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Re: Reading Science/Math Texts - PART 1

In his Chemed-L <http://mailer.uwf.edu/archives/chemed-l.html> post
"Reading Science Texts," high-school chemistry teacher John Mackin
(2004) wrote :
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As I review this almost-completed year, I recognize that some of my
students came to chemistry class with limited abilities to learn
from a science textbook. This seems to be a more prevalent problem
than in previous years. Several questions come to mind.



2. Are there any excellent resources available to teach students how
to extract information from science texts?


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Sorry for the late response. I have been away at several conferences etc.
I have frequently given workshops on this point and have just signed a contract with Anker publishing tentatively entitled "Successful Science Teaching."

Reflective-writing
The activity called reflective writing engages students with the material before the class even meets. Its purpose is to allow the learner to relate prior knowledge to material being encoded and for the learner to use self-dialogue about recorded ideas to continue the process of comprehension. The instructions to students as to how to perform reflective writing are as follows:


1. Read each section or two sections if one of the sections is short, very carefully trying to zero in on what you don't understand, and all points that you would like to be clarified during the class.

2. During your reading, use whatever techniques you usually use to understand required reading including underlining, highlighting, summarizing, and rereading.

3. Having completed this task, freewrite about what you have read. (About 2/3 of a page per section.)

4. Write about the section(s) that you have read. Write about what it means. Try and find out what you don't know, and try to understand through your writing the material you don't know. When you are finished you will be prepared to ask questions in class about all the points that you don't understand


How to freewrite your jottings for the concept assignment
(Developed by Dr. Calvin S. Kalman based on "Writing without teachers" by Peter Elbow, Oxford paperbacks 1973 - available in the Vanier Library)
This is not essay writing. You will usually not use capitals, and will often write fragments of sentences.
START WRITING AND KEEP WRITING
If at any time you feel that you can't go on - your mind is a blank - write a "nonsense" word over and over, e.g. physics, physics, physics, physics until you start writing again. Write about the section(s) that you have read. Write about what it means. Try and find out exactly what you don't know, and try to understand through your writing the material you don't know. When you are finished you will be prepared to ask questions in class about all the points that you don't understand.

Alexei (In an interview): it's a little bit like thinking out loud and then putting it on paper, so it's pretty much like what I always used to do, it's just that it's quite surprising to see how much more it's helpful once it's put down on paper, it's also helpful because even if I don't find the answers at least I will find the questions, if there is something I don't understand, or if there's a popular concept I find difficult, at least I can find why I don't understand it even if I won't understand it, or like not right now, but at least I'll be able to find the questions, and sometimes I find that is the first step so in order to find the answers you need to find the right questions and then with reflective writing it helps me a lot.

I have written papers covering these ideas. For example see:
Course Design for an Introductory Science Course
Calvin S. Kalman
Academic Exchange Quarterly Winter issue 2003, 194-198
The table for the article is found at:
http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/2490table.htm


Best wishes


Calvin


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_/ Calvin S. Kalman, P. Phys. Phone: (514) 848-2424 xt3284
_/ Professor,Department of Physics Fax: (514) 848-2828
_/ Fellow, Science College
_/ Member, Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
_/ Concordia University
_/ Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6 KALMAN@VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA
_/
_/ Also Adjunct Professor, Department of Educational and
_/ Counselling Psychology McGill University
_/
_/ homepage- http://physics.concordia.ca/faculty/kalman.html
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