Jessica Chitwood 2/13/14 I attended the SVRC meeting on February 11.

At the meeting SVRC honored the teacher of the year and shared important information about upcoming events to promote reading. The guest speaker at the meeting was Katie Hilden from Radford University. She highlighted books, teaching strategies, and authors that are great for incorporating science and literature. One of the first and most overarching points Dr. Hilden discussed was focused on a quote from David Pearson, Make reading a buddy instead of a bully in the content areas. A lot of times when students reach third grade and through the rest of their schooling careers they must rely on reading for information as part of their learning. Often deficits in student knowledge and competition for instruction time put reading and science at odds. However, reading can reinforce content knowledge and help students to learn about science in a more dynamic way than utilizing hands on experiences alone. When teachers effectively combine science and literature the outcome for students is greater knowledge acquisition and understanding of both areas. Dr. Hilden did give a warning that as teachers we have to be on the lookout for quality literature that is scientifically accurate because students believe what they read. Dr. Hilden went on to describe strategies teachers can use to engage students with science literature and informational texts. In Idea Circles each student becomes a sort of expert as they dive deep into content knowledge and share their ideas on a topic of interest with their peers. Informational text is not the only way to incorporate science and literature; poetry books, chapter books, biographies and some picture books can still provide a lot of useful science information and teach students more about the role of being a scientist. Some of these books include Swirl by Swirl, Mammoths On the Move, and I, Galileo. Another strategy for comprehension is OWL which involves asking 3 questions. What do I observe? What do I want to know? What did I learn? This strategy reminds me of the before during and after approach to teaching a lesson. The first question about observing sets the stage and helps identify what we might want to know more about as we read. With this in mind students know what they are looking for as they read for specific information in the text. Finally, the third question allows students an opportunity to reflect and restate what they read. Other teaching strategies included the Two-Word Strategy and the Shape It Up activity. Both of these activities require students to summarize and pick out the most important points from what they read. One strategy that I particularly like is the idea of book buddies. This strategy involves older students summarizing more complex books for younger students. Younger students get accessible content knowledge and older students get to practice summary skills. Dr. Hilden shared some of the top authors of science literature for children. As a child I remember reading Seymour Simon books in my later elementary years. Looking back at the books now from the perspective of a teacher is interesting because while I liked the pictures in these books as a child I remember reading only a few pages and then flipping through the pictures. Especially for younger students, summarizing or focusing only on a few pages in depth can be beneficial to student learning. I was impressed by the strategies that can be used to make difficult informational reading developmentally appropriate. I am amazed that some authors such as Mary Kay Carson and Gail Gibbons have such an ability to explain science to kids in ways that make sense to them. In the past I have struggled trying to think of good ways to explain or word something so students can understand. These women have a knack for meeting children at their level to learn about advanced concepts. Dr.

Jessica Chitwood 2/13/14 Hilden left us with a huge number of resources which include websites, quality periodicals and a cheat sheet for trade books matching up with specific SOLs. I found the presentation to be highly informing and directly useful to teachers. Teachers are busy and oftentimes planning new types of activities can be time consuming. Dr. Hilden gave us a road map to incorporating literature into science curriculum. I left the meeting with knowledge about strategies, authors, books that relate well to certain SOLs, and an excitement for utilizing literature to teach and reinforce science knowledge. I am most likely doing my read aloud activity during content time in my first grade practicum. The book list Dr. Hilden gave us is a great resource for matching quality books to the appropriate first grade SOLs. I also had further opportunity to practice some of the strategies Dr. Hilden highlighted in a grade level meeting with the first grade teachers and the principal at my practicum placement. The principal incorporated the Two Word strategy while we read a brief article on resilience. The strategies Dr. Hilden shared seem highly effective for adults and even more so for students who are learning to read informational texts. With the huge focus on math and reading in education, science and other content areas are often pushed to the side. By incorporating science through literature we are accomplishing multiple reading and science objectives at the same time. Again, I think the biggest take away from this presentation is that literature and science are buddies that build each other up, not bullies that compete for instruction time.