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Reading in Science

Mary BarrettMayo High School

1420 SE 11th AvenueRochester, MN 55904

[email protected]@rconnect.com

mailto:[email protected]


READING IN SCIENCEDick PearlMRA Highlights, 2003

Exemplary science learning is promoted by both hands-on and minds-on instructional techniques.

The National Science Education Standards have an explicit goal of establishing high levels of scientific literacy in the United States. “An essential part of scientific literacy is greater knowledge and understanding of science subject matter, that is the knowledge specifically associated with the physical, life, and earth sciences” (NCES, 1996). In these standards, science learning is described as an “active process’ where students “establish connections between their current knowledge of science and the scientific knowledge found in many sources.” Hands-on activities encourage students to generate their own questions which then provide meaningful purposes and contextual frames of reference to construct meaning from scientific texts and materials.

Yet scientific text presents its own problems. By the nature of the discipline, readers see1. science vocabulary is unique and represents complicated concepts2. extensive use of symbols and mathematical references3. the readability of science text is usually above its intended grade level4. high levels of abstraction or nonconcrete concepts. 5. The “scientific style” of writing in such text also creates syntactically complex

sentences 6. within some unfamiliar text structures.

Successful science readers have metacognitive knowledge about science reading, science text, and specific science reading strategies (Yore, 1997). Just as science teachers teach their students the scientific method for labs and experiments, so too should those teachers embed explicit science reading instruction in the natural context of their science classrooms to guide students in constructing meaning from science texts.

Reading in Science Resources

Texts:Alvermann, D.E., & Santa, C.M., Eds. (1991) Science Learning: Processes and Applications.

Newark, DE: IRA.Barton, Mary Lee, & Jordan, Deborah L. (2001). Teaching Reading in Science. Aurora, CO:

MCREL.Bechtel, Judith, & Franzblau, Bettie. (1980). Reading in the Science Classroom. Washington,

DC: NEA.Sensebaugh, Roger. (1992). Reading and Writing Across the High School Science and Math

Curriculum. Bloomington, IN: EDINFO Press.Thelen, Judith N. (1984).Improving Reading in Science. Newark, DE: IRA.

Reading in Science 2Mary Barrett Materials may be duplicated for nonprofit, educational use.

Articles:

Armbruster, B. B. (1993). Science and Reading. The Reading Teacher, 46(4), 346-347.Craig, M., & Yore, L. (1996). Middle school students’ awareness of strategies for resolving

comprehension difficulties in science reading. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 29, 226-238.

Donahue, D. M. (2000). Experimenting with texts: New science teachers’ experience and practice as readers and teachers of reading. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43(8), 728-739.

Duran Jr., R. G. (1990). The science of reading as applied to the reading of science. Clearing House, 64, 25-28.

Finley, F. N. (1991). Why students have trouble learning from science texts. In Science learning: Processes and Applications (pp. 22-27). Newark, DE: IRA.

Groves, Fred H. (1995). Science vocabulary load of selected secondary science textbooks. School Science and Mathematics, 95, 231-235.

Holiday, W. G. (1991). Helping students learn effectively from science text. In Science Learning: Processes and Applications (pp. 38-47). Newark, DE: IRA.

Misukis, K. (1997). Textbook comprehension strategies. Science Scope, 21(4), 39-43.Pearson, Jenny Watson, & Santa, Carol M. (1995). Students as researchers of their own learning.

Journal of Reading, 38, 462-469.

Web Sites:

National Science Teachers Associationhttp://nsta.org

National Science Education Standards Onlinewww.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html

Reading-to-learn and Writing-to-learn science activities for the elementary classroomwww.ed.psu.edu/ci/Journals/97pap1.htm

Reading in Sciencewww.mastep.sjsu.edu/reading.htm

What Researchers are Saying (Science and Reading)www.justsciencenow.com/reading/research.htm

Reading in the Science Classroomwww.mdk12.org/instruction/success/srp_reading.html

Literacy in Sciencewww.project2061.org


http://www.project2061.org/

http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/success/srp_reading.html

http://www.justsciencenow.com/reading/research.htm

http://www.mastep.sjsu.edu/reading.htm

http://www.ed.psu.edu/ci/Journals/97pap1.htm

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html

http://nsta.org/

Parallels in Science and Literacy Processes – Weather ExampleScience Activities Related Reading Activities

QuestioningAsk questions about conditions leading to different types of weather. Example: What is weather? What conditions contribute to changes in weather?

Strategies: Vocabulary FrameSemantic Feature AnalysisWord Sort/Word Jar

Purpose SettingSet purposes for reading a short story, chapter, or novel about weather by having students write information they hope to find out. Read to find out what conditions contribute to weather changes.

Strategy: Response JournalsQuestions Clarified

HypothesizingForm hypothesis about what will happen when air temperatures and pressure change. Examples: Conditions of the air contribute to changes in weather. Temperature contributes to rain, sleet, snow, and hail conditions.

PredictingPredict how weather conditions might influence plot and affect characters, setting, and mood in various stories.

Gathering/Organizing DataRecord and categorize daily pressure/ temperature changes and weather conditions. Also, record results of experiments on air temperature such as making a hygrometer to measure moisture. Participate in computer simulations of weather experiments. Research methods for collecting weather data such as the use of weather balloons.

Organizing IdeasCreate maps to organize information learned about weather from reading literary and nonfiction texts. Complete organizers relating to technical vocabulary words.

Strategies: Jot Chart

Analyzing ResultsAnalyze all collected data and identify factors that affected results. Use charts, tables, and diagrams to illustrate analysis.

Constructing/ComposingDiscuss personal experiences relating to different types of weather conditions. Write comparisons between weather conditions and effects on human behavior.

Drawing ConclusionsMeet in cooperative groups to review data and draw conclusions relative to the hypothesis.

Evaluating/RevisingMake judgments about and edit written compositions about weather. Evaluate accuracy of facts, credibility of sources, and clarity of ideas.

ReportingPrepare a written report summarizing information learned.

Strategy: Framed Paragraph

Comprehending/Communicating Publish a classroom book

about weather. Create a PowerPoint

presentation for different types of weather phenomena.


Strategies Used by Proficient Readers

Making connections between prior knowledge and the textReaders pay more attention when they relate to the text. Readers naturally bring their prior knowledge and experience to reading, but they comprehend better when they think about the connections they make between the text, their lives, and the larger world.

Asking QuestionsQuestioning is the strategy that keeps readers engaged. When readers ask questions, they clarify understanding and forge ahead to make meaning. Asking questions is at the heart of thoughtful reading.

VisualizingActive readers create visual images in their minds based on the words they read in text. The pictures they create enhance understanding.

Drawing inferencesInferring is at the intersection of taking what is known, garnering clues from the text, and thinking ahead to make a judgment, discern a theme, or speculate about what is to come.

Determining important ideasThoughtful readers grasp essential ideas and important information when reading. Readers must differentiate between less important ideas and key ideas that are central to the meaning of text.

Synthesizing informationSynthesizing involves combining new information with existing knowledge to form an original idea or interpretation. Reviewing, sorting and sifting important information can lead to new insights that change the way readers think.

Repairing understandingIf confusion disrupts meaning, readers need to stop and clarify their understanding. Readers may use a variety of strategies to "fix up" comprehension when meaning goes awry.


Three Interactive Elements of Reading:The Lesson

Research Suggests a New Format

Traditional Format New Format


Discussion to see if students learned main concepts, what they

“should have” learned

Independent reading

Readingassignment

given

Pre-reading Activities:Activate Prior Knowledge

Make PredictionsLearn Key Vocabulary

Set Purpose for ReadingAsk Questions

Brainstorm

Guided ACTIVEsilent reading

Activitiesto clarify,reinforce,

extendknow-ledge

Reading Strategies in Science

When should you incorporate reading strategies into your lesson plans? The single most powerful time to embed reading strategies is before students ever start to read the selection you are going to assign. Below you’ll see the base of a pyramid that represents before-reading strategies. Each category lists the strategies contained in this workshop packet.

Before Reading Strategies


Access Prior Knowledge

KWL Anticipati

on Guide Tea Party Probable

Set Purpose What

level of understanding do the students need?

What will the students be doing with the information?

Determine Rate Purpo

se Level

of Difficulty Famil

iarity with Text

Teach Vocabulary Vocab

Scroll Vocab

Frame Semanti

c Feature Analysis Word

Ask Questions SQ3R QAR Question

Types

ESTABLISHING PURPOSE

1. Aids comprehension2. Sets a target level of comprehension3. Suggests how to reach the target or destination

DO NOT simply tell students to “read chapter 3 for tomorrow.” Why not? Imagine someone telling you to come to their house for dinner, but not telling you where they live or giving you directions to their home. Not giving students a purpose for reading is similar: if students don’t know why they are reading or what they need to do with the information, they will not comprehend well.

FORMAT: Read in order to (level of understanding) so that you can (task to complete after reading).

EXAMPLE OF READING ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Read in order to understand the cause and effect chain link events leading up to Lexington and Concord.

2. Read in order to compare and contrast the British/Colonial tactics with the French/Indian tactics during the French and Indian War.

3. Read in order to explain the main steps in the process of photosynthesis.

4. Read so that you can debate the problem posed in this article and the author’s solution.

5. Read to prepare for seminar discussion on the roles of women during the Revolutionary Era.

Note that the single underline refers to Bloom’s Taxonomy for level of understanding. The double underlining generally tells you what to have students do while or after they read (complete a C/C or C/E graphic organizer, for example).


Jan Vortmann Smith – Mayo High School – April 1998; Revised Mary Barrett May 2004


Bloom’s TaxonomyHighest Level of Comprehension

EvaluationEvaluation questions ask thatjudgments be made from information

Signal words: assess, rate, justify,evaluate, judge, decide, criticize,defend, argue, support

SynthesisSynthesis questions combine information in a new way. Students often use concepts learned to originate new products.

Signal words: create, design, revise, hypothesize, arrange, assemble, compose, construct, formulate

AnalysisAnalysis questions ask for information to be broken down into parts. Students may discover unique characteristics of something by analyzing it.

Signal words: categorize, sort, classify, arrange, compare, distinguish

ApplicationApplication questions ask that the information be used in some manner. Students must relate or apply what has been learned to new situations.

Signal words: generalize, infer, apply, predict, use, showComprehensionComprehension questions determine how well information has been understood. Students translate and interpret information heard or read. Responses are usually in a student’s own words.

Signal words: define in your own words, explain, tell, paraphrase, summarize, identify, illustrate, discuss

KnowledgeKnowledge questions ask for facts about what has been heard or read. Information is recalled in the approximate manner/form it was heard.

Signal words: who, what, when, where, why, how, list, locate, choose, name, repeat, state, describe

Lowest Level of Comprehension


Reading RatesFind the statement that describes your purpose for reading. Then look at the speed you should use to read most efficiently. Reading rate generally depends on your purpose, the difficulty of the text, and how familiar you are with the information in the text.

Read for Pleasure

Readto Study

Words Per

Minute

% of Comprehension

DesiredSlow

Reading/ Study Rate

Savor books, plays, poetry,

essays, etc.

Learn new content.

Understand difficult material.

100 – 200 WPM

90%

o RAPT Noteso HUGo G.O/Map

Normal Reading

Read to remember material

Understand material of

average difficulty

200 - 350WPM

70 – 80%

Fast Reading/

Skimming

Refresh your memory of

material you have read

before

Review material.

Read about a topic you are quite familiar

with.

400 - 600 WPM

50 % (1st Read)

50 - 80% (Review)

Scanning

Choose a book or article to

read.

Locate a specific

paragraph you've read

before.

Preview a text

Find specific information in

an index, glossary, table,

etc.

800+WPM

20 – 30%


KWL StrategyAccess prior knowledge by filling out the following chart with your students before they begin reading.

Know (I’m sure…) Know (I think ...) Want to Know (I wonder …) Learned

What do you already know about this topic? What do you want to learn about this topic?

What have you learned about this topic?


Anticipation GuideAn anticipation guide is a strategy that can be used before, while, and after students read. While it is most successful used with controversial or open-ended subjects, an anticipation guide can be used with textbooks. Skilled readers tend to consciously anticipate what the text is about before they begin reading. Dependent readers simply begin. They skip titles and background information; they rarely look through the text before they read a section. An anticipation guide is a series of generalizations that ask students to agree or disagree with a statement before they read a selection.

An excellent example would be to use an anticipation guide before students begin a reading or discussion about evolution.

Anticipation guides should focus on or include1. big ideas/ themes,2. generalizations about issues,3. items that will facilitate discussion rather than focusing on “finding” answers,4. a Likert scale that forces students to mark Agree or Disagree as there are not right and

wrong answers, and5. items that help students explore beliefs about the statements as a way of accessing prior

knowledge and then measuring whether their positions have changed based on their reading

Here is an example for the articles on Einstein that follow:

DirectionsRead each of the statements below. Put agree in the Before Reading blank if you agree with the statement and could not support it; put disagree in the Before Reading blank if you disagree with the statement and would not support it. After you finish reading the selection, revisit the statements. See if you have changed your mind on any of the statements.

Before Reading

Einstein After Reading

1. Einstein is the foremost scientist of the 20th century.2. Einstein’s theories changed our grasp of space, time, light and

matter.3. The FBI had a file on Einstein because of his extreme ideas.4. Imagination is more important than knowledge.5. Einstein’s theory of general relativity laid the foundation for

theories such as that for black holes.6. Another Einstein won’t emerge any time soon.7. Einstein had intense concentration, a disregard for fashion and

innate playfulness.8. Einstein published his work without footnotes or citations; the

ideas were his own inventions.9. Einstein symbolizes genius.10. Someone with ideas as revolutionary as Einstein’s would probably

be considered a crackpot today.


Einstein's legacy

Saturday, April 16, 2005By Joseph B. Verrengia

Associated Press

He stopped traffic on Fifth Avenue like the Beatles or Marilyn Monroe. He could've been president of Israel or played violin at Carnegie Hall, but he was too busy thinking. His musings on God, love and the meaning of life grace our greeting cards and day-timers. Fifty years after his death, his shock of white hair and droopy mustache still symbolize genius.

Who else could it be but Albert Einstein?

Einstein remains the foremost scientist of the modern era. Looking back 2,400 years, only Newton, Galileo and Aristotle were his equals.

Around the world, universities and academies are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "miracle year" when he published five scientific papers in 1905 that fundamentally changed our grasp of space, time, light and matter. Only he could top himself about a decade later with his theory of general relativity.

Born in the era of horse-drawn carriages, his ideas launched a dazzling technological revolution that has generated more change in a century than in the previous two millennia.

Computers, satellites, telecommunication, lasers, television and nuclear power all owe their invention to ways in which Einstein peeled back the veneer of the observable world to expose a stranger and more complicated reality underneath.

And, he launched an intellectual quest for a single coherent law that governs the universe. Einstein said such a unified super-theory of everything, still unwritten, would enable us to "read the mind of God."

"We are a different race of people than we were a century ago," says astrophysicist Michael Shara of the American Museum of Natural

History, "utterly and completely different, because of Einstein."

Yet there is more, and it is why Einstein transcends mere genius and has become our culture's grandfatherly icon.

Tumultuous life He escaped Hitler's Germany and devoted the rest of his life to humanitarian and pacifist causes with an authority unmatched by any scientist today, or even most politicians and religious leaders.

He used his celebrity to speak out against fascism, racial prejudice and the McCarthy hearings. By the time he died at age 76 on April 18, 1955, his FBI file ran 1,400 pages.

His letters reveal a tumultuous personal life -- married twice and indifferent toward his children while obsessed with physics. Yet he charmed admirers with poetry and sailboat outings. Friends and neighbors fiercely protected his privacy.

And, yes, he was eccentric. With hair like that, how could he not be?

He famously stuck his tongue out at photographers -- that is, when he wasn't wearing a Native American war bonnet or some other get-up. Cartoonists loved him.

He never learned to drive. He would walk home from his office at Princeton University, sockless and submerged in the pursuit of the "eternal riddle," letting his umbrella rattle against the bars of an iron fence. If his umbrella skipped a bar, he would go back to the beginning of the fence and start over.

In those solitary moments, he unconsciously demonstrated the traits -- intense concentration, disregard for fashion and innate playfulness -- that would rescue him when, inevitably, he would be interrupted by both presidents and passers-by to explain the universe.


"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something," Einstein once said, "wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."

'Thought experiments'Today, there are curiously few statues of the man. The most notable is a 12-foot bronze at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington depicting the wrinkled old sage gazing at his famous E=mc2 formula. Tourists climb into his lap for snapshots.

Rolf Sinclair despises it. "It's one of the worst pieces of public sculpture," says the retired National Science Foundation physics program officer. "It makes him look like one of the Three Stooges reading his horoscope."

The Einstein that Sinclair and others would prefer immortalized is circa 1905, when he was 26 and about to rock the world.

By day, he worked in the Swiss patent office in Bern. He called it his "cobbler's job," but for seven years he analyzed a stream of inventions dealing with railroad timekeeping and other matters of precision that raised cosmic possibilities in his fertile mind.

After hours, he would work furiously on his "thought experiments," that smashed through the limits of established physics.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge," Einstein said. "The important thing is to not stop questioning."

In 1905, he published five landmark papers without footnotes or citations. It marked the beginning of an unrivaled, two-decade intellectual burst.

"Each of these papers is a landmark in physics," said University of Maryland physicist S. James Gates. "And yet all of his work in 1905 is a prelude to his greatest composition -- the theory of general relativity."

General relativity laid the foundation for all kinds of discoveries, such as the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe and black holes.

Einstein described relativity this way: "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

These articles appeared in the Rochester Post Bulletin on page 4X April 16, 2005.


Another Einstein? He'd probably be ignored

Saturday, April 16, 2005By Joseph B. Verrengia

Associated Press

Will there ever be another Einstein?

This is the undercurrent of conversation at Einstein memorial meetings throughout the year.

A new Einstein will emerge, scientists say. But it might take a long time. After all, more than 200 years separated Einstein from his nearest rival, Isaac Newton.

Many physicists say the next Einstein hasn't been born yet, or is a baby now. That's because the quest for a unified theory that would account for all the forces of nature has pushed current mathematics to its limits. New math must be created before the problem can be solved.

But researchers say there are many other factors working against another Einstein emerging anytime soon.

For one thing, physics is a much different field today. In Einstein's day, there were a few thousand physicists worldwide, and the theoreticians who could intellectually spar with Einstein probably were rare indeed.

Education is different, too. One aspect of Einstein's training that is overlooked is the years of philosophy he read as a teenager -- Kant, Schopenhauer and Spinoza, among others. It taught him to how to think independently and abstractly about space and time.

"The independence created by philosophical insight is -- in my opinion -- the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth," Einstein wrote in 1944.

And he was an accomplished musician. The interplay between music and math is well-known. Einstein would play his violin to think through a physics problem.

Today, universities have produced millions of physicists. There aren't many jobs in science for them, so they go to Wall Street and Silicon Valley to apply their analytical skills to more practical -- and rewarding -- efforts.

Those who stay in science don't work alone. At labs like CERN, the world's largest particle physics center in Switzerland, 100 researchers collaborate on a single atom-smashing experiment. Publishing the results takes years.

It's hard to imagine a renegade like Einstein tolerating it.

"Maybe there is an Einstein out there today," said Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, "but it would be a lot harder for him to be heard."

Especially considering what Einstein was proposing.

"The actual fabric of space and time curving? My God, what an idea!" Greene said at a recent gathering at the Aspen Institute. "It takes a certain type of person who will bang his head against the wall because you believe you'll find the solution."

Perhaps the best examples are the five scientific papers Einstein wrote in his "miracle year" of 1905. These "thought experiments" were pages of calculations signed and submitted to the prestigious journal Annalen der Physik by a virtual unknown. There were no footnotes or citations.

What might happen to such a submission today?

"We all get papers like those in the mail," Green said, "We put them in the crank file."

These articles appeared in the Rochester Post Bulletin on page 4X April 16, 2005.


Probable PassageMost dependent readers don’t predict what the text will be about, don’t access prior knowledge, and don’t use visual imagery as they read. Probable Passage helps students to stop being passive readers. In essence, it is a summary of the text from which key words have been omitted. A variation is to have students use the terms to write a “we think” statement using the key words (as I have done here).

Here is the process you would follow:1. Choose key terms and present them to students.2. Discuss what each term means.3. Have students arrange the words into categories.4. Use the words to fill in blanks in the passage .

DirectionsAs the class discusses each of the following terms, write definitions or explanations for each term in the empty box. Be sure that you use your own words, and ask for clarification if the term doesn’t make sense to you. After the discussion, turn this paper over and use it to write an “I think” statement predicting what the article will be about. You will be asked to share your statement with a partner or group, to create a “We think” statement that you’ll present to class. Then you will read the article “Gender Bias.”

Term Definition

gender selection

ovulation

in vitro fertilization

ovaries

preimplantation genetic diagnosis

MicroSort

birth order

matriarchal society

ethics

population imbalance

entitlement

designer babies


Gender biasTechnology has led to better sex selection for would-be parents, but the controversies remain.

BY BETH WHITEHOUSENewsday

Until now, Sharla Miller's life could pretty much be titled "My Three Sons." Nature dealt her boy after boy after boy. Anthony arrived 12 years ago. Then came Ashton, now 9, and finally Alec, 5.

Miller loves her sons. She is there for every football practice, every wrestling match, every soccer game. She loves that her sons are affectionate, that they still hug her all the time.

But they are boys.

"They fish and hunt and do all that stuff with their dad," Miller says. "I go along, not necessarily enjoying it, but to be part of the family."

So when she decided she wanted another child, Miller didn't take any chances.

She and her husband, Shane, visited a California fertility clinic for a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. Several medical procedures and $25,000 later, Miller indeed got what she'd wished for, times two. She was expecting twin daughters when this interview was conducted.

"I just couldn't get it out of my system that I wanted a daughter," says Miller, 33, of Gillette, Wyo. "I just felt that our chances were slim to none. I could end up with 25 sons and not one daughter."

Miller can't wait to dress Brynne and Brooke in girlie clothes and do their hair. She has painted their nursery purple, put butterflies on the wall to match their quilts and she's now working on matching curtains.

She's thrilled that she'll have "a little me running around." Miller and her mom are close, and she's

eager to repeat that relationship. She even looks forward to paying for the girls' weddings someday. "Most people are, like, 'Are you nuts?' "GENDER SELECTIONThe desire to influence the gender of offspring dates back through the ages. Purported at-home methods range from the seemingly wacky — popping cranberry tablets to have a girl, for instance — to the complex, such as monitoring body temperature and ovulation and having intercourse within a certain number of hours before or after the egg drops.

Some doctors have helped couples using a nearly 30-year-old sperm-sorting technique called the Ericsson method, which improves the odds to a degree.

Time has progressed and medical science with it. Today, there are more cutting-edge, reliable options to chase the dream. PGD's gender accuracy, for instance, is almost 100 percent guaranteed.

But the options are not simple. And while they bring joy to the new parents, they also raise ethical questions.

The two newer methods of gender selection include PGD, which many doctors have only begun offering in the past couple of years, and MicroSort, undergoing a federal Food and Drug Administration trial for accuracy and safety.

To do PGD, a woman must first go through in vitro fertilization, in which eggs are surgically extracted from her ovaries and fertilized in a petri dish. Then, doctors test the embryos and implant only those of the desired sex. But PGD was developed to detect genetic and chromosomal disorders; its use for gender selection is controversial.

MicroSort involves sorting sperm and then inseminating the woman with sperm stacked to create a boy or a girl. It's less controversial than PGD because it's done before conception and doesn't necessarily create excess embryos, but it's also less accurate. So far, 90 percent of couples who wanted girls got them. The success


rate for boys is lower, at 77 percent, according to MicroSort reproductive endocrinologist Keith Blauer.

Some people are even combining MicroSort and PGD — using sorted sperm to fertilize the eggs in the petri dish in the hope that, when tested, the majority of the embryos will be of the desired sex.

ACCUSTOMED TO CHOICEAmerica is a country in which people are used to choice and are culturally trained to feel entitled to whatever it is they want, be it the beautiful house, the fancy vacation or the perfectly balanced family. "Everyone's got that ideal of what they think their life is going to be," says one MicroSort mom from Long Island who didn't want to be identified. She always thought she'd have two boys and two girls, and the experience of parenting both genders. She sought MicroSort after the birth of her third son.

Internet message boards where women emote on their quests to manipulate the sex of their next-borns are filled with user names such as "Boysrus," "HaveBlue" and "PrayingforPink." The women encourage each other, analyze treatment options, chime in to share in the euphoria when someone is successful. It's clear from the user names that most of the women are seeking to have daughters — "clearly a preponderance of couples" who come to MicroSort want a girl, Blauer says.

Why are girls so in demand? While men may want boys as much as women want girls, men aren't the ones who control the womb. Women tend to be the "driving force" in seeking MicroSort, while men are more "passive participants," Blauer says. But he says that's not the only reason more couples try for girls. The MicroSort technique is more accurate for girls, which makes couples more willing to play the odds. Also, more genetic diseases are passed through boys, so couples who are seeking to avoid a male-linked genetic disease want girls.

America tends to be matriarchal when it comes to family ties, which is one reason Miller wanted to be sure she had a daughter with whom to

bond. She expects that when her sons have children, for instance, she'll be relegated to the hospital waiting room. Her daughters, on the other hand, will more likely let her in the delivery room with them. "The saying goes, 'Your daughter is your daughter for life, your son is your son until he takes a wife,' " Miller says.

WORRIES ABOUT TECHNOLOGYWhile the number of couples seeking to influence gender is small now, and most programs offering gender selection require that participants already have a child of the opposite sex in an effort to stave off a population imbalance, critics worry that, if the technology takes off, it will be hard to enforce such a rule.

The idea that gender selection could influence the balance of male to female in the United States has critics pointing to examples such as India and China with alarm. In those countries, the population has been skewed male for economic and social reasons. Couples have used selective abortion, abandonment of girl children and even infanticide to achieve their preferences.

Critics here contend gender selection opens the door to a frightening "Brave New World" of designer babies in which couples can select embryos based not only on gender, but height, weight, eye color and even IQ.

Most MicroSort participants contacted for this story wanted to be interviewed anonymously. Their fear? Being judged.

"It's hard, I know, for some people to understand if they haven't been in the situation," says Mary Toedtman of Apalachin, N.Y. The MicroSort patient didn't want to tell anyone before her daughter was born, just in case the baby turned out a boy. "I would never want him to know all the trouble we went to not to have him."

The Long Island MicroSort mom, who is now coaching a neighbor through MicroSort, says she didn't want to be named because she does "fear that backlash of being conceived of as selfish." She also worries about damaging her


relationship with her priest, who might feel she was "playing God."

PGD's use for elective gender selection is so controversial it has been banned in the United Kingdom, and other countries are considering limits. Even the man instrumental in PGD development, Dr. Mark Hughes at Genesis Genetics Institute in Michigan, doesn't want it used to choose sex. "We think it is a misuse of medical technology," Hughes says.

But right now, the biggest deterrents to elective PGD, doctors interviewed say, are the high cost, the physical invasiveness of in vitro and the lack of a guarantee of pregnancy.

TO CHOOSE OR NOT?Some people see societal benefits in allowing people to select their children's gender.

For one, it could ease overpopulation.

And allowing people to pursue their gender dreams could cut down on abortion, says Dr. Sonja Kristiansen, medical director of the Infertility Center of Houston. She, for instance, says she had a patient who had previously aborted three female pregnancies because she wanted a son.

Marcy Darnovsky is the associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit research and public affairs organization based in Oakland, Calif. She falls into the category of those who think gender selection could lead to a "slippery slope" of customizing offspring in more ways than just their sex. "There is an over-arching concern about commercializing your relationship to your future children in that way," Darnovsky says.

Research has shown taller people command more power and money, she says. It also shows that, in our culture, if most people could choose, they would have a son first, then a daughter, she says. "Experts fear we'd be creating a nation of little sisters," Darnovsky says.

And, because birth order studies show first children are more successful, could we be heading toward a nation of tall, powerful men and more docile women, she asks. "This stuff is always full of unintended consequences."

Skeptics also wonder what parents who choose a certain sex will then expect from that child. Will they be disappointed if their girls would rather climb trees and catch frogs than have their hair braided and their fingernails polished?

Mary Toedtman of Apalachin, N.Y., for one, has considered that possibility with her daughter. "You never know. She may not ever want to wear pink. She may not ever want to wear a dress."

Toedtman admits that would make her sad. But like any mom, she says, she wants one thing more than anything for her daughter, no matter who she grows up to be.

"As long as she's happy," Toedtman says.

1684; 9.5

This article appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Thursday, September 9, 2004, on page 1E.


Tea PartyThe tea party gives students a chance to read and interact with parts of the text before they read the entire text.Process

1. The teacher chooses half as many snippets of text as s/he has students. (In other words, if you have 30 students, you are going to need 15 snippets of text.)

2. The original directions say to write them out on 3 X 5” cards, but I typed mine into a table. Then make two copies of each snippet.

a. I ran one set on one color and the second on a different color, then cut them into cards. I made one set for each class.

b. You can tell students to talk first with students have the same color paper they do; they will not run into any duplicates. After they have found all the students with the same color, they can circulate and talk to students with the second color.

3. After you have handed out the cards, give students the following directions:a. You will have XXX minutes to walk around the classroom.b. Your goal is to read the statement on your card to as many people in class as you can.c. After you have read your statement, listen to the other person’s statement.d. You can take a minute to discuss what you think the statements mean or how they relate,

but part of your grade depends on your talking to every person with your color.e. When I call time, you will have to listen for your group assignment.

4. Put students in groups.5. Have them discuss the content of all the card for 5-7 minutes. They should try to tie them

together to make a prediction as to what the entire text is going to be about.6. Have students write a “We think” statement that summarizes the big ideas as they see them. The

teacher should circulate and forestall any dramatic misunderstandings of the text.7. Groups may be asked to present their

Diffusion is the process by which particles move from one region to another. Osmosis is a kind of diffusionThe diffusion of water through a cell membrane is called osmosis. Blood cells will burst in pure water.

When no energy is used to move particles across cell membranes, that is called passive transport.

Sometimes particles move with active transport.

When a cell surrounds and absorbs a large particle that is called endocytosis.

Exocytosis is the opposite of endocytosis.

A cell is an organism.Organisms must be able to obtain energy and raw materials.

Organisms must be able to get rid of wastes.Diffusion can happen both within and between living cells.

Most of the fluids in the cells are water.Semipermeable means that only certain substances can pass through.

Water is made up of particles called molecules. Concentration of particles is kept in balance by osmosis.


We think...Now that you have listened to all the members of the class during the tea party, meet with your group and come up with a “we think” statement. What do you think this chapter is going to be about?


SQ3R - Reading Efficiently

S = Survey/Skim Preview the entire assigned reading. (Skimming Rate)

o Think about the chapter title; access prior knowledge.o Carefully read the introduction to the chapter.o Read the bold-faced headings. o Skim the whole chapter, especially the first sentences of each

paragrapho Examine illustrations, graphics, captions, etc.o Carefully read the summary at the end of the chapter.

Q – Question Ask a question about each bold-faced heading.

Ex: The CellWhat is a cell? How many parts does a cell have? How does a cell reproduce? Are all cells the same?

Improve comprehension by 50% by focusing on finding the answer. Make predictions about what information the section will contain.

R = Read Read slowly and carefully IF your purpose is complete understanding

AND the material is unfamiliar. (Study Rate) Read more quickly IF your purpose is to find the main idea OR you

are already familiar with the topic. (Average Rate) Be on the lookout for the answers to the questions you asked. Read critically; in other words, don't accept everything at face value.

R = Recite Answer the questions as you read.

o Use the SKRAWL notes format.o Create RAPT, HUG, Map, or a Graphic Organizer notes.

Participate in a discussion.

R = Review Summarize in your own words as soon as you finish reading. Review on a regular basis (next day, next week, next month). Test yourself by studying aloud with a partner.


The QAR Strategy

As you are reading, it is important for you to stay engaged with the text in order to gain a full understanding of the material. This means that rather than passively scanning through a piece of literature, you should be asking and answering questions about what you are reading. Practicing this skill will help you to increase your comprehension of the materials and will enable you to remember it longer.

In this class, you will learn a variety of methods that will help you to become an active reader. One of these strategies is called Question – Answer – Relationship (QAR).

What is QAR?QAR is a reading strategy that will help you understand different kinds of questions. You will learn to recognize and answer three different levels of questions. After you have learned how to identify the three question types, you will start to ask and answer the same question types on your own. This will help you stay actively involved as you read the text. You will move from a basic level of understanding to a deeper level of understanding.

Three Types of QAR Questions

1. Text-ExplicitThese are "right there" questions. The answers can be found directly in the text.

2. Text-ImplicitThese are "think and search" questions. You must search for ideas in the text that are related to each other. Then you put the information together to answer this type of question.

3. Experience-BasedThese are "on your own" questions. You answer these questions based on your prior knowledge, your own experience, and/or things you have learned.

What would sample QAR questions look like?

Text-Explicit: What is the definition of a wave?

What are the different kinds of waves?

You could look these answers up in the text. They require only a basic level of comprehension.


Text-Implicit: What do you think causes the different kinds of waves?

Where would we commonly find the types of waves discussed in the textbook??

The questions are not directly stated in the text, but related ideas can be found. The reader needs to make inferences based on what is in the reading in order to answer text-implicit questions. They require a more in-depth level of understanding. They require the reader to make assumptions about the reading. The answers are not spelled out; they are referred to only indirectly.

Experience-Based: Why does man create waves in places such as swimming pools?

If an earthquake shifted plates deep in the ocean, why would a tsunami result? What are some dangers that a tsunami might pose to people on land?

These questions are based on the experiences of the reader who must relate what he already knows or has experienced in order to answer the questions. These questions call for the deepest level of understanding because they require the reader to place himself in the story and rely on his own thoughts and feelings, not those of the author.

How will QAR be used in science class?

First, we will do some practice sessions in class to ensure that everyone has an understanding of the different types of questions. Next, you will receive a packet that corresponds to our first science unit. For the first few chapters, I will provide you with the QARs for the reading; you will simply need to answer the questions. As we continue through the textbook, you will eventually be asked to generate your own QARs that apply to the assigned readings. Your questions and answers will serve as the foundation for class discussions. With practice, this strategy will become a natural process that will help you become a better reader!

As we get better at asking questions, we will try to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help us write questions that will help us to think more.

From Tammy Mammel, Willow Creek Middle School, Rochester, MN 55904


Asking Questions

As you read, it is important you ask the right kinds of questions. You’ll ask different questions at each stage of the process (as noted).

Types of Questions:1. Premise After you have read the introduction

First ask, “What’s this section about?” That will give you the topic. Now ask, “What is the author’s premise about this topic?” In other words, what is the author’s point.

2. Key questions As you read the chapter

What does the author want you to understand about this section of the chapter? In other words, what are the main points, key subtopics, and details you need to remember?

3 Clarifying questions As you read the chapter

Does this make sense? Can I see how the details elaborate on the subtopics? Is there a pattern to the way information is organized that will help me understand and remember?

4. Contradictory questions If you encounter an opposing viewpoint

Does everyone agree on this position, or have you found examples of opposing viewpoints. Global warming is a good example. While most scientists believe global warming is a real problem caused by human pollution, a small number of scientists believe the current warming trend is part of a normal cycle in the climate of the Earth.


Here is an example:

Bold-faced Heading: Diversity of Cells

Premise Questions:1. How many different kinds of cells are there?2. Do different cells do different things?3. What exactly is a cell?

Key Questions:* These are questions you’d ask and answer as you read. These are the sorts of

questions/answers that you’d put in your notes.

What is the cell theory all organisms are made up of one or more cells the cell is the basic unit of all living things all cells come from existing cells

Why are cells different sizes? few are big – ex. chicken egg – does not need to take on

more nutrients small cells are more efficient

surface area must be large enough to take in nutrients and pump out waste

ratio of outer surface must fit cell’s volume

What are the parts of a cell? cell membrane and cytoplasm organelles genetic material

nucleus


Clarifying Questions*You would ask these questions after you had finished your initial reading.

Do I have clear understanding of the topic as a whole?

Can I put the details in hierarchical order, from premise to subtopic to details? What kind of details are included?

FactsIncidentsReasonsExamples/EvidenceStatistics

If someone had never studied this topic before, how would I summarize it for him or her?

Example: How do stem cells know what kind of cell to become?

Contradictory QuestionsYou would ask these questions only if you were reading about a topic that was controversial.

Example: Why is stem cell research so controversial? At what point does a group of cells become a viable, living being?

What is the majority viewpoint? What evidence do these experts include in this chapter? Is the evidence credible?

What is the minority viewpoint? What evidence do the experts in the minority include in their argument? Is the evidence credible?


Not quite blondes to order

The procedure for creating so-called designer babies is expensive, unpleasant and highly fallible

Special report: ethics of geneticsHFEA

US National Bioethics Advisory CommissionIVF and DI parents' network

Sara NathanGuardian

Thursday October 5, 2000

It is impossible to think about the case of little Molly Nash and her parents without feeling huge sympathy for any family that finds itself in this appalling predicament. What can you do to save a child already sentenced to death by her own genetic inheritance? Not long ago, the grieving parents would just have had to watch her die and know that any other child born to them might easily face the same fate. But for this child there was another option. She could be saved by a transplant, which was most likely to be successful if it came from a sibling. But is it ever ethical to use one child to save another, and more especially to create one child to help another?

In the Nash case, the parents wanted another child, a healthy child, one without Fanconi anaemia. Disregard ing Molly's plight, they had several options: they could conceive the old-fashioned way and hope the baby was not affected (despite the 25% chance that it would be); they could conceive naturally and have an abortion if ante-natal tests showed the child was affected; or they could opt for a new technique. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves creating an embryo by in vitro fertilisation, removing one cell and testing it, and then proceeding to use only unaffected embryos. So far so good. Surely no one could wish this couple with one affected child to risk another if the means exist to prevent it without the trauma of an abortion.

The next step of choosing, from the unaffected embryos, one that was compatible with their afflicted daughter, which could help her, is not a huge or necessarily an undesirable step. It saves

a life, relieves suffering and is not likely to make baby Adam less loved and appreciated than he would have been had he been randomly, naturally conceived. So, in this particular case, it would be quite difficult to condemn the parents for their choices or the doctors for using their best scientific and medical skills to do what the parents wanted.

The question remains as to whether this sets humanity on a slippery slope to the creation of "designer" babies, genetically manipulated at the parents' whim to be taller, blonder, cleverer or more athletic than their peers. PGD is not an easy technique for doctor or patient. It is certainly not something you would undertake lightly, or for trivial reasons. Any form of IVF is a difficult business. It involves strong drugs and much disruption. It is intrusive, expensive and in Britain has a success rate, according to the latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), of 16.7%. You need a good, compelling reason such as infertility to undergo all that.

PGD, however, is not a treatment for infertility but for genetic disorders and one might therefore expect it to be rather more successful. Yet it has a take-home-baby rate of closer to 10%. Lisa Nash had four successive attempts before she conceived Adam. Is anyone going to go through all that for possible added intelligence - even if it were possible to isolate the gene responsible?

In this country, just five clinics are licensed to do PGD and each must apply to the HFEA for authorisation to carry out each new test. We basically allow PGD only for cases where there is a serious medical condition. So far, no one has asked us about a situation like that of the Nash family. But there are always hard cases and difficult decisions. The HFEA has been discussing PGD for some years and last November held a public consultation on the subject. That ended in March and the results have gone to the new Human Genetic Commis sion; we should have some conclusions by the beginning of next year. Among the issues are which sort of conditions PGD should be used for, whether it should always relate to a family history or could and should be used for the screening of some other genetic conditions, such as Downs Syndrome.


http://www.issue.co.uk/dinet

http://www.bioethics.gov/

http://www.hfea.gov.uk/

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/genes

One of the other big ethical issues arises in the use of PGD for sex selection. This may be for medical reasons, for instance where a male child would have haemophilia, but there are those, like the recently publicised case of the Mastersons in Scotland, where the parents want a child of a specific sex for social reasons, in this case to replace a daughter who has died. The HFEA's ethics committee has discussed sex selection (not necessarily by PGD) and are mostly against it for social reasons. But this specific case, where parents want to replace their only daughter, has not been turned down by the HFEA as a whole. We agreed that the matter could be considered by a licence committee if a licensed centre, which was willing to do the procedure, applied.

We all want the welfare of the child born by any of the techniques we license to be paramount. We want each baby to be an individual and treated as such. It is important to those who regulate IVF in Britain that embryos are not created lightly or abused and destroyed wantonly and that, at every stage, the importance of individual human life is acknowledged.

• Sara Nathan is a member of the ethics committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [email protected]



Word ScrollWhat it is… What it isn’t…


Vocabulary Frame


biome

life

Regional area that contains dominant forms of plant life

and a prevailing climateforest

Africa is filled with animals such as giraffes, lions, and rhinos who can live in climate with little rainfall that borders on desert.

Semantic Feature Analysis

Terms


FEATURES

Semantic Feature Analysis:

Animal

fish X X X X

amphibian X X X X X

reptile X X X X

bird X X X X

mammal X X X X X


Vertebrates

Word Sort for “Biomes”

Biomes cold snowy hot

temperate grassland many plants little rainfall

uneven precipitation

conifers tundra little precipitation

forest layers * grasses many insects taiga

desert little change in seasons

many animals and plants

little rainfall

permafrost deciduous foresthot days

cold nightsgrassesmosseslichens

plants store water cold winterswarm summers

humid tropical rain forests

* Used more than once


BiomesCreate word jars for four of the categories you have sorted from the table on the previous page. Put the correct terms in each biome jar.


taiga

desert

While Reading Strategies

Metacognition is an important part of this process. Students must understand the content AND how they arrived at the conclusions the drew and understandings they developed.


Record Important Information 2 Column

notes HUG Graphic

Organizer/Map Response

Journal Quotations

Understand how information is organized Informative Pattersn

o Compare/Contrasto Cause/Effecto Topicalo Chronological (Time or

Process)o Technical

Persuasive Patternso Problem/Solutiono Opinion/Reasono Thesis/Proof

RAPT Notes Sheet Name:

Subject: DATE: Page: R = Read the paragraph/Listen to the lecture.A = Ask questions.

• What's it about? (Topic/Table of Contents)• What is the author/lecturer saying about the topic? (MI/FIRES)

P = Put it in your own words using SKRAWL2

T = Test yourselfTOPIC/Table of Contents(What's it about?)

MI/FIRES (Facts, Incidents, Reasons, Examples/Evidence, Statistics)(What is the author/lecturer saying about the topic?)


Subject: Date: Page: TOPIC/Table of Contents(What's it about?)

MI/FIRES (Facts, Incidents, Reasons, Examples/Evidence, Statistics)(What is the author/lecturer saying about the topic?)


Styles of Note Taking2 Column Notes HUG

S = Subordinated Topic in left column MI/Details in right column Bullets identify MI/Details Indenting shows progression of

ideas

K = Key words only No sentences No ¶s Words carry concepts

R = Record what’s important Textbook

o 1st sentence of ¶so Intro/summary

Lectureo Repeatedo On board/OHo Cue words

A = Abbreviate Drop vowels 1st few letters Mnemonic/acronym Symbols

W = Write Legibly Neat Organized Others able to read

L1 = Leave white space Chunk ideas Readable Add ideas later

L2 = Label your notes Date Teacher/Course/Chapter

H = Highlight Main Idea only 8 lines per page/20% text Key words only

U = Underline Subtopics Details

o Factso Incidentso Reasonso Examples/Evidenceo Statistics

G = Gloss Summarize text Mark ideas (Def, Ex, Name,

etc.) Create charts Mark text organization

Graphic Organizer/Map

Body/Topic Topic clearly ID’d Centered

Legs/Subtopics Clearly labeled Equally subordinated Spaced into chunks Appropriate

Feet/Details Clearly subordinated Spaced Legible Appropriate


Topical Paragraph Note Taking Grid

Title:

Name: Date: Hour:


Topic:

Main Idea

Details to support Main Idea

Main Idea


Main Idea


Main Idea


Sequence Chart

Title: Author:

Name: Date: Hour:

Response Journal

Name: Date: Hr.

Chapter: Pages: In the “My thinking” column, you can summarize the text, ask a question, make a connection, make a prediction, clarify something, or make a comment related to the text.Quote from the Text: My Thinking:

page

page

page

page

page


Quotations Clarified Name: Hour:

Discussing and writing about text requires practice. When doing the following assignment, keep in mind the need to SUPPORT your thinking with EXAMPLES from the text (or life as you know it!). If you run out of room on this page, use the back side.Quotations Clarified

A quote is any word, sentence, or passage taken from a written text.

Whatever appears between quotation marks should be exactly what the text/person said.

Qualities of a Good Quote It is meaningful to you or the author. It is about something important: an event,

person, idea. You know you can discuss it or write about it. It invites/helps you to make connections

between the text and yourself. Often, it is connected to other ideas in the text

(repeated ideas).

Chapter Title:

Write the quote and the page number in the spaces below. (Or read and write about the quotes I’ve prepared for you.)

List 1-2 questions that will help you discuss or write well about the quote.

Finish this statement:

The author is saying that ….

In this column, do both of the following:

1. Tell how the quote is connected to the text.

2. Tell how the quote might apply to us as readers.

From Laura Hauer, Mayo High School, Rochester, MN 55904


Jot Chart for “Plants Without Seeds”Question? Algae Mosses and Liverworts Ferns

Where do they grow?

What size are they?

How are they used?

Jot Chart for “Plants Without Seeds” - KeyQuestion? Algae Mosses and Liverworts Ferns

Where do they grow?1. Wet places (ponds,

oceans, streams)2. Rocks3. Fur

1. Mosses grow close together in damp places

2. Liverworts often on rocks in shallow streams

Ferns live in drier places than other non-seed plants

What size are they? small to large small small to large

How are they used? food for small living creatures

food for animals fuels that heat homes were formed from fern-like plants


Say Something StrategyBeers, page 105*Dependent readers don’t distinguish between decoding and reading. To them, reading means pushing your eyes across the words, continuing on whether you understand or not. Say Something is a strategy that was first published by Harste, Short, and Burke in 1998. The strategy interrupts a student’s reading of the text and asks the student to think about what she or he has just read.

Here is how it works:1. Students get in pairs or groups of 32. The first student begins to read aloud one portion of the text.3. The student reading aloud pauses to “say something” about what was read. That students

should:a. make a predictionb. ask a questionc. clarify something that is confusingd. comment on what is happeninge. connect the text to something the student knows

4. The reading partner responds to what the first reader says.5. They then switch roles, and a new person reads aloud.6. When reader 2 stops to “say something,” the process begins to loop.

*Kylene Beers When Kids Can’t Read 2003 Heinemann


Rules for Say Something

1. With your partner, decide who will say something first

2. When you say something, do one or more of the following:a. make a predictionb. ask a questionc. clarify something you had misunderstoodd. make a commente. make a connection

3. If you can’t do one of those five things, then you need to reread.

Prompts for Say SomethingBeers, Page 108

Make a Prediction I predict that ... I bet that ... I think that ... Since this happened (fill in

detail), then I bet the next thing that is going to happen is ...

Reading this part makes me think that this (fill in detail) is about to happen ...

I wonder if ....

Ask a Question Why did ... What’s this part about ... How is this (fill in detail)

like this (fill in detail) ... What would happen if ... Why ... Who is .. What does this section (fill

in detail) mean ... Do you think that ... I don’t get this part here ...

Clarify Something Oh, I get it ... Now I understand ... This makes sense now ... No, I think it means ... I agree with you. This

means ... At first I thought (fill in

detail), but now I think ... This part is really saying ...

Make a Comment This is good because ... This is hard because ... This is confusing

because ... I like the part where ... I don’t like this part

because ... My favorite part so far is ... I think that ...

Make a Connection This reminds me of ... This part is like ... This character (fill in name) is like

(fill in name) because .... This is similar to ...The differences

are ... I also (name something in the text

that has happened to you) ... I never (name something in the text

tat has never happened to you) ... This character makes me think of ... This setting reminds me of ...





I wonder if ....




I wonder if ....




I wonder if ....




I wonder if ....




I wonder if ....




I wonder if ....


Make a Connection This reminds me of ... This part is like ... This character (fill in name) is

like (fill in name) because .... This is similar to ...The

differences are ... I also (name something in the

text that has happened to you) ... I never (name something in the

text tat has never happened to you) ... This character makes me think

of ... This setting reminds me of ...






























of ...


This setting reminds me of ...


After Reading Strategies


Summarize the Text Framed Paragraph RAFT Writing Graphic Organizer Graded Discussion

Analyze the Text

Purpose

Authority

Logic

Bi

PHYSICAL SCIENCE NAME: Framed Paragraph "Rocket Principles"

Hour: Date:

Carefully read the article titled "Rocket Principles" and write an informative summary. Include information on how the article relates to your own rocket launch. Please keep it brief and original (in your own words). You must highlight any direct statements from the article in quotation marks, but please try to keep them to a minimum.

1. Your summary must begin with an introduction (3 points), written in your own words.2. Your second paragraph explains, in an interesting and informative manner, how each of

Newton's three laws can be used to describe how your rocket moved. In your explanation, use the following terms. Underline each term the first time you use it.rest motion actionunbalanced force balanced force reactionmass accelerationScore: 8 terms = 10 points, 7 terms = 8 points, 6 terms = 6 points

5 terms = 4 points, and 4 terms = 2 points3. Your summary must end with a conclusion (3 points) written in your own words.

Bonus: 2 points if you type your summary. Attach the printout to this sheet.

Scoring RubricIntroduction in Own Words

3 2 1 0Used All Terms

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0Conclusion in Own Words

3 2 1 0Ideas and

Development OrganizationVoice/Audience

Awareness Word Choice Sentence Fluency Conventions1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Total Score: /20 Points


Summary: Rocket Principles

Rockets have been blasting skyward for more than two thousand years, yet it was

only in the last three hundred years that people truly understood what makes them

work. An English scientist by the name of Sir Isaac Newton unlocked the mystery

of rocket propulsion in his book, the Principii. In the book, he described three

laws which explain the motion of rockets, both large and small.

Newton's first law states that because of inertia a rocket at rest, under pressure, and

poised on the launcher pipe, will resist motion as long as opposing forces are

balanced. When the restraining springs release this neutral hold on the rocket, it

accelerates skyward. Unbalanced forces, created by expanded air pressure inside

the bottle, produce motion. The rocket pushes on the water, forcing it out of the

engine nozzle. In turn, this same water also pushes back against the rocket. This

action-reaction exchange, commonly referred to as Newton's third law, creates

thrust. This thrust is the force that propelled my rocket up, up, and away.

Newton's second law states that acceleration of my rocket will increase if I can

reduce its mass. My rocket mass was a slim 450 grams. His second law also

states that acceleration will increase if the rocket is launched with the greatest force

possible. Six hundred milliliters of water combined with air at a pressure of 500

kilopascals was proven to provide the greatest launch force. It worked again!

After a successful flight of 100 meters, a state of balanced force was observed as

my once proud rocket, now a bit crippled, rested motionless on the west lawn of

John Marshall High School.

The memory of Sir Isaac Newton lives on! His spirit was lifted to greater heights

on launch day. I am forever indebted to him for helping me pass physical science.


R.A.F.T. WRITING

RAFT writing is a simple way to encourage students to approach a topic from a variety of viewpoints. The “R” stands for the role or viewpoint the student assumes. The “A” stands for the audience for whom the student is writing in his/her role. The “F” stands for the format or type of writing.The “T” stands for the topic about which the student is to write. RAFT writing can be done in any subject area and can be a short but creative way to assess student understanding of a topic. You may wish to first try RAFT writing with a single assigned role, audience, format, and topic.

Examples: U.S. History - You are a private in the Union army camped near Gettysburg.

You are writing a letter to a friend back home about what you have seen and done and how you feel about it.

Science - You are an element. Write a script for a video in which you describe yourself and the characteristics of the elements with which you feel you are most compatible.

Math - You are a polygon with a multiple personality disorder. Describe to your therapist the various forms or personalities you can take and their characteristics.

Once students have tried the single role, audience, format, and topic, you may wish to expand the assignment to a menu.

Example: English - for To Kill A Mockingbird

ROLE AUDIENCE FORMAT TOPICScout Dill Letter Boo Radley

Atticus County Bar Association

letter need to defend Tom Robinson

Jem Boo Radley Note thank you for saving my life

Boo Radley Public Letter to Editor privacy

With a menu, students select the roles they wish to play from the choices available or are allowed to create their own.


RAFT Writing Ideas

ROLE AUDIENCE FORMAT TOPICcitizen Dem. or Rep. legislator letter vote for recycling

studentJapanese Prime Minister

letterPersuade Japanese to

stop killing whales for research purposes

columnist Mike Royko public news column demand more gun control

constituent U. S. senator letter plea to abolish capital punishment

chemist chemical company instructions warn about combinations to avoid

cracker other crackers travel guide travel through digestive system

plant sun thank you note explain sun’s role in plant growth

news writer public news release explain how ozone layer was formed

scientist Charles Darwin letter refute a point in evolution theory

square root whole number love letter explain a relationshiptrout self diary describe effects of acid

rain on lakecriminal judge plea explain why s/he should

not be punished

acute triangle obtuse triangle article/letterconvince obtuse triangle

to shape up and lose weight; explain

differencesleader of country government of country resume explain why s/he is a

strong leaderanimal zoo keeper letter explain what I’ll need

when brought to zooBolsheviks peasants advertisement convince peasants of

better situations

store owner new employees memolet employees know

what kinds of math they will use in the store

mineral8th-grade science

student request, pleatell why every 8th-grade student should know me

lungs smoker radio commercialconvince person to stop

smoking

red blood cell traveling through circulatory

system

news cells traveling through the system

dialoguewarn of hazards on

journey, including peer pressure of white blood

cells

swallowed food food still on the plate traveloguewhat you can expect

when you travel through the digestive system


Science Note-Taking Graphic Organizer

Name: Date: Hour:

Chapter: Pages: Take notes on the chapter you were assigned to read. In your own words, write information that answers the questions WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, and WHY. Finally, summarize the chapter in a sentence or two.WHO? Important People: WHERE? Important Places: WHEN? Important Dates:

WHAT? List the most important events of this chapter:

WHY? Give reasons (yours or the authors) to explain why events happened.

SUMMARY: Write one or two sentences that summarize the main idea of the entire chapter.


GRADED DISCUSSIONOne of the real downsides of teaching can be the paper load as we try to correct all the papers students complete and we collect. This is especially true of the long study guide which focuses on student answers to literal comprehension questions. Here is a technique which will encourage class discussion and cut down on your paper load. (See QAR p. 22)

PROCESS1. Tell the students the handout which they are receiving will be the subject of a graded discussion.

This means that the handout will be discussed in class, and they will receive points based on the following criteria:

1 point OFFERED A COMMENT which answers the question (C)1 point ELABORATED on someone else's answer (E)1 point ASKED A QUESTION about the item being discussed (Q)

2. Students who are shy or absent may turn in their study guides for your perusal after the discussion has been completed and receive a grade for their written work.

TEACHER NOTES:1. I always ask students to hold up their study guides, and I stand at the head of each row and ask

the kids to page through their worksheets while holding them up in the air. I make note in my gradebook of anyone whose study guide is obviously empty. Then I have students put their desks in a circle.

2. I encourage students to fill in additional information as they hear it during the discussion. When the discussion is over, each student should have perfect notes.

3. If a student mentions a particularly important point, I reinforce it by saying "That is great! Everyone should have that in their notes." If all students miss a particularly important point, I say, "You need to add this information to your notes. It is really important" and then give them the information.

4. Basically, I STAY OUT OF THE DISCUSSION. I call the next question and make the two comments given above, but I do not lead or participate in the discussion. As I see check marks building (and not building), I may call on a student and say, "John, let's hear what you have to say on this. You haven't participated today."

GRADINGIf you have a computerized grade program that prints a roll book (a list of student names with room for marks) grading is easy. I simply write the date at the top of a column, note the topic of the discussion, and make check marks for each comment. You can also use C for comment, Q for question, and E for elaboration, depending on how much room you have. One teacher I know uses her seating chart to record participation.

I tend to take an average of class participation or set a maximum number of points a given student can earn. You can also make each X number of responses equal X number of points or grade. How you allocate points depends on your grading structure, but most of us do not want to give huge numbers of points for insignificant comments or tasks.

Here is an example of a graded discussion roster:Student: Chap. 4:

1/2/98Chap. 5:1/5/98

Chap. 6: 1/6/98

Barrett, Mary C Q E C Q E E C √ √ √ √ √Smith, Jan Q Q E C C C C C √ √ √ √ Trolander, John E C C Ab √Willaby, Amy Q E E Q C C Q Q C E E √ √ √ √ √


Critical Reading: Questions to AskCategory What to ask as you read:

Purpose

1. Why did the author write this article? to persuade? to inform? to entertain? to explain? to refute? to contrast? to record personal reactions?

2. Who is the intended audience?3. What is the underlying thesis or premise of this article?4. What is the author's point of view? (Pro, Con, Neutral?)5. What conclusions, inferences, solutions, or implications does the author reach?6. Does the type of article shape or limit the information?

Authority

INTERNAL1. What are the author's qualifications to write on this topic?2. Is the author an expert, or does s/he quote experts?3. Was the author a witness or participant?

EXTERNAL4. Is the publication reliable and reputable?5. Do you have full publication data?6. Is the information current? Does the information need to be current?7. Is the article intended to be factual or editorial?

Logic1. Can you identify any fallacies in logic?2. What points has the author selected? Why?3. What points has the author omitted? Why?4. How has the author organized the information?5. Is the reasoning logical and valid?6. What, if any, irrelevant material or arguments are presented? Why?

Bias1. Is the author biased or objective?2. What, if any, are the author's affiliations?3. Do historical reasons affect the objectivity of the author or his sources?4. What other points of view may exist but have not been discussed?5. What, if any, emotionally loaded language does the author use? Why? Give examples.6. What, if any, figurative language (analogies, metaphors, similes, etc.) does the author use?

Why? Give examples.7. Do the author's ideas and conclusions relate to your own experiences?8. Does the author's conclusion mesh with any previous reading, listening, or viewing you

have done on this topic?

Evidence1. Are the statements fact, opinion, or a combination of both?2. Is the evidence documented or undocumented?3. Has the author provided necessary background material on the topic?4. If the answer to #3 is no, would the information be difficult to find?5. Does the author's argument pass the RET test?

-- Is the evidence the RIGHT kind of evidence?-- Is ENOUGH evidence given?-- Is the evidence TRUE?

6. What supporting FIRES (Facts, Incidents, Reasons, Examples/Evidence, Statistics) does the author give for his premise?

Gain1. What does the author have to gain from this article? Power? Money? Influence?

Reputation? Promotion? Personal meaning?2. What other factors may have influenced the author's writing?


Evaluating an Argument

Name: Date: Hour:

Evaluate each of these categories with as you read your chosen text. DO NOT simply restate what the author has said in his/her article. To evaluate means to make a judgment about the author’s effectiveness, accuracy, or persuasiveness. In the last section, give your overall evaluation of the author’s argument and its effectiveness, being sure to support your general statements with specific reasons or examples.

Source Documentation:

Title of Article:

Author: Date of Publication:

Publisher:

Premise/ Conclusion

What is the basic assumption in this

argument, the premise on which the argument is

built?

Are there any questions that might be asked to

challenge the conclusion?

List the reasons given to support the conclusion.

Documentation of Supporting Facts

OpinionsUndocumented/

Questionable Statements

RET TestPass or Fail?Explain why.


Evaluating an Argument Page 2Logical Development of

Argument: Do you consider this to be a

convincing argument? why or why not?

Text OrganizationIs the writing well

organized?

Language: Appropriate to audience?

Biased?Fallacies?

Opposing Viewpoint(s)Does the writer

acknowledge opposing viewpoints?

Credibility

Now evaluate the author’s argument. Make general statements about the article as a whole; back up your statements with specific examples you’ve used above. Your evaluation may be positive, negative, or somewhere in between. Just be sure to support your evaluation.


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