There is no “I” in
S.T.E.A.M.
Agenda and Goals
Agenda
●
●
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goals and introductions
strategies
○ supporting literacy in science
■ vocabulary acquisition
■ reading nonfiction
○ networking with E.L.A. teachers
reviews and conclusions
○ Big Ideas!
○ question & answer
Goals
1)
2)
3)
Acknowledge and articulate the
significance of a holistic
approach to educating young
minds.
Know at least one technique I
can use this year for fostering
literacy in my classes.
Develop a strategy for
coordinating/networking with
English teachers in my building.
Hello!
I am Emmalea Couch.
Contact Me:
[email protected]
I am an English teacher at Jordan High School in
Durham, NC. This is my 7th year in the classroom.
I was introduced to the significance of S.T.E.A.M.
education during my Kenan Fellowship through N. C.
State Summer 2015.
I have minors in math and physics and have always
valued science and math personally, but the significance
of supporting these subjects in my classroom and
exposing my students to possible careers in these fields
truly became clear during that experience.
Hello!
I am Sarah Wilson.
Contact Me:
[email protected]
I am a science teacher at Jordan High School in
Durham, NC. This is my 4th year in the science
classroom.
At JHS, Emmalea and I work on the same Freshman
Academy Team. We teach the same group of 125
students, which allows for collaboration between
classrooms and alignment of curriculum.
My profound interest in the life sciences and hands-on
laboratory experiences led me to major in biology. Here,
I learned the skills necessary to read, compose and
analyze scientific writing .
“
“The United States will need approximately 1
million more STEM professionals than are
projected to graduate over the next decade.”
- White House Press Release, December 2012
1
Additional Goals
What goals do you have for this session?
2
Strategies
Supporting
Literacy in
Science
When students can read,
they can learn.
Literacy Strategies
Vocabulary Acquisition
Reading Nonfiction
When students come
across words they do not
know, in any subject
area, what should they
do? With what skills can
we equip them?
What types of reading
do/should students do in
science classes? What
strategies for reading can
we teach them?
Vocabulary Acquisition
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knowing the roots
context clues
reference materials
What are your current strategies?
Knowing the Roots
When students learn roots of the English
language, they acquire clues to
understanding unfamiliar words in the
future rather than just memorizing one
new definition.
60%
of English words have Greek or Latin roots.
90%
of English words related to science and technology
have these origins.
autotrophs v.
heterotrophs
auto
troph
hetero
The Roots of these Words
auto
hetero
troph
Greek auto
Greek heteros
Greek trophos
“self”
“different; other”
“one who nourishes or
is nourished”
What other words do
you know that start
with the prefix “auto”?
What other words do
you know that start
with the prefix
“hetero”?
So what might
autotrophs and
heterotrophs be? How
might they different?
Autotrophs
produce their own energy
(They nourish themselves.)
Heterotrophs
consume food to gain energy.
(They need a different source of nourishment.)
Terms to Know
prefix
suffix
root
A root that is attached
to the beginning of
words to add meaning.
A root that is attached
to the end of words to
add meaning
A basic unit of
meaning; words in the
English language are
made up of roots.
Etymology - the study of the history of
words and the development of language.
Prefixes to Keep In Mind
hydro - water
iso - same, equal, alike
hyper - above, beyond
photo - light
macro - large
hypo - under
chloro - green OR chlorine
micro - small
homo - same
poly - many
hetero - different
mono - one
auto - self
di - two
endo - inside
exo - outside
Suffixes to Keep In Mind
-ic
-
of, pertaining to; in chemistry: ACID
-elle -
small
-ide -
binary compound
-sis state, condition
(-asis, -esis, -osis)
-ous -
full of; in chemistry: element or
compound with lower valence
number than that ending in -ic
-cule -
little
Context Clues
Teach students to circle unknown words
and then highlight or underline clues to
their meaning.
You can even use the “fill-in-the-blank”
method. Tell students to pretend the word
is a blank space and have them fill the
blank with their own word.
Reference Materials
Remind students to use their resources
when possible.
Give them time to practice this strategy.
Familiarize them with resources specific to
your field.
Reference Materials
In the Textbook
Online
Other
-glossaries
-What’s credible?
-dictionaries
-indexes
-What sites might be
relevant to your field?
-almanacs
-vocabulary previews in
chapter summaries
-footnotes
-encyclopedias
-field guides
What strategies
for vocabulary
acquisition do you
use?
Reading Nonfiction
◇
◇
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informational
editorial/persuasive/argumentative
narrative
What do students read in your class?
Consider when
reading texts:
topic
audience
purpose
Informational
Textbooks
Graphs/Charts
Directions
T - topics
T-
T-
A - students
A-
A - students in this class
P - introduce new material
P - represent material/ideas
visually AND???
P - explain expectations and
procedures
Infographics
Articles
Lab Reports
T-
T-
T-
A-
A-
A-
P - represent material/ideas
visually AND???
P - introduce new ideas/material
P - provide results for
experiments in
cohesive/coherent way
Image From
https://www.easel.ly/blog/category/
science-infographics/
Persuasive
Articles and Editorials
T - topics
AP - persuade an audience to
adopt the idea of the author
Narrative
Articles and Editorials
T - topics
AP - to relate the story of
someone’s life
Think about it ...
How will students use reading, writing,
and speaking in STEAM fields?
What can we do in our classes to prepare
them for those instances?
Bridging the
Gap
Okay, so how can E. L. A. teachers helps you?
And how can we, as a collective group of educators,
best prepare our students for their realistic futures?
Networking with E.L.A.
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Know who is teaching your students.
Share relevant, current articles.
Communicate your unit topics.
What are your current strategies?
3
The Big Ideas
1. How will students use this
in the future?
a. What parts do I need to
model?
b. What pieces may be
better explored in an ELA
class?
2. How can my students use
technology in this lesson?
4
Q&A
Your Ideas
Thanks!
Any questions?
You can contact us at:
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[email protected]
[email protected]
Credits
Special thanks to
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The Bridging the Gap conference organizers/funders
The N.C. State Kenan Fellows Program
Our principal, Dr. Chisnall and our departments and substitutes
Creighton Blackwell, at Coastal Federal Credit Union
The people who made and released these awesome resources
(in google Docs) for free:
￭ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
￭ Photographs by Unsplash