I have always insisted on students writing coherently on everything they turn in to me. I've been accused of holding English class as well as Science. I remind them, even the most creative and intelligent scientist is of little value if he or she cannot communicate clearly. Therefore, I am in agreement with literacy being an intricate part of the science classroom.
Performance expectations are always written on the board before the lesson starts, but I need to go over them to be sure students understand what is expected of them. I like the idea of empowering them by making sure they know what expectation looks like.
I was a bit frustrated by some of the "Write as You Read Science: Guidelines for students". Although I agree with them, the first six are useless since students are unable to write in their school-owned books. I really like 7 through 11, and plan to incorporate them into the notes I have students write at the start of each new chapter/unit.
I did have an interesting experience one year when I was part of a pilot program. We were given paper-bound single chapters or units and my students loved them. Mostly because they were easy to carry and they could write on them. Some of them really took advantage of that and had well-worn, very colorful "books". At the end of the year, when I asked them to help me evaluate the program, being able to write and highlight in their book was the most frequent comment.
I think metacognition is the most difficult process for me to teach. I understand its importance, but it takes a lot of time to grade a series of essays on every lab report. I admit, I tend to cut corners here. Perhaps a solution would be to only focus on one aspect at a time.
I love the idea of the paper-bound copies of single chapters. My students tend to prefer to make notes over their readings as they go. When I teach note-taking methods to my 7th graders I always have them reserve a small margin on the right hand side of their paper. In this margin I ask them to pose questions, develop examples or write extension questions. This covers the "Write as You Read" concept and it also encourages metacognition.
ReplyDeleteI had an English teacher in junior high teach us how to high light. I love the idea of giving students the freedom and responsibility to high light and write in their books. What great prep for college!
ReplyDeleteLast year I tried journaling with my students, where they took notes on the right side and used the left side for reflection. Those that actually did it, liked it and kept it up most of the year. I had a difficult time keeping up with all the journals. I need an easier method for checking them and encouraging those who don't, to do.
ReplyDeleteOur biology textbooks are not school-owned but the students still do not want to write in them because they want to sell them back to the bookstore at the end of the year. Some of our courses have textbooks that are also available to them online. In this case, they can print the pages out for themselves and make notations. Of course, then they're using more paper and that's not as environmentally-minded! Ah, the dilemma!
ReplyDeleteIf you can't highlight in school owned book, take a look at what you assign to go along with the reading. Generally the section review questions are worthless and can be answered without actually reading for understanding (just look for section headings and bold faced words).
ReplyDeleteInstead, have students summarize chunks of text or describe how an image or graph (usually skipped by students) relates to the text. IT will help them process & give them a way to keep a summary of the text in their notes.
We use a lot of journals at me school. Everything goes in them-notes, labs, demo notes. It has worked well. Of course getting them to be thoughful rather than just filling space is always an issue.
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