BESA CORNER
This month in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear from COLLINS and STAEDTLER
Words matter, even to a scientist Many science teachers
Comment by ED WALSH, Science Consultant and award-winning author for Collins
will have encountered the situation where a student has understood a scientific idea and can, in a one-to-one
conversation, explain why something happens. For example, explaining why a wet surface drops in temperature as the water on it evaporates. However, when the same student is faced with a GCSE-style question on the same topic, they woefully underperform. “Their science is good,” the teacher pronounces, “but it’s their literacy that’s letting them down.” This can then lead to a degree of tension. Is it the science teacher’s job to teach them how to construct a written response? Should the next science lesson forego introducing new scientific ideas but revisit existing ones using longer written answers? Is there a balancing act between covering the huge amount of content in a GCSE specification and developing the skills for producing quality written responses? A deficiency in either, after all, can lead to underperformance in exams.
I would suggest three underlying principles as a way forward: • All teachers are teachers of literacy
The first is that all teachers are teachers of literacy. We all develop reading, speaking and listening and writing skills in our students, not least in the way we model them in our own behaviour. I intentionally use the term ‘teachers of literacy’ rather than ‘teachers of English’ as the skills of literacy are used by all.
• Science needs literacy
Secondly, it is unhelpful to counterpose science and literacy. Our student who can explain that water needs energy to evaporate and takes this from the surface it is on, thus cooling it, is using both science and literacy. They are understanding the concept, using key terms, constructing explanations and identifying cause and effect. Extending this to writing is further developing the quality of the explanation. Writing a short paragraph as a follow on from uttering a couple of sentences should lead to a better account and that’s part of being a scientist.
• A diagnostic approach is key
Thirdly, it’s important for teachers to be diagnostic about their students’ learning needs. A useful way of thinking about literacy is in terms of three levels – word, sentence and text. Students need a clear grasp of the key words, to be able to produce quality sentences and to organise text so it has a logical flow. Teaching will be more effective if it focuses upon one of these at any one time. Trying to hit all three at once is likely to result in cognitive overload and not much progress.
There is a challenge here, of course. We must cover the content and we have to ensure students are able to produce quality written responses. I was privileged recently to work as part of a team producing the Collins AQA GCSE Science Now Teacher Resource Pack which offers a practical way forward on this very issue. Here, we assert that every lesson should address key aspects of the Science specification – so that students are always ‘learning about science’ – but that there is always a literacy outcome as well. This isn’t always easy – as scientists, we have some great stories to tell about how ideas developed have enabled all kinds of explanations to be produced, and this can sometimes dominate our teaching. Similarly, we may be tempted to drill into students the use of key words, removing them from their context and ‘just getting them to learn them.’ Science is, ultimately, a literary construct; without language there is no science. In a world with no language, plants would still photosynthesise, but we wouldn’t be able to explain why.
Find out more at:
https://collins.co.uk/ 16
www.education-today.co.uk
STAEDTLER Teachers’ Club: a free platform for UK primary school teachers
Established in 2012, STAEDTLER Teachers’ Club is a free online platform for primary school teachers, offering hundreds of teaching resources, free stationery samples, and regular classroom competitions to educate and entertain pupils. The member platform is refreshed throughout the year, ensuring that its contents remain as relevant as possible to both teachers and students.
Over the last twelve years, STAEDTLER Teachers’ Club has built up a strong following within the UK education sector with thousands of new teachers joining the platform every year. The Club is open to primary school teachers and support staff (e.g. LSAs / TAs) and currently has nearly 25,000 members, and a social media following of over 44,000.
As a UK Superbrand, STAEDTLER is committed to providing teachers with the very best educational resources. Through close collaboration with its existing member-base, STAEDTLER ensures that content shared on the platform is always curriculum-linked and devised with teachers in mind - thereby ensuring that the Club offers real value for teachers.
What’s more, STAEDTLER regularly partners with well-known brands - from WHSmith to PRITT and TTS - offering everything from discounts on STAEDTLER products to product giveaways and even joint classroom competitions.
One of the Club’s annual classroom competitions is ‘Sketching Stars’, which sees STAEDTLER partner with a different creative brand every year. The competition celebrates the creativity of primary school pupils, highlighting skills in sketching and art as stepping stones to rewarding future careers. Having covered everything from illustration to architecture and toy design over the years, in 2023, the Club partnered with Disney’s The Lion King to explore creative careers in costume design.
Teachers from all over the UK applied and two lucky winning schools received an extensive prize that included: · A Disney Musicals in Schools workshop · A personal STAEDTLER stationery bundle · A bumper STAEDTLER stationery bundle for their class · Two tickets for the winning teachers to see Disney’s The Lion King live in London — with travel and accommodation paid by STAEDTLER Teachers’ Club
In addition to all these incredible benefits, STAEDTLER Teachers’ Club also gives its members an opportunity to connect with other teachers, offering a safe platform to share ideas and ask questions. The Club even offers occasional opportunities to attend FREE CPD events, having previously welcomed hundreds of teachers to the Club’s first-ever conference: ‘Teacher Talk’. The event welcomed well-known speakers from across the education sector, including the much-loved Mr P ICT.
To sign up now to become a free member and explore the wealth of benefits on offer for primary school teachers and pupils, visit:
https://www.teachersclub.staedtler.co.uk/
September 2024
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