Writing and Literacy Strategies

InTASC Standard 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways

Introduction

Underscoring all of my instructional strategies is the need to support my students in developing their scientific writing and literacy skills. In order for students to effectively demonstrate mastery in scientific hands-on learning, student-led research or design projects, and collaborative opportunities, students require a deep understanding of how to read and write. These skills are interdisciplinary and critical to helping students develop in-depth knowledge, connect between subjects and topics in science, and to apply their learning in meaningful ways. I support students in deepening their scientific writing and literacy strategies through the use of a multitude of instructional strategies including: concept maps, graphic organizers, individual KWL charts, CERs, and daily close reading activities.

Concept Maps

Concepts maps are a literacy and writing strategy that I utilize in my classroom such that students can connect their ideas and vocabulary and apply their learning in a way that enhances their understanding. When I introduce concept maps for a particular topic, I support students in first determining the main words or ideas that connect with that topic. For example, for the topic of food webs, students brainstormed that the following vocabulary words were important: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, decomposer and ecosystem. After brainstorming these vocabulary words for a concept, students begin to create their concept maps by placing the most important word for that topic in the center of their page. This “important word” may be different for different students, leading to a variety of concept maps; however, the critical aspect of choosing the important word lies in how students connect that concept to other concepts to apply their learning and deepen their understanding – the choosen word itself is less crucial. Following, students work to connect their “important word” and other words with linking phrases. This is an important student-led writing strategy because in order to make meaning of vocabulary words and concepts, linking phrases must be detailed and specific. For example, connecting “producer” to “ecosystems” by the linking phrase “are in” is not strong because it does not demonstrate to me or the students why those two concepts are connected. Writing tasks that push students to develop a concept map help them answer questions beyond what and connect to why certain scientific processes occur.

Through the process of linking key concepts for a given topic with important vocabulary words and specific linking phrases, students deepen their comprehension of a given topic and are able to apply new learning and examples to continue to expand their concept maps. For example, here, after students created their initial concept maps for food webs, I encouraged students to include examples and images to deepen their understanding and to provide a context with which they could apply their newly acquired scientific words. One example, (below on the left in the "ELL examples,") demonstrates a student who used the blue macaw as an example of a primary consumer. She knew this information because she chose the blue macaw for her endangered species project, and thus, applied her learning about the bird’s diet and place within the ecosystem to this concept map exercise.

Graphic Organizers

In addition to concept maps, graphic organizers are another writing and literacy strategy that I use to support and encourage learners to deepen their scientific content knowledge. When students are completing a project, especially for my lower readers, it is critical that they see their own progress and feel efficacious. Oftentimes, when I give students an assignment or assessment that involves a significant amount of writing, students become overwhelmed and shut down. Graphic organizers allow students to access their learning without becoming overwhelmed with the writing intensive part of the assignment because the organizer breaks down the learning into smaller, more digestible, parts. Graphic organizers also help to develop a deep understanding of science content because learners determine how and which information (from their notes, readings, in class work, activities, etc.) fits in where in the sections of the organizer. Students use these graphic organizers as a type of outline that can help them build connections between course concepts as well as apply their knowledge to craft intelligent responses.

For example, for students' Earth Day Projects, I utilized a graphic organizer to help students brainstorm their research on the environmental issue of their choice. I asked students: What is your environmental problem? How do we know it is a problem? What are the long-term effects of your problem on ecosystems and animals? What are the long-term negative effects of your problem for us humans? What have people done in the past to try and stop this problem? What are three creative, new ways you think we can solve this problem or at least prevent it from getting worse? All of these questions in the organizer helped students then conduct research and decide the medium with which they would present their information; (final projects are viewable on the student-led research page).

KWL Individual Charts

Students complete individual KWL charts in order to build both writing and literacy skills as well as to make connections between what they already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned in any given unit. KWL individual charts are critical to students being able to apply background knowledge to new science content. I continuously provide students with time in class to review their KWL individual charts in order to add more learning and track how their thinking and questions have changed, thus deepening their content knowledge. This strategy allows scholars to gain a deeper understanding of content for any given unit. Further, students are able to clearly notice and articulate the connections between what they already knew, what they wondered about, and what they have learned. If students are able to witness these connections, they will be more confident and capable of connecting scientific ideas in the future and of figuring out if and how they apply to novel real-life situations.

For our first unit this year, How can I make new stuff from old stuff?, students recorded their prior knowledge, current wonderings, and their own learning and continue to do so, as we move forward in the semester. In the three examples shared below, it is clear that students have utilized this writing process as a way of reflecting back on their learning to make connections between what they already knew and what they learned as well as connections between scientific topics. Students thus apply their background science knowledge and in-class content to new scenarios with new opportunities for learning.

Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER)

To support students in developing and deepening their ability to craft written arguments based in evidence, I utilize claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) assessments. CERs involve students creating a “claim” about a particular topic. For example, students in our physical sciences unit were tasked with creating a claim to answer the question, Why do some things stop while others keep going? Writing a claim allows students to apply knowledge of NGSS strategies and practice the important scientific skill of engaging in arguments from evidence. Following their “claim,” students articulate the “evidence” that supports their idea. Students make connections between course concepts and use evidence from labs, in class activities, prior readings, and background knowledge in order to deepen their understanding of the difficult CER concept and to craft their evidence section of their CER. Following, students create their “reasoning,” a written section of their CER where scholars are tasked with connecting their claim and evidence to provide reasoning as to why the evidence presented proves their claim to be correct. Through the CER process, students write intensively and increase their writing and literacy skills to make sure that they have answered all parts of the question and have effectively expressed their opinions. CERs provide students with the chance to deepen their abilities to express themselves in a written format, connect class concepts to use as evidence, and apply their knowledge as they answer difficult the difficult prompts.

Close Reading

Students are continuously supported in improving their literacy skills through close reading of informational text. In our science class, whenever I introduce a new topic, students have the opportunity to learn through reading examples and gaining background knowledge about the subject. As students read, students deepen their reading comprehension, as I ask them to highlight or underline important portions of the text, circle key words and new words, and annotate questions and comments in the article’s margins. Close reading allows students the chance to deeply understand information-rich material and connect this new material to what they already know and care about through the process of marking up the text. Students can apply their close reading skills to any academic content area, not just science, in order to more fully comprehend rigorous, novel content.

For example, in unit 1, students used their close readings skills to deepen their understanding about chemical reactions; students worked to answer the question, Is burning a chemical reaction? Students close read, then answered check-for-understanding questions intermittently. I adapted this reading such that there were multiple checks-for-understanding. I did this such that students could check in on their own comprehension as well as their potential confusion, based on information they read. Students can use their close reading skills combined with these checks in order to ask me clarification questions or re-read for clarity, before moving on. All of these strategies support improvement in literacy along with building content knowledge about science-related matters. Below are two close reading examples, one high and one low, that demonstrate the components of an effective close reading assignment (e.g., providing a core question as the basis of the assignment and also include a "check for understanding" question to provide feedback and continuously improve).