Most middle school science teachers are familiar with the idea of reading and writing across the curriculum. We, as science teachers, understand that our students need time, practice, and lots of encouragement in order to learn how to read and write well. What we also need to remember, however, is that learning how to read and write in science is…

Teaching students how to read without compromising the time dedicated to hands-on, inquiry-based science has become vital for science teachers of all grades. Recently, the author's teaching partner and the author have taken a more active role in teaching reading strategies and assessing what students gather from expository texts while still having…

Students in science classrooms are given numerous opportunities to read expository text in a variety of formats and for a variety of purposes. They read to solve a problem, understand the steps in an experiment, gain base knowledge about a concept, answer their own questions, compare their inquiry results with what others have found, expand their…

This article describes an interdisciplinary unit of study on the inquiry process and experimental design that seamlessly integrates math, science, and reading using a rubber band cannon. This unit was conducted over an eight-day period in two sixth-grade classes (one math and one science with each class consisting of approximately 27 students and…

It is exciting to have a beautiful new science textbook--if students can read it! Unfortunately, many students can not read their science textbooks unassisted. This may be because students are reading below grade level, or because the material, like that of many science texts, has a readability one or more grade levels above the grade in which it…

Author states that many students are intimidated and bored with information in science textbooks and describes an approach to make textbooks more familiar. Explains that the technical terms in textbooks are analogous to "characters" in a fictional story. The "plot" is determined by the headings and subheadings. Describes steps…