Linking Science and Literacy in the K-8 Classroom

Of course…linking science and literacy. But it is also about using an inquiry approach and integrating the use of science notebooks. As you learned yesterday, these notebooks can be used for many things including reflections, keeping data, making graphs, webs, vocabulary, drawings, Venn diagrams, predictions, conclusions, etc.

What this class is about?

If you let students know that you will be grading the notebooks, this makes it more relevant to them.

I am going to give each of you a binder to keep all of the notes and activities in that we are going to do, and this will also help you keep track of your notes and reflections as well.

Notebooks……

Scientific Inquiry is using activities to help students develop knowledge and an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. Science Inquiry is typically a collaborative activity and involves discussing, planning, and conducting investigations together and sharing responsibilities for talking, reading, writing, and other kinds of presentations. We hope to model this in your activities.

The Inquiry Approach

We want to help students connect the strategies to the doing. We find these strategies in both science and literacy activities.

1. Activating Prior Knowledge: this prepares students to make connections, draw conclusions, and digest new ideas.

2. Establishing purposes/goals3. Making and reviewing predictions: this builds

commitments by giving readers and scientists a stake in the outcome. This is built into the kits with the anticipation guides that you will see.

4. Drawing Inferences and Conclusions-this is a valued high-level interpretive skill. Using evidence to warrant claims is the heart of the activity.

5. Making connections/recognizing relationships-includes cause and effect relationships and comparison/contrast relationships.

more….

In this class we also want to model how to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and science investigation with inquiry.

There are 6 elements of the science IDEAS Model that are related to Core Science Concepts.

Thesis Statement: During science class, I conducted a scratch test experiment on 4 different minerals in order to determine their hardness. My data showed that mineral 2 can be scratched with my fingernail, minerals 3 and 1 with a penny, and mineral 4 only with the paperclip. Based on my results, I conclude that minerals 2 is the softest, minerals 3 and 1 are next, and mineral 4 is the hardest.

Scratch Test Graphic Organizer

Kinds of tests Data gathered

Conclusions from data Summarizing statement

Penny gypsum quartz tools mineral nail

We found that some minerals could be scratched and some could not. The _______ was the hardest mineral because the ____ and the

______could not scratch it. ______was the softest _______because all of our _____could scratch it.

Cloze Paragraph for a unit on rocks and minerals