Integrating Reading into Middle School Science: What we did, found and learned

Abstract

Recent calls for border crossing between reading and science have heightened the need to support science teachers in integrating reading into science and to verify the robustness of this approach in the context of inquiry‐based science. In this paper, we share what we did, found, and learned in a collaborative project in which a team of university‐based reading educators and school‐based science teachers worked together to infuse reading strategy instruction and quality science trade books into inquiry‐based sixth‐grade science classrooms. We suggest that infusing reading into middle school science enhances science teaching and learning, but is a complex, multifaceted undertaking.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a Multi‐University Reading, Mathematics and Science Initiative (MURMSI) grant funded by the US Department of Education and coordinated through Florida State University’s Learning Systems Institute. The views expressed in the article are not necessarily endorsed by the funding agency. We thank Youhua Wei for his assistance with statistical analysis.