Jess Makes Hair Gel and What if Rain Boots Were Made of Paper: Using Science Texts as a Key Part of

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Jess Makes Hair Gel and What if Rain Boots Were
Made of Paper? Using Science Texts as a Key Part
of the Inquiry Process

• Jacqueline Barber and Gina Cervetti

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Context for Our Work

• NSF-funded Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading
  Project
• Collaborators UC-Berkeleys Lawrence Hall of
  Science and Graduate School of Education
• Revision of GEMS units to integrate literacy with
  firsthand science
• Two strands curriculum and research

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Our Entire Seeds and Roots Team

• Literacy
• Freddy Hiebert
• David Pearson
• Gina Cervetti
• Marco Bravo
• Diana Arya
• Jennifer Tilson

• Science
• Jacqueline Barber
• Lincoln Bergman
• Lynn Barakos
• Kevin Beals
• Catherine Halversen
• Kimi Hosoume
• Kristin Nagy-Catz
• Craig Strang

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Reading in Science Cons

• Science texts are more often declarations of
  fact than real representations of the
  scientific enterprise
• Science texts, particularly trade texts, often
  include misinformation, exaggerations, and other
  misrepresentations
• Text can eclipse scientific discovery, taking the
  place of observation and experimentation and
  supplanting childrens involvement in inquiry

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Reading in Science Pros

• Reading supports science
• Not everything we want students to know about
  science can be learned firsthand in classrooms
• Reading is an authentic way that scientists and
  nonscientists learn about science outside school
• Reading is an essential act of inquirystudents
  read to find outand there is some evidence that
  inquiry and comprehension share goals, functions,
  and strategies

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Reading in Science Pros, contd

• Science supports reading
• Science can provide an engaging and authentic
  context for learning to read and can contribute
  to the development of academic language

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Reading in Science Pros, contd

• The pragmatic pro
• Reading plays a dominant role in elementary
  school curricula
• Reading First requires an enormous allocation of
  the school day to reading
• Time available for science (and everything else)
  is shrinking

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Our assertions

• Text should play a role in inquiry science
• Its necessary to be cognizant of the limits of
  text AND the limits of firsthand experiences

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The Goal

• Texts that
• Support students development of rich and
  accurate conceptual understanding
• Dont misinform or misrepresent the scientific
  enterprise (as a body of knowledge rather than a
  way of finding out) and science concepts
• Make available what is not manipulable or
  observable in classrooms
• Play a role in the inquiry process
• Rather than replace inquiry
• Support students in doing firsthand science
• Engage students

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Our (Grounded) Process

• Started with existing units
• Looked for opportunities for the infusion of
  trade texts
• Began developing our own texts to fill roles in
  the learning cycle
• Developed and refined a model of text roles

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Text and Inquiry Science

• Providing Context
• Delivering Content
• Modeling
• Supporting Second-Hand Inquiry
• Supporting Firsthand Inquiry

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Providing Context

• Invite students to engage with the context
• Introduce domain and/or context
• Connect to the world outside the classrooms

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Students consider the role of materials and their
properties
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Students learn about the natural habitat of
butterflies
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Delivering Content

• Deliver science information
• Provide information and explanation about
  unobservable phenomena

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Students use Garys Sand Journal to identify
the origin of their sand samples
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Students seek out information about internal and
external structures of the bat
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Modeling

• Model inquiry processes
• Model literacy processes
• Model nature of science

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Students read about the process a boy uses to
design a mixture that will work as hair gel
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Students read a model of systematic observation
and recording over time
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Supporting Secondhand Inquiry

• Provide text-based experience with data

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Students draw conclusions from secondhand data
about snails light preferences
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Students draw conclusions about the function of
specific animal structures
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Supporting Firsthand Inquiry

• Provide information that facilitates firsthand
  investigations
• Support students in making sense of firsthand
  investigations

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Students search for ingredients with specific
properties to use in the mixtures they design.
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Students use this book as a field guide to
identify evidence of animals they see on a nature
walk
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Our Conclusions

• There are limits to text and to experience.
• Text can serve a number of roles that are
  supportive of inquiry sciencebefore, during, and
  after firsthand investigations.
• Science and literacy are fundamentally
  synergistic.

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Does it Work?

• Preliminary research results that students in a
  joint science-literacy program involving these
  kinds of texts outpace those in an inquiry-only
  program on measures of
• Vocabulary
• Reading Fluency
• Science Understanding

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seedsofscience.orgrootsofreading.orgscienceandli
teracy.org