Week 5B

MA Frameworks: Essential Role of Language, Literacy, and Mathematics for Science and Technology/Engineering Learning for All Students

When language, literacy, and mathematics are integrated with STE through rich, relevant, and experiential learning, all students are supported in developing understanding and facility with STE concepts and skills.

Language and Literacy to Support STE Learning for All Students

Literacy skills are critical to building and applying knowledge in STE. Students become proficient in reading, writing, listening, and speaking when they have a strong command of all three features of academic language: word/phrase (including general and domain-specific vocabulary), sentence, and discourse levels (WIDA, 2013; see chart on p. 18). Reading and writing in STE requires an appreciation of the norms and conventions of the discipline of science, including understanding the nature of evidence used, an attention to precision and detail, and the capacity to make and assess intricate arguments, synthesize complex information, and follow detailed procedures and accounts of events and concepts.

Each academic discipline presupposes specific kinds of background knowledge about text and discourse features, as well as strategies for reading disciplinary texts. STE teachers are best positioned to engage their students in disciplinary discourse as students experiment with using productive comprehension strategies to learn with specific academic disciplines (Buehl, 2011).

STE teachers are immersed in academic language daily, and it is often hard to notice the skills we habitually draw on to understand disciplinary language. It is important to make linguistic choices explicit with students and become more aware of the complex ways in which disciplinary language affects STE learning. .....

Students also need to be able to gain knowledge from technical diagrams and mathematical data that convey information and illustrate STE concepts. Likewise, writing information and presenting it orally are key means for students to assert and defend claims in STE, demonstrate what they know about a concept, and convey what they have experienced, imagined, thought, and learned. Students benefit from discussion to clarify their thinking, build language proficiency, and prepare for writing about STE concepts.

Purposeful planning of conversations enhances science learning and academic performance when students have frequent opportunities to engage in collaboration and academic conversations with their peers (Michaels & O’Connor, 2012). These conversations may range from short questions and comments among students, as they investigate a phenomenon or problem, to more sustained discussions that include presenting evidence to support a claim, critiquing a solution, or evaluating a problem. They listen and process information as they present their ideas or engage in reasoned argumentation with others to refine their ideas, critique others, and reach shared conclusions.

Students must also read, write, and visually represent ideas as they develop models and construct explanations. The requirements and norms for classroom discourse are shared across all the STE disciplines and, indeed, across all the subject areas.

All students stand to gain from effective STE instruction that involves experience with science and engineering practices. Teachers must carefully plan to scaffold, modify, facilitate, and support all students to access STE content and practices as well as language development.

When supported appropriately, all students can learn, comprehend, and carry out sophisticated language functions in STE contexts (e.g., arguing from evidence, providing explanations, developing models). For English language learners in particular, the focus is on the developmental nature of language and the careful use of instructional supports and scaffoldings so all students can participate in grade-level curricula and higher-order thinking. For students with disabilities, knowing what they need to be successful and providing differentiated ways for them to develop and communicate their understanding is essential.

Role of Vocabulary in STE Instruction

Students need to have a facility for using technical terms in order to effectively learn complex STE to communicate with others about their learning. In STE, vocabulary provides the labels used to represent a concept or process. A vocabulary-rich classroom encourages students to link their conceptual understanding with key scientific and technical terms. This promotes clearer and more efficient communication about the content and enables shared understanding. Science and engineering build knowledge over time through collaborative exchanges and peer review of new knowledge and processes. As a student’s body of knowledge grows, their scientific and technical vocabulary should grow with it. Without strong literacy skills, including the understanding and use of scientific and technical vocabulary, students will have difficulty participating in STE endeavors or understanding scientific and technical texts, even texts that are written for a general audience.

The STE standards represent specific choices about which vocabulary to include and which to omit in defining learning outcomes. Where possible, a focus on the underlying scientific concept or process has been emphasized and lists of scientific and technical terms have been minimized. In a few instances, a state assessment boundary clarifies that certain terms will be excluded from state assessments. The omission of such terms from the standards or the state assessment, however, does not imply that students should not learn them. Educators should make deliberate choices about which scientific and technical vocabulary to have students learn and use in their studies and classroom discussions that can go beyond vocabulary used in the standards.

It is important to recognize that effective communication about STE includes more than vocabulary. Language is an integral part of learning STE: not only a tool for communication, but also a tool for scientific thinking and reasoning. Students learn to engage in scientific thinking and reasoning by making conjectures, presenting explanations, and constructing arguments, all of which require a shared vocabulary to achieve more.

Developing a Culture of Science Talk

Exploratorium: Developing a Culture of Science Talk

https://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/science-talk-tool-learning-science-developing-language?media=17857

Engineering is Elementary Video Library

http://d7.eie.org/engineering-elementary/eie-classroom-video-library

Novel Engineering

https://www.novelengineering.org/

Inspired by kids and grounded in research, Novel Engineering is an innovative approach to integrate engineering and literacy in elementary and middle school.

Students use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.

Children's literature can be a useful springboard for science and engineering investigations.

Edutopia: Using Science to Bring Literature to Life

https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-science-bring-literature-life

Science Notebooking Activities

https://www.calacademy.org/educators/introductory-science-notebooking-activities

Below: Examples of children's science notebooks: