because frankly, it’s boring and typically an overload of content. Textbooks are designed to deliver copious amounts of information, so this is another factor to consider when teaching students on different reading levels. Something that’s easily comprehensible to one student may be levels above the understanding of another. In a scenario like this, I can see myself bringing differentiation into the classroom. I could offer a student functioning at a high reading level a more in-depth article or video on animal cells, and offer a student reading at a lower level something that still offers somewhat of a challenge but not enough to discourage them from learning.
I believe this class gave me a good base-line to refer back to when incorporating literacy in my classroom. While I don’t know if I would incorporate every activity we did in this class into my own classroom someday, I definitely see the benefit in carrying out these practices, analyzing them, tweaking them, and finding a place for them in the curriculum if possible. I’ve really enjoyed our class discussions and believe my attitude has changed when it comes to teaching literacy in a science classroom. I think reading comprehension is at the base of all understanding, therefore, instilling these reading strategies upon my students will render a deeper understanding of the material. WC: 603

Book Club Podcast

Resource Blog #5

***Cross-Curricular***

For my resource this week I chose teachervision.com. This website is a great tool for the classroom when trying to incorporate cross-curricular learning into your lessons. The link above takes you to what they refer to as the theme library. Here, there are various sub-genres of Science, Social Studies, and Reading/Language Arts. For example, poetry, creative writing, plants, space, weather, American history, and immigration. While the website doesn't contain a link for the mathematics content area, if you click on some of the subgenres in the other content areas there will be resources and activities related to math. For example, the plant's tab under Science has resources titled: Plant Resources for Math Class. The website offers ideas for decorating bulletin boards related to content area topics, as well as seasonal activity lesson plans (like for Earth Day and President's Day, that are cross-curricular). I also love this website because it's free and allows you to filter your search by grade level. Cross-curricular learning is becoming more and more important as schools turn towards a more inclusive and progressive style of learning. Engineering a lesson that touches upon other content areas and ideas that students are learning about in other classes creates a more in-depth lesson and allows students to grasp a deeper understanding of the material.
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Synthesis Blog #5 - Content Area Book Clubs

Differentiation in the classroom means tailoring the lesson instruction to meet a variety of student's needs. This could mean variations in content, products, instruction, or classroom setting based on the student's ability. Subject Matters covers a multitude of strategies in order to accomplish differentiated learning in the classroom. One of these strategies, mentioned in chapter 9, is book clubs.

Book clubs are a great way to get students interested in a subject in an engaging and unique way. Students may have participated in a book club in their English class but, as Subject Matters highlights, book clubs can be a cross-content tool used to engage students in thoughtful discussions related to course material. I think the best part of these book clubs is that they are student-led. When placing students in book clubs the teacher's role is to assist, observe, and facilitate" (Subject Maters, pg. 249). This allows students to lead discussions and talk about the things they noticed in the text or things they personally connected with.

The chapter also discussed an outline that went over the process of getting book clubs started in your classroom, specifically, assigning roles to each student within their book club group. This ensures that all students are engaged and contributing to the discussion. Jobs like, questioner, illustrator, and researcher are some of the few named. I remember doing book clubs in 7th grade and having jobs similar to these. They changed every week so each student in the group had a chance to contribute in a different way.

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Book Pitch

A Long Walk to Water is a true story about a Sudanese boy named Salva. Taking place in the 1980s in the heart of the South Sudan Civil War, Salva, an 11-year-old boy finds himself having to flee his village and leave his family behind. Alongside Salva's story is the fictional story of Nya, an 11-year-old girl living in South Sudan in the early 2000s. Nya has to walk 2 hours every day from her home in order to collect water from a pond for her family. The two stories intertwine in the end in a heartfelt way that tells a story of perseverance and hope.
It's related to Social Studies since it discusses the South Sudan Civil War and the Lost Boys of Sudan. It can also be related to science because the book discusses problem-solving and the engineering behind delivering water to remote African villages. Salva wants to help his village in the end and starts an organization building wells in African villages.

Resource Blog #4

***THIS IS CROSS-CURRICULAR***

This week my resource is Kids Discover. This website is geared towards cross-curricular activities, lesson plans, and games. They have resources for all content areas and give suggestions on how to incorporate them into your classroom. Another helpful link this website offers is a resource on how to build cross-curricular lessons that meet state and common core standards. It’s a free webinar that offers tips on how to merge science and ELA, math and science, social studies and ELA, etc. The lessons are geared towards middle grades students and younger. 

The lesson plans offered, give detailed instructions on how to execute the tasks as well as highlighting standards addressed, learning goals, and outcomes. They also start off with a “Big Idea” question, much like the grand questions we practiced writing a couple weeks ago. The lesson then identifies at least two content areas and standards from each that the plan will cover. The lesson I found interesting and relevant to science and social studies was Nature and Flight. The lesson takes a scientific approach by studying birds and how they fly and then it segues into social studies by studying the history of planes and the mechanics of planes. The lesson links the two by comparing the wings of a bird to the wings of a plane and has students construct planes out of materials with the knowledge they’ve learned about the mechanics of bird wings and plane wings.

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Lesson Plan Reflection

Lesson Plan Topic: Water Cycle
Strategy: Sketch It Out

Overall, I thought the lesson went pretty well. There is definitely room for adjustments and improvements. Based on the feedback we received, I think it would have been better if we slowed down when reading our passage. Due to time constraints, we had to talk fast and move quickly. I also see this activity more as an individual activity rather than a group activity. I would have the students compare their drawings of the water cycle at the end with one another. Many people suggested giving a list of the terms we covered in our story ahead of time. I think that would have been helpful since the text was pretty long and had multiple storylines to follow. I also drew a section of the story up on the board with the class to get them started. In retrospect, I should have sketched the most difficult storyline/pathway to follow rather than an easy one, just to make everything flow smoother. If time had permitted, we would have gone over what a correct sketch should look similar to by drawing it up on the board. I can definitely see myself using this activity in the future with some minor adjustments. It was a great way to teach the water cycle in an atypical way that encouraged student participation. I'm grateful for the feedback from my peers and hope to perfect this strategy lesson plan for future use.
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