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Teaching & Reading Strategies in Science

The sciences are a diverse subject area. Comprising everything from microbiology to astronomy, the natural sciences aim to describe just about every aspect of the world. Naturally, many topics in the sciences are highly technical in nature. These topics can be hard to teach and read, because they use complex technical jargon. However, with patience and practice, it is possible to teach your students in the sciences and have them read independently as well.
  1. Summaries

    • Summarization is a strategy that applies to both teaching and reading in the sciences. From a teaching perspective, you can use summaries to explain parts of a passage before assigning it to the students. For example, suppose you want to assign reading from page 10 to 20 in the textbook to your students, but page 18 has complex material that the students may not understand; you can summarize the content from page 18 to your students. From a reading perspective, if students write a one-paragraph summary of their nightly reading, it will help them understand and digest the material.

    Pre-Reading

    • Pre-reading is a well-known teaching and reading strategy in the sciences. In a pre-reading session, the teacher reviews the topic of the reading so that the class will have a context for understanding the material. After the teacher is finished, the student looks at the topic for the reading, then writes down the sub-topics that they already understand in that topic. The combination of explanation and knowledge review helps the student understand the material in the reading.

    Annotation

    • Annotation is a classic reading strategy that is used in many subjects, including the sciences. When annotating a reading, students underline key sentences, definitions and paragraphs. For example, a student doing an annotation exercise may make a mental note to underline every definition they encounter that pertains to a certain sub-topic in the reading. Some students also add their own notes to a textbook, elaborating on the words used by the author.

    Problem Based Learning

    • Problem-based learning is a teaching and reading strategy unique to the sciences. In problem-based learning, teachers assign problems to students and have them provide solutions. Problem-based learning is traditionally applied to math problems, but can be used for scientific readings, too. For example, if a textbook has a series of questions at the end of the chapter, the teacher can assign a few of these questions to test whether the student is reading the chapter. The student would be given marks based on whether they answered the questions, and whether they answered correctly.

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