ECET - Lesson Idea New Orleans - Shelia Banks
"Literacy in Physics: Reading a Primary Source"
Program Transcript

Shelia Banks (Interview):
One of the Common Core standards that I wanted to address today was to expose the students to a complex piece of literature, and have them analyze that piece of literature, which was a journal article, in terms of their vocabulary awareness and the different components of an article.

Banks:
This is a journal article that was written by researchers. This is what we call a primary source of literature. So take the article out, and today you're gonna be reading the article in pairs, or your literacy groups. I want you to skim through that entire article. Okay? That was written by a scientist. The format of your lab report is going to be analogous to the format of this paper right here. I want you writing like a researcher, like a scientist, like a grad student, like a professional.

Banks (Interview):
The students have been working on their building bridges module, and they've learned about forces and how forces impact bridges, and how to calculate and solve for results in forces. For many of them it was the first time they were seeing a scientific research paper in relation to the project that they're currently working on.

Banks:
Pay attention to these parts right here: the abstract, the intro, and the conclusion, and to identify your vocabulary words, and it shouldn't take you long to answer those questions.

Banks (Interview):
So in their first task, the students were told to find five vocabulary words from the article, and I didn't specify which words I wanted them to find, because I felt like that was a subjective topic, and I wanted to see how much they knew and how much that language meant to them.

Student 1:
Propagate.

Student 2:
Cantilever. Like, it's some type of lever.

Student 3:
Like that?

Student 2:
Yeah.

Student 3:
Oh…

Student 2:
It's-- You know what a lever is, right?

Student 3:
Mhm

Student 2:
All right, then.

Student 3:
You can still put it…

Student 2:
All right.

Banks (Interview):
By incorporating the Common Core state standards into science classrooms, it now incorporated literacy into our classrooms as well. In the past, science teachers have had students read and write, but what we were lacking was that complex level of text. We were missing the piece of the puzzle where we guided them from being high school students and guiding them into reading more like a college student.

Banks:
So in that article, though, there's gonna be a lot more words. Whenever we read, um, journals like this. This is not written for a layperson. This is written for other scientists and other professionals. So the layperson like you and I may have to spend some time deciphering those words, so that we can fully understand what it means.

Banks (Interview):
So after the students read the article, they, in their pairs, had to respond to a survey that was actually posted on their classroom website.

Student 4 (reading):
Why would this article be relevant to a layperson?
Banks:
Scientists do research so that they can share with other scientists, but they also do things that benefit the community. So this is a little bit of both.

Student 5 (reading):
What was the author's purpose in writing the article? To describe and to tell how bridges are made, and how structurally safe they are.

Banks (Interview):
I chose to use a Google document for the purpose of being able to share their responses with the entire classroom, and that was actually a really rewarding experience because they could see where their classmates were. They knew what to expect just by looking up at the board and seeing the responses of their classmates.

Banks:
I wanted you to state the purpose of the author writing that article. Um, to show how complex bridges are. Bridges are very complex structures. They're fascinating. Unlike a building, a bridge you can actually see its skeleton. To show the people around the world how bridges are built, to give us plenty of information on bridges, and I'm sure you appreciate that…

Banks (Interview):
So after the students completed their surveys, they worked with their engineering team to complete their web quest, and the purpose of the web quest was for them to look at the weight of structures, loads, materials, and shapes, and see how all that comes together to build a supporting force.

Banks:
This is an interactive lab, and I want you to use this lab and the terms inside of it to fill in the spaces in your writers' notebook. On the shapes section, feel free to play with the little sliders.

Student 6 (reading):
When a straight material becomes curved, one side squeezes together and the other side stretches apart. This action is called bending.

Student 7:
Move it. Let's see what happens.

Student 6:
Oh, that's like a block. Or something. You know, like one of those things that do this. Like a ruler.

Banks:
So why might you need to know something about twisting and turning and soft soil. How would that effect us?

Student 6:
We need to know how they build the bridges. How they go up and then they just go down.

Banks:
Right. What we do, we drill pylons into the ground, until we reach like solid soil that's not gonna move. And then when the bridge meets the pylon, there should be something, some kind of cylindrical shape that's gonna allow it to kind of roll just a tiny bit. Now, if you look at a bridge long enough, you're not gonna see these actions, okay? These are for like, very minute movements.

Banks (Interview):
The Common Core was new to teachers, but what we have to understand is that it's new to our students as well. So, for my students to come into their physics class, and to all of a sudden do all this reading and writing, it was a big adjustment for them. So, uh, one challenge has been, you know, getting the students comfortable with reading these higher-level science texts, and writing about them and writing at this level that, in the past they couldn't see themselves doing.