What happens when writing is incorporated into the science curriculum?
Literature Review
While conducting my initial needs assessment and observing my student’s attitudes and performances on their writing assignments, I was continuously reviewing studies and articles to help guide me in developing an action and assessment plan. I found theoretical, empirical, and professional studies directly related to my Action Research questions and needs of my students. I found three main ideas that resonated throughout my research.
Scientists use writing everyday and students using writing to become scientific literate learners.
The following discovery was made when I read the article Scientists' views of science, models of writing, and science writing practices and when speaking with Dr. Buczynski. I would like to see if writing in science could help students acquire the characteristics of scientific literate learners. I was reading the article that looks at professional scientists and the role writing has played in forming their scientific knowledge. The article states, “An understanding of scientists’ ontological assumptions and epistemic beliefs about science is essential to better understand the roles of writing in doing and learning science because these assumptions and beliefs should influence the choice of specific language and their interpretation of the functionality of writing in constructing and reporting science claims (Yore, Bisanz, & Hand, 2003; Yore, Hand, & Prain, 2002, pg. 4). This led me to look at the characteristics of a scientist and how students could acquire these characteristics by learning to write in science. The study in the article looked at scientist’s ideas and assumptions on writing in science and the article went on to say, “Most scientists and engineers wrote for a limited number of peer-refereed journals in their specialized research areas. They most frequently used writing for teaching, recording data, and corresponding; and they applied narrow audience constraints to their writing (Yore, Hand, & Florence, 2004, pg. 16). This provided valuable insight into the kinds of writing I would want to use in my common core writing areas discussed earlier, particularly expository and opinion writing, which are main areas of writing that scientist feel they use in the field based on the article. These forms of writing in science can provide students with the scientific characteristics that scientist use to gain knowledge.
These characteristics can be learned and gained through the three areas of writing in creative, expository, and opinion writing that actual scientists in the field use. I learned that these characteristics encompass the Literacy Common Core State Standards. A scientifically literate person is defined as one who has the capacity to:
When researching further how writing can help students to gain more of these characteristics of a scientifically literate person I looked at a student friendly article titled, “What Writing Represents What Scientists Actually Do?” In this article the author discussed ways to promote the characteristics of a scientifically literate student, for example, having students write about science fair projects instead of just asking questions to the layperson observer. A section of the article that really resonated with me was, “One of the most important uses of writing in science is to communicate the concepts of a discipline to both future scientists and laypeople…Although some people who might not be active in research specialize in translating scientific concepts for laypeople, practicing scientists also contribute in this area. Stephen Hawking’s books provide insight into how his mind works; and James Watson’s The Double Helix is a great book…” (Robertson, 2005, pg. 2). This gave me great ideas like reading sections of Stephen Hawking’s book and how I could use writing to help students gain skills to become scientifically literate learners.
What does a scientifically literate 5th grader look like? (the research)
A scientifically literate student as defined above incorporates the above characteristics into science. But what does a 5th grade look like when they are a scientifically literate learner. When researching this topic I found research that looked at what "scientific literacy" means and how it has been incorporated into science before. In the article, Twenty First Century Science: Insights from the Design and Implementation of a Scientific Literacy Approach in School Science, author Robin Millar writes about a Twenty First Century Science program for 15 and 16 year-olds in which "Science Literacy" is emphasized in the science curriculum for a two year period. The article helped me see what both teachers and students thought of a scientifically literate learner should look like as the goal and I could translate this to my sub-question of what does a scientific literate 5th grader look like? Robin Miller states, "Despite the ubiquity of the term "scientific literacy" in current discussions and debates about the science curriculum, its precise meaning is, however, often unclear, and the extent of consensus about the practical implications of adopting it as the central aim of the school science curriculum is uncertain" (Millar, 2006, pg. 3). The results show that it is still unclear what exactly a scientific literate learner looks like and this drives my research for looking at what a 5th grader who is scientifically literate would look like.
Another article that drove my research for what a scientific literate 5th grader would look like was titled, Creating the Conditions for Scientific Literacy: A Re-Examination. I found the article to be really interesting to my Action Research because it examines the level of scientific literacy across age groups and offers multiple views of the defining characteristics of a scientifically literate learner that I use in my research. This helps me look at the knowledge out there about a 5th grader that is scientifically literate.
Common Core State Standards in opinion, expository, and creative writing in science.
I first realized that when beginning to look at the results of incorporating writing into the science curriculum I needed to provide initial opportunities to write during science time. I know that the Common Core State Standards would respond to the larger goals of writing in science from my literature review on the subject. I started researching what I would need to begin this process and I came across a paper written by Lucy Calkins titled Writing plays an essential role in deepening a student’s learning to access all content matter and we believe every classroom should incorporate these strategies to effectively teach writing. The focus of the paper is on the role of writing as it relates to the common core standards and the strategies to foster student learning within the new writing standards for content subjects. Lucy Calkins states, “In this day and age, the ability to convey knowledge is becoming as important as the knowledge itself” (Calkins, pg. 1). She is referring to the common core standards that students must learn. I also looked at the writing standards for grade 5 on http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/5 and the scientific literacy standards for grade 6 http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RST/6-8. I found some very interesting connections that I could make between the science and literacy standards.
When reading this paper about the writing common core standards and also the book titled Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement, I discovered writing in the following three areas of creative, expository, and opinion writing. The book looks in particular at the areas teachers can insert writing workshops in these three areas and other long-term writing programs to help students write in the common core. I feel that these three areas of writing in the common core are going to be essential writing tasks that students will need to master in the future in most content areas to comprehend the material. If I could have students write in the three subsections of writing in the common core during science then students would be well aligned with the new common core and also I feel my students would gain skills to learn science. An example of writing for creative writing would be to have my fifth grade students writing a science fiction piece based on the show the “Magic School Bus” for our first grade class on a science subject like the solar system or the water cycle! I know through my research that I will be able to conceptually group my writing activities under the two writing genres of creative writing and scientific writing. This will allow me a conceptual framework to incorporate my writing in science activities in the classroom and meet the Common Core Literacy State Standards for writing and science.
Teaching science through inquiry and writing.
When researching this further I came across articles and books that used a particular method of inquiry in science and so I became interested in how I could use inquiry in writing for science. I read the professional text titled Teaching science for understanding, in which the author states, “It (writing) can be a tool to extend and support the overall inquiry process regarding the nature of science and science concepts, rather than as a product of grading purposes…Individual and group writing tasks can also be included that help students reflect on inquiry processes used in their own investigations” (Gallagher, 2007, pg. 64). The text looks at a heuristic approach to inquiry based science learning encouraging writing reflection and interpretations to form connections in science knowledge.
As I looked further in my understanding of inquiry and heuristic approaches to teaching writing in science I read an article titled, Comparing an Inquiry‐based Approach known as the Science Writing Heuristic to Traditional Science Teaching Practices: Are there differences? This article helped me examine inquiry-based approaches to writing in science and compare this to what I already new about writing in science from my own schooling. I feel this was very informative to help guide me in teaching my own students and learning the different methods already being used in classrooms. The idea of the science writing heuristic approach is to provide, “a bridge between informal, expressive writing modes that foster personally constructed science understandings and more formal, public writing modes that focus on canonical forms of reasoning in science (Akkus, Gunel, Hand, 2007, pg. 4). I had been looking and researching how to bridge the fact driven scientific laden text to more personal expressive writing that my students have enjoyed so much in my classroom based on their writing work samples and my needs assessment. I feel I can use this research to drive my assessment and action plan to meet the unique needs of my students in my Action Research.
Literature Review
While conducting my initial needs assessment and observing my student’s attitudes and performances on their writing assignments, I was continuously reviewing studies and articles to help guide me in developing an action and assessment plan. I found theoretical, empirical, and professional studies directly related to my Action Research questions and needs of my students. I found three main ideas that resonated throughout my research.
Scientists use writing everyday and students using writing to become scientific literate learners.
The following discovery was made when I read the article Scientists' views of science, models of writing, and science writing practices and when speaking with Dr. Buczynski. I would like to see if writing in science could help students acquire the characteristics of scientific literate learners. I was reading the article that looks at professional scientists and the role writing has played in forming their scientific knowledge. The article states, “An understanding of scientists’ ontological assumptions and epistemic beliefs about science is essential to better understand the roles of writing in doing and learning science because these assumptions and beliefs should influence the choice of specific language and their interpretation of the functionality of writing in constructing and reporting science claims (Yore, Bisanz, & Hand, 2003; Yore, Hand, & Prain, 2002, pg. 4). This led me to look at the characteristics of a scientist and how students could acquire these characteristics by learning to write in science. The study in the article looked at scientist’s ideas and assumptions on writing in science and the article went on to say, “Most scientists and engineers wrote for a limited number of peer-refereed journals in their specialized research areas. They most frequently used writing for teaching, recording data, and corresponding; and they applied narrow audience constraints to their writing (Yore, Hand, & Florence, 2004, pg. 16). This provided valuable insight into the kinds of writing I would want to use in my common core writing areas discussed earlier, particularly expository and opinion writing, which are main areas of writing that scientist feel they use in the field based on the article. These forms of writing in science can provide students with the scientific characteristics that scientist use to gain knowledge.
These characteristics can be learned and gained through the three areas of writing in creative, expository, and opinion writing that actual scientists in the field use. I learned that these characteristics encompass the Literacy Common Core State Standards. A scientifically literate person is defined as one who has the capacity to:
- Understand experiment and reasoning as well as basic scientific facts and their meaning.
- Ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences.
- Describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena.
- Read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions.
- Identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed.
- Evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it.
- Pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.
When researching further how writing can help students to gain more of these characteristics of a scientifically literate person I looked at a student friendly article titled, “What Writing Represents What Scientists Actually Do?” In this article the author discussed ways to promote the characteristics of a scientifically literate student, for example, having students write about science fair projects instead of just asking questions to the layperson observer. A section of the article that really resonated with me was, “One of the most important uses of writing in science is to communicate the concepts of a discipline to both future scientists and laypeople…Although some people who might not be active in research specialize in translating scientific concepts for laypeople, practicing scientists also contribute in this area. Stephen Hawking’s books provide insight into how his mind works; and James Watson’s The Double Helix is a great book…” (Robertson, 2005, pg. 2). This gave me great ideas like reading sections of Stephen Hawking’s book and how I could use writing to help students gain skills to become scientifically literate learners.
What does a scientifically literate 5th grader look like? (the research)
A scientifically literate student as defined above incorporates the above characteristics into science. But what does a 5th grade look like when they are a scientifically literate learner. When researching this topic I found research that looked at what "scientific literacy" means and how it has been incorporated into science before. In the article, Twenty First Century Science: Insights from the Design and Implementation of a Scientific Literacy Approach in School Science, author Robin Millar writes about a Twenty First Century Science program for 15 and 16 year-olds in which "Science Literacy" is emphasized in the science curriculum for a two year period. The article helped me see what both teachers and students thought of a scientifically literate learner should look like as the goal and I could translate this to my sub-question of what does a scientific literate 5th grader look like? Robin Miller states, "Despite the ubiquity of the term "scientific literacy" in current discussions and debates about the science curriculum, its precise meaning is, however, often unclear, and the extent of consensus about the practical implications of adopting it as the central aim of the school science curriculum is uncertain" (Millar, 2006, pg. 3). The results show that it is still unclear what exactly a scientific literate learner looks like and this drives my research for looking at what a 5th grader who is scientifically literate would look like.
Another article that drove my research for what a scientific literate 5th grader would look like was titled, Creating the Conditions for Scientific Literacy: A Re-Examination. I found the article to be really interesting to my Action Research because it examines the level of scientific literacy across age groups and offers multiple views of the defining characteristics of a scientifically literate learner that I use in my research. This helps me look at the knowledge out there about a 5th grader that is scientifically literate.
Common Core State Standards in opinion, expository, and creative writing in science.
I first realized that when beginning to look at the results of incorporating writing into the science curriculum I needed to provide initial opportunities to write during science time. I know that the Common Core State Standards would respond to the larger goals of writing in science from my literature review on the subject. I started researching what I would need to begin this process and I came across a paper written by Lucy Calkins titled Writing plays an essential role in deepening a student’s learning to access all content matter and we believe every classroom should incorporate these strategies to effectively teach writing. The focus of the paper is on the role of writing as it relates to the common core standards and the strategies to foster student learning within the new writing standards for content subjects. Lucy Calkins states, “In this day and age, the ability to convey knowledge is becoming as important as the knowledge itself” (Calkins, pg. 1). She is referring to the common core standards that students must learn. I also looked at the writing standards for grade 5 on http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/5 and the scientific literacy standards for grade 6 http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RST/6-8. I found some very interesting connections that I could make between the science and literacy standards.
When reading this paper about the writing common core standards and also the book titled Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement, I discovered writing in the following three areas of creative, expository, and opinion writing. The book looks in particular at the areas teachers can insert writing workshops in these three areas and other long-term writing programs to help students write in the common core. I feel that these three areas of writing in the common core are going to be essential writing tasks that students will need to master in the future in most content areas to comprehend the material. If I could have students write in the three subsections of writing in the common core during science then students would be well aligned with the new common core and also I feel my students would gain skills to learn science. An example of writing for creative writing would be to have my fifth grade students writing a science fiction piece based on the show the “Magic School Bus” for our first grade class on a science subject like the solar system or the water cycle! I know through my research that I will be able to conceptually group my writing activities under the two writing genres of creative writing and scientific writing. This will allow me a conceptual framework to incorporate my writing in science activities in the classroom and meet the Common Core Literacy State Standards for writing and science.
Teaching science through inquiry and writing.
When researching this further I came across articles and books that used a particular method of inquiry in science and so I became interested in how I could use inquiry in writing for science. I read the professional text titled Teaching science for understanding, in which the author states, “It (writing) can be a tool to extend and support the overall inquiry process regarding the nature of science and science concepts, rather than as a product of grading purposes…Individual and group writing tasks can also be included that help students reflect on inquiry processes used in their own investigations” (Gallagher, 2007, pg. 64). The text looks at a heuristic approach to inquiry based science learning encouraging writing reflection and interpretations to form connections in science knowledge.
As I looked further in my understanding of inquiry and heuristic approaches to teaching writing in science I read an article titled, Comparing an Inquiry‐based Approach known as the Science Writing Heuristic to Traditional Science Teaching Practices: Are there differences? This article helped me examine inquiry-based approaches to writing in science and compare this to what I already new about writing in science from my own schooling. I feel this was very informative to help guide me in teaching my own students and learning the different methods already being used in classrooms. The idea of the science writing heuristic approach is to provide, “a bridge between informal, expressive writing modes that foster personally constructed science understandings and more formal, public writing modes that focus on canonical forms of reasoning in science (Akkus, Gunel, Hand, 2007, pg. 4). I had been looking and researching how to bridge the fact driven scientific laden text to more personal expressive writing that my students have enjoyed so much in my classroom based on their writing work samples and my needs assessment. I feel I can use this research to drive my assessment and action plan to meet the unique needs of my students in my Action Research.