MMSTLC NEWS & EVENTS

The Michigan Department of Education recently announced the publication of two new support documents for science educators, intended to address curricular and literacy issues in science instruction, and an online tool for grade 3-5 educators. These should be helpful in addressing how curriculum materials are structured to meet the grade level expectations, and to support teachers in using writing to support learning and assessment.

The first support document is the K-7 Science GLCE Companion Clarification Document. This document breaks the GLCE into 4 units per grade. Within each unit are:

• Instructional Clarifications
• Assessment Clarifications
• Content Specific Inquiry expectations
• Assessable Vocabulary
• Instructionally useful Vocabulary
• Instruments, Measurements, and Representations
• Instructional Examples using the 5 E model
• Enrichment and Intervention Strategies
• Real World Examples, Observations, and Phenomena
• Literacy Integration
• Mathematics Integration

The second support document is a science specific Writing Across the Curriculum booklet. In this booklet are many science specific strategies and examples how to incorporate writing into the classroom. The booklet is divided into two sections:

• Writing to Learn (15 strategies)
• Writing to Demonstrate Knowledge (8 formats)

Finally, a new tool called Science Builder, which was originally distributed on CD last fall, is now available online. Science Builder is a searchable, visual, science dictionary; written with an accurate, developmentally appropriate definition students can hear, read, and see by graphic representation. Students and teachers can search the alphabetical list on the left or by specific content expectation. Teachers using the program will find included terms linked to short formative assessments provided to gauge student progress. This tools is designed for use in grades 3-5.

All of these resources can be found on the MDE website under “What’s New”.

You can find individual grade level companion documents here.
(or by clicking on the “K-7 GLCE Science Curriculum Documents” link under Curriculum and Instruction Heading on www.michigan.gov/science.

Direct links to the documents are:
K-4 GLCE Companion Document [.pdf]
5-7 GLCE Companion Document [.pdf]
Writing Across the Curriculum Document [.pdf]

You can find Science Builder online directly here.

Visit Moodle section of our site to get user name and password.