1. NSS Chemistry Learning & Teaching Strategies Active Reading and Writing Tasks

2. Objectives of the Workshops 1.To promote the use of active reading and writing tasks in the learning and teaching of chemistry 2.To share experiences in conducting reading and writing tasks in the chemistry lessons 3.To discuss on how to develop activities from different resource materials 4.To discuss on how to assess students' reading and writing tasks

4. 1. Why promoting reading and writing in chemistry? IMPORTANT?

5. Reading and Writing #1  Suggested Learning and Teaching Activities in NSS:  Topic II: Reading articles or writing essays on the applications of materials such as graphite and aluminium in relation to their structures.  Topic V: Searching for information or reading articles about the discovery of polyethene and the development of addition polymers.  Topic VI: Reading articles on how Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory can be used to predict the shapes of molecules.

6. Reading and Writing #2  Where in the curriculum?  Topic VII:  Introduction: “Through searching for information and critically reading materials about electrochemical technology, students should appreciate the contribution of chemical knowledge to technological innovations, which in turn improve our quality of life”  Reading articles about the industrial processes involved in the production of aluminium from aluminium ore.  Reading articles about new developments in fuel cell technology and lithium cells.

7. Students do not like reading?  Students’ problems?  Lack of interest  Lack of skills  Textbooks’ problems?  Not fun / Not attractive  Hard to read  Lots of digressions  Lots of irrelevant information

8. Some opinions  Reading for information and enjoyment  Promotion of science learning alongside the development of language ability  Copying notes from the board or from worksheets does little to encourage language skills (OFSTED, 1995, par. 26)  Dominance of “doing” over “reading and thinking”? (Turner & Dimarco)

9. Nature of Science  More than practical skills  More than information processing skills  Chemists do need reading and writing skills

10. Nature of Science 科學科的性質  Doing science  進行科學實驗  Organizing scientific information  建構科學知識  Explaining events scientifically  科學地解釋現象  Challenging science  科學論辯探究 Veel, 1997

12. Some Learning Targets of NSS Chemistry Curricula  Practical skills  Information handling skills  Communication skills: oral, reading and writing  Do we have good support from language subjects?  Can students transfer their skills learnt in language subjects to chemistry?

13. Themes for Reading  Curriculum bound?  Curriculum linked?  For enhancing scientific literacy – values and attitudes, STSE connection  For enhancing interest in chemistry

15. Helping students to read  How to distinguish  trivial details from important generalizations?  interesting information from important information?  How to facilitate students have not master the reading skills to read?

16. Student 1:  I read through a section quickly. I try to figure out why it was put there and then I’ll go back and underline as few words as possible.

17. Student 2:  I underlined with the highlighters. I used two colors. I wanted to give one color more importance than the other. It would mean more to me later.

18. 一略讀 – 對內容得出概略的認識 二細讀 – 找尋某一方面的資料 三精讀 – 集中注意力以完成一預定的閱讀目標 四批判式閱讀 – 分析、評價及評估資料

20. Resources for Reading and Writing

21. Chem4Kids

22. Science News for Kids

23. Science Magazine  Catalyst http://www.philipallan.co.uk  Chemistry Review  ChemMatters  Chem 13 News, U of Waterloo, Canada http://sciborg.uwaterloo.ca/chem13news/index.html  Education in Chemistry

24. AL Chemistry Exam Papers

25.  如何運用報紙教學系列  化學科專科語體  中學會考化學科試題及考生答卷表現  http://www.cmi.hku.hk/index.htm

26. 中國內地化學教育資源網

27. 本地化學科教師網站  李 SIR 好化學網  URL: http://i.am/chemsir  例 1 ：滅火器變飛彈工人斷臂事件  例 2 ：致癌毒粉絲流入本港  致癌毒 *** 流入本港

28. Reference Book: Wellington and Osborne. (2001). Language and Literacy in Science Education. Buckingham ; Phildelphia, Pa. : Open University Press.

30. Reading and writing tasks as NSS Chemistry SBA tasks?

31. Examples of SBA Tasks 1.critical reading, analysis and reporting on the contribution of chemistry to the understanding of the material world 2.designing a poster or pamphlet aimed at persuading people to follow the principles of green chemistry 3.writing a report to present the scientific knowledge and concepts acquired after a visit to an industrial plant, and 4.developing a multimedia artefact to illustrate the synthesis of polymers.

32. Thank You!