ABSTRACT
A dramatic shift in thinking concerning the role of language in science learning is occurring in science education. In the past, many science educators were skeptical of integrating reading and writing with hands-on science inquiry because of the likelihood that doing science would morph into reading about science or writing a fiction story about a science-related topic. The danger that investigative science will shift to language arts lessons using science examples is as real at present as it was in the past. Elementary teachers are confronted in the No Child Left Behind (2001) era with daily pressures to increase reading and mathematics instruction as a way to improve student achievement, often at the expense of science and social studies. If science is going to be taught at all, some teachers, particularly primary teachers, believe it is necessary to integrate it with other areas of the curriculum. Science and language educators are now researching and developing methods of harnessing the power of integrating reading and writing as tools for expanding children’s science thinking and conceptual development within the context of inquiry learning experiences. (Fellows, 1994; Holliday, Yore, & Alvermann, 1994; McKee & Ogle, 2005; Pearson & Barber, 2005; Thier, 2002) Children engaging in guided hands-on inquiries can authentically apply reading and 80writing skills at each stage of their investigation, as scientists do, while they develop their science knowledge and communication skills. The use of science notebooks and nonfiction science literature has begun rebalancing science and language learning.
