Science articles, textbooks, journal articles are very difficult to read. And many students struggle with them; I even struggle with them as well. So I have started reading Science Journal Articles with my Chemistry students. They have a difficult time at the beginning but it seems to get easier and easier as they keep progressing. I am coming to a road block, since I don’t teach reading I am having a difficult time teaching it. Journal articles are tough, have large words, and most words I might not even know what they mean.
I am having the students go thru sentence by sentence trying to figure out what is happening, then what is the general idea of the paragraph, etc. Is there a better way to teach this? My first article of the year is about methane gas turning into a product we can use instead of petroleum. The students understand this because they have heard this in the news for many years. So far in the article they have understood what the authors want to accomplish, a little of the history, and what they want to do for the future. Since the article was written in 1998 a lot has been done since then.
So I am trying to teach my science students how to read a more advanced writing, does anyone have any input to how I can accomplish it? I think I have been doing a good job so far, but with it being so technical, and advanced I would like some help.
I recall in college, thinking that journal articles were really scientific and hard to follow because it was so different than the papers we were typically asked to write and peer review. Over time, it did get easier and definitely became enjoyable when I liked the content. Alison, I appreciate you exposing your students to these kinds of papers and engaging in the difficult task of working through the knowledge.
ReplyDeleteSome ideas that I might try (and you probably have already done these things...)
Explain each section in that every journal article follows the same outline. Maybe provide students a graphic organizer that follows the outline or even do a backwards "journal" walk....maybe doing a brief unit on prefixes will help them identify what some of those difficult scientific words are.
Asking questions like "what do you think this article is about?" or "when you hear the word petroleum, what comes to mind?". Building background knowledge and connecting it to what they already know will partially make it easier to understand the content.
Once I get more materials from the middle school, I'll be sure to share them with you. Folks over there are working on 7 specific literacy strategies that may (or may not) help you with this.