Literacy in Context Assessment - Science Education

Literacy in Context Assessment - Science

Education

Literacy Context Assessment -- Science

Literacy in Context Assessment -- Science

Brief Student Profile -- Student Unnamed

This student is in year 3. Compared with other students from this year, the student's handwriting is clear and neat. The student exhibits basic to intermediate understanding of the assignment and the information that is vital in order to complete the task. The child is like not at the top of his/her class, due to spelling issues and problems in sentence formation. It is additionally unclear as to what to degree science interests this student.

Analysis of Student's Work Sample

The paper will analyse the student sample is from a child in Year 3 and how the sample demonstrates the demands for since in Year 3. The work sample takes the shape of a work sheet. On the left half of the sheet, there are squares meant for illustration. To the right of each square, there are blank lines for student descriptions, observations, and captions.

In the first square, the child drew a natural landscape with grass, the sun, hills, and a tree. The tree casts a shadow because of its position relative to the sun, as illustrated in the child's first square. Next to this square, the sentence reads, "At Mid afternoon, the shadow is a liltte bigger." This shows that the child understands that the sun appears to move across the sky over the course of a day. This sentence additionally shows that the child understands that factors such as the Earth's rotation and the relative position of the sun affect the shape and position of shadows from objects on the Earth's surface. There are some minor spelling and punctuation issues in this sentence, but not so severe that the errors interfere with comprehension by the reader/grader nor do they reveal severe deficits in comprehension in the student.

The second square shows strong evidence of understanding of linear time. This drawing also shows understanding of movement of celestial bodies, and some of the effects of those movements as perceived from the Earth's surface. The student retained and applies the information learned from the lesson fairly well. The caption on this square reads, "In the Evenng the shadow are long again." Again, there are some mechanical errors in the writing.

There is also some subject verb agreement problems in the sentence. Regardless of these errors, the handwriting is very clear and despite the mechanical problems, there is still some clarity to the student's writing. The mode of the text is appropriate for the task at hand. The student writes general yet descriptive statements for each square. In the section of the paragraph, the mode changes, and this affects the quality and the nature of the students writing, in addition to revealing more complex literacy issues that need attention.

Below these squares is a paragraph. The instructions are to "Explain the results." In this space, the child recapitulates the visual and written information above, and continues to elaborate upon what has already been written for additional context. The child explains how he/she understands the Earth's rotation relative to the Sun's position. The child understands that planet Earth rotates on an axis. It is unclear whether the child understands that the Earth additionally rotates around the sun. The child understands that the side of the Earth that faces the sun as it rotates is the side where it is daytime. The child furthermore comprehends that as the Earth rotates away from the sun, it becomes darker and the side that is not facing the sun during rotation experiences night.

Overall, the child demonstrates understanding that these facts are directly related to how we perceive and experience shadows on Earth because of rotation. The child writes that the sun stays still and the Earth is the object that moves. It is not unclear as to whether the child does not understand that the sun also rotates on an axis and around the center of the galaxy, or that this material has simply not be gone over as part of instruction yet. Finally, the child writes that it is the movement of the sun and the positioning of the Earth relative to the sun that produces shadows and causes them to move. The sentences are either very short and choppy, or they are run-ons. There are little spelling errors, and minor grammatical issues. The child makes a sincere effort to reproduce appropriate surface features, though does not consistently succeed.

Student's literacy learning needs as demonstrated by this work sample:

Field Knowledge

This student seems to have very clear thinking and a strong grasp on the concepts learned in science class, yet the students writing and literacy skills are not on par with the student's understanding of the material. There is a clear gap between what the student understands and how effective the student is at written communication. The student made an effort to demonstrate and apply technical terms of the lesson, such as rotation and shadow. The work sample shows that the student has some knowledge, but that either the lack of understanding of the scientific concept is affecting the student's writing about it, or that the student's lack of writing & literacy skills are affecting how well the student articulates the knowledge possessed.

Knowledge of the types of texts used to display knowledge in Science class

The student shows that he/she is capable of writing a complete sentence of moderate length that expresses one complete thought, such as in the descriptions next to the squares with illustrations. These are the best structured sentences in the work sample.

When the student is prompted to write a paragraph, or at least a longer explanation than one sentence, this is where the student shows the greatest lack of skills. The student shows signs that he/she needs assistance in structuring longer ideas and arguments. The student moreover shows signs that developing and organizing big ideas is an issue that needs work, too. The student would benefit from reviewing text types, such as a scientific report, or maybe even reading art texts, to have a clearer idea of what a proper caption is and what is should do.

Knowledge of the language features of relevant text types

In the paragraph explanation, the student's sentences were either too long or too short. The longest sentence sounded like stream of consciousness or how one might verbalize the answer if asked orally. To me, this shows that the student is probably better at oral communication that written communication. These are signs that the student's literacy skills require improvement and strengthening. The student does not effectively mimic language features for descriptive and organised text types. There is some use and misuse of the universal present tense. The bulk of the text lacks cohesion and clear separation of individual thoughts.

Literacy Strategies

If this student were one of my students, I would definitely design strategies to support this student's literacy development in the subject area of science. The student clearly already has a basic understanding of scientific principles, so that is something to be positive about because it is a start. The nature of the student's literacy problems would be of a completely different order if the student additionally had trouble understanding the content on a very basic level.

This student has a few literacy needs that need to be addressed. The student needs fundamental guidance about how to construct complete sentences. The student would benefit from instruction about basic parts of speech and what they do, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This student, as part of instruction regarding sentence structure, would also benefit from lessons about basic punctuation marks, including commas, periods, and question marks. These lessons would tighten up the student's sentences and make the thoughts that they express much more clear. Improvement in this area would additionally make the student's tone in his/her writing sound more confident.

Interactive Media in Group-based learning

One literacy strategy I would design and implement for this and other students such as the one who produce the analyzed sample, would be reading aloud along with still or moving images during science class. It might be antiquated in the 21st century, but film strips for the student would be great. The students would have one image to focus upon for several seconds, at least as long as it takes for a student to read the caption or description (from an accompanying workbook, script, etc.) to read it. Students could combine several skills in this strategy. They would connect an image to the subject of science. They would connect an image with reading and writing, just as in the work sample. The student would read the caption from the film strip script/workbook, or if the text is on the image, onscreen. This exercise connects reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visuals altogether. This is a strategy that approaches literacy from many angles. The students should be better able to verbally articulate their thoughts about the subject matter, and the reading the captions should assist them in seeing patterns in syntax for them to mimic and inspire new structures. Helping the students make association between images and words should engage their memories, helping them to better recall information later when they may have to speak and/or write about what they saw. This would be one literacy strategy to use to improve literacy skills of students such as the one that produced the work sample analyzed.

Modeled Reading

Another strategy I would design for this student would be to include more lessons that involved listening to a reading and then writing about what was heard. There is an issue with this student regarding transfer of knowledge, whether oral or visual, to what is written. The student, to me, lacks the greatest skills in writing and not in another area, such as comprehension. To improve this, I would include specific tasks that required students to listen to a reading or recording (audio), and then answer questions that required them to visualize and write, such as the case, perhaps, with the work sample analyzed.

Part 2 -- Literacy Teaching Sequence

Unit Outline - Chemical Sciences in Practice

Australian Curriculum Code - ACSSU046

In this unit, the student will learn about and get hands-on experience with changes states of matter. The students will learn about the three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. The students will understanding how matter changes from different stages with the addition of or subtraction of heat. The students will learn about matter from a variety of media sources, and they will also have a change to conduct observations and experience regarding states of matter and their changes with water. This is a unit where student investigate specifically how liquids and solids respond to temperature changes, such as ice cubes in room temperature, how candy melting in the sun. The students, in this unit, would additionally explore how change in the states of matter, specifically that from solid to liquid and liquid to solid could serve as useful strategies for sustainable living practices, such as recycling. Student would also investigate how heat affects various objects on various surfaces. The chemical science unit is a dynamic unit with opportunities for dynamic instruction and lots of learning, which will meet students' literacy demands using a variety of texts, materials, and activities.

Teaching Sequence

In this section, I will describe a potential literacy teaching sequence relevant to the chemical sciences unit regarding states of matter and changes in the states of matter. The sequence would begin very exciting, so as to capture the interest and attention of the students. In the first week, I might first show a video from Youtube, Hulu, or Netflix, that shows how exciting the chemical sciences can be. I might prefer a more stable or normative service such as Netflix, because there is the option online and with DVDs to watch programs with the captions on. Watching films with the captions on is a strategy I often use with students of various ages, whether in normative education or special education. This is because all students do not share the same listening and comprehension skills. The captions help reinforce reading, too. There are also occasion during a screening where the narration or dialogue is incomprehensible. Leaving the captions on during the program ensures a greater likelihood that all students will be able to follow along very well, despite disparities in listening, reading, and methods of learning.

Week 1, Lesson 1 (single lesson -- 1 hour)

I would encourage the students to take very basic notes during the screening. I would encourage them to write down, for example, 10 -- 20 science words that they already know, or that they do not know and are curious about. After the viewing, in small groups, I would have the students review their lists of science words. I would provide instruction to the groups such that they would make a compilation of their lists -- every word the groups shared, gets listed once, and all the words that are different get listed, too. I would monitor and offer support during this task, so that we could come together as a group and share our list of science words in a more directed and organized fashion. This way, kids who might not have come up with many words will feel confident and be on par with students who listed many words and more complex words. This activity reinforces that knowledge is social and communal. The children are building their chemical science literacy together making them more personally invested in the knowledge they build and share with others. This activity makes bridges between what is seen, what is written, and what is spoken, which are key connections to be made for strong literacy skills.

Week 1, Lesson 2 (single lesson -- 1 hour)

After groups share their words, I would ask students to write one paragraph about an aspect of the screening that interested them most and to accompany their paragraph with an illustration. This strategy is intentional. All students learn differently, yet all students are held to the same standards for their year, age, country, etc. This kind of activity should suit students with various learning styles. For the students who learn best by listening, they should already have ideas from listening to the film and listening to the discussions within small groups and the large group. For students who learn best visually, they, too should already be stimulated because there was a film to watch and the group discussions/sharing were probably visually stimulating. They also have words written down as a visual cue. For students who learn best by experience or movement, this might be challenging, but at least they had a chance to watch the film as an individual, move into and experience working in a small group, and move into working in a large group. This start in a literacy sequence already combines many components of literacy together in a dynamic way, such that the students may not be directly aware that they are acquiring literacy skills within the context of a science topic. This might be more effective than bluntly explaining to the children that the reason for this sequence is to build literacy; knowledge of the intention for the lesson might bring up resistance to learning.