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Part of the Integrating Literacy Strategies into Science Instruction Curriculum Collection.
This strategy allows students to read a text independently but with coaching that does not require the teacher to read alongside the student. Think of it as a sort of interactive read-aloud that a student can engage in with a peer. The teacher selects a particular text based on relevant science content, and designs a set of instructions for students to follow as they read the text with a partner. The instructions tell the student partners when to stop and what to do. For instance, it may prompt partners to sketch based on what the text is telling them and share their text with their partner; underline the most important sentence in a paragraph and compare the sentence they selected with their partner’s; paraphrase a certain section to a partner; write a summary and compare their summary to their partner’s. This strategy is an effective way for teachers to provide support for students’ reading complex science content through peer interaction.
These resources were developed with the generous support of The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation.