Integration of Literacy
Literacy is present throughout the entire unit through research, writing, reading, etc. To focus integration of literacy, one of our lesson plan includes pictures cards in order for the students to learn how hurricanes are formed. The students are required to use their prior knowledge to place the picture cards in order and then discuss their reasonings. Afterwards, they will be using different resources to research about the formation of a hurricane. The students will use what they have learned to revise their initial response before presenting.
We believe that literacy does not have to be present only in reading and language arts and that it can be incorporated into different subjects, such as science. Researching, reading, and writing are important factors of scientific learning and literacy is required to succeed in science. Also, the goals for reading and science are very similar (e.g. discussion, questioning, research, comprehension, etc).
There are many ways to integrate literacy into science but we have chosen the picture cards for the activity on how hurricanes are formed. Because the students are learning specific steps of how hurricanes are formed, we figured having students put the picture cards in order will allow the students to visually learn each of the steps. Having the students physically place the cards in order will be more effective than just researching and writing the different steps. To expand on the cards, the students are required to write an explanation for each card to show their understanding and the reasoning for why they placed the cards in the specific order they did. Using picture cards will also help the EL learners because having too many words might become an obstacle to learning the objectives. For the EL learners, the pictures will be identical to their resources to limit the confusion because they might have seen hurricanes in a different perspective depending on their background.
We believe that literacy does not have to be present only in reading and language arts and that it can be incorporated into different subjects, such as science. Researching, reading, and writing are important factors of scientific learning and literacy is required to succeed in science. Also, the goals for reading and science are very similar (e.g. discussion, questioning, research, comprehension, etc).
There are many ways to integrate literacy into science but we have chosen the picture cards for the activity on how hurricanes are formed. Because the students are learning specific steps of how hurricanes are formed, we figured having students put the picture cards in order will allow the students to visually learn each of the steps. Having the students physically place the cards in order will be more effective than just researching and writing the different steps. To expand on the cards, the students are required to write an explanation for each card to show their understanding and the reasoning for why they placed the cards in the specific order they did. Using picture cards will also help the EL learners because having too many words might become an obstacle to learning the objectives. For the EL learners, the pictures will be identical to their resources to limit the confusion because they might have seen hurricanes in a different perspective depending on their background.