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Abstract
Whereas science teachers in the last century were trained to place empirical activities at the heart of school science (Yore, Bisanz & Hand, 2003) and give relatively less attention to language issues, fundamental literacy (as defined by Norris & Phillips, 2003) is now recognised as having a crucial role in learning science. However, there have been few research reports detailing just how experienced secondary science teachers go about teaching the language and literacies necessary for school science, especially for students who have low literacy skills. This paper explores the literacy-teaching practices of a teacher of “learning support” students during a double-period Earth science class. While the focus was on the science content, many reading and writing skills were taught either as part of the lesson plan or incidentally, thus ensuring that all students could participate more fully. Implications for science teaching and teacher professional development are discussed.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Research Article
EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2009, Volume 5, Issue 3, 289-304
https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75280
Publication date: 22 Jan 2009
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