Discourse of Integrating Science and Literacy
We need to begin by examining the nature of the language experience in the dialogue between teacher and class . . . By its very nature a lesson is a verbal encounter through which the teacher draws information from the class, elaborates and generalizes it, and produces a synthesis. His skill is in selecting, prompting, improving, and generally orchestrating the exchange.
(Bullock, 1975, p. 141) INTRODUCTION
Science learning is not simply doing science. Along with the part of hands-on practical work, talking, reading, and writing constitutes a large part of science learning process and product (Greenleaf, Litman, Hanson, Rosen, Boscardin, Herman, & Jones, 2011; Lemke, 2001; Lang, Drake, & …show more content…
Science literacy, to a great extent, can be seen as a set of discourse (Pearson, Moje, & Greenleaf, 2010; Willington & Osborne, 2001, p. 1), the discipline-specific “language-in-use” (Bloome & Clark, 2006) or languaging (Bloome & Beauchemin, 2016) featured with all kinds of semiotic systems (Lemke, 2001). In this chapter, the authors start with a reconceptualization of science literacy and proceed to discuss why science literacy matters and why discourse in various forms matters to science literacy. Then, drawing on their recent research study on science literacy in elementary school, the authors center on the teacher-student interactive discourses revolving around science concepts and literacy skills. We particularly examined some of the seemingly off-topic classroom dialogues. In doing so, the authors also attempt to explore how the potential opportunities of science literacy integration can be discursively co-constructed by the teacher and …show more content…
Even though the mutually supportive relationship between science and literacy teaching and learning has been well documented, in realistic teaching practices, the constringent curriculum is unlikely to allow the collaboration between science and language art teachers. A second significant constraint is the teachers’ scarce access to well-designed informational texts or developmentally appropriate thematic text sets that can tailor to the students’ varying reading levels. A third obvious challenge is the limited professional training the teachers, especially elementary school teachers have received in content areas. There is also a widely held assumption by the participating science teachers that teaching reading and writing skills are the language art teachers’ responsibilities and the students should have obtained the literacy skills needed to understand and use the scientific content. The teachers’ responses are consistent with the findings from the previous studies (Lee & Spratley, 2010; Pearson, et al., 2010; Schleppegrell, 2004; Snow, 2010; Van den Broek, 2010; Wellington & Osborne, 2001). Meanwhile, most participating teachers have witnessed the new integration trend and seemed to understand the potential interdisciplinary correlation and collaboration they can make. As our
We need to begin by examining the nature of the language experience in the dialogue between teacher and class . . . By its very nature a lesson is a verbal encounter through which the teacher draws information from the class, elaborates and generalizes it, and produces a synthesis. His skill is in selecting, prompting, improving, and generally orchestrating the exchange.
(Bullock, 1975, p. 141) INTRODUCTION
Science learning is not simply doing science. Along with the part of hands-on practical work, talking, reading, and writing constitutes a large part of science learning process and product (Greenleaf, Litman, Hanson, Rosen, Boscardin, Herman, & Jones, 2011; Lemke, 2001; Lang, Drake, & …show more content…
Science literacy, to a great extent, can be seen as a set of discourse (Pearson, Moje, & Greenleaf, 2010; Willington & Osborne, 2001, p. 1), the discipline-specific “language-in-use” (Bloome & Clark, 2006) or languaging (Bloome & Beauchemin, 2016) featured with all kinds of semiotic systems (Lemke, 2001). In this chapter, the authors start with a reconceptualization of science literacy and proceed to discuss why science literacy matters and why discourse in various forms matters to science literacy. Then, drawing on their recent research study on science literacy in elementary school, the authors center on the teacher-student interactive discourses revolving around science concepts and literacy skills. We particularly examined some of the seemingly off-topic classroom dialogues. In doing so, the authors also attempt to explore how the potential opportunities of science literacy integration can be discursively co-constructed by the teacher and …show more content…
Even though the mutually supportive relationship between science and literacy teaching and learning has been well documented, in realistic teaching practices, the constringent curriculum is unlikely to allow the collaboration between science and language art teachers. A second significant constraint is the teachers’ scarce access to well-designed informational texts or developmentally appropriate thematic text sets that can tailor to the students’ varying reading levels. A third obvious challenge is the limited professional training the teachers, especially elementary school teachers have received in content areas. There is also a widely held assumption by the participating science teachers that teaching reading and writing skills are the language art teachers’ responsibilities and the students should have obtained the literacy skills needed to understand and use the scientific content. The teachers’ responses are consistent with the findings from the previous studies (Lee & Spratley, 2010; Pearson, et al., 2010; Schleppegrell, 2004; Snow, 2010; Van den Broek, 2010; Wellington & Osborne, 2001). Meanwhile, most participating teachers have witnessed the new integration trend and seemed to understand the potential interdisciplinary correlation and collaboration they can make. As our