From the School of Education 2004-2005 Annual Report
Bringing More Science into the Elementary Classroom
Elementary school classrooms are often so focused on reading and language arts that subjects such as science receive less attention. Tracy Posnanski, assistant professor of elementary science education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I), wanted to find a way to address this problem in area schools. He discovered that one reason why science is taught so infrequently is because of the pressure on teachers to teach the language arts - reading, writing and spelling. “Teachers were looking for ways to get science connected more to what they teach.”
Posnanski, together with Bill Kean, professor in the UWM Department of Geosciences, applied for and received a grant to focus on linking science instruction to language arts instruction. The grant also covers using science as the instructional vehicle to get ideas across for both subjects. This two-year professional development grant for elementary teachers began in the summer of 2004 and is funded by the Wisconsin Improving Teacher Quality Grant Program.
Thirty teachers, in teams of two to four, from nine elementary and K-8 Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) were chosen to participate in Project BLESC (Balanced Literacy in the Elementary Science Classroom). After turning away 16 schools, Posnanski said they realized the tremendous need for this type of professional development. During the first year of the program, the team from UWM, which included faculty from UWM’s English and science departments, along with MPS reading specialists, delivered science content intermixed with literacy strategies to the teachers through monthly meetings.
“We gave them a book about literacy strategies and modeled strategies for them to make the connection. Then they implemented a couple of those strategies in each science discipline they taught,” Posnanski said.
Posnanski said the science content taught in Project BLESC is based on MPS curriculum. “We looked at various topics they have to teach at each grade level and put together science kits for them. Teachers then created unit plans on how to deliver the content to students.” Teachers are encouraged to bring questions about science concepts they don’t understand or would like more help with to the monthly meetings.”
Lee Ann Pruske, a math and science resource teacher at Gaenslen School, said her school’s involvement with Project BLESC has been helpful. “We had asked ourselves how to involve all students and teachers in high quality, hands-on science and how to possibly fit science into our already overstuffed days. This project has given us a starting point for a school-wide focus on science.”
Pruske has also found the project’s field trips showing teachers how to use Milwaukee’s resources to be very beneficial. “We toured different places and found out how to use our environment and agencies to help our children learn science.”
Following the first year, preliminary evaluation of the program was completed through classroom observations, surveys and feedback sessions. Tania Mertzman, assistant professor of reading in C&I, has been involved with evaluating the literacy side of the study. She said that initially, teachers indicated they knew many strategies to teach language arts and few strategies to teach science, but in reality they found the teachers used a limited number of strategies across teaching all facets of language arts.
They also found that most teachers were not promoting inquiry teaching–hands-on activities allowing students to test their own ideas about scientific phenomena–and learning and activity-based investigation using classroom materials and resources. And teachers seemed to focus on either literacy or science, but seldom both areas.
Posnanski said the research team is addressing these areas of weakness discovered after the first year. “As the program continues, however, we are finding the teachers have broadened their repertoire of strategies based on what we modeled and now they are using them across many subjects beyond science and language arts.”
During the second year of the program, teachers are also working toward establishing a leadership role in their school relating to what they’ve learned. This may include sharing strategies with other teachers or modeling lessons for a new teacher.
Pruske says because of Project BLESC, she feels she has a better grasp on incorporating science curriculum in daily classwork. “We’ve been able to integrate several literacy-based skills to get to the heart of science learning. We’ve also learned and practiced several different activities, such as vocabulary activities or making books, around the different science concepts.”
Preliminary findings of the study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Reading Education.
URL: http://www.uwm.edu/News/Features/06.06/SOE_Science_Ed.html
Copyright 2006
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