The Design and Use of Educative Curricular Supports for Text-Based Discussions in Science

Abstract

There are a number of challenges associated with using text in science to promote general literacy skills and advance conceptual understanding. This article identifies the principles that informed the design of educative curriculum supports for teaching such texts and reports how elementary teachers chose to use the supports, which included identified learning goals, discussion moves to support sensemaking with the text, and narratives of teachers’ uses of text in science teaching. The within- and across-teacher variations are discussed in terms of their implications for student learning opportunities and the future design of educative supports for text-based discussions.