Literacy Integration
InTASC Standard 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Introduction
We have a saying at my school that every teacher—regardless of content—is an English teacher. Our students, on average, score significantly below grade level on English proficiency tests. We also have a high percentage of English language learners—many are classified as EL1s and newcomers. For this reason, I identify a Common Core Standard for literacy and an English Language Development standard for each lesson in addition to the content standards for chemistry. As previously discussed in the “Organizational Aids” section, my school does not have standards-aligned textbooks for chemistry. For this reason, I have needed to search for outside resources to increase literacy levels in my classroom.
Literacy in science classrooms is a crucial skill for success that often gets overlooked. Being able to successfully read, interpret and analyze scientific articles requires a different skill set then required to read most texts presented in an English classroom. I strive to provide my students ample opportunities to strengthen this skill set to develop a deeper understanding of chemistry content through analysis of real world texts. Incorporating science literacy also allows students to more easily link what we are learning in class to the real world outside of school walls and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways.
Word Wall
Developing a deep comprehension of chemistry content requires a high level of academic and scientific vocabulary. Nearly all of the key terms necessary for comprehension are words students have never heard before. I have a word wall in my classroom for easy access to key terminology and to remind students about the target language they should be using. Each unit comes with a new set of terminology and the word wall is updated accordingly. Originally, my classroom word wall was just a bulletin board that I updated with vocabulary and definitions once a unit. I realized that students hardly ever looked at the board and it was not an effective instructional strategy. I began to think of ways to modify this system to make it more useful for students.
To make a more meaningful and useful word wall, I started by creating a vocabulary slideshow. Each key term for the unit is given its own slide with definitions and visuals. I then print colored copies of each of the slides, laminate them, and attach them to the wall with Velcro. Students are allowed to remove the words and take the flashcard back to their table when working on various labs, collaborative activities, and independent practice. Since each card is also laminated, students are allowed to write on them as necessary with dry erase markers—which students have access to in my classroom’s student center. Students are allowed to use the flashcards as necessary during class as long as they are erased and returned to the wall by the end of the period. While this is a fairly recent adaptation to this instructional strategy in my classroom, I have seen a significant improvement in engagement. Students are consistently removing word cards from the wall and taking them back to their desks to discuss the definitions. On the left you will see a copy of the laminated word cards from our unit on acids and bases as well as the slides for our calorimetry unit with a theme of calories in a bag of Hot Cheetos.
Sample word wall flashcards
Achieve 3000
“Throw Old Computers in the Trash? No Way!” Article at a lexile level of 880
One barrier that has the potential to block students from developing a deep understanding of chemistry content from science articles is that these texts are typically written at college reading levels and above—there are hardly any primary scientific texts that can be accessed by high school students. To fix this issue, I use an online literacy program called Achieve 3000. This program is a cross-curricular tool I utilize in my classroom to integrate literacy and allow all students to access scientific literature. At the beginning of the school year, each of my students logs into the program and takes an assessment that determines their lexile level. I then go through the program’s archive to find recent scientific articles that relate to our topic of study. Once I select an article, it will automatically adjust to each student’s individual lexile level. The site continually adjusts—making texts easier or more difficult based on the needs of the individual student. This is a powerful tool for differentiation that allows all students to access real-world, academic texts and make significant gains in their reading abilities.
Depending on the time of the school year, it is often difficult to get access to computers. When this is the case, I select an article and print out three to four versions of the desired text at various lexile levels. Students are then able to look over each of the versions and select the text that most closely fits their reading ability. If a student is unsure which level to select, I ask them to rank their confidence in their reading ability on a scale of one to 10. I then use their ranking to help them select the appropriate text. A student sample of this activity—relating to an article about E-waste—has been included on the left.
Thematic Unit Introductions
Articles used to introduce various unit themes
The majority of the units in my classroom are thematic units based on students’ interests. Unit themes include “how many calories are in a bag of Hot Cheetos,” “forensic science and how to dissolve a body in acid,” “pollution and global warming,” and “how are diamonds and the graphite used in mechanical pencils made of the same element—carbon?”
We begin each thematic unit with a literacy day. Students read an article, relating to the current unit theme, with their collaborative table groups. They then answer several embedded questions to check for understand and ensure all students are participating in the activity. We then have a full class discussion about the topic before beginning the new content for the unit. These articles are referenced frequently during the unit and students are encouraged to find ways to link new learning with the topic discussed during our literacy day activity. Linking each unit and all chemistry content to real-world topics increases student interests and allows students to develop a deeper understanding of topics.
The annotated document on the left contains a sampling of several literacy articles and student responses used to introduce units throughout the year. The articles are included as follows:
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Killer Scientists—acids and bases—pages one through four
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The Bitter Truth About Fast Food—health and calorimetry—pages five through eight
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Blood Diamonds—properties of elements—pages nine through 11
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Pollution—global warming and climate change—pages 12
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Sugar Coated—health and calorimetry—pages 13 through 19
Silent Spring
My advisory students posing with the novels they helped get donated
The fifth instructional segment of the Next Generation Science Standards relates all content back to global warming and climate change. My school does not offer an environmental science course, so this unit is my students’ only opportunity to learn about this branch of science. For this reason, students begin preparing for this unit from the beginning of the year. My advisory students—posing with the novels in the picture on the left—organized a Donor Choose grant application and we received enough donations to purchase a classroom set of Rachel Carson’s novel Silent Spring. This novel made such a profound impact on the scientific community when it was released that it created an entirely new branch of science and fundamentally changed our view of how humans operate in the world.
Towards the beginning of the school year, I introduce the novel to students and we discuss the impact it has had on the modern world. We also discuss who Rachel Carson was and why this book was so impactful. The field of chemistry is historically dominated by white men—which is not the demographic of students I teach. The small learning community in which I teach is linked to medicine so most students have career aspirations relating to some aspect of STEM. They often express that it is disappointing that, historically, there are few scientist with whom they share a gender, cultural, or ethnic background. I strive to highlight women and people of color who have made an impact in STEM as often as possible in my classroom. Rachel Carson is an excellent example my female students can point to and use as a role model as they pursue their desired careers.
Throughout the year, we have sustained silent reading incorporated into various lessons. Also, if students finish all of their work for the day, they always have access to the novels. While reading, students fill out a reading guide—shown in the picture on the left. Students write the page they start reading on, words they do not know with their definitions, a brief summary of what happened in the pages they read, and finally the final page they read until. Students can either fill out a paper copy of this form or a Google document if we happen to have the laptop cart in the classroom. These reading logs are then organized into students’ three-ring binders. The goal is for all students to finish the novel by the time we begin our unit about global warming and climate change. All of our discussions during that specific unit are grounded in the facts learned from this novel.
Furthermore, each semester my students must complete a project-based learning (PBL) activity and presentation in their advisory classes. Students must draw on knowledge from multiple classes, synthesize what they have learned, and apply it in a meaningful ways to their project. The PBL theme for the previous two spring semesters has been related to the environment. Students have been able to draw heavily upon the information in this novel to assist them when developing their PBL arguments.
Sample Silent Spring reading log
Reflection
Literacy integration started as just a requirement implemented by my administration. However, throughout my time in the classroom literacy has developed into a cornerstone of my instruction and my personal educational pedagogy. Literacy is a crucial skill all students will need to succeed in their professional and personal lives during and after high school. I strive to give my students ample opportunities to develop these skills while also deepening their understanding of chemistry content and linking things learned during class to the real world outside of school walls. Literacy is a powerful instructional tool that I use to show students that the theoretical concepts we are learning about have an actual impact on their daily lives and that their knowledge can be applied in meaningful ways.
At first, I received a lot of negative feedback about literacy integration from students. However, I realized this feedback was not because of the instructional strategy itself—rather it was a result of students being uncomfortable with literacy in general. Many students—with lower lexile levels—were used to not being able to access academic texts when presented in class. They were used to becoming easily frustrated by these activities. The more I incorporate literacy into my class the more positive feedback I receive. Students have realized that my classroom is a safe environment to practice their literacy skills as they grow in this area. I also typically receive a significant amount of positive feedback in regards to the thematic unit introduction articles—especially “Killer Scientists.” Students enjoy these topics and the themes of the units. If students do not enjoy a theme, I throw it out and redesign the unit for the following year. For example, when learning about subatomic particles and the atom, the unit theme was originally batteries and how they operate. I found that students did not care about this topic and engagement was low. I threw out this theme and replaced it with African blood diamonds versus graphite, as described above—which students have enjoyed significantly more. I am always looking for ways to improve this instructional strategy based on self-conducted research and student feedback to give students the most positive educational experience possible.