Reading Engagement

Reading Engagement Blog

Liam Breathnach

For our Framing our Reading – Engagement project Yetunde and I chose a text from an online website Science News for Students . https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/silencing-genes-understand-them . The article is to do with learning what individual genes do and what lessons we can learn and applications we could make or use from the gained knowledge.  

I believe the article is interesting and should be able to capture the interest of the students. I think the simplicity of the idea and overall investigative process will resonate with students. It may make Science seem accessible and give them some confidence if they think “well I could have told them to turn them off and see what happens!”. The article and work is portrayed as being very collaborative and in the present. Students these days are more open to collaborative work and it will make it more real world to the students to know that all this research is currently being explored, with lots of new information and discoveries continuously being made (McLaughlin, 2015). I feel it is often true that some of the darker and more fantastical areas of Science are more appealing to our students and talk of Genetic disease certainly covers this. Students can gain an appreciation of disease being about more than microbes. Also I think they appreciate when I say that there are a lot of things unanswered in genetics, and that the possibilities are pretty endless despite the fact most of us end up looking overwhelmingly alike.

One topic I tend to raise during content such as this is, in the near future we will all be able to, and may be required to have our DNA sequenced. That information will be stored, but whose is it? I ask them to think about whose that is by right, and discuss ramifications of that question. I let them know that this will be an important issue in their lives and they will likely have to vote one way or another on this issue. It’s all very Dewey-esque! (Flinders and Thornton, 2013)

The article has many positives. There is good scaffolding within the article that will either help the students comprehend or will give some review of content they previously learned. I like that there is viewpoints from many scientists in various locations. This will give students thought for the possibilities in science research and insight into the type of work it is.

There is a good range of opinion and fact in the article. There are views from multiple scientists, but they are not conflicting. It gives and overall collaborative sense with many different people working on related projects for the greater good. You gain insight into their character and the system of work. Students will see the overall optimism in the article and how the work is trial and error. They will also read how new and unexpected things are being learned too. The fear of being wrong in school has a negative impact but these scientists readily admit it and show it as part of the process.  

Students should have some background knowledge of genetics and cell biology before reading this text. That’s is very likely though. There is some vocabulary about genetics and cell structure which will need to be investigated if the students have not retained their previous learning. The text also goes into some detail on the process of RNA interference and vectors used for inserting synthetic triggers into the cells. There are multiple contributors to the text which can make it more difficult but it is written explicitly with each interviewee well introduced and separated. I think showing the various lines of research is also a positive for the reader.  

The text is typical of many scientific articles which often have text frames related to cause and effect. The article looks at strategies to explain how genes work and how science can answer this questions. This article also has a goal/action/outcome text frame. It shows some objectives scientists have and explains how they are trying to achieve them (Buehl, 2014). There are some strong Big Ideas and Essential Questions in this piece. Genetics is an area of great shown to be at the cutting edge and there is lots of research being currently done. There is plenty that we know but in getting more focused on individual genes we need to work out what each one does and how they work together. Students should appreciate the scope of genetics research is enormous and think about what the ramifications of this work are. If students reflect on and shape their thinking around these ideas while reading, it will help them process and assimilate the information (Buehl, 2014).

The text is not too difficult. There are lots of different section s with different scientists but it should not cause too much issue. There are some times when words are used in a context the students may not have seen before and should be noted in the teachers preparation. Interference and triggers are words which should be discussed while going through the text. Other phrases like having germs ferry the markers, may need to be discussed.

The article appears to be written for students. It would also be on a good level for members of the general public who have a passing interest in Biology, genetics or cutting edge healthcare. It is not aimed at people already in those fields. The content is relevant and timely enough for them but the depth of information would not be sufficient.

The article does give lots of helpful additions to the text. There are headings to help the reader segment the material and get prompts about what is contained. The article also has labelled pictures and diagrams to give added insight and scaffolding to the reader. There is even a glossary to help with words that may cause trouble. The teacher can easily use all these tools when modelling the strategies readers need to become independent readers (Buehl, 2014).  

Introducing texts like these can be aided by a preparatory exercise. We both came up with strategies to try and introduce the material. Before rereading the article I would give a written exercise. There was a sheet of written sentences and I would ask students to remove either punctuation or a word, in order to change the meaning of the sentence. This was to prepare them for the concept of switching something off that will have an effect on the greater whole. In reading the article again I think the exercise worked well. It is a good way to get into the mindset of what the article is about. If the engagement exercise is well constructed, the teacher will be able to include thought on the scientific method and bring up the concept of trial and error, a theme in the article. It might stimulate student thought into how preconceptions can be incorrect and different people can come up with different solutions to issues. Yetunde recommended using a prepared worksheet of questions which would gauge understanding and previous knowledge that the students have. This idea also has great merit. Students would be engaged with the content and have thoughts and questions in their minds before reading. Also having written answers before the reading, the students would be encouraged to reflect with their previous answers and they could see what progress they have made in reading the article and modify their schema if necessary (Snowman & McCown, 2015). This would be a good opportunity for the teacher to use a class discussion or debate to talk out the reasons for changes or preconceptions and possibly alter people’s outlooks for the content or their views on it.

Thanks

References

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness.    

                Boston, MA: Pearson

Buehl, D. (2014). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (4^th Ed.). International Reading

                Association

Flinders, D. & Thornton, S. (2013). The Curriculum Series Reader (4^th Ed.). Routledge

McCown, R. & Snowman, J. (2015). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed.). Stamford, Connecticut:

              Cengage Learning.