Creating Scientific Communities in the Elementary Classroom

Based on transcripts of classroom conversations and samples of children's writing, Creating Scientific Communities looks at the social context of the elementary classroom and its impact on science teaching and learning. In lessons structured much like those in a writers workshop, group work in science is bracketed by whole class meetings, providing numerous opportunities for students to construct meaning through dialogue with each other and their teacher. Throughout the lessons, the teachers use a variety of discourse strategies - including questioning, modeling, and dialogue journals - to support, extend, and ultimately assess their students' understanding. In Creating Scientific Communities, you will witness how these teachers and researchers collaborated to develop classroom environments in which students learn more than scientific concepts and procedural skills, they acquire the values and attitudes associated with successful scientific collaboration.