According to the K-12 Framework for Science Education, “any education in science and engineering needs to develop students’ ability to read and produce domain-specific text. As such, every science or engineering lesson is in part a language lesson, particularly reading and producing the genres of texts that are intrinsic to science and engineering.” (NRC Framework, 2012, p. 76)   This aspect is central to SEP #8 which is Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Included within this practice is the need for students to:

• read, interpret, and produce scientific and technical text.
• communicate clearly and persuasively through both verbal and written forms to include tables, diagrams, graphs, models, and reports
• be critical consumers of information presented in a variety of different formats; and
• use information in their arguments and explanations.

Although language arts and reading are part of every lesson, it should not be HOW students obtain their information, but rather used to support student sense making. Students still need to be provided opportunities to use these materials along with investigations or phenomenon in the sense-making process. Teachers can incorporate different types of reading materials within classroom experiences and student engagement opportunities.

In this web seminar, Christine Royce, author of the Teaching Through Trade Books column in Science and Children and co-author of Teaching Science Through Trade Books, will discuss how children’s literature can be utilized within science lessons, and share different NSTA Press resources that can be used to help develop SEP #8 Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Take aways will include:

• Extending the making connections strategy from reading and language arts into the science classroom by using children’s literature as a starting point.
• Examining different instructional strategies that incorporate varied information sources.
• Determining points at which information can be incorporated into a lesson or series of lessons to support students in sense-making.

All individuals receive a certificate of participation and 100 NSTA activity points for attending the live seminar and completing the end-of-program survey. A certificate of participation is not awarded for watching the recorded version of the program.

We invite you to register for upcoming web seminars at NSTA.