Virginia M Oberholzer vandergon
Norman E Herr
Brian J Foley
Matthew A d'Alessio
Li Ye
San Fernando Valley Science Project
Project Type:
Project
Project Sponsors:
- UC Regents
Project Award:
- $401,022
Project Timeline:
2015-07-01 – 2017-06-30
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Project Team:
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In the upcoming years, teachers of science and science educators will continue to be challenged by the concurrent demands of implementation in the their classrooms of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Literacy in Science and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Additionally, the new English Language Development (ELD) Standards call all teachers, not only ELD teachers, to become knowledgeable and proficient about strategies that facilitate the acquisition of English language for all students within a rigorous academic content. The confluence of these new policy demands within classroom instruction does indeed provide a significant challenge, in particular because the new instructional vision set forth by these documents and the corresponding frameworks require that students become actively engaged in co-developing their understanding of scientific phenomena as well as master new disciplinary practices that require a considerable use of oral and written discourse capacities. The new standards, however, also highlight the opportunity to closely examine potential alignments across all these demands and suggest deep shifts in instructional practices. In fact, the similarities embedded in the various disciplinary contexts would allow for all students to receive a more systematic and coordinated education in science that would supports simultaneously the development of the English language while acquiring disciplinary knowledge and skills.