In this article, Sabina Mammadova shares some useful digital learning tools to help science students practice reading articles and summarizing concepts through engaging activities
Reading has benefits such as increasing memory, forming discipline, broadening vocabulary and knowledge, improving creative, and critical thinking skills, increasing empathy, and developing concentration (Alex-Nmecha, 2019). According to Ajumobi (2017), leaders are readers, he claimed this idea due to having expert knowledge of readers and it can cause high-quality leadership skills.
Online Writing and Learning Link (OWLL) involves 3 main reading styles: skimming, scanning, and in-depth reading (Alex-Nmecha, 2019). Teachers can teach students these styles through the learning process. Skimming is related to reading the first sentences of paragraphs, heading, or headlines. Scanning is to search the main keywords in the text based on the purpose of the reader. In-depth reading involves reading the text in detail and trying to understand the main concept in the article, or story.
In Science, students need to be aware of cutting-edge technologies, news and read articles. Maybe they will be a researcher in the future but first need to practice reading articles. Students can improve their scientific terms by reading various articles in Integrated Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry) subjects, it will be helpful in terms of summarizing the idea about a concept and thinking comprehensively. The teacher can organize an activity for this assignment, students can sum up the information in an article by making Mind Map, they start to take notes, draw a table, then write the information in the table, or compare ideas in a Venn diagram. Students from all grades can be assigned to read articles on different websites. I try to read articles beforehand and share links with students.
Another type of assignment can be linked with reports, different organizations (WWF – World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic, NASA, etc.) have reported informative articles on biodiversity and climate change and content that can be associated with numerical data, and they can be assigned to students. Students will be able to meet with the report and write their own article by paraphrasing the text, interpreting, and analyzing graphs.
All the websites and digital learning tools mentioned below give a broad opportunity to teachers to use articles as a part of an assignment in the learning process. I hope that these resources will be helpful in your lessons.
Newsela
Newsela consists of many articles about different fields, and teachers can identify the difficulty level of words in an article based on class.
CK-12
The “Reading” category of CK-12 needs to be highlighted because it is a unique experience for educators and students. Students can highlight parts of the article, and take notes on the reading. Educators can assign this reading to the class by clicking the section “Assign to class” part in CK-12. Teachers can “Add the library” to this article. If the teacher already created the class, they also can share the resource with the class. Another privilege of this digital learning tool is “Customize” the article for their lessons.
National Geographic
The “Article” part of National Geographic is very useful for implementation in lessons because students also can find vocabulary on keywords. “Infographic” — this section also can be used during a lesson, students can analyze a given data on graphs, or convert the data to another type of graph.
WWF
World Wildlife Fund involves articles and reports about climate change, environmental problems, and their possible solutions.
Scientific American
Scientific American online journal involves various modern technologies and research in articles on Science and technology.
Wonderopolis
Teachers can write appropriate keywords to the “Search for Wonders” part of the Wonderopolis. Then you will find appropriate readings which are wondering you and your students. In the reading, there are photos, videos, and quizzes. After reading the article students can take a quiz, and check their understanding in the “Did you get it? Test your knowledge” section. Another point is keywords are highlighted in the article, it helps to find a definition of the keyword and expands students’ word bank.
Additionally, there is a “Wonder words” section, students can see the main keywords in this place. This part of the Wonderopolis allows matching keywords with an appropriate definition. It is one type of game, students will enjoy finding appropriate definitions for the key terms. In the “What are you wondering?” section students can write their questions on the topic about which they want to learn more on this issue. Other students can vote on their topic. May the creator of this digital resource can search for it and make reading and share it in Wonderopolis. Articles are not too long for reading, and the resource makes reading enjoyable.
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
I use articles from this website. Resources on the website can be useful, especially in Science, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and STEM (STEAM). The website of NASA contains various informative simulations, data, and graphs that can be useful in discussions on greenhouse gases, the Ozone layer, climate change, and different environmental issues.
NASA Science — Space Place contains informative readings, and simulations about a wide range of resources on space science, natural disasters, environmental problems, and technological equipment which has been designed for exploring space, the earth’s atmosphere, etc.
References
Ajumobi, C.J. (2017). Reading as a catalyst. Owerri: TJN Publishers.
Alex-Nmecha J. C., Horsfall M. N. (2019), Reading Culture, Benefits, and the Role of libraries in
the 21st century. The University of Nebraska Lincoln. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-
journal).
- - - - - - - -
** Not registered yet? Create your free profile here and add a response below **
To share your story, thoughts or ideas with the ISN community, please send your article draft directly to our editorial team here, or email us at [email protected]