Teaching Students With Learning Disability and English Learners to Write Explanations in Secondary Science Classrooms

• In Event: Math and Science: STEM Instruction and Outcomes

Abstract

Using findings from a successful Cognitive Apprenticeship, we will share the essential elements of an effective science writing intervention for students with LD and EL with the audience. We used a single-case design (multiple-probe, multiple-baseline) to evaluate the effect of a scientific writing intervention that focused on writing explanations with three students with LD and three EL. We found substantial gains in all participating students’ causal and mechanistic reasoning, grammatical and lexical sophistication, length, and in holistic writing, quality after instruction. Our objective is to bridge the research to practice gap by providing a session for practitioners that is useful and practical for science teachers and special educators, who teach written argumentations and explanations that are critical in science learning.

Authors

• Yewon Lee, University of Maryland - College Park

• Susan De La Paz, University of Maryland

• Daniel M. Levin, University of Maryland - College Park