Writing Strategies that Promote Understanding and Inquiry in Elementary Science

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Writing Strategies that Promote Understanding and
Inquiry in Elementary Science

• Mark Enfield
• Jennifer Wright
• Michigan State University

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The role of writing in elementary science learning

• Students writing can be a window on their
  thinking allowing multiple forms of assessment.
• Here we will focus on using it as a
  pre-assessment.
• Writing structures and prompts can develop
  student knowledge promote students inquiry.
• Here we will consider one structure that supports
  an inquiry cycle.

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Recent legislation and mandates increase demands
on school curriculum.

• No Child Left Behind and Reading First make
  demands of classroom time and curricular
  attention.
• The Michigan Curriculum Framework Benchmarks in
  Science establishes that students should
• Develop strategies and skills for information
  gathering and problem solving. (MCF I.1.E5)

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What we hope to do in this session

• We will share different forms of writing useful
  in science learning.
• You will experience using those strategies in the
  context of an activity.
• We will discuss opportunities and challenges with
  writing in elementary classrooms.
• You will leave with some ideas about how to use
  writing to build understandings and promote
  inquiry with your students

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How can we use writing to assess students
knowledge?

• Pre-Assessment
• Discussion Exercise
• Post-Assessment

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One example of a writing prompt to assess
students knowledge

• DART Directed Activities Related to Text
• Scientific concepts from the curriculum are split
  into two phrases.
• Students attempt to match phrases to make
  complete and accurate sentences.
• When molecules are heated ----- they begin to
  move more rapidly.

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Try to complete some sample DART sentences

• On your handout, match the sentences about
  Astronomy.

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How do you construct writing prompts to assess
prior knowledge

• Use If-Then statements
• Give extra choices
• Make sure that all endings can semantically fit
  any beginning
• Make sure that each ending can only fit one
  beginning to correctly state a science idea

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What are some benefits of language activities in
science learning?

• Familiarizing students with the expository nature
  of scientific text
• Learning text features without needing to manage
  construction of conceptual ideas
• Getting students to notice that scientific texts
  communicate facts about the concepts they are
  learning
• Catalyst for scientific discussion

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Activity for this presentation Modeling Our
Solar System
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Plu
to
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Instructions for the activity

• Arrange your planets (MMs) on the planet orbit
  sheet. You will want to record which color is
  which planet. Look back at the picture.
• Place your Earth (Mint colored ½ black) on the
  third orbit. The black side is away from the
  Sun, representing night.
• Look at your model. Which planets are
  potentially visible from Earth now?

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How can we support students inquiry using
writing?

• We all agree to the benefit of having students
  engage in and pursue their own inquiries.
• One potential is to encourage students to think
  and write about their questions.
• This is not always easy students need help.

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Providing structure can help students when they
write
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Example using 4-square with the Solar System

• The writing starts with a question.
• The writing ends with a question.
• Students have chances to apply their knowledge,
  engage in inquiry, and have a structure that
  supports their thinking.
• What could we do to help this student design an
  investigation around his or her question?

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Try it out what comes next?
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Questions and Discussion

• How does the nature of language and writing have
  important roles in science learning?
• How does learning discourses, the practices that
  support students learning science, impact
  learning subject matter knowledge?
• What are benefits and drawbacks to learning
  discourses out of the context of subject matter?