When to read what how

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Further to my post about the difficulty in getting the right pitch in nonfiction reading in middle school, the discussion continued with science teachers about what students read (or don’t – thanks youtube) and how scientific time at school is used. And this is something I find incredibly weird as a non-science teacher, non science-curriculum creator, but as a parent of two kids having gone through science in PYP, iGCSE and MYP and DP. They spend a LOT of time and energy on lab-reports. Which often, no matter how heavily it’s scaffolded (and believe me I’m yet to see a lab report assignment that’s not heavily scaffolded) but they don’t spend any time until the IB reading a scientific journal article. And then probably only if they’re doing an EE (extended essay) on a scientific topic. And the skills required may or may not be explicitly taught depending on whether the librarian gets a look in, and depending on the supervisor and how much time they have.

Does anyone else find this strange? I’m wondering if we could somehow create a phased cross-walk between popular science articles in various areas to the original research that gave rise to those media interpretations (or misinterpretations as the case may be). Phased as in the sense of starting with the LCD of the abstract and conclusion and working up to sample size, statistics chosen and interpreted, hypothesis, methodology, experiment (link to the dreaded lab report) etc.

Am I talking nonsense? I’m thinking something very graphic so it’s pretty obvious. Or they create the graphic. By the time they get to the IB or university they don’t have the time to both do the writing needed and learning the decoding skills surely we should start earlier?

Author: Nadine Bailey

I’m currently living in Dubai, UAE, which is the latest in a long line of places I’ve been living in the last few years including China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, and South Africa. I’m married with two adult children. Having lived around the world I’ve acquired quite a few languages and my big passion is bi/multi-lingualism and - culturalism, which I try to incorporate into my work, learning and essays wherever possible! I finished my MIS degree in December 2014 and my M Ed (Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation) in October 2016. My murky past is in commerce and industry as a Chartered Accountant, doing a lot of random studying and learning and I’m currently working in an American School but have been a librarian PYP, MYP and IB in other international schools. View all posts by Nadine Bailey