What happens when writing is incorporated into the science curriculum?
Significance
When examining my Action Research I came to many significant conclusions in my teaching practices and personally as a person. I will looked further beyond my main Action Research question of What happens when writing is incorporated into the science curriculum and into how I can use what I learned in my own practice as a teacher for the future.
Students succeeded in my Action Research design structure but I want to look at how I can make it better. Everyone of my students completed the writing assignments and came away with many more characteristics of a scientifically literate fifth grader able to write in science. I will use the same structure in the future when teaching writing in science but thinking about what I have taken away from my experience. I used a structure that scaffolded for students the ideas and concepts about writing in science to help promote student learning. I was able to succeed in promoting student learning and came away with many ideas for future learning.
Greater Opportunities for expository/opinion writing
Greater opportunities are needed for students to be exposed to expository/opinion writing in the future based on the present day landscape of education with common core state standards. In the world today students need the STEM skills and scientifically literate characteristics more then ever to succeed. There is no better time than now to allow more opportunities for expository/opinion writing in schools because as my research has shown this is a difficult form of writing to learn. The more students are exposed to this type of writing the better. This needs to happen as soon as possible based on my student results on the scores of their expository/opinion writing below:
Significance
When examining my Action Research I came to many significant conclusions in my teaching practices and personally as a person. I will looked further beyond my main Action Research question of What happens when writing is incorporated into the science curriculum and into how I can use what I learned in my own practice as a teacher for the future.
Students succeeded in my Action Research design structure but I want to look at how I can make it better. Everyone of my students completed the writing assignments and came away with many more characteristics of a scientifically literate fifth grader able to write in science. I will use the same structure in the future when teaching writing in science but thinking about what I have taken away from my experience. I used a structure that scaffolded for students the ideas and concepts about writing in science to help promote student learning. I was able to succeed in promoting student learning and came away with many ideas for future learning.
Greater Opportunities for expository/opinion writing
Greater opportunities are needed for students to be exposed to expository/opinion writing in the future based on the present day landscape of education with common core state standards. In the world today students need the STEM skills and scientifically literate characteristics more then ever to succeed. There is no better time than now to allow more opportunities for expository/opinion writing in schools because as my research has shown this is a difficult form of writing to learn. The more students are exposed to this type of writing the better. This needs to happen as soon as possible based on my student results on the scores of their expository/opinion writing below:
I found expository/opinion writing to be harder to teach because my students had never been exposed to this type of writing before. This is also reflected in the scores on the writing pieces in opinion/expository versus the scores in creative writing showing in the data score graph above. Students have been exposed to creative writing in some form or another in school and had practice writing this before. There was a larger range of scores in opinion/expository writing versus more clustered scores in creative writing due to more students not having written this type of expository/opinion piece before. Scores for expository writing: (score/number of students receiving score) 1/3, 2/5, 3/7, 4/5, 5/9, 6/0 ,versus, creative writing: 1/2, 2/5, 3/12, 4/7, 5/3, 6/0. These scores reflect how students have not been exposed to expository writing in their educational careers. Students have been exposed to creative writing were more median scores of three's (12 students) and four's (7 students) showing more students achieving a passing score. In the opinion/expository writing their was a lot more range in scores showing the difficulty levels for students on the final writing. More exposure to this writing and practice would help with student learning. This is a significant reflection because I will use this knowledge in the future to allow students more time practicing writing in expository/opinion writing. This will help promote student learning in writing in science in my future teaching structure.
These scores reflect the fact that students are just being exposed to this type of writing for the first time and it is not an easy concept to grasp. I can think back to when I had to do something for the first time and how difficult it was to grasp the larger picture of what I was doing. However, going back and doing it again made it easier for me. Practice makes perfect in many cases. This is the same with writing expository/opinion pieces the more practice the better. This form of writing is a difficult process for students that takes time to learn. In my action research experience students need time to make mistakes and learn from these in writing, and they had time to do this in other areas of writing like creative and narrative. Expository/opinion writing within the common core expectations are very elaborate pieces of writing with a structure of writing that takes time to learn. For example, students must learn the vocabulary associated with opinion/expository writing that might mean different things in narrative writing. This could be the words "tell" versus "recount" when writing narrative pieces opposed to opinion pieces. This academic vocabulary from my experience is very difficult for students to grasp and takes time to incorporate into the curriculum.
In my Action Research I had to spend a lot of time front loading and scaffolding for students the big idea of expository/opinion writing. I needed to use a systematic approach that scaffolds specific student learning needs accross lessons. It was a concept that was hard to grasp. I used examples of this form of writing that are all around them in the world today from the National Geographic Articles to daily science textbook readings. I am sure students have picked up articles and read the piece without realizing this is an expository/opinion writing piece. Knowing this how is opinion/expository writing not taught in schools across the country at the moment I think to myself?
In today's world students must be able to find evidence to support claims and write non-fiction expository pieces in the field of science, mathematics, geography, etc. to fill jobs with 21st century skills. Scientists today, as we learned in my Action Research phase two, write in a way that students are not exposed to up until this point. Real scientists writing in the textbooks students read and articles they enjoy are foreign to our students. However, during my Action Research reading these articles and examining how scientists write exposed students to this this type of writing. Students really enjoyed non-fiction writing and many times in Action Research would pursue the subject of the articles at home to find out more information on the topic. This showed what I was teaching was transferring to my students outside the classroom. Students are only exposed to narrative writing in education up until fifth grade, but this is something that needs to change in my opinion. In the future writing should reflect more of the scientific literate fifth grader that I have come to know in my Action Research.
Scientifically literate fifth grader of tomorrow
What does this scientific literate fifth grade student look like that can write expository/opinion pieces in common core standards. My research has shown this scientifically literate student is able to use facts from an article to support claims as evidenced in the following writing from the final expository/opinion climate global warming piece from a student:
"Dear Editor,
There is global warming in the atmosphere and it's changing fast! See, the carbon dioxide in 1980 was about 290 and in 2000 it is about 350 and thats pretty much is the green house effect. With that carbon dioxide the fossil fuels are helping, which isn't good. The global warming in 1880 it was a little over -1.8 (in F) and in 2000 it was a little under -0.9. I hope you understand and will put this in your newspaper.
Thanks,
Student
To me this is a significant accomplishment in fifth grade to be writing opinion pieces that use concrete evidence to prove a claim. This is what students of tomorrow who are scientifically literate look like. They are using experiment data to show an hypothesis, reasoning to show validity, popular press articles to show evidence, explaining natural phenomena, etc. This student shows the beginning of what a scientifically literate fifth grader of tomorrow looks like. This is just the tip of the ice burg and I want to dive in deeper into this concept in my future teaching practices. With more practice, exposure in school, and time spent reading expository/opinion text just think of what a student can write!
These scores reflect the fact that students are just being exposed to this type of writing for the first time and it is not an easy concept to grasp. I can think back to when I had to do something for the first time and how difficult it was to grasp the larger picture of what I was doing. However, going back and doing it again made it easier for me. Practice makes perfect in many cases. This is the same with writing expository/opinion pieces the more practice the better. This form of writing is a difficult process for students that takes time to learn. In my action research experience students need time to make mistakes and learn from these in writing, and they had time to do this in other areas of writing like creative and narrative. Expository/opinion writing within the common core expectations are very elaborate pieces of writing with a structure of writing that takes time to learn. For example, students must learn the vocabulary associated with opinion/expository writing that might mean different things in narrative writing. This could be the words "tell" versus "recount" when writing narrative pieces opposed to opinion pieces. This academic vocabulary from my experience is very difficult for students to grasp and takes time to incorporate into the curriculum.
In my Action Research I had to spend a lot of time front loading and scaffolding for students the big idea of expository/opinion writing. I needed to use a systematic approach that scaffolds specific student learning needs accross lessons. It was a concept that was hard to grasp. I used examples of this form of writing that are all around them in the world today from the National Geographic Articles to daily science textbook readings. I am sure students have picked up articles and read the piece without realizing this is an expository/opinion writing piece. Knowing this how is opinion/expository writing not taught in schools across the country at the moment I think to myself?
In today's world students must be able to find evidence to support claims and write non-fiction expository pieces in the field of science, mathematics, geography, etc. to fill jobs with 21st century skills. Scientists today, as we learned in my Action Research phase two, write in a way that students are not exposed to up until this point. Real scientists writing in the textbooks students read and articles they enjoy are foreign to our students. However, during my Action Research reading these articles and examining how scientists write exposed students to this this type of writing. Students really enjoyed non-fiction writing and many times in Action Research would pursue the subject of the articles at home to find out more information on the topic. This showed what I was teaching was transferring to my students outside the classroom. Students are only exposed to narrative writing in education up until fifth grade, but this is something that needs to change in my opinion. In the future writing should reflect more of the scientific literate fifth grader that I have come to know in my Action Research.
Scientifically literate fifth grader of tomorrow
What does this scientific literate fifth grade student look like that can write expository/opinion pieces in common core standards. My research has shown this scientifically literate student is able to use facts from an article to support claims as evidenced in the following writing from the final expository/opinion climate global warming piece from a student:
"Dear Editor,
There is global warming in the atmosphere and it's changing fast! See, the carbon dioxide in 1980 was about 290 and in 2000 it is about 350 and thats pretty much is the green house effect. With that carbon dioxide the fossil fuels are helping, which isn't good. The global warming in 1880 it was a little over -1.8 (in F) and in 2000 it was a little under -0.9. I hope you understand and will put this in your newspaper.
Thanks,
Student
To me this is a significant accomplishment in fifth grade to be writing opinion pieces that use concrete evidence to prove a claim. This is what students of tomorrow who are scientifically literate look like. They are using experiment data to show an hypothesis, reasoning to show validity, popular press articles to show evidence, explaining natural phenomena, etc. This student shows the beginning of what a scientifically literate fifth grader of tomorrow looks like. This is just the tip of the ice burg and I want to dive in deeper into this concept in my future teaching practices. With more practice, exposure in school, and time spent reading expository/opinion text just think of what a student can write!
My research shows this student being able to support a claim in writing being important based on common core standards. Students will be expected to do this in school and outside of the classroom in the fields they enter. My research has shown specifically the skill of making scientific hypothesis in his/her writing being vital to scientific literacy as evidenced in the expository writing water bottle experiment. During my Action Research students were coming up with multiple hypothesis on why the water is a certain color on the outside of the bottle and proving their hypothesis through writing. They then wrote about why or why not their hypothesis were correct. This concrete example of a student using evidence to support a hypothesis about what color the water will be on the outside of the bottle is evidence to what a scientifically literate fifth grader of tomorrow looks like.
Expository/opinion writing aligning students with common core standards
Looking back at my literature review around scientific literate learners and expository writing in the common core standards. My Action Research has proven that expository writing is of great use to students becoming scientific literate learners. “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 literature article provided valuable insight into expository writing that scientists feel they use in the field. This expository form of writing completed in my writing in science Action Research provided students with the scientific characteristics below:
However, students do not get a chance to explore this in school and my students only really looked at this because I decided to implement my Action Research. The significance is that students are only exposed to narrative writing in school and are not properly equipped for expository/opinion writing. When I first came to the classroom students were writing narrative pieces, but when would they ever have to write a narrative piece again in life? There should be a concerned effort to promote and teach expository/opinion writing in the classroom to students to mirror life outside the classroom. Students are entering fields of study in college that require expository/opinion writing. The literacy common core standards will begin to answer this issue.
The Common Core State Standards would respond to the larger goal of writing expository/opinion writing. In researching the literature on the subject the 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. 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 in expository writing. 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. Students will need the skills of my expository/opinion writing Action Research design for years to come in aligning with the common core and there is no better time to teach this type of writing then right now.
When reading this paper about the writing common core standards and also the book titled Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement, I discovered expository writing in the common core is going to be an essential writing task that students will need to master in the future in most content areas to show understanding. I was able to have students write expository pieces making them well aligned with the new common core and also I feel my students gained skills to become scientifically literate fifth graders. Students following science and mathematics into college would benefit greatly from this instruction and every student would gain a deeper understanding of writing in general. The common core that students will be expected to dive into in the upcoming years will use this form of writing more then ever before. Narrative writing is great, but it does not provide the balanced writing skills needed to align with the literacy common core for fifth grade students and does not identify a scientifically literate fifth grade student. Expository and opinion writing are deeply rooted in what expectations will be for students for years to come.
Looking back at the 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). More expository writing and less narrative writing in the future would promote the traits of a scientifically literate 5th grader. A scientifically literate 5th grader is a student that is able to write expository writing within the framework of the language arts common core, therefore, in the future I would like to see more expository/opinion writing.
Writing is more complex then I originally thought and I can use this information to address my future teaching in writing. There was a learning curve that was very steep in developing the skills to write opinion/expository pieces that I did not fully anticipate as evidenced in my students phase two expository/opinion writing scores. My teaching practice in the future would take this into account. My students would need a more in deep structure that provides much more scaffolding, modeling, and practice in expository/opinion writing. There needs to be a build up that lasts throughout the year for students to understand fully expository/opinion writing. My phase two lasted a few weeks compared to months in a normal unit of teaching.
Engagement and Authenticity
The complex part of writing that I discovered was student interpretations of what good writing constitutes. It's a difficult task writing in general, it is harder for me to teach then say mathematics with a definite answer. As a teacher I had difficulty with the complexity of interpreting student work, and evaluating what makes a good writer. I based my evaluation on my rubrics aligning with the language arts common core but the complexity of work students turned in was very interesting to me. I learned new ways to look at my students writing by evaluating the whole body of work and recording the progress a student made. Students found writing to be complex as well with many frustrations and hurdles to overcome. Writing expository/opinion pieces is vital to the common core and to students becoming scientifically literate, however, in the future I would set out to structure opinion/expository writing to take into the account the complexity that is associated with this type of writing.
My action research experience can be a guide for a curriculum, assessment, and instruction that can be put into place to align students with the literacy common core standards and at the same time meet students' needs to engage in meaningful authentic learning in writing in science. With the standards in mind my action research is very significant in creating a curriculum guide for teachers to teach writing in science and developing a curriculum that tends to the interests and learning needs of students in writing and science. While few students may be excited to tackle W.6.1 and 6.G.A.1 of the standards, my Action Research shows students would love to write a letter to an editor explaining why global warming is happening or how a watter bottle with colored water on the inside would have a certain colored water on the outside. This is significant for the future of students become scientifically literate fifth graders.
Expository/opinion writing aligning students with common core standards
Looking back at my literature review around scientific literate learners and expository writing in the common core standards. My Action Research has proven that expository writing is of great use to students becoming scientific literate learners. “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 literature article provided valuable insight into expository writing that scientists feel they use in the field. This expository form of writing completed in my writing in science Action Research provided students with the scientific characteristics below:
- 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.
However, students do not get a chance to explore this in school and my students only really looked at this because I decided to implement my Action Research. The significance is that students are only exposed to narrative writing in school and are not properly equipped for expository/opinion writing. When I first came to the classroom students were writing narrative pieces, but when would they ever have to write a narrative piece again in life? There should be a concerned effort to promote and teach expository/opinion writing in the classroom to students to mirror life outside the classroom. Students are entering fields of study in college that require expository/opinion writing. The literacy common core standards will begin to answer this issue.
The Common Core State Standards would respond to the larger goal of writing expository/opinion writing. In researching the literature on the subject the 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. 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 in expository writing. 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. Students will need the skills of my expository/opinion writing Action Research design for years to come in aligning with the common core and there is no better time to teach this type of writing then right now.
When reading this paper about the writing common core standards and also the book titled Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement, I discovered expository writing in the common core is going to be an essential writing task that students will need to master in the future in most content areas to show understanding. I was able to have students write expository pieces making them well aligned with the new common core and also I feel my students gained skills to become scientifically literate fifth graders. Students following science and mathematics into college would benefit greatly from this instruction and every student would gain a deeper understanding of writing in general. The common core that students will be expected to dive into in the upcoming years will use this form of writing more then ever before. Narrative writing is great, but it does not provide the balanced writing skills needed to align with the literacy common core for fifth grade students and does not identify a scientifically literate fifth grade student. Expository and opinion writing are deeply rooted in what expectations will be for students for years to come.
Looking back at the 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). More expository writing and less narrative writing in the future would promote the traits of a scientifically literate 5th grader. A scientifically literate 5th grader is a student that is able to write expository writing within the framework of the language arts common core, therefore, in the future I would like to see more expository/opinion writing.
Writing is more complex then I originally thought and I can use this information to address my future teaching in writing. There was a learning curve that was very steep in developing the skills to write opinion/expository pieces that I did not fully anticipate as evidenced in my students phase two expository/opinion writing scores. My teaching practice in the future would take this into account. My students would need a more in deep structure that provides much more scaffolding, modeling, and practice in expository/opinion writing. There needs to be a build up that lasts throughout the year for students to understand fully expository/opinion writing. My phase two lasted a few weeks compared to months in a normal unit of teaching.
Engagement and Authenticity
The complex part of writing that I discovered was student interpretations of what good writing constitutes. It's a difficult task writing in general, it is harder for me to teach then say mathematics with a definite answer. As a teacher I had difficulty with the complexity of interpreting student work, and evaluating what makes a good writer. I based my evaluation on my rubrics aligning with the language arts common core but the complexity of work students turned in was very interesting to me. I learned new ways to look at my students writing by evaluating the whole body of work and recording the progress a student made. Students found writing to be complex as well with many frustrations and hurdles to overcome. Writing expository/opinion pieces is vital to the common core and to students becoming scientifically literate, however, in the future I would set out to structure opinion/expository writing to take into the account the complexity that is associated with this type of writing.
My action research experience can be a guide for a curriculum, assessment, and instruction that can be put into place to align students with the literacy common core standards and at the same time meet students' needs to engage in meaningful authentic learning in writing in science. With the standards in mind my action research is very significant in creating a curriculum guide for teachers to teach writing in science and developing a curriculum that tends to the interests and learning needs of students in writing and science. While few students may be excited to tackle W.6.1 and 6.G.A.1 of the standards, my Action Research shows students would love to write a letter to an editor explaining why global warming is happening or how a watter bottle with colored water on the inside would have a certain colored water on the outside. This is significant for the future of students become scientifically literate fifth graders.