making reading about science interesting

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From: Kelly Vaughan (kvaughan@mh3.echalk.com)
Date: Mon Dec 13 2004 - 19:27:16 PST 

Message-ID: <236200-220041221432716187@mh3.echalk.com>
From: "Kelly Vaughan" <kvaughan@mh3.echalk.com>
Subject: making reading about science interesting
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 22:27:16 -0500

I use a mixture of the textbook and articles
that I find in other places - sometimes I edit them a bit to make more
difficult material appropriate for my students' reading level (I always
attribute it "adapted from..." in order to model appropriate citation).
Here are a few ideas for making reading more interesting:

-Make the students detectives, searching the text for the answers to
certain questions.
-Break up the reading process - read just a bit, then discuss it. Provide
extra details that the book does not provide. Explain vocabulary that the
students may not know - I often introduce greek & latin roots and help
them find other words that come from the same roots (and Harry Potter
spells often come from those roots, as well).
-Use interesting texts - as Paul suggested. My (NYC) students are
studying birds right now. I am photocopying chapters from "Red Tails In
Love" by Marie Winn, which tells the story of red-tailed hawks nesting on
a building on Fifth Ave. (Incidentally, the co-op destroyed the hawks'
nest this week, which makes the reading even more relevant to the kids).

-There are many good science trade books which can provide the same info
as the textbook in a more interesting format - check them out of the
library and bring them in.
-Let each child or group or pair choose one trade book from among many,
then have them share what they read with each other.
-When I send home articles for them to read, I often give the assignment
to illustrate and summarize the article. They take one sheet of plain
white paper and fold it in half and then into thirds, making six boxes.
They decide what the six most important pieces of the article were, and
summarize them and draw cartoons to illustrate them. It's a great way to
check for understanding but it turns on your artistic kids.

Hope those ideas help!
Kelly

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