Learn - Research - Literature Review

Integrating Literacy Strategies into Science Instruction by the American Museum of Natural History.

This source was a website rather than an article, and it included links to six different literacy-boosting
activities which I’ve also linked straight through to here.

Paraphrasing - The teacher should select a text that is not overly complex for students. The goal of
that first lesson is for students to experience what it feels like to paraphrase successfully; first orally to
a partner without annotating in the margins.

Summarising - determining importance while reading a text. Summarising large sections of text or a
full text is a strategy that helps readers make meaning of complex material. If a reader can’t summarise
then that’s an indication they need to stop and use a comprehension-repair strategy before moving on.
Students could first try and summarise to a partner. Eventually they can move on to written summaries.

Interactive Reading - Interactive read-aloud that a student can do with a peer, with little invasion by
a teacher. They are given a text and a set of instructions which include when to stop, what to do; e.g.
sketch based on some information, underline the most important sentence in a paragraph, paraphrase
a section for a partner, write a summary each and compare.

Vocabulary Instruction - Our science-teacher-instinct may be to front load unfamiliar terms and get
students to research definitions for new vocabulary. Research suggests that the best approach is to
thoughtfully plan the learning sequence so it involves students observing or investigating phenomena
PRIOR to presenting definitions, or having students construct their own definitions (with teacher support)
from their own observations and new experiences.

Writing a Scientific Explanation - An explanation tool is provided on their website that looks quite useful!