Reading Matters Winter 2018

Local Text The use of Local Text is not a strategy, but it is a strategic way to use student-created text to strengthen their science vocabulary. Local text is text that the classroom community creates (Maloch, Hoffman, & Patterson 2004). It isn’t text that is brought into the class (e.g. textbooks and digital worksheets) but instead includes student-created charts, displays, and even informational texts. The more opportunities our students have to see, say, and write the scientific terms, the more they will remember them. Local text also serves to create a sense of community within our science classrooms and build confidence and pride. Students will eagerly show local text to classroom visitors long before they will run to point out something they read in a textbook. The following student-created texts are just a few suggestions for the use of local text in the classroom: INFORMATIONAL BOOKS — Informational texts can be written on any topic students are currently studying, and students can then share the texts they create with peers, other classrooms, or even younger students. The texts can then be put on a shelf in the classroom for later reading and reference. WORD WALLS — Create a word wall, and encourage students to add interesting scientific terms they hear or see outside of class. Be sure to discuss new words as they are added. Ask questions. Do they see relationships between new words added and words currently on the wall? Keep the wall up and tie the words to science learning when possible. DISPLAYS — Students can create displays of science experiments, charts of information they are learning, or even posters about interesting scientific information. BLOGS/WEBSITES — Classrooms can set up a science blog or website and allow students to share information they are learning in class with other classes and parents. Even more important than the creation of local text is how students engage with it. In fact, the process of creating it is at least as important as the finished product. Draw their attention to it as it relates to lessons taught in the classroom, and don’t hesitate to replace the local text as necessary. Referring back to student- created local text is a great way to acknowledge their contributions to the class and strengthen their scientific vocabulary. Talking Drawings, Ten Important Words, Sniglets, and Local Text are all ways that we can build our students’ science vocabulary. Each of these suggestions are unique and have their own advantages. We want our students to enjoy learning new scientific terms. After all, vocabulary learning doesn’t end with science class, but it is a skill our students will continue to use the rest of their lives. In Conclusion Students learn best through experiencing science. However, we also realize that there are times that engaging with text is absolutely necessary. Students can’t fly to the moon or may

never live in a desert, but they can engage with text that contains scientific information about those experiences. In science, our students can expect to encounter many unfamiliar academic terms. Whether students are reading directions or texts regarding their science field trips and experiments, we don’t want the challenge of content specific vocabulary to create a barrier to deepening our students’ scientific understanding. Through various strategies and the use of local text, we can prepare our students for not only the science content they are currently learning but the future content they will encounter. References Altieri, J.A. (2011). Content counts!: Developing disciplinary literacy skills, K-6. Newark, DE: International Literacy Association.

Reading Matters Vocabulary Matters

Altieri, J.A. (2016). Reading science: Practical strategies for integrating instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Liebfreund, M.D., & Conradi, K. (2016). Component skills affecting elementary students’informational text comprehension. Reading and Writing, 29 (6). 1141- 1160. Maloch, B., Hoffman, J.V., & Patterson, E.U. (2004). Local texts: Reading and writing“of the classroom.”In J.V. Hoffman & D.L. Schallert (Eds.), The texts in elementary classrooms (pp. 129-138). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

McConnell, S. (1993). Talking drawings: A strategy for assisting learners. Journal of Reading , 36 (4), 260-269.

National Research Council (NRC). (2011). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, cross-cutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington: National Academies Press. Schumm, M.F., & Bogner, F. X. (2016). The impact of science motivation on cognitive achievement within a 3-lesson unit about renewable energies. Studies in Educational Evaluation . 50, 14-21.

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents. Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review . 78 (1), 40-59.

Van Meter, P., Aleksic, M., Schwartz, A., & Garner, J. (2006). Learner-generated drawing as a strategy for learning from content area text. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 31 (2), 142-166. Yopp, R.H., & Yopp, H.K. (2007). Ten important words plus: A strategy for building word knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 61 (2), 157-160.  Jennifer Altieri coordinates the M. Ed. in Language, Literacy and Culture Degree at Coastal Carolina University and teaches both undergraduate and graduate literacy courses. She has written texts with the International Literacy Association and Heinemann. Her primary area of interest is disciplinary literacy. She can be reached at jaltieri@coastal.edu.

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