ABSTRACT
Barika Wells was in her second year of teaching and was excited about implementing a writing project in her 8th-grade science class. She attended a summer institute that focused on how language activities could enhance students’ understanding of science, and increase students’ interest in science. This professional development program gave Barika the chance to work with other teachers and researchers on ways of helping students express their ideas as they learned science. One of the approaches developed was the use of a structured learning log involving a combination of open-ended and structured writing experiences related to science activities and projects. Diane, one of Barika’s colleagues, thought that the idea of a learning log was a waste of time because most kids couldn’t write sentences of more than five words. How would writing help them enhance their understanding of science? Furthermore, wasn’t science about hands-on learning and doing experiments? Barika was surprised at Diane’s response.
