Close Reading in Middle School Science Classes

Students dig deep to understand complex informational texts and sum them up precisely.

This year, our goal is to help students perceive meaning of scientific texts kids read on the subject matter and be able to summarize complicated texts to demonstrate their understanding when they look for background information to back their lab results and Science Fair projects.



Students analyze texts and pay close attention to details they would otherwise skip if not having proper support from their science teacher and information literacy specialist.
 

Through collaboration, Mr. Ratner and Ms. Bee apply the close reading strategy to implicitly broaden kids' background, improve their understanding and raise their curiosity.

Among learning approaches used in class are brainstorming, identifying and using new vocabulary, small groups discussions, writing summaries and creating proper citations. Students acquire and practice necessary skills to effectively achieve positive results in their future research works and Science Fair projects that are coming SOON!

Read with a question in mind

startimes.com

This is a reminder and tip for those who work on research projects:

Merge your own thinking with information found in informational books.

It's so easy to get lost in an ocean of sources! What information to pick? Does it support your idea? Is it a fact or opinion? Who is talking about it?Is it biased?

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Stop, think, and react on what you have found. Does it answer your research question?

 
Summarize, paraphrase, and quote with proper citations to avoid copyright infringement.

Inquiry-based discussions based on daily news

To start a tradition of inquiry-based discussions in class teachers can use informational texts and daily news.
Newsela is one of the sites where current events are organized by topics and grade levels. Wonderopolis is another great site that teacher can use to start the class discussions on science.

Topics in focus provoke students for asking new questions, and inquiries is a key for discussions that ignite discoveries.

Discussions are used as a tool for assessment when students display how well they know the subject. Another approach to discussions is to use them as a prompt to a research practice. Students find answers while sifting through sources of information thus practicing essential skills of identifying reliable sources, evaluation of web sites, providing credits to creators of multimedia and citing sources of information.

There are various techniques of how teachers organize discussions in class. One of them is a "fishbowl" strategy when one group participates in the discussion while another is watching and taking notes. Afterwards, groups change their roles.  Facing History and Ourselves illustrates this activity in details.

TodaysMeet is an effective tool when teachers want to involve every student in the discussion.

TodaysMeet is a tool that provides every student with an opportunity to express his or her ideas and opinion while others discuss the question out loud.

The teacher divides the class into two groups. One group is sitting in the middle of the classroom and discuss a current event or another informational text while the rest of the class ask questions or post their comments through TodaysMeet projected on the board. Then, the groups switch.

After reading an informational text or an article on a current event, teacher poses a question or a problem or creates a scenario that students try to solve as a group.

The discussion is evolving around the main topic. Students add their ideas and questions to the site.

Inquiry-based discussions is a great way to develop multiple skills students need to become global citizens.

Informational Text as a teaching tool.

In the dynamic world we live in, content and technology exponentially grow and become more and more complex. To prepare our students to effectively function in the world and be efficient global citizens, educators re-evaluate their teaching instructions and come up with new educational strategies. 

Daily reading of current events and informational texts develop not only student language skills but prepare them to be informed, think critically, solve real world problems, and be able to communicate their ideas to others. In other words, students are learning to become active members of society.

Resources:

There are a great number of web sites where informational texts can be found. Some of them are pinned on a Pinterest Nonfiction Reading board. 

Check a Pinterest collection of News Sites 
and News Sites in Spanish.