Designing Text Use for Science Teachers with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown

Designing Text Use for Science Teachers with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown about using and selecting texts in Science classrooms. They discuss why teachers should go beyond just teaching the textbook, and how teachers can find authentic, engaging, and appropriately challenging multimodal texts for their classrooms. They also discuss how teachers can go about teaching these multimodal texts to their students, so they can be accessible for all students. This conversation centers on their article: Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

Cynthia Greenleaf, Senior Research Scientist (emerita) in Literacy at WestEd, is a passionate advocate for high-quality literacy education for all. Dr. Greenleaf leads collaborative, design-based research supporting the ongoing development of Reading Apprenticeship and its inquiry-based professional learning model and contributes to national and international efforts to advance academic and disciplinary literacies. Her work to design, develop, and bring Reading Apprenticeship to scale has improved teaching and learning for hundreds of thousands of secondary and college students and their teachers, nationally and internationally. A member of the Reading Hall of Fame and recipient of several awards and honors, Dr. Greenleaf received her doctorate in language and literacy education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kathleen A. Hinchman, PhD., is a literacy education Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. She has taught, coached, and conducted research in elementary, secondary, adult literacy, and literacy teacher education settings. She has published numerous articles, chapters, and texts and served on local, state, and national literacy-related boards of directors. Her participation in this science and literacy collaborative design study stemmed from her lifelong interest in studying approaches that optimize disciplinary teachers’ support of students’ literacies. She can be reached at kahinchm@syr.edu.

Willard Brown is STEM instructional coach for Envision Schools. Dr. Brown leverages his passion for literacy to support learning outcomes in STEM education and support the Envision Schools vision for pro-Black education. Previously, Willard worked at WestEd providing Reading Apprenticeship professional development and researching disciplinary literacy and science instruction. Earlier, he taught high school science in the Oakland Public Schools. His classes appear in multiple publications and instructional videos. Willard holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Resources:

Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

https://readingapprenticeship.org/resources/

Scroll down to select from a list of resource types linking to classroom resources, classroom videos, and curriculum. Open source curriculum units developed during this project are housed on this website, along with instructional support for teachers, videos of classroom instruction, and resources for school teams.