Two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently and seven out of ten inner-city and rural fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level (Paige, 2002). With increasing pressure on teachers to elevate reading proficiency because of NCLB, how do you envision a math/science education curriculum that supports literacy while still proving a rich environment for science inquiry and problem-based math learning? For example, how can you balance math practice problems, not drill, with your approach?
One of the further challenges of implementing a problem-based math and science curriculum is that assessment questions often require strong reading comprehension skill levels as well as science and math conceptual understanding. Visit the NAEP site explored in science methods and choose one science and one math question that you could use for your thematic unit as either a pre- or post assessment. What literacy skills would students also have to have to be successful on your selected question?
Please post these in your grade bands ~ Thank you!!!
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I don't think that you have to have just one or the other. I believe that you can support literacy without taking away from science inquiry and problem-based math learning. After spending some time at the NAEP website, I have decided that you can create a balance between typical math and science assessment questions such as "what does this term mean" with a more dynamic approach such as giving a hypothetical situation and requiring your students to explain what they think will happen and why. In my opinion, you would learn a lot more about what you student knows about a topic rather than just finding out if they are good at memorizing terms.
On the NAEP website I found a sample 4th grade question that was classified as "hard." This question asks students to predict and explain water displacement by objects of different materials. Our thematic unit deals with early explorers, and we devised a science lesson about water displacement in which our students will create a vessel and test what they can do to that vessel so that it will hold the optimal amount of weight and still remain buoyant. This sample question would be an excellent post assessment after our lesson on water displacement. It gives a hypothetical experiment dealing with water displacement and balls made of different materials, and asks the student to predict what will happen when the balls are put in the cup and to explain why they think so. I would much rather see why my students think something will happen rather than the definition of the word displacement.
Our math lesson in our unit deals with maps and scale. We will introduce scale to our students and have them figure it out on different maps. We will also introduce unit conversion. The sample math question I found on NAEP would be a great pre-assessment question to gauge where our students are when it comes to maps and scale. This question shows a map with a scale of 1 square=1 block. Students are then required to write out the directions that the map followed. In example: "Go East 2 blocks, then go North 4 blocks, and finally go East 3 blocks." I think this would give us some insight into their knowledge of what scale means.
To be successful on my selected questions, my students would have to be able to read the questions and clearly explain through their writing what they think the answer is and why they think that. Like I said before, I think this would provide me with a lot more information that a standard "what does this word mean" test.
We’ve learned so much about how to make better readers in our literacy class and I think that we can easily incorporate these teaching/learning strategies during science and math. By using group, buddy, and independent reading of math/science texts and even quality children’s books like we looked at in math on Tuesday, we can teach are students math and science while elevating their reading proficiency. Math and science in the schools should also support literacy by using less fill-in-the-blank worksheets and drill, and instead focus more on communicating and justifying answers to problems.
Leslie and I are doing our thematic unit on the southwestern states. We have already decided on doing our science lesson on the life cycle of saguaro cacti. I couldn’t find any questions relating to this on the website, but I did find a great question relating to our unit. The experiment for the question helps children to understand why people often choose to wear white clothes in hot weather. Students need literacy skills in order to explain in writing why this is and to make comparisons of the experiment: before sitting in the sun and after sitting in the sun.
For our math lesson, we plan on measuring the length of a saguaro cactus at its different stages of growth. We will do this outside so we can place markers down on the ground for each stage. As a post assessment, we could use a question I found from NAEP that asks to estimate the length of a rope. Given what they already learned about how tall a cactus is at each stage, they can estimate the length of other objects such as the length of the building. I would have them write their answers with a justification of why they chose that length.
Like the analogy given in literacy class by Dr. Elser says, we need to be inserting the literacy pieces of instruction into our math and science lessons like you insert a pill into a hot dog for your dog. I plan on doing this by having journal writing a frequent activity in my lessons. The other important area is providing the students an opportunity to answer open-ended questions. These types of questions require the students to verbalize his or her thoughts and possible strategies. This helps students to practice metacognition which is also essential for reading comprehension. I will provide opportunities each day for students to practice reading in my classroom. The specific class Jessica and I are currently working with has this problem with carrying out assignments in class. The first step I would take for this classroom is cut down on all the constant worksheet lessons and get the students involved in his or her thinking and learning through the opportunities I mentioned above.
Our science lesson is studying the life cycle of a saguaro cactus and the animals that rely on it for their own life cycles. We are trying to incorporate an observation of a cactus vs a bean plant’s ability to retain water over a five day period. On the NAEP website I found this question:
“A green tree frog lives in a forest. How does the frog's green color help it to survive?” We could change the question to say, “A saguaro cactus can be found in the southwestern states of America where there is less rain than other states. How do you think this cactus survives in such a dry climate?” This could be a pre-assessment question. The post-assessment question could be “From what you observed about the cactus vs the bean plant over the past five days, what makes the cactus a good plant to survive in a dry climate vs the bean plant?”
Like Jessica mentioned, for our math lesson we are having the students measure the height of a saguaro cactus throughout one life cycle. The measurement ranges from 4 inches to 50 feet (50 feet being when the cactus is 200 years old!). The students will need to realize that using his or her 12 inch ruler will not efficiently get them through the entire life cycle of a saguaro cactus. The connection needs to be that something larger will need to be used (meter stick/yard stick). From the NAEP website, I found the following question: “Which of these could be measured using a meter stick? A) The length of a swimming pool B) The temperature of the water in a swimming pool C) The weight of the water in a swimming pool D) The number of people in a swimming pool” We could use a question like this as a post assessment when we are finished with the measuring, but we could ask the question, “Based on our own measurement experience, what measuring tool would be most useful? Then, if the students were struggling with open ended question we could suggest a couple of options like 12 inch ruler, meter stick and have the students explain why their choice is most useful in measuring something so large.
I think balancing literacy and math/science comes down to writing specific math/science problems to support where the class is when it comes to literacy. Using known words, new vocabulary, and writing the problems at the classes reading levels will support literacy and give the students a solid base to begin solving the problem. The students will not be able to solve the problem if they cannot comprehend what the problem is asking.
Cassie and I are doing our integrated unit on animal classification in a fourth grade classroom. It was difficult to find a question directly related to animal classification. So instead I chose a bar graph question. I figured graphing how many animals in each grouping would be a great way for children to understand each classification more thoroughly. The question asked the student to add to the existing bar graph. This question required the student to read the question, analyze the bar graph, and determine where to place the new information.
The science question I chose asked the student to identify which part of a human skeleton is most like a bird’s wing and was given four options. This would be a great pre-assessment question to jump into a lesson about the identifying factors of different animals and humans and what physical features play into classifying them. The skills this student needs to answer both the math and science questions are comprehension and fluency.
If someone is are a good teacher they will be able to support literacy as well as have an enriched science/math curriculum that support problem solving and inquiry. Creating a good curriculum is a challenging part of teaching, especially now that NCLB is in place. Having students answere problem based math problems, solving inquiry based science problems, and open-ended questions will all help students with conceptual understanding of the material and the result will be that the students will be more successful on tests.
The sceience sample question I chose from the NAEP website was - Look at the animals pictured above. (Note: pictures not drawn to scale.)Which three of the animals pictured above reproduce by laying eggs?
A) Bird, gorilla, grasshopper
B) Gorilla, grasshopper, frog
C) Fox, frog, dolphin
D) Bird, grasshopper, frog
I chose this question because our unit is focused on animal grouping. Students would have to have the basic literacy skills to answere this question. The question would be a good preassessment and postassessment question.
The math sample question I chose from the NAEP website was - Luis had two apples and he cut each apple into fifths. How many pieces of apple did he have? Students would need basic literacy skills. Our math lesson is going to be dealing with pie graphs and fractions. The question would be a good postassessment question.
I agree with many of the above posts. The most effective way of elevating reading proficiency while having a rich environment for science and math, is to integrate all three of the areas. If a student only believes they need to read for comprehension is during the reading period of a day then they will never apply themselves to read for comprehension during other subjects. With the wide variety of children’s literature in the world, you should be able to integrate literature to every subject. This is a great way to get the kids thinking about the subject and gets their ideas flowing. Then they can use what they read to accomplish the Science and Math assignments.
You will now finish a diagram of a food web in the pond. The food web shows what eats what in the pond system. Draw arrows in the diagram below from each living thing to the things that eat it. (The first arrow is drawn for you.)
I found the above question in the Science portion of the NAEP questions. Our thematic unit is on Montana Ecosystems and there is a component in it where the kids develop a diagram to showcase the interaction between the mammals, amphibians & reptiles, birds, fish, and vegetation within their ecosystem. This question could be used to help introduce a basic food web. For our Math question I chose:
FINAL TEST SCORES
Score Number of Students
95 50
90 120
85 170
80 60
75 10
6. Use the information in the table above to complete the bar graph below.
The students in our class will be examining population and sizes of animals and vegetation and then graphing their information.
In order for the students to understand these questions they need to be able to read the question and comprehend the vocabulary in the question and use context clues to understand words they are unsure of. By using these skills that will hopefully be well developed they should be successful at answering the questions.
I agree with many of the above posts. The most effective way of elevating reading proficiency while having a rich environment for science and math, is to integrate all three of the areas. If a student only believes they need to read for comprehension is during the reading period of a day then they will never apply themselves to read for comprehension during other subjects. With the wide variety of children’s literature in the world, you should be able to integrate literature to every subject. This is a great way to get the kids thinking about the subject and gets their ideas flowing. Then they can use what they read to accomplish the Science and Math assignments.
You will now finish a diagram of a food web in the pond. The food web shows what eats what in the pond system. Draw arrows in the diagram below from each living thing to the things that eat it. (The first arrow is drawn for you.)
I found the above question in the Science portion of the NAEP questions. Our thematic unit is on Montana Ecosystems and there is a component in it where the kids develop a diagram to showcase the interaction between the mammals, amphibians & reptiles, birds, fish, and vegetation within their ecosystem. This question could be used to help introduce a basic food web. For our Math question I chose:
FINAL TEST SCORES
Score Number of Students
95 50
90 120
85 170
80 60
75 10
6. Use the information in the table above to complete the bar graph below.
The students in our class will be examining population and sizes of animals and vegetation and then graphing their information.
In order for the students to understand these questions they need to be able to read the question and comprehend the vocabulary in the question and use context clues to understand words they are unsure of. By using these skills that will hopefully be well developed they should be successful at answering the questions.
I agree with many of the above posts. The most effective way of elevating reading proficiency while having a rich environment for science and math, is to integrate all three of the areas. If a student only believes they need to read for comprehension is during the reading period of a day then they will never apply themselves to read for comprehension during other subjects. With the wide variety of children’s literature in the world, you should be able to integrate literature to every subject. This is a great way to get the kids thinking about the subject and gets their ideas flowing. Then they can use what they read to accomplish the Science and Math assignments.
You will now finish a diagram of a food web in the pond. The food web shows what eats what in the pond system. Draw arrows in the diagram below from each living thing to the things that eat it. (The first arrow is drawn for you.)
I found the above question in the Science portion of the NAEP questions. Our thematic unit is on Montana Ecosystems and there is a component in it where the kids develop a diagram to showcase the interaction between the mammals, amphibians & reptiles, birds, fish, and vegetation within their ecosystem. This question could be used to help introduce a basic food web. For our Math question I chose:
FINAL TEST SCORES
Score Number of Students
95 50
90 120
85 170
80 60
75 10
6. Use the information in the table above to complete the bar graph below.
The students in our class will be examining population and sizes of animals and vegetation and then graphing their information.
In order for the students to understand these questions they need to be able to read the question and comprehend the vocabulary in the question and use context clues to understand words they are unsure of. By using these skills that will hopefully be well developed they should be successful at answering the questions.
I agree with many of the above posts. The most effective way of elevating reading proficiency while having a rich environment for science and math, is to integrate all three of the areas. If a student only believes they need to read for comprehension is during the reading period of a day then they will never apply themselves to read for comprehension during other subjects. With the wide variety of children’s literature in the world, you should be able to integrate literature to every subject. This is a great way to get the kids thinking about the subject and gets their ideas flowing. Then they can use what they read to accomplish the Science and Math assignments.
You will now finish a diagram of a food web in the pond. The food web shows what eats what in the pond system. Draw arrows in the diagram below from each living thing to the things that eat it. (The first arrow is drawn for you.)
I found the above question in the Science portion of the NAEP questions. Our thematic unit is on Montana Ecosystems and there is a component in it where the kids develop a diagram to showcase the interaction between the mammals, amphibians & reptiles, birds, fish, and vegetation within their ecosystem. This question could be used to help introduce a basic food web. For our Math question I chose:
FINAL TEST SCORES
Score Number of Students
95 50
90 120
85 170
80 60
75 10
6. Use the information in the table above to complete the bar graph below.
The students in our class will be examining population and sizes of animals and vegetation and then graphing their information.
In order for the students to understand these questions they need to be able to read the question and comprehend the vocabulary in the question and use context clues to understand words they are unsure of. By using these skills that will hopefully be well developed they should be successful at answering the questions.
Literature, science, and mathematics can be connected effectively in a thematic unit. Although the math will probably not contain much new content concepts, and the literature will need to filtered to reflect grade level of the students.
I picked the math question that states: Mr. Harper bought 6 pints of milk. How many quarts of milk is this equal to? I picked this question because it relates to our math exercise. As Tricia stated, our lesson is on Montana habitats. The students will, based on an average weight of 50lbs, determine hoe many students it will take to equal the weight of the mammal, fish, reptile, or bird that they have selected. If the selection weighs less than 50 lbs then they must determine how many will equal the weight of the student.
We are also focusing on scale for our math lesson and each group (forest, inter-mountain grassland, shrub grassland, and plains grasslands) will draw an example of one of the largest species and on of the smallest species within that habitat. They must draw it in actual size. For the literacy part of the lesson we are using the book Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (2004).
At the start of the math lesson we will have a transparency of a moose to project on the screen in actual size, and have each group think, discuss and determine how many students,based on the 50 lb average it will take to equal a moose that weighs 1150 lbs. They must explain how they arrived at that answer and why the think it is correct as they share their conclusions with the rest of the class.
I believe incorporating literacy into math and science not only will be fun to do, but it will allow students to step away from the standard boring math text and science text traditionally found in classrooms. It is okay to use them as an outline for the curriculum, but I believe and know that kids enjoy hands on learning and if I can incorporate literacy into the lesson, more power to it!! I had the opportunity to explore some science ideas within the story Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Thanks to Martin Horejsi!!) It occurred to me that all kinds of science and math lie beneath many stories. I am currently reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl with my 4th grade class and I can’t believe how much science and math can be found throughout the story. I could have science lessons on insects, how plants grow, farming and the importance of insects for the soil, water displacement and buoyancy, etc!! The possibilities were endless really! If I wanted to do a math lesson with the same book, we could calculate the size of the peach before it magically grew and figure out how big it ended up growing, how many miles James and his friends traveled from place to place, how much money Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge made by charging this many dollars….!!
I found a math question that I could use for my thematic unit. My unit is money. The question was considered “medium” for the 4th grade level. I believe at the end of my unit, they will know how to answer the question if they don’t already know how to. The question asks: Tony has 2 quarters and 2 dimes. Marta has 1 quarter, 2 dimes, and 1 nickel. Which of the coins from Tony's bank would he need to give Marta so that they each have the same amount of money?
They not only have to know the value of those coins, but they need to know how to add and subtract. Ideally, they need to know how to “read” the question and understand what the question is asking.
I think that by the time students reach the third and fourth grades teachers are expection students to read to learn, not to be still learning to read; which is often not where our students are at. I think that we need to teach reading and writing skills/strategies from kindergarden on, and focus on the comprehension aspect of reading. We need to have students realize that no matter what they are reading, and not matter what subject they are in they need to read and be able to understand the text. Comprehension doesn't only occuring in reading comprehension section of questions after a peice of text, it occurs conatantly.
I think we can foster this in math and science by forcing children to read journals, articles, and directions for themselves; and not telling them everything they need to do. A student can gain as much information from a lab report pr lab directions as they can get from a chapter book. We need to incorporate genuine children's literature into our math and science classes as well. All of the subjects we teach can help us to foster reading abilities in our students. Students should also be required to write out their ideas or findings in a journal. By thinking through their ideas and putting pen to paper students will better understand a concept, while helping to gain literacy skills.
The questions I found on the NAEP website were concerning reading weight from a scale, and determining location a grid map. To complete these two problems students would need to be able to read the directions for the problem. For the math problem students would know where to look and how to read a scale. They would also need to know how one records weight foer others to read it. For the science question students would need to know how to read a compass rose (with the directions written out: north, south...), read where to go between one location and another, and how to record where their end location was.
Both of these questions required strong reading comprehension and writing skills to be completed correctly.
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