Aprendiendo CienciasLearning Science in Two Languages

Antonieta AvilaUniversity of Texas at Austin

Agenda

Session’s objectives

Definitions

What does the research tell us?

What does it look like in a classroom?

Practice

Content Objectives

Identify various definitions of literacy

Identify various definitions of biliteracy

Identify content area literacies

Identify strategies to integrate students’ linguistic and cultural resources

Language Objectives

Engage in discussion about literacy, biliteracy, science literacy

Discuss approaches to promote science literacy

Discuss approaches to integrate students’ cultural and linguistic resources in science

What is Literacy?

Let’s take a few minutes to discuss our definitions

What Researchers Say

Scribner and Cole's (1981) definition: "Literacy is not simply knowing how to read and write a particular script but applying this knowledge for specific purposes in specific contexts of use"(p. 236).

What Researchers Say

Freire’s definition: “Learning to read the word and the world” (1970).

What Researchers Say

Brian Street’s definition (2003): “A social practice, not simply a technical and neutral skill” that is, “learning a particular literacy depends on the particular context” (p. 77-78).

What is Biliteracy?

Let’s take a few moments to discuss our definitions.

What Researchers Say

Pérez and Torres-Gúzman’s definition (1996): “The acquisition and learning of the decoding and encoding of and around print using two linguistic and cultural systems in order to convey messages in a variety of contexts” (p. 54).

What Researchers Say

Moll, Saez and Dworin’s definition (2001): Competency “in a range of practices or uses of literacy that constitute the experience of living and going to school in a bilingual community” (p. 447).

What Researchers Say

Reyes’ definition (2006): “thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing in two languages...children’s use of their cultural and linguistic experiences to construct meaning” in different contexts (p. 269).

What is Science Literacy?

Let’s take a few moments to talk about our definitions

What Researchers Say

Gibbons (2009): “Understanding how the ‘big ideas’ of the discipline are organized and evaluated and thus related to being able to think and reason in subject specific ways” (p. 45).

What Researchers Say

Colombi and Scheppegrell (2002): “Students need to move beyond doing science...to construct arguments and critique theories; and to integrate print, visual, interactional, and electronic means of developing and sharing knowledge...” (p. 2).

What Researchers Say

Basu, Calabrese Barton & Tan (2011): “access to content, practices, and discourse of science” in order to “develop rich repertoires of science knowledge” so that students are able to “understand what science is, or utilize science for personal and social transformation, or engage in public discourse and debate” (p. 11).

Classroom Examples

How do bilingual teachers promote science literacy in elementary bilingual classrooms?

Multiple Literacies

Helpful Tools for ELL’s

Linguistic features of science: “Instruction should focus on linguistic structures as they are explicitly connected to specific ways of talking, thinking, and interacting in socially appropriate ways in different contexts” (Ciechanowski, 2009, p. 561).

Helpful Tools for ELL’s

How might certain linguistic features be relevant for students learning a second language or language variety?

Casual relationships

Relationships of taxonomy

Precision and objectivity

Nominalizations

Causal Relationships

“Erosion can also be caused by moving ice. Glaciers are huge sheets of ice. They form in places where it’s so cold” (Frank et al., 2005, p. C44).

Relationships of Taxonomy

“Valley glaciers form near mountain peaks. They move slowly downhill like rivers of ice.... Continental glaciers are sheets of ice that are much bigger than valley glaciers” (Frank et al., 2005, p. C44).

Precision and Objectivity

“Valley glaciers form near mountain peaks. They move slowly downhill like rivers of ice.... Continental glaciers are sheets of ice that are much bigger than valley glaciers” (Frank et al., 2005, p. C44).

Nominalizations

“After weathering breaks up rocks, erosion moves the pieces around. Erosion is the movement of weathered rock and soil” (Frank et al., 2005, p. C42).

Helpful Tools for ELL’s

How might certain linguistic features be relevant for students learning a second language or language variety?

Syntax

Semantics

Lexicon

Morphology

Helpful Tools for ELL’s

Foster a classroom community that gets students thinking, talking, and inquiring like scientists while capitalizing on ALL available languages, resources, and sources of knowledge.

Questions to Consider

How might you support students in developing their scientific literacy relative to the concepts discussed today?

How might this inform your teaching of content, reading and writing associated with academic literacy?