Research School Network: Top research-driven strategies for teaching students to read and write like scientists Guest blogger, Emily Giubertoni, author of Secondary Science in Action. (due for release soon), shares strategies which work!

There are many benefits to developing learners who are confident and enthusiastic students of STEM subjects, from earning-power, to benefits to society, and there are a number of initiatives to encourage more students to study STEM subjects, including CPD for teachers, or extra-curricular opportunities for students (DfE, 2021).

Despite this, there remains a disadvantage gap in science subjects.

Focussing on science teaching, in 2017, a joint report by the EEF and the Royal Society found that, ​‘there is a consistent link between pupils’ socio-economic status (SES) and their attainment and participation in science learning at school’ (Nunes et al, 2017. P7). It is a starkly unequal gap: being of higher socio-economic status leads to better science outcomes, more likelihood of taking science on to further study, and then, implicitly, access to all the future benefits which qualification and skill in science brings.

For teachers, the site where we have complete control, and the biggest ability to make an impact, is in the choices we make in our lesson design and in-class teaching strategies.

One crucial and concrete strategy is to focus on the teaching of science-specific literacy. To ​‘read like a scientist’ and to ​‘write like a scientist’ are distinct skills, and directly impact a student’s ability to succeed in science study. As Nunes et al found, ​‘the strongest and most consistent predictor of pupils’ scientific attainment has undoubtedly been how literate they are’ (2017. P10).

Let’s break this down into some practical strategies all teachers should be adding to their routine toolkit.

The EEF found that ​‘extended reading rarely happens in science lessons’ (EEF, 2018. P32); finding and reading extracts from authentic science texts is absolutely crucial for developing students as science readers.

In my new book ​‘Secondary Science in Action’, due out August 2024, I provide a list of 15 extracts from scientific texts for students to read. All will be available to science teachers who get in touch, with pre-prepared worksheets with all the questions, and resources.

Three extracts I especially recommend:

1. ​‘Uncle Tungsten’ by Oliver Sachs. A short extract from this book about the properties of magnesium would enhance student learning when they are practically exploring the properties of this element in lessons.

2. ​‘Pathfinders’ by Jim Al-Khalili. An extract from this book would be useful for developing student understanding of the impact of Arabic scientists on the science they are learning today.

3. ​‘Marie Curie’ by Eve Curie. An extract from this biography about the struggles of Marie Curie’s early studies would help to bring this important figure in the history of both physics and chemistry alive.

By carefully seeking out texts with diversity of authors and subjects, science teachers can also contribute to student understanding that science – and STEM as a whole – is a field in which students and scientists from any background can thrive.

Provide a copy of a text extract to your students. Scaffold reading in 4 ways:

1. Pre-reading class discussion questions to introduce the text. Discuss what they already know that might be relevant, predict what the text might cover, clarify anything students need to know to follow the text

2. During reading, the teacher should read the text aloud while students follow along. This models fluency.

3. During reading, provide questions to be answered, for students to practice finding key information in a text

4. After reading, use multiple choice questions and finger voting to check student understanding of key points. Always include a question asking them to choose the best question to summarise the overall takeaway message

Writing like a scientist is a very specific skill. Students do not need to be creative, or persuasive, as they will be practising regularly in English lessons. In science, students need to be informative, explanatory, analytical, and technical in their writing. Some skills remain the same however: students must write with a clear sense of purpose and audience, and they must be taught to see writing as an iterative process, one which requires editing and revision.

As a science teacher, celebrate the fact that learning to write scientifically is an important part of a scientist’s role: this is not just something that must be done ​‘for the exam’, but a skill that scientists use.

Best practice guidance tells us that teachers should ​‘explicitly teach strategies for planning and goal setting, drafting, evaluating, revising, and editing’ (What Works ClearingHouse, 2017. P8) in their subject.

Two key tools will help teachers with this process:

Firstly, writing frames, including sentence starters, graphic organisers, or flow diagrams will help students of all ability levels.

Secondly, providing checklists of writing skills will help students to self- or ‑peer evaluate their writing, and to build their independent confidence. 

There can be a lot of complex vocabulary in even a short scientific text.

Do not worry about teaching every word – a few words understood well is better than trying and failing to cover many tricky words. Choose the words you want to focus on, and sort them into two types, following the work of Isabel Beck et al (2013):

Tier 2 words are academic words which will benefit students in more than one subject. Tier 3 words are subject-specific words. There are different techniques to teach each type of word.

Overall, these practical strategies can support students to learn to read and write like scientists, in turn helping to close the attainment gap for our disadvantaged students.

For copies of worksheets for the readings mentioned, contact the author via Twitter/​X @EmilyGTeaches

Further resources to support the teaching of literacy in science will be available in the new book Secondary Science in Action, by Richard Giubertoni and Emily Clark Giubertoni, due out August 2024: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secondary-Science-Action-Emily-Giubertoni/dp/1915261929

References

Beck, I., McKeown, M, and Kucan, l. 2013. Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, Second Edition, Guilford Publications

Department for Education, 2021. ​‘More young people are taking STEM subjects than ever before’, accessed online: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/09/more-young-people-are-taking-stem-subjects-than-ever-before/

Education Endowment Foundation, 2018. Improving Secondary Science, accessed online: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/science-ks3-ks4

Giubertoni, R., and Giubertoni, E.G. 2024. Secondary Science In Action, John Catt Publishers: London (released August 2024)

Nunes, T., Bryant, P., Strand, S., Hillier, J., Barros, R., and Miller-Friedman, J, 2017. Review of SES and Science Learning in Formal Educational Settings A Report Prepared for the EEF and the Royal Society, accessed online: https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/topics/education-skills/education-research/evidence-review-eef-royalsociety-22 – 09-2017.pdf

What Works Clearinghouse (2016) ​‘Teaching secondary students to write effectively’, accessed online: www.ies.ed.gov/ ncee/​wwc/​Docs/​PracticeGuide/​wwc_​secondary_​writing_110116.pdf