Two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently and seven out of ten inner-city and rural fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level (Paige, 2002). With increasing pressure on teachers to elevate reading proficiency because of NCLB, how do you envision a math/science education curriculum that supports literacy while still proving a rich environment for science inquiry and problem-based math learning? For example, how can you balance math practice problems, not drill, with your approach?
One of the further challenges of implementing a problem-based math and science curriculum is that assessment questions often require strong reading comprehension skill levels as well as science and math conceptual understanding. Visit the NAEP site explored in science methods and choose one science and one math question that you could use for your thematic unit as either a pre- or post assessment. What literacy skills would students also have to have to be successful on your selected question?
Please post these in your grade bands ~ Thank you!!!
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Okay, I can't get this page to come up in the grade band section. Sorry! I tried the invitation etc, and it still wouldn't work. So I will go ahead and post it here.
Grade 5-6
How do I envision a math/science education curriculum that supports literacy?? I see curriculum that requires in it, parts that need to be read, parts that require writing, and parts that require attention to comprehension.
In my past observations I have seen teachers use unique ways of supporting literacy within the classroom. One of those ways was to do something as simple as having students read instructions and word problems out loud for math and science. Students also were asked questions that would relate back to the teacher what they understood about the problem or subject. There was active learning take place in the classroom environment when teachers asked students to read, write out number sentences and discuss why they wrote it the way they did. Numbers are not just a mark on a page, but also a word that can be written and read. There are math puzzle books that require student reading and comprehension.
A method I might try is to present a picture and ask the student to write out what they thought might be taking place in the pictures of simple probes. ex: Science, picture has a larger object, and a smaller object both dropping from the same height. What is happening in the picture? Will one hit the ground before the other? etc.
I think for sciences, finding quality literature that uses science terms could be an idea to implement. Students would need to have specific instruction on the meaning of those terms. In our grade band, terms ARE used and re-used, they are written out. Having students read the inquiry probes before beginning would be a boost.
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