Science, at its heart, is a story about the universe and our place within it. Every scientific discovery and principle carries a rich history and context, capable of sparking curiosity and imagination while fostering scientific literacy and enhancing pupils’ cultural capital. As science teachers, we hold a unique position to address the literacy gap across the school and it is our responsibility to do so.
At the beginning of my teaching career, every term or so, we would have the obligatory whole school literacy CPD. Often this was delivered by the Literacy Lead who, most of the time, was an English teacher.
At the time, I used to sit there and think “Well, this is an English thing, what does this have to do with Science?”
Whether anyone admits it or not, many non-English teachers have likely thought or said this at some point in their careers. However, it takes time to truly realise that it’s important across all subjects, not just English. For me, it came from a Head of English literally shouting the following phrase at us for me to realise:
If a pupil cannot read, they cannot read your exam and they will perform worse because of it!
Recently, I tested this by downloading the .doc files of several past science papers and running them through a reading age checker. Every paper showed a reading age above 15, with one, Physics Paper 2, reaching a reading age of 17.
I have students in my Year 11 classes who have reading ages far below this and it cannot be the sole responsibility of English to help students perform better in my subject’s exam. It requires work from all of us to have a strategy that ensures pupils can read their subject.
Further to this, to make our end-of-year exams for all years, we often just download them from ExamPro or Exam Wizard and print them out, without much thought to the reading ages of these exams. So again, to test this theory, I used ExamPro to make a KS3 end-of-year assessment and tested its reading age – it was 14.
I was expecting pupils aged 11 or 12 to answer questions far beyond their expected reading levels. This made me realise that we weren’t testing their knowledge of science – we were testing their reading.
To address this, I adjusted the reading levels of the exams to ensure they were appropriately accessible for students of their age. However, after discussing with the Head of English, we faced another challenge: what about students whose reading age was below the expected level? We needed to take action to tackle this issue.
A significant part of the discussion about why literacy initiatives are challenging in science revolves around the lack of time within our already packed curriculum. This has been a concern for me as well. For now, we have decided to focus on improving literacy within KS3, where we actually have the opportunity to fit in extra literacy lessons. Regarding KS4, this is something I am still working on as I don’t want to shoehorn in explicit literacy tasks to the detriment of finishing the curriculum.
Here is what we have done:
At the beginning of each KS3 topic, students read a relevant short story from the world of science. These stories are carefully selected to include a moral angle, helping students gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. Many of these stories are ones I have posted on inquestion previously such as Thomas Midgely and his worldwide destructive inventions, the captivating science of the Blue Fugates and the impacts the density of water has had on the world.
However, to ensure I am incorporating as much SMSC as possible, I wrote several articles to help students learn beyond the realm of science and to introduce both positive and negative perspectives on the scientific world. A perfect example, and someone I hope to write more about in the coming weeks, is Dr James Barry. Dr Barry was a woman who lived their entire life as a man to study and practice medicine, a fact only revealed upon their death. This story alone can spark discussions about the historical challenges women have faced in accessing academia and highlight the progress we have made as a society. Other examples are the impact Hedy Lemarr has made on the world, a short biography of Isaac Newton, the impact of Colony Collapse Disorder on bees and the wider impact on food production as well as many others. Each story aims to have a message of more than just the science.
We read these stories to them, rather than have the students read them out loud. When going through these stories, students highlight any words that they have never heard before or do not know the definition of. Importantly, they are encouraged to highlight non-scientific words.
Following this, we then ask the pupils to list three words they have highlighted and we then go around the room and ask the student to say these words, which is then followed by a whole class “I say, you say.” We then Google the definition of these words, ensuring it is within the context of the text, and the students write this down on the text.
To ensure students are grasping the necessary understanding of these stories, I collaborated with the Head of English at my school. They suggested we use methods from the English GCSEs to assess comprehension of a piece of text. Together, we developed several accessible methods for KS3 students, including:
- True/False Statements: Create eight statements, four of which are true and four false. Students must choose the correct statements.
- Line References: Number each line in the margin and ask students to identify the line where a reference statement can be found.
- Simple Questions: Provide a series of straightforward questions for students to answer.
- Key Takeaway Sentences: Ask students to write two sentences summarising the key takeaways from the article.
- Reflective Writing: Have students write their reflection based on the article, using their prior knowledge or information from the text.
- Text Summarisation: Instruct students to summarise the text in a short passage without omitting the main story elements.
This list is not exhaustive, and I am sure that over the next few years, I will adapt these assessment methods based on feedback from the science teachers in my department. However, the primary focus here is not just to assess the pupils but to build their understanding and foster discussions about the impact of science both inside and outside the classroom.
The overall aim is to help students view science as more than just a mandatory school subject, but as a dynamic field that influences and changes their lives every day.
Again, we have all heard the phrase, “Literacy is everyone’s responsibility,” and it’s often met with groans from those who aren’t English teachers, even though the teacher’s standards (TS3) require us to actively promote it. While it can sometimes feel like an unnecessary addition to our lessons, we have a unique opportunity, especially in science, to enhance students’ literacy, oracy, and cultural capital. We should embrace this opportunity and use it to enrich our students’ educational experiences.
Some of you might be wondering how you’ll find the time to create these stories, develop questions, or integrate them into your lessons. Now, as someone who frequently writes stories for Hinterland, I enjoy this process and am happy to share all the stories I’ve written. Additionally, the stories I write here on inquestion are designed to help science teachers incorporate science into their lessons more easily.
However, we must remember that we do not work in isolation. Each school has English department members who have often studied precisely what we are trying to integrate into our lessons. Take advantage of them as a resource. Reach out to your English department; I’m sure they would be thrilled to see someone else actively promoting literacy.
Collaborating with colleagues can lighten the load and bring fresh perspectives. You might find ready-made resources, or at least get valuable insights on how to craft, present and assess stories effectively. By working together, we can make literacy a shared responsibility and enrich our students’ learning experiences across all subjects, not just English.
Here is a selection of stories I created for various KS3 topics. While I’m not using all of them at the moment, feel free to download and enjoy them!
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