Top 8 Texts
1. Newsela
Newsela is a database of relevant articles that can be differentiated based on reading ability or grade level. Students can essentially read the same article, but depending on the reading level a student can read anywhere from 560 to 1160 words. There is an option to read the article in Spanish for many of the texts. Teachers are also able to include a quiz at the end of each article to ensure that students understand the content of the article.
I would include this in my science classes as a resource and/or alternative to a science textbook. Newsela relates science to current events, helping students to think critically and engage in the content in more meaningful ways. Coupled with Daniels' (2007, p. 69 - 73, 74 - 80) activities such as Written Conversations and Write Arounds, students would be able to understand the relevance and importance of science to every day life. I would ask students to read a Newsela article in class either at the beginning of the unit or on a certain day each week. We would then use Write Arounds to talk about what we learned from the article and how it relates to what we are studying that unit as well as raise our own questions and solutions that the article may not have answered or provided.
Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007).
Newsela | Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from https://newsela.com/
Newsela | Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from https://newsela.com/
2. Mosa Mack Science
I would use this in my science classroom as extra support for hard to understand concepts or for compacting my lessons. If a student was behind, needed extra help on a concept, or missed a day of class, I could quickly catch them up by having them watch the video and/or song and provide a Double Entry Journal (Beers, 2003, p. 127; Daniels, 2007, p. 85 - 91) to explain what they learned. This could also be used for a student who is ahead and I wish to work on the next or the previous unit with the rest of the time allotted to the current unit. If I were ever to have to call in a substitute at the last moment, the students could work on the Mosa Mack unit virtually independently, providing the substitute with less work. Finally, if all students are not understanding the concepts I can use the video and/or the song, or to introduce a new unit if looking for variation in instruction.
AWARD-WINNING INQUIRY SCIENCE. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from https://www.mosamack.com/
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007).
3. Deadly By: Julie Chibbaro
Set in the early 1900’s, Deadly by Julie Chibbaro, starts out slowly, kind of like the start of a disease. Yet all of the sudden, you can’t put it down. Told in journal entries, Prudence takes us on an intriguing case to find a killer who doesn’t even know they’ve been murdering -- Typhoid Mary. How do you convince a healthy person that they’re sick, especially when being a healthy carrier is something that hasn’t been documented before? Deadly explores issues of morality, love, family, and dreams of being a scientist, all the while introducing us to the science behind diseases and cells in an action-packed adventure that will leave you guessing until the very end.
I would use this book in my classroom as a read-aloud/reading for the first 20min of class each day. For the advanced reader it also offers a challenge by prompting difficult questions, such as, what if the public doesn’t believe in your scientific discoveries? What do you do? What means do you imply to get the information you need for your scientific research? How far is too far? Students who have difficulty reading would be able to understand concepts on the surface, while students who are successful in the “school culture” would be pressed to examine these issues further to add to our class discussions on Fridays about the book. I would pace the curriculum according to what we had read in the book the week before. For example, when Prudence looks through cells in a microscope, the following week the class would do a lab to find what cells look like through a microscope and try to describe the image to someone else, just like Prudence does in Deadly. By constantly tying concepts covered in class back to the book, I can ensure that the entire class has a common ground for prior knowledge. Students will also participate in almost a pre-teaching/warm up activity before even walking inside the classroom. All the while assisting students on the path of loving reading and realizing that Science and English have more in common than they realize.
Chibbaro, J., & Sovak, J. S. (2011). Deadly. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
4. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
By: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the biography of a middle school boy in Malawi, Africa who had a dream to power his community with the wind after reading a book about windmills. Despite famine and poverty, William was able to scrounge up enough spare parts to make his dream a reality and bring hope to his despondent neighbors and friends. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind places science in the hands of those who are often seen as "learners" instead of "doers" and encourages everyone -- no matter how old they are to use science to accomplish their dreams.
I would use this in my middle school classroom during the second half of the year when 7th grade science studies Physics. This would be a great book for our first twenty minutes of class to really engage students into the concepts of Physics. Unlike Deadly, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a true story. It also deals with concepts such as wind, electricity and Newton's Laws of Motion which are overarching standards in Seventh Grade Science. This would go perfectly with my lesson plan created for this class on the Coriolis Effect and would ensure that I would not have to give as much background information since the book would serve as a common backdrop for all students. I could also use the analogies in the book to explain hard to understand concepts and relate science to every day events.
Kamkwamba, W., Mealer, B., & Zunon, E. (n.d.). The boy who harnessed the wind.
5. The Awkward Yeti
By: Nick Seluk
The Awkward Yeti is a company who specializes in making comic strips about the human body. From the brain who's always telling everyone else what to do, to the absent-minded heart, to the lungs who are always complaining about something, these cartoons are assessable to struggling readers as well as thought provoking to advance readers. It also provides a new twist when teaching about the human body, especially for learners who may not always like to read the textbook but are into manga and other graphic storytelling genres. The comic strips can be found in Nick Seluk's book, The Heart and Brain here, or online on Facebook and Instagram.
I would use this in my middle school science classroom during the first half of the year when 7th Grade teaches the human body systems. I would use these as a warm up activity each day for my students and have them identify the characters and write what is going on in the comic strip to help their participation grade or for extra credit. Students could also do an activity where they would draw their own comic strips about the human body in the same way that the Awkward Yeti does. These comic strips could also be used on an end of unit test by posting a picture and asking students to identify the parts portrayed in the comic, or by writing a paragraph of what is happening in the comic strip.
Seluk, N. (n.d.). Heart and Brain.
6. One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Stories You Solve with Science
By: Eric and Natalie Yoder
One Minute Mysteries is a collection of short short stories which leave the reader to solve the mystery in order to come up with the ending. Similar to the Encyclopedia Brown series, these short stories must be solved with students' knowledge of science facts and are divided into sections for seamless navigation for the educator.
I would use this collection of short stories in my classroom as a warm up activity or on days when there is not enough time to teach a full lesson, but students have a short amount of time in my classroom. (Such as picture day, Benchmarks, or Early Release) Students would work in pairs to solve the mysteries that I would put at different stations. They could also create their own short short mysteries using the science knowledge they have learned from class or with thier own prior knowledge and have other students try to solve their stories using their science knowledge. This is a great activity to see if students actually understand the material covered and are able to synthesize and translate new knowledge into a different context.
Yoder, E., & Yoder, N. (2008). One minute mysteries: 65 short mysteries you solve with science! Washington, DC: Science, Naturally!
7. A Boy Named Beckoning
By: Gina Capaldi
A Boy Named Beckoning is based on the life of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, one of the first Native American doctors. Filled with pictures and "articifacts" this story is built like an informational text. Its short chapters allow the reader to skip around or only read for a few minutes which is very beneficial to nonreaders. The text also does not shy away from the challenging aspects of Montezuma's life, sparking real life conversations about slavery in the Americas not just of African Americans but other people groups.
I would use this in a number of ways in my classroom. This text is perfect for a read aloud activity at the end of a unit. Students could pick a scientist to write about and I could use this book as an example text that students could use to find out more about a scientist's life. This could also be paired with the text Deadly above for ELL students who would not yet be at the level to read such a novel. This text could also serve as a type of text to use in literacy circles for struggling readers.
Capaldi, G. (2008). A boy named Beckoning: The true story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American hero. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books.
Capaldi, G. (2008). A boy named Beckoning: The true story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American hero. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books.
8. Cell Division and the Cell Cycle Video
By: Frank Gregario
Shown with animated clips of cells in action and moving music, this five minute video gives students all they need to know about mitosis and meiosis. After a brief introduction/review of the types of cells in the body, the video shows step by step the processes of cell division. Since cells are such a hard concept to grasp, this video is a great way to introduce students to cell division in a way that appeals to visual learners. Housed on YouTube, Frank Gregario's channel is a treasure cove of excellent science videos. The vide mentioned above is only one example of his amazing educational resources.
I would use this "text" in my classroom at the beginning of our unit on cell division. Students would be asked, "How Do We Grow" as our warm up activity where they would write their answers down on their "Entrance Tickets." Students would then have a brief discussion on why they feel we grow leading to the scientific process, mitosis. Students would then watch the video all the way through once jotting down whatever they find important. Students will then watch the video again as the teacher guides them through the process of note-taking and pausing the video so students can truly engage with the information.
Gregario, F. (2010). Cell Division and the Cell Cycle. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ucKWIIFmg
Top 8 Strategies
1. KWL Chart
KWL (Beers, 2003, p. 80; Daniels, 2007, p. 101 - 105) is an acronym for a framework chart used scaffold learning which is most appropriate for starting a research project, the beginning of a unit, or even at the beginning of a problem based learning activity. The acronym stands for K: What I Know, W: What I Want to Know, and L: What I Learned. The symbol (+)/ or the letter H (for How) can be added to the chart so that students can brainstorm places to find information. For projects I have found adding an I for Ideas for Projects is also useful.
I often find that when students are presented with an open slate, whether that be a new unit or a student-led project, they are often at a loss for how to vocalize what they feel they need to succeed. KWL Charts serve as a "planning guide" that students can look back to and understand what they expect from the activity. I use this strategy in my personal life while conducting research projects and even planning lessons as it serves as a quick way to organize and get my thoughts on paper. I would use this strategy in my science class at the beginning of the first unit at the beginning of the school year studying the differences between living and non-living things. Since students would be new to my class, having a framework to scaffold their experiences would settle many students and set the expectations of how I wish us to conduct scientific investigations for the rest of the year.
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007).
2. It Says -- I Say -- And So
It Says -- I Say -- And So (Beers, 2003, p. 165 - 168) serves as a framework for students to read between the lines and practice their inference skills. Students are asked a series of questions and must answer them by filling out the chart. The first step is to fill out the "It Says" column where they find the answer to the question in the text. The second step is the "I Say" column where students interpret what the "I Say" column meant. Finally, students are asked to answer the actual question using the "And So" column. This strategy is best used at the end of a lesson when students have already read the text.
This strategy is important because struggling readers often lack the skills necessary to infer things not mentioned in the text. By explicitly practicing these skills, students are made aware that they do not come to the text as an empty slate but with background information that might be crucial to them understanding the text. The "I Say" column can also help students practice citing evidence. I would use this in my classroom at the end of a particularly challenging textbook chapter or if I found that my students were not connecting the previous days material to the current day. By asking students to actually communicate what the text is trying to say, students are forced to engage actively and think critically with the text.
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
3. Semantic Impressions
Semantic Impressions (Richek, 2005, p. 415 - 417) is most appropriate at the beginning of the unit as a way to introduce new vocabulary words to students. Students in small groups of 3 or 4 are given somewhere between 5 and 20 words along with the definitions. Students are asked to write a comprehensible story with a beginning, middle and end. Students must use the words in order, once the word has been used they are able to use it as many times as they wish, and the form of the word can be changed. (ie make it plural, a verb, an adjective, etc) Students can either share their story with the class orally or create a product on which they present their story (ie comic strip, video, poster, book, etc). This strategy should be used in the classroom because it forces students to engage with the vocabulary in meaningful ways as well as work on literacy skills by writing in various genres. I would use this in my classroom anytime I wanted to introduce vocabulary. By asking students to create a story using the vocabulary, I am asking them to engage with new words in meaningful ways. This could also be beneficial to ELL's because they would work in groups and glean other vocabulary by the context surrounding the story. Another variation for English Language Learners is to encourage them to write the story in their own words, or write words that they may not know in English in their home language and either use a dictionary to translate, or explain what their story is about using the new vocabulary.
Richek, M. A. (2005). Words Are Wonderful: Interactive, Time-Efficient Strategies to Teach Meaning Vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 58(5), 414-423. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
4. Find That Word
Find That Word (Richek, 2005, p. 421) serves as an ongoing activity to reinforce vocabulary words. Students are asked, whenever they hear or read a selected vocabulary word in every day life, to write down the sentence and bring it back to share with the class. The teacher can keep a "score" of how many sentences each class brings in. Students can also earn "extra points" if they hear a fellow classmate using the word properly and write it down. This is appropriate as an ongoing activity that students would use for vocabulary every week. This is an important strategy because it gets students using and looking for science vocabulary in every day life. I would use this activity in my classroom to scaffold students using new vocabulary in every day life. This could also be used as a "reward system" for students to gain points for a fun activity we wish to do as a class, such as having class outside one day.Richek, M. A. (2005). Words Are Wonderful: Interactive, Time-Efficient Strategies to Teach Meaning Vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 58(5), 414-423. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
5. Story Cubes
5. Story Cubes
Story Cubes, available online, are small cubes with different images on each side. The cubes can be rolled by students and whatever the cube lands on, the students have to write about. Each image is open to the student's imagination and interpretation. I would use this resource in my classroom as a way to calm students down after an exciting day or as a way to add variety to the monotony of my students' day. This is an appropriate activity to use with a homeroom or as meaningful work for a student who has already finished the independent work for the day. Students could work on their Story Starter creations for several days as they revise their stories and add new characters. These cubes are also great scaffold for students who feel they have nothing to write about to continue to strengthen their writing abilities. In the science classroom, I could require students to write a story using the Story Starters and 1 - 3 of our vocabulary words for the week to continue to strengthen their knowledge of scientific vocabulary.
6. Anticipation Guides
A Anticipation Guides (Beers, 2003, p. 74) serve as a pre-reading strategy to get students to start thinking about problems presented in the text. This is most appropriate at the beginning of a text or unit. Each question should be created in such a way that there is no obvious right or wrong answer and pertains to the theme of the book, short story or movie. Students should fill out the guide and talk with their classmates to discuss their answers and predict what will happen during the actual reading of the text. This is a good tool to use because it gets students excited about the text before even reading as well as gives them something to look for during the actual text. I would modify this activity to use in my science classroom by creating an Anticipation Guide to introduce a new science unit. Each student could then collect evidence to add to their Anticipation Guide or change their minds and cite evidence for why they chose to change their statement. I could ask questions such as, "In 20 years the polar ice caps will be melted," for our unit on weather and have students find evidence from each side as we go throughout our activities.
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
7. Quizziz
Quizizz is an online assessment program that allows students to review material covered in class at their own pace. The teacher inputs information that she wishes students to review and students are able to answer questions with or without a timer. The teacher is also able to track each students’ progress on their personal computer to know exactly what each student is struggling with. Quizizz serves as a valuable resource in planning lessons differentiated to specific students needs. Another feature of this program is that after each answer, students are given a “meme” that tells them whether they got the answer right or wrong. For ELL’s, this is a great avenue into idioms and how they have different meanings in different countries. Students could later make their own memes about scientific concepts they covered. This is most appropriate at the beginning of a unit when students are just learning the material or at the end of a unit to ensure that students understand the material covered. I would use this in the Science or ELA classroom for vocabulary. Students would be given words that they would need to review on Quizzizz by the end of the week. For example, when learning about the digestive system students would answer questions such as "What is the esophagus?" "How does the saliva help break down food?" and, "Which comes first, the small or large intestine?" Students would use knowledge of definitions to answer these questions. If I saw that a student had a really low score I could provide help based on the area(s) that the student was struggling in.
Quizizz: Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://quizizz.com/
Quizizz: Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://quizizz.com/
8. Literature Circles
Literature Circles are small groups of 3 - 4 students that are used by the teacher to read books at different levels at the same time. At the beginning of class, students grab their books and get into circles to read aloud in their groups. Most appropriate as an every day activity, this becomes a powerful differentiation tool. I would use this in my classroom as stated above when students read for 10 min at the beginning of my science class. If students were reading Deadly which is chock full of information on bacteria in the body, students who would struggle with such a reading could read A Boy Named Beckoning, even advanced students could read snippets from the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This would also serve as a time for me to have individual conferences with students to assess their engagement in the class and discuss their personal goals for the semester/year.
Chibbaro, J., & Sovak, J. S. (2011). Deadly. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown.
Resources:
AWARD-WINNING INQUIRY SCIENCE. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from https://www.mosamack.com/
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read: What teacher's can do. Place of publication not identified: Bt Bound.
Capaldi, G. (2008). A boy named Beckoning: The true story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American hero. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books.
Chibbaro, J., & Sovak, J. S. (2011). Deadly. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Daniels, H., Zemelman, S., & Steineke, N. (2007). Content-area writing: Every teacher's guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Gregario, F. (2010). Cell Division and the Cell Cycle. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ucKWIIFmg
Kamkwamba, W., Mealer, B., & Zunon, E. (n.d.). The boy who harnessed the wind.
Newsela | Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from https://newsela.com/
Overview of Literature Circles. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://www.litcircles.org/Overview/overview.html
Quizizz: Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://quizizz.com/
Richek, M. A. (2005). Words Are Wonderful: Interactive, Time-Efficient Strategies to Teach Meaning Vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 58(5), 414-423. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
Seluk, N. (n.d.). Heart and Brain.
Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown.
Yoder, E., & Yoder, N. (2008). One minute mysteries: 65 short mysteries you solve with science! Washington, DC: Science, Naturally!
