Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science: Teachers and Students in Action

Middle grade students can learn a great deal about themselves and their world by reading informative texts in science courses. These texts will focus on important topics in earth science, life science, and physical science and shape students’ understandings about scientific inquiry, science-related processes and phenomenon, engineering and design, and technological innovations. But reading is a complex act, and most students need specific reading-related support to understand assigned texts in middle grade science courses. This book focuses on the cyclical nature of reading, the actions proficient readers engage in to understand science textbooks and other informational texts, and the instructional support that teachers can provide to enhance middle grade students’ learning of science content through reading. Three associated questions will be addressed in this book: •What actions do proficient readers engage in to understand assigned course texts? •What do these actions entail, and how do they relate to each other? • What teacher-mediated practices best support middle grade students’ development as proficient readers and enhance their learning of course content through reading?

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Reading this Book Chapter 1: Reading in the Middle Grades Introduction Reading in Middle Grades Reading Beyond Middle Grades Looking Back and Ahead Chapter 2: The Reading Cycle Introduction The Reading Cycle Proficient Reading Actions Looking Back and Ahead Chapter 3: Before Reading Actions Introduction: Before Reading Phase Actions Clarifying One’s Goal And Purpose Generating Expectations Activating Knowledge Developing Knowledge Looking Back and Ahead Grounding: Before Reading Phase Actions Chapter 4: During Reading Actions I Introduction: During Reading Phase Actions Visualizing Reading Fluently Looking Back and Ahead Grounding: During Reading Phase Actions Chapter 5: During Reading Actions II Introduction: During Reading Phase Actions Reading for Understanding Inferencing Looking Back and Ahead Grounding: During Reading Phase Actions Chapter 6: During Reading Actions III Introduction: During Reading Phase Actions Formulating Building Coherence Looking Back and Ahead Grounding: During Reading Phase Actions Chapter 7:After Reading Actions Introduction: After Reading Phase Actions Summarizing Reconfiguring Assessing Clarifying Looking Back and Ahead Grounding: After Reading Phase Actions Chapter 8:Mediational Practices Introduction Previously Showcased Practices Before Reading Mediational Practices After Reading Mediational Practices Multi-Phase Mediational Practices Selection Guide and Further Reading References About the Author

About the Author :
Don K. Philpot is a teacher, teacher educator, and writer. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the topics of instructional methodologies, content area reading, reading and writing instruction, and children’s literature in Pennsylvania.

Review :
Spanning the disciplines of science and language arts, this resource offers middle school teachers practical approaches to helping their students succeed as young learners. Grounded in the cyclical nature of reading as a complex undertaking, the overarching aim of this book is to enhance middle school students’ learning of science through reading. The first section introduces a reading cycle that focuses on student actions, such as activating knowledge, visualizing, and summarizing, which map to the three phases of reading that anchor this book (orienting, sustaining, and consolidating). The use of examples and concept maps ensure that this approach is conveyed in a clear and applicable manner. The following section, which comprises the bulk of this volume, presents essential actions for readers in a straightforward approach that busy professionals will appreciate. The final section expands on various meditational practices for students and is a strong conclusion to a no-nonsense book designed to promote improved science learning through strategic and purposeful approaches to reading. This is a welcome resource for practicing teachers looking to collaborate with colleagues across traditional disciplinary lines, as well as for teachers in training looking to build a repertoire of successful instructional practices. Highly recommended. Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science is exactly what I needed when I was a secondary science teacher! Dr. Philpot takes the reader on a detailed journey replete with examples of how middle school science teachers can engage students in reading informational text. This text helps teachers—especially middle school science teachers—understand how to engage students in cognitive processes that help make them more proficient readers. Philpot engagingly provides insight into middle school science teachers who believe science teaching is enhanced by literacy strategies, with specific examples from middle school science classrooms that connect theory to practice and content to communication. He begins this practical guide with what we know about middle school students and what we know about learning theory. When science teachers commit to providing the information in this book, young adolescents will be more engaged with content, will think more deeply, and will learn ways to learn more effectively. This is a wonderful manual that science teachers need in their professional library! Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science: Teachers and Students in Action provides science educators with thoughtful and practical insight into supporting middle school science students throughout the process of reading science texts. After giving a context-specific framework for proficient readers, Philpot lays the scaffolding that teachers can use to support proficient reading practices in science. The teaching vignettes and clear descriptions that follow help readers to consider the tools that will encourage proficient reading before, during, and after a reading event. Middle school science educators at any stage of their careers will find this text to be a valuable contribution to their teaching toolboxes. Having taught both reading and science methods to preservice teachers, Don Philpot contributes to the much needed body of literature that integrates literacy instruction and the science classroom. This is especially true in states that implement edTPA, in which teacher candidates must demonstrate content, process, and pedagogical knowledge while developing their own academic language skills and those of their students. Given that the great majority of elementary and middle school science programs are textbook-based, students need to apply literacy skills in order to do well in the science classroom. This book supports that learning and enables student to achieve content success, and illustrations add support for learning requisite skills and knowledge. References to the works of Halliday and Matthiesen and others provide a solid grounding in theory, while the material is also practical. I would definitely consider adopting this book for my science methods course. This book identifies ways that reading scientific texts can improve science learning and how specific strategies and teacher mediation practices support such subject-matter reading. Dr. Philpot draws on classroom examples to illustration how a cyclical model of reading helps students navigate and make sense of the often obscure nature of written scientific discourse. Teachers and teacher educators interested in applying specific strategies to support science reading in the middle grades will find this book a helpful contribution. Thanks to Don Philpot, you now have a resource to help you and your students meet all NGSS and your state’s English language arts and science standards. Using a comprehensive, coherent, and user-friendly lesson framework, Don shows you how to successfully guide students, especially middle grade students just cutting their teeth on science content, through the complex texts and challenging tasks that await them in these new programs. Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science provides science teachers with hands-on and practical methods for engaging learners in all types of science texts as part of their inquiry learning. It highlights real lessons and the processes learners need to use to effectively read to learn in the sciences, while explaining the underlying theory that makes them effective. The chapter on teacher mediational strategies provides explicit procedures to plan for instruction. This is a wonderful resource for middle school science teachers to help support the development of proficient readers in science. Philpot uses a diverse set of examples from science classrooms to clearly articulate a coordinated set of reading actions that can be employed before, during, and after reading events to support reading proficiency. I’d recommend this book to any middle school science teacher interested in advancing students’ capacity in reading science texts! Becoming a proficient reader of science and technical materials provides a huge benefit to all individuals. Everyone living in the twenty-first century needs to know how to read science-related materials, from technical descriptions of how to assemble some gadget purchased on the web to reading scientific information in the news. Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science will help you learn how to support middle grade students to become proficient readers of science. Teachers of middle grade science continue to appreciate effective instructional strategies to assist middle grade students with reading and understanding science texts. Reading Actively in Middle Grade Science: Teachers and Students in Action provides a model to actively engage students with science texts that teachers can add to their toolbox of effective reading strategies in science. This book enhances the inquiry experience of students in science with instructional strategies that support student engagement with printed and digital text in addition to hands-on experiences.