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Inside Writing Communities, Grades 3-5

Program 16: Writing in Science

The final program provides an example of content-area writing in a fifth-grade science class: recording observations about chicken bones as part of a lesson on anatomy.

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Notebook.

Watch the 30-minute video “Writing in Science.” Apply what you have learned in “Writing Across the Curriculum” as you watch the extended video of a classroom example.

Answer the questions that follow each segment, jotting down your answers in your notebook or using them as discussion starters.

Lindsay Dibert’s Class

In Lindsay Dibert’s science class, she is teaching her fifth-graders about scientific observation. Lindsay wants her students to understand that reading and writing occur in every subject area.

  • What are some of the ways in which Lindsay’s students are writing like scientists during this lesson?
  • What are some of the things you noticed Lindsay doing to support her students’ written descriptions of the bones?
  • How does this writing exercise help Lindsay’s students in their exploration of science? How does it help them as writers?

Lindsay Dibert: Lesson Background (PDF)