This document summarizes a gallery walk activity. Students are invited to explore student work around the room, notice what they observe and wonder about the work, and share their comments and thoughts by writing them on sticky notes to post near the student pieces. The purpose is for students to wonder, discover, and share about what they see.

1. Welcome. Please enjoy a Gallery Walk.
Explore the student work around the room
• What do you notice about the student
work?
• What do you wonder?
Share your comments – jot your thoughts
on sticky notes and post them on or near
student work.

2. Wonder. Discover. Share.

3. James Cameron

4. • Doug Baker, EMU, EMWP
• douglas.baker@emich.edu
• Julie King, Livonia Public Schools
• jak15@earthlink.net
• Jeffrey Taylor, Ann Arbor Public Schools
• taylorje@aaps.k12.mi.us
• Julie Blomquist, Livonia Public Schools
• julie@blomquistweb.com
• Lauren Luedtke, International Academy Bloomfield Hills
◦ lauren.e.luedtke@gmail.com

5.  How do real-world, professional scientists
use writing?
 Who are the “consumers”, or the audiences,
of scientific writing?
 What are the “genres” of scientific thinking?
 How is writing connected to scientific
thinking?
 What do our students need to know and be
able to do?
 How can we prepare them for future literacy
demands while increasing science learning?

6. Why Write? How writing both shapes and shows
learning. – Julie King, Emerson Middle School, Livonia
Science Literacy and the Wonder Wall: Capturing
Curiosity the „Write‟ Way – Jeffrey Taylor, Clague
Middle School, Ann Arbor
Scientific Discoveries: Incorporating Writing
To Think Like a Scientist – Julie Blomquist, Emerson
Middle School, Livonia
Science and Literacy Standards – Lauren
Luedtke, International Academy, Bloomfield Hills

7.  Writing forces the brain to slow down
and search more deeply for meaning.
“The act of putting pen to paper encourages
pause for thought, this in turn makes us think
more deeply about life, which helps us regain
our equilibrium.”
~Norbet Platt

8.  Writing is generative.
“How can I know what I think until I see
what I say?”
E.M. Forster

9.  Writing increases “time on task”
“Writing, I think, is not apart from
living. Writing is a kind of double living.
The writer experiences everything
twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror
which waits always before or behind.”
~Catherine Drinker
Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957

10. Writing increases vocabulary
acquisition. Scientific thinking requires
language precision.
“The difference between the almost right word
and the right word is really a large matter - it's
the difference between the lightning bug and
the lightning. ”
~Mark Twain

11. Capturing student curiosity the “write” way
Jeffery Taylor
Ann Arbor Public Schools

12.  With a group of 3 or 4, write down questions
about energy.
◦ What are you curious about?
◦ Is there anything in the news that makes you
wonder?
 Mrs. Taylor Octane story
 Share with large group

13.  Before we began our session I had posters
on the wall from my 8th grade physical
science class
 Take 3 minutes to discuss the questions
below with people at your table
 What did you notice about what the
students wrote?
 Do you think that they were intrinsically
motivated?
 What questions caught your attention?

14.  Science investigation is being curious about
our surroundings and finding truths about
the physical World
 Simply working through the curriculum
often fails to give students a chance to
investigate and research
 Students need an opportunity to think
about how the “real world” relates to what
they are learning in class
 Wondering idea came from 1st grade
teacher
 Why do we stop wondering?

15.  Students develop questions individually or
as a group
 Can occur before or after a unit of study
 Teachers choose common questions and
place them on a “Wonder Wall” or present
them in another way
 Students can use their own questions if
approved by teacher
 Students share what they learned through a
simple one page paper-Show on ELMO

16.  Share examples of what students have
produced based on what they learned
 Follow-up questions or further curiosities
 How to share with others?

17.  Multiple age levels and topics
 Can happen at any point during a unit of
study
 Scaffolds students to become self-starters
and take control of their learning
 Students write to demonstrate what they
learned and to construct meaning

18. Please take 5 minutes to write down answers to
the following questions
 How can students use a multitude of genres
to present their findings?
 What form of sharing makes sense in your
classroom?
 How could you adapt this to fit your
curriculum?

19. Incorporating Writing to Think Like a Scientist
Julie Blomquist
julie@blomquistweb.com
7th/8th Grade Science
Emerson Middle School
Livonia Public Schools

20. A 7th grade unit supporting the
Michigan Science K-7 Content Expectations
Created by Battle Creek Area Mathematics &
Science Center

22.  The prescribed units are designed as whole
class inquiry, sharing, and discussion, but do
not promote enough individual
accountability.
 Kids may be new to the inquiry approach
(versus a teacher-delivery model)
 Weaknesses in language, thinking skills, and
expression – which limits class discussion

23.  WHY use Scientific Journals?
◦ Authentic piece of writing (scientists use journals)
◦ An expanded format that required more
information for students to “think” about
◦ forced students to collect more data and name the
details (use language – more expression)

24. Objective: prove that sound travels and learn to
describe; how sound transfers energy
 Activity: Use Scientific Discovery Journals
throughout the course of the unit

25. What do we know about Sound?
◦ Groups share knowledge about sound with class
What do we wonder about Sound?
◦ Groups were given time to ask QUESTIONS about
sound

29. Quickwrite:
What did you experience when you heard the
singing rod?
Write for 1 minute about your experience.
SHARE!
What did you feel? Hear?

30.  Importance of being specific and detailed in
our observations
◦ One person experiences a sound differently than
another person.
 Emphasized the use of descriptive words

31. 1. Refer to the Journal “sample” page – Write a
hypothesis about if and how sound will travel
through a meter stick and an aluminum foil
strip. These are two different types of solids.
2. Using two types of sound, (Tuning Fork &
Timer), experiment with different ways to allow
sound to travel through each solid.
3. Write down your observations in the
“Observation Chart.” Be descriptive! What do you
hear, feel, see?

32. Groups share experiences and how they
described what they observed about sound
traveling through a solid.

33. Write a Claim, Evidence, Scientific Reasoning Paragraph using data/observations from
the sound activities.
Refer to the Sound Travels Through Different Media ASSESSMENT Handout
Write a conclusion or scientific explanation for the investigation into how sound
travels through different media (types of matter – solids, liquids and gases). Include a
claim,evidence, and scientific reasoning in your response. Your response should be at
least one paragraph, five to six sentences. You response MUST include the following:
◦ Claim: A clear and concise statement of what you found out.
 This is a statement that is stating a fact about how sound travels through different media.
◦ Evidence: Data and observations from the three activities to support your claim.
 Your evidence is what you observed in your “Scientific Discovery” Booklets.
 You tested three types of media: solid, liquid and gas. You need to provide evidence of what you
observed in all THREE of these media.
◦ Reasoning: Scientific principles that support your claim and evidence.
 The reasoning is the science behind what you observed. What allowed sound to travel through
different media? You are explaining HOW and WHY sound traveled through all media.
 Think about the molecule arrangement in matter, and how the particles in solids, liquids and
gases are arranged differently.
 Consider the importance of vibration which allows sound to transfer its energy through different
material.

34. View Student “Scientific Discovery” Journals and
Claim/Evidence/Reasoning Paragraphs
What do you notice about the student writing?
How did Scientific Discovery Journals enhance
the students‟ writing?
What science principles or processes have
students gained?

35. Lauren Luedtke
International Academy
Bloomfield Hills, MI
Lluedtke@bloomfield.org

36. http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/stor
y.aspx?id=58847

37.  NSTA report on Next Generation Science Standards:
http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx
?id=58847
 ACHIEVE will use this document to create new
standards in science
 According to these standards our teaching
practices should be based on three dimensions
◦ Cross-cutting concepts
◦ Scientific and engineering practices
◦ Core ideas in four disciplinary areas (physical science, life
science, earth/space science, and engineering/technology)

38. a. scientific method
b. observation/inference
c. measurement
d. categorizing
information
e. real-life applications of
science
f. looking for patterns
g. cause and effect
h. systems, cycles, flow of
energy/matter

39. http://www.corestandards.org/

40.  Reading Standard 1: “[Students will be able to] cite
specific textual evidence to support analysis of
science and technical subjects”
 Common Core on Writing: “[Students] have to
become adept at…reporting findings from their
research and analysis of sources in a clear and
cogent manner”
 This is just like scientific thinking and just like how
scientists communicate their ideas!

42.  Internet sources –
Critical Literacy
 Interpreting and
creating diagrams –
Visual Literacy
 Discriminating
sounds – Auditory
Literacy

43. The Common Core prescribes three kinds of writing in the sciences
 Writing to persuade
 Writing to explain
How could I describe
that sound?  Writing to convey real
or imagined
experience
◦ “The Standards require
that students be able to
incorporate narrative
elements [description]
effectively into arguments
and
informative/explanatory
texts.”

44. The Aim of the Common Core

45. “…they become self-directed learners, effectively
seeking out and using resources to assist
them, including teachers, peers, and print and
digital reference materials”
[Students] build strong content knowledge
“Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide
range of subject matter”
[Students] value evidence
“[Students] use relevant evidence when supporting their
own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning
clear to the reader or listener….”

46. Questions?
Please contact any one of us for
more information.
Email addresses are in your packet.