Science Group

1. ECA Test Strategies

2. Data Analysis:
• Student weaknesses included:
– In English
• Reading Comprehension
– In Math
• Polynomials, Real Numbers, Quadratic Equations,
Cubics, and Radicals

3. Data Analysis:
• Students 36 and older had lower pass rates
than younger students.
• No SPED trends were found
• There was a higher percentage of women
passing the English ECA than men.
• There were higher percentages of men
passing the Algebra ECA than women.

4. Algebra Focus:
• Pertain to Chemistry and ICP
– Working on graph reading
– Reading for key information
– Word Problems
– Finding unknown quantities

5. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Algebra Knowledge:
• Graphing all measurements in labs
– Asking students to find data and then insisting
that students graph that data.

6. English Focus
• Biology, Chemistry, ICP
– Enhancing reading comprehension via
• Reading for key information
• Analyzing what you have read
• Word problems
• Introducing Case Studies
• Using textual evidence to support an argument.
• Reading from primary source material and relating it to
class material.
• Change assessment to reflect greater reading
comprehension.

7. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension.
• Know, Want to Know, Learned chart (KWL)
– Students activate prior knowledge by writing what
they would like to know about a topic.
– Students then predict what they will read and ask
questions based on their impression of the
material.
– Students have to pull key points out of the
material and reflect on their learning.

8. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension
• Concept Maps:
– Students must reflect on their learning to make
connections between topics. Instructor can then
ask students (optionally) to explain why they
made particular connections.
– If concept maps are done in groups, students must
discuss key points and connections as a group.

9. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension
• Using Case Studies:
– When using case studies to introduce content
material and increase reading comprehension,
students are forced to analyze text carefully for
clues and to pull relevant information out to come
to a conclusion.
– Done in group form, students must discuss what
they have read, which can further understanding.

10. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension
• Using Primary Source Material:
– Students are asked to read real articles related to
science and in more advanced cases, articles from
the primary literature. When coupled with class
discussion and comprehension questions, this
technique can familiarize students with reading
for content and analytical thinking.

11. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension
• Vocabulary/Word Wall:
– Students are front-loaded with content-centered
vocabulary as well as test-centered vocabulary.
This can increase reading comprehension and
reading fluency for source material as well as test
material.

12. Specific Techniques to Enhance
Reading Comprehension
• Cornell Notes:
– Students take notes that they are then asked to
pull key points from and summarize on their own.
– This helps students identify key points and think
analytically about what they have learned.

13. General techniques for better testing:
• Computer skills
– Typing proficiency
– Use of a mouse
– Accommodations for older students who are not
used to working from a computer screen.
• Consider this as a factor for 36 and older students
having difficulty on the ECA

14. Implementation in the Classroom
• Greater use of these literacy strategies:
– Asking the students to keep a notebook with or
without Cornell Notes
– Use concept maps as a review strategy before the
exams
– Setting up a word wall in the classroom, or spending
some time to front-load vocabulary in each lesson
– Asking students to do more computer-based work
– Giving students primary source material and asking
them to analyze articles based on work we are doing
in class.

15. Citations
50 Content area Strategies for Adolescent Literacy by Douglas fisher, Willima G. Brozo, Nancy Frey, Gay Ivey
Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning and Behavior Problems by Sharon Vaughn and Candace S. Bos
(McKeown, M.G. and Beck, I.L. (2004). Transforming knowledge into professional development resources: Six teacher
implement a model of teaching for understanding text. The Elementary Schoool Journal, 104, 391-408.
Bransford, J., Brown, A., and Cocking, R. (2002). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
READ 180 Professional Development
Robinson, D.H., Robinson, S.L., and Katayama, A.D. (1999). when words are represented in memory like pictures:
Evidence for spatial encoding of study materials. contemporary Educational Psychology, 24, 38-54.
Palinscar, A.S. and Brown, A.L. (1984), reciprocal teaching of comprehension fostering comprehension monitoring
activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117-175.
Brabham, E.G., and Villaume, S.K. (2001). building walls of words. The Reading Teacher, 54, 700-702.
Cunningham, P.M., and Allington, R.L. (2003). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write (3rd ed.). boston: Allyn
and Bacon.