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 science text or figure needs explicit annotation support?
- Where do students need word-part knowledge to unpack technical vocabulary?
- How can sentence frames support claim-evidence-reasoning discussion?
Suggested use
Turn the video into one concrete classroom move.
Choose one upcoming science text, figure, lab explanation, or vocabulary set and match it with a reading, word-learning, or explanation routine.
Identify whether students need support with evidence, figures, vocabulary, methods, or explanation.
Open annotation signposts, morphology, sentence frames, or Frayer examples while planning.
Look for more precise evidence use and clearer scientific language.
Source credit: Ohio Literacy Academy / ReadOhio / Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. This page links to public resource copies hosted at assets.joshualawrence.com and preserves source credit for the original Ohio Literacy Academy materials. 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.