Science · evidence · inquiry
Disciplinary Literacy for Science
A focused professional-learning page for science teachers on reading data, figures, experiments, explanations, scientific vocabulary, and claims based on evidence.
Use the Ohio companion and guide to frame the session. Watch the video with the right-side resources open, then choose one science-specific routine to adapt for an upcoming investigation or text.
Playable video and right-side resources
Support students as scientific readers and explainers.
The video uses the Simple View of Reading to show why science teachers are essential mentors for reading scientific texts, experiments, diagrams, data, and claims.
Supporting Science Literacy
Ohio Literacy Academy on Demand videoThe science video explains that secondary reading support should focus on the language-comprehension side of science: conceptual background knowledge, informed skepticism, precise academic language, source evaluation, figures and tables, alternative explanations, and scientific discussion.
- Students need to integrate narrative text with figures, tables, legends, labels, procedures, and data.
- Science vocabulary is often morphologically rich and organized by taxonomic, compositional, and process relationships.
- Scientific discussion should help students make tentative claims, evaluate evidence, and revise confidence based on data.
Department reflection
- Which figure, data display, or procedure in your next unit needs explicit reading support?
- Which science term is better understood as part of a relationship network than as a single definition?
- Where could students explain how confident they are based on evidence?
Suggested use
Turn the video into one concrete classroom move.
Choose one science task and decide whether students most need support with the concept, the data display, the vocabulary, the source, the genre, or the evidence-based claim.
Decide whether students must hypothesize, compare data, interpret a figure, read a procedure, evaluate a source, or explain confidence in a claim.
Pause when the video discusses hypothesis guides, vocabulary relationships, morphology, multiple representations, and science discussion.
Use morphology, annotation signposts, sentence frames, or a Frayer model to support one difficult concept or explanation.
Source credit: Ohio Literacy Academy / ReadOhio / Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. This page embeds or links to source materials and companion classroom resources rather than hosting mirrored copies. Resource links are placed next to the relevant video so a content-area teacher can watch, reflect, and open the most useful tools from one place.