Writing In Science

Recently our school attended a training called Talk Read Talk Write.  I really liked some of the ideas they shared on how to get our kids to write more in class so we attempted our first TRTW this week.  We are studying the types of cells and cell structures so we prompted our students with this question:

How do antibiotics "know" which cells to attack when you take them.  How do they know what is a good cell and what is a bacteria?

TALK: Students discussed this at their tables and then we made a list of potential hypothesis.  They had some really interesting thoughts and were very into the conversation. 

READ: We use a case study from the World Health Organization and modified it for a 7th grade reading level.  Students did a quick read of the case and we discussed as a class.

TALK: Students were given an envelope of thought questions to discuss at their table.  They read the questions out loud and discussed as a group and then we discussed them as a class. Again, they were very into the conversation and had a lot of thoughtful questions.

WRITE: Students were given this prompt to write about.  I was so impressed with the depth of their answers and this was a topic that they really had little prior knowledge of.

QUESTION: (We added this one) We asked students to generate a list of questions they still had regarding medicine, viruses, bacteria, and cancer.  We are going to incorporate these questions into our next lessons.

Overall, this was a great experience.  Here is a link to the Google folder with all the resources if you want to try it.