North Carolina STEM Educators, Y3

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

When reading is not conceptualized as inquiry, texts are complex, students’ reading skills are weak, and teacher knowledge is uncertain, teachers often resort to telling students about science rather than actively engaging students in making sense of it… Instead of confronting reading problems head on, it breeds student dependence on the teacher for science knowledge and places the learner in a passive role (460). Yes! This is me. This is why this project speaks so loudly to me!

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Teachers, for their part, are often not well educated in science (at the elementary level) or in scientific-specific modes of literacy instruction (at the secondary level). (pg. 460). This makes me realize that I have some gaps in my training that will really lead me to valuing the skills of my librarian.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

Of particular interest in the CORI research is the pivotal role that motivation, in all of its instantiations (interest, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation), plays in learning both science and literacy. (pg. 461) This makes me think about the role that essential questions can play in creating student interest.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"Development of a scientifically literate citizenry has been tied to the future of robust democratic society."  (pg. 459) 

I could not agree more!  Particularly in today's society, it is becoming increasingly clear how we need a literate citizenry in order to fully understand and participate in our society.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

"Students need explicit support to acquire the composing and comprehension processes needed for successful reading and writing in science." (pgs. 460-461) 

It is important to note that students need guidance and suppot from their teachers when they are reading a science text --- the literacy skills are not innate.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

"A better option may be to attend to the needs of struggling readers within science class, where they simultaneously acquire subject-matter knowledge and inquiry skills, and perhaps even improve their literacy skills."  (pg. 462) 

I would like to see if this does have an impact on overall literacy.  Theoretically, it is better to teach something within context as opposed to in isolation, so I would want to explore this more in a science context.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

When literacy activities are driven by inquiry, students simultaneously learn how to read and write science texts and to do science (460). This is important because it can be difficult for students to understand concepts the way they are presented in academic texts so teaching students the ability to both understand the knowledge and the application is essential.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

This leads to a third challenge: Both teachers and students could be better at reading, writing, teaching, and learning from science texts (460). This makes me consider the fact that many teachers themselves need professional development on how to be a successful analyzer of academic texts first before they can successfully create a lesson plan  

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

Students engage in peer review to evaluate whether their written explanations refer back to the hypotheses they made, to what extent they made the data evident, and the quality of reasoning they have provided for their claims (462). I want to learn a little more about the skills needed to teach students how to be successful at things like peer review. You can’t just put a group of students together and expect them to be successful at this. The students need to be trained and expectations set for how to give helpful and constructive feedback.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

But when science literacy is conceptualized as a form of inquiry, reading and writing activities can be used to advance scientific inquiry, rather than substitute for it. (459).  I think the biggest struggle as a science teacher is finding a balance and how to make complete lessons including literacy and inquiry combined. 

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Science literacy instruction should engage children and youth in making sense of scientific texts as one form of scientific inquiry. (460). As a science teacher, when students hear the word inquiry they automatically think of conducting a lab, I am excited to learn how to shift their mindset as well as mind, to teach more inquiry through scientific texts as well. 

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

CORI provides explicit instruction in reading strategies, such as questioning, activating background knowledge, searching for information, summarizing, and synthesizing information in order to communicate with others. (461).  I want to learn more about inquiry based learning with a combination of hands on activities and science texts. 

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

Investigations are always framed by other investigations. Texts are the artifacts of those past investigations and are used for inductive reasoning about scientific phenomena. (pg. 460) I love and agree with the idea that our pursuits are framed by understanding the reasoning of others. Making sense of how we all build inquiry is essential.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Students fine tune their literacy tools not only when they read and write science texts but also when they engage in science investigations precisely because so many of the sense-making tools of science are consistent with, if not identical to, those of literacy (24), thus allowing a setting for additional practice and refinement that can enhance future reading and writing efforts. (pg. 460) I’m on board with the phrase “sense-making tools”. Even more so the mindset of how these tools can cross over with literacy (and other disciplines) needs to be more commonplace in building curriculum.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

The program is based on the fundamental principle that literacy is best enacted as a set of learning tools that support knowledge acquisition rather than as a set of independent curriculum goals. (pg. 461) Speaking about GEMS the article raised my interest in exploring how literacy can be embeded within the inquiry of any lesson.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

“the sense making tools of science are consistent with, if not identical to, those of literacy…” (pg. 460)

I think this statement stands true for all academic disciplines at all stages of critical thinking.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

“When reading is not conceptualized as inquiry, texts are complex, students’ reading skills are weak, and teacher knowledge is uncertain, teachers often resort to telling students about science rather than actively engaging students in making sense of it.” (30, 31).

This statement is that I find to be profound; in our profession so many teachers are just interested in teaching to the test. This could be based on the fact that cut scores are all that seem to matters. Teaching why the answer is what is has been implemented into my pedagogy, and has served to create a deeper understanding of standards for my students.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to  explore more.

“Assessment. Finally, it is important to note that all the professional development in the world will have little impact if we cannot also create more balanced assessment portfolios for our accountability systems (39)”.

Developing an acceptable means besides test as an alternative to assessing student mastery has been a desire of mine for quite some time. I would definitely appreciate more information regarding this matter.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

[Math] and literacy use many of the same reasoning processes: setting purposes, asking questions, clarifying ambiguities, drawing inferences from incomplete evidence, and making evidence-based arguments (p. 460). I found this interesting since I'll be working with two math instructors. Will there be parallels?

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Teacher learning is most profound when teachers can employ the very same inquiry processes for their own professional learning that they aspire to enact with their students. By making their own learning about literacy and science pedagogy the object of inquiry, teachers can simultaneously develop the insights and pedagogical strategies they will need to mentor their students (p. 462). This was an "aha" moment for me.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

...reading and writing activities can be used to advance [math] inquiry, rather than substitute for it. When literacy activities are driven by inquiry, students simultaneously learn how to read and write [math] texts and do to [math] (pp. 459-460). The proposed area of mathematics that we'll possibly focus on is new to me. I'm interested to see how students will respond and how my personal learning and instruction will shift to meet curricular and student needs.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

“Explicit calls for proficiency in reading and science literacy for all envision a populace capable of fully participating in the workplace and civic demands of the 21^st century.” (p. 459)

The demands of a 21^st century citizen are ever-growing and proficiency in scientific literacy is at the forefront of meeting those demands.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

“Inquiry-driven literate practice is not simply passive receipt of information about science but rather a process of actively making meaning of science; these inquiries are best regarded as investigations in their own right.” (p. 460)

Students must internalize and investigate meaning of the scientific text in order to increase literacy.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

“Avoiding the challenge of engaging students with texts may seem efficient, yet it ultimately undermines student learning.” (p. 460)

This reminds me of the age old quote, “You reap what you sow” in that more time is spent upfront, but in the end the benefits far outweigh the beginning demands.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

Avoiding the challenge of engaging students with texts may seem efficient, yet it ultimately undermines student learning. Instead of confronting reading problems head on, it breeds student dependence on the teacher for science knowledge and places the learner in a passive role. At the same time, simply making texts available in print or online is not enough to ensure that students engage with them; rather, students need explicit support to acquire the composing and comprehension processes needed for successful reading and writing in science (460). Just because we have that resource in print or online doesn’t mean it is helping us as teachers. If we aren’t helping students understand it we are doing them a disservice.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Our text-centric focus has overshadowed science inquiry.... Science teachers have little access to well-designed texts that readers can understand give their developing knowledge base and varying reading skill levels (460). Many times the focus on literacy is so tight and we lose the big picture. The skills of science inquiry will help us build on our literacy skills if we let them.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

In Guided Inquiry supporting Multiple Literacies professional development, teachers learn to engage students in cycles of investigation guided by specific questions, establishing the classroom as a community of inquiry. GIsML combines these firsthand and secondhand experiences through the use of a fictional working scientist's notebook (461).  GIsML is something that I have little experience with and would love to learn more about establishing a classroom as a community of inquiry.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

p.462 “Finally, it is important to note that all the professional development in the world will have little impact if we cannot also create more balanced assessment portfolios for our accountability systems.”  The multiple-choice testing show limited understanding, just as the direct approach to teaching science is only allowing for surface understanding.  It’s important to me that if this deeper understanding, inquiry approach to science and literacy is being incorporated into our classroom, that it is something that is a focus in our standardized testing.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

p.460 “When reading is not conceptualized as inquiry, texts are complex, students’ reading skills are weak, and teacher knowledge is uncertain, teachers often resort to telling students about science rather than actively engaging students in making sense of it.”  And p. 461 “The combination of high stakes and low intellectual challenge almost compels teachers to eschew deep inquiry in favor of content coverage.”

I would like to better realize that if I take the time to incorporate literacy into my science classroom, that students will be better prepared to better question and express themselves.  I often get caught in my timeline and curriculum that I forget to look at the bigger picture and realize there are more beneficial ways of approaching concepts.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

p. 460 “…simply making texts available in print or online is not enough to ensure that students engage with them.”  And how.  I want to know how this looks in a science classroom.  I need examples.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about some that stood out as very important to you.

Likewise, when high-stakes testing drives teachers to cover content rather than actively engage students in the learning process, lectures offer an efficient form of delivering science information; thus, reading about science is replaced by listening to someone talk about science.

As an educator and parent of two teenaged students, this is probably my biggest pet peeve with public education today. Walk into any classroom, science or otherwise, and this is likely what you will encounter – teachers who are lecturing to students and teaching to the test. And, this is something where I see teacher preparation programs are going to have to change and where professional development for current teachers will need to be focused. In an ideal world I would like to shift away from teaching to the test and allowing all educators the freedom and flexibility to incorporate new models, such as inquiry, to better meet the needs of students today.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Science provides a setting in which students are intellectually obligated to make sense of data, draw inferences, construct arguments based on evidence, infer word meanings, and, of course, construct meanings for text—the very dispositions required as good readers and writers.

High schools are so departmentalized and I need to shift my own thinking in terms of subjects and departments and focus more on the strands and common themes which tie all subjects together. As an English major myself, I have always felt a strong kinship with English and social studies and these areas have remained the focus of much of my career as a high school media coordinator. I’m ready to begin the process of stepping outside of my comfort zone and connecting with other areas and a focus on literacy and inquiry will help facilitate this shift.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

But when science literacy is conceptualized as a form of inquiry, reading and writing activities can be used to advance scientific inquiry, rather than substitute for it. When literacy activities are driven by inquiry, students simultaneously learn how to read and write science texts and to do science.

My experience with inquiry is limited, yet as someone who loves research, inquiry based work greatly intrigues me. One goal I hope to accomplish from this SLASL experience is that I hope to sharpen and refine my skills at not just appreciating inquiry, but also becoming more proficient and better equipped to use it to my students and colleagues.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"Science provides a setting in which students are intellectually obligated to make sense of data, draw inferences, construct arguments based on evidence, infer word meanings, and, of course, construct meanings for test-- the very dispositions required as good readers and writers."

Reflecting on the start of the article - where it seems that science educators are choosing either reading OR hands on experiences this quote seems to emphasize why we need to do both. Through journaling, reading prior attempts or experiments, this is how we grow, how we learn.  Literacy in the STEM classroom is a must - it feeds not only the scientific brain, but also the literacy needs of all. 

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

"When reading and writing are cast as tools for investigating phenomena, students can learn how to build on and expand the work of other scientists by reading about the designs and findings of others."

Again it seems many teachers choose hands on inquiry over literacy inquiry and this quote identifies why and how reading and writing are tools for their scientific learning, not to replace hands on activities, but enhance them and learn from them. 

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

"Of particular interest in the CORI research is the pivotal role that motivation , in all of its instantiations (interest, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation), plays in learning both science and literacy." 

I would love to see this explored more... motivating students to want to learn about anything, not just science should be at the heart of what every educator does. The CORI method is centered on the idea of inquiry. I am also intrigued by the publishing of information - which applies the real world context/audience... and provides a deep level of motivation. 

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"When literacy activities are driven by inquiry, students simultaneously learn how to read and write science texts to do science" (p. 459-460). Inquiry is the key word. The deeper a student inquires, the more he/she will learn. 

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

"Science and literacy use many of the same reasoning processes: setting purposes, asking questions, clarifying ambiguities, drawing inferences from incomplete evidence, and making evidence-based arguments" (p. 460). I definitely need to shift my mindset to see science and literacy as one instead of two completely different processes. 

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

"Both teachers and students could be better at reading, writing, teaching, and learning from science texts" (p. 460). I would like to explore more ways to become better at these things through math texts. 

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.
Both science and literacy educators agree that text only science is weak science instruction, but most recognize that doing science involves reading and writing print and other symbol systems and graphic representations. This quote points out the balance that teachers need to find between inquiry- and text-based learning. Completing swinging the pendulum one way or the other will not lead to success.

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

In GIsML professional development, teachers learn to engage students in cycles of investigation guided by specific questions, establishing the classroom as a community of inquiry. GIsML combines these firsthand and secondhand experiences through the use of a fictional working scientist’s notebook. The notebook provides models of data representation and engages students in interpreting data along with the scientist. The texts also model a scientist using secondhand materials, reading and interpreting with a critical stance, and drawing
conclusions from multiple sources of evidence. After students investigate scientific questions, they consult text to learn how the scientist has interpreted similar evidence. I love the idea of modeling the student experience after what they would experience in actual scientific research. In almost every profession, no amount of classroom time can replace a hands-on, day-to-day experience. The reality of research involves both reading about and practicing a concept.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

Teachers engage students in reading both scientific and lay-audience texts related to the phenomena under study. The
teachers also engage students in translating across multiple forms of representation (e.g., as investigations require data to be logged and explanations of phenomena to be communicated). Students engage in peer review to evaluate whether their written explanations refer back to the hypotheses they made, to what extent they made the data evident, and the quality of reasoning they have provided for their claims. I would like to learn more about how this teacher sets up and executes the classroom peer review system. Students having the ability to critique other's work is a high level thinking skill that is critical to the real world.

1.      Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

Investigations are always framed by other investigations (460). This quote sticks out to me as an Engineering teacher.  We teach students to solve problems and investigate situations.  One idea that I always press upon the students is that many times there are smaller problems within the larger problem.  So when they are investigating the large problem they may need to look for and solve the smaller problems first.

2.      Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

Both teachers and students could be better at reading, writing, teaching, and learning from science texts (460).  Honestly, if I sit back and am honest I am not the best at understanding literacy and what it means and how it works.  If I, as the teacher, struggle then I can see where students can and will struggle.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

Science and literacy use many of the same reasoning processes: setting purposes, asking questions, clarifying ambiguities, drawing inferences from incomplete evidence, and making evidence-based arguments (460).  The comparison is interesting to me, I would like to see how this comparison could be used as a way to help students learn.  What do these steps look like in science, what do these steps look like in literacy.  Specific examples highlighting the various ways they are used.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"Moreover, the default practice of giving science teachers a literacy strategies toolkit is not likely to promote deep thinking and reasoning around texts and investigations that support science learning." (462)

This is why I am doing this! I was given plenty of books in college on how to incorporate literacy into the science classroom... but I want to EFFECTIVELY incorporate literacy into a scientic inquiry based classroom. 

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

"Science literacy instruction should engage children and youth in making sense of scientific texts as one form of scientific inquiry" (460)

This is what I needed to hear! I always think of inquiry in science as a lab activity with more hands on and verbal discussions rather than incorporating a literary element. 

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

"Typical science textbooks are dense and disengaging to inexperienced science readers." (460)

I want to explore more into how to find engaging, relevant texts to appeal to science readers of all skill levels. 

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"Science provides a setting in which students are intellectually obligted to make sense of data, draw inferences, construct arguments based on evidence, infer word meanings, and, of course, construct meanings for text - the very dispositions required as good readers and writers." 

Reading up to this point in the text, I started questioning what current scientists credit their successful integration of literacy in their careers as, the text says, that science and literacy use "many of the same reasoning processes: setting purposes, asking questions, clarifying ambiguities, drawing inferences from incomplete evidence, and making evidence-based arguments." Did they have incredible science teachers who taught them these litercy skills in the context of science or did they successfull integrate what they learned in their Literacy/English classes themselves with their passion for Science. Not being a scientist myself, but always loving the field, I can't speak directly to this. Also, not as a classroom teacher, I can't speak to what education teachers receive on this topic. I am fascinated, though, and chose this quote because of the importance of remembering these "intellectual obligations" for students in science so that we do not forget that scientific learning can not come solely from a text, nor solely from hands on experimentation (also, another good quote from the text regarding this).

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

"When reading and writing are cast as tools for investigating phenomena, students can learn how to build on and expand the work of other scientists by reading about the designs and findings of others. We can also engage students in producing texts that represent the ways they make sense of investigtions, thus helping students understand how and why scientists think, write, and shape arguments the way they do." 

It's not just about acquiring the knowledge and being able to answer a multiple choice test based on the facts. It is about understanding. But also the importance of these skills is demonstrated here in how what they are doing is related to the work of scientists and the importance of combining literacy and science education. 

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

"Of particular interest in the CORI research is the pivotal role that motivation, in all of its instantiations (interest, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation), plays in learning both science and literacy."

I took a course on motivation in library school and loved that we, as future school librarians, were learning about the importance of motivation in teaching. This quote stuck out to me because of this experience and I want to explore more how to motivate students as we combine science instruction and literacy to help our students. It is fantastic the goals and ambitions of teachers in projects like this, but how do we get the student buy-in? Not that I don't have ideas about how to answer this, but I think it's important in delivering instruction that we develop the motivation of our students so that delivery of instruction is more positively accepted by the students.

1. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as very important to you.

"envision a populace capable of fully participating in the workplace and civic demands of the 21st century."

This is why I teach. I try to not just teach them chemistry but also teach them how to be produdtive 

"standardized multiple-choice tests for all subjects serve as the standard for gauging student achievement in modern accountability systems (39). As a consequence, schools are hard pressed to promote inquiry-based teaching, irrespective of whether it is grounded in laboratory experiences or text-based investigations,in the face of tests that privilege the assessment of facts over concepts or knowledge frameworks. The combination of high stakes (rewards and sanctions based on performance) and low intellectual challenge (the factual character of the vast majority of test items) almost compels teachers to eschew deep inquiry in favor of content coverage (31). 

This is the biggest challegene  I face and the one that has discouraged me to try new things in teaching because I know that I an evaulated by how my students perform on that test instead of how well they really know what I am teaching them or how they develop as critical thinkers. 

2. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as shifting your mindset.

However, as long as low-challenge, multiple-choice tests serve as the primary metric for measuring student learning and teacher quality, not only in science but in literacy as well, it will be difficult for teachers to take the risk of promoting genuine inquiry in their classes.

This is the biggest challenge I face internally in my field.

3. Provide a specific quote and annotation about something that stood out as something you want to explore more.

how students develop the proficiencies needed to engage in science inquiry, including how to read, write, and reason with the language, texts, and dispositions of science.

This is the reason I am here! 

the quality of science reading materials and the role they play in inquiry have often been overlooked in these efforts.