This Learning Point from the Michigan Assessment Consortium explores how disciplinary literacy, science and engineering practices, and formative assessment work together in the secondary science classroom.

What students need to think like scientists

Every time we apprentice learners into a discipline, we draw on disciplinary literacy. Within the literacies of science and engineering, learners come to understand both the content and the practices of these fields.

As educators, the goal is to identify and enact those literacies in ways that prepare students to make science-based decisions and meet established learning standards.

Built on A Framework for K-12 Science Education, the Next Generation Science Standards define science learning as three-dimensional: Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts.

Disciplinary Core Ideas may be familiar, such as gas laws, atomic structure, and energy transfer. Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts add something equally important: they move instruction away from memorization and toward the thinking tools scientists and engineers actually use to investigate the world and communicate their findings.

When we begin to take a wider view of literacy in science and engineering for the purposes of apprenticing learners into the discipline, we come to appreciate the value of all the SEPs and CCCs as guidance to frame science and engineering as disciplines.

Disciplinary literacy illustrated through investigation

For example, the Science and Engineering Practice of “planning and carrying out an investigation” helps define learning experiences that are essential to apprenticing novices into the discipline. This practice helps learners understand how science builds an evidence base from which claims can be made.

When learners use this practice, they are expected to plan and carry out investigations, including testing design, determining and manipulating variables, and organizing data.

This shows that the literacies of science and engineering have expanded beyond following a set procedure or collecting data in a provided table. Students are being asked to consider scientific questions and use the literacies of science to investigate them.

Why Crosscutting Concepts matter

The Crosscutting Concept of “systems and system models” asks students to analyze complex phenomena through a systems lens and revise their models as new evidence emerges.

This kind of thinking is iterative. It develops across a unit, across a school year, and across grade levels. A single sketch of a model in a notebook does not fully capture it. Authentic assessment must account for how students’ thinking evolves over time.

Disciplinary literacy helps focus teaching, learning, and assessing

The Disciplinary Literacy Essentials include literacy practices that help focus teaching and learning for all students. Essential 8 is especially important because it connects literacy and assessment.

Essential 8 asks teachers to engage in ongoing observation and assessment of students’ academic language and literacy development. This helps educators build assessment strategies that develop over time and inform both educators and learners about academic success.

Planning and clear success criteria are key

Ongoing assessment requires planning. Educators need to know what expectations they have for students, including expectations for knowing and using Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts.

When educators have a clear vision for how students at different ages can use these practices and concepts, they can create assessment systems that elevate them to the same level as content knowledge.

At the high school level, students should not only be able to write an investigation plan. They should also understand why the plan would work or fail, how the plan helps answer a question, and how the evidence supports or refutes a claim.

Formative assessment practices illustrated

Using formative assessment requires educators to look beyond multiple-choice tests or completed data tables. Assessment should include direct ways to observe students’ use of Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts.

In assessing “planning and carrying out an investigation,” educators need strategies for identifying student progression throughout a unit or school year. They should look for whether students define variables clearly, plan investigations that capture useful data, and document that data in ways that support later analysis.

Bringing it all together

To meet the goals of disciplinary literacy through assessment systems, educators and leaders need to allocate time to these instructional goals. Coaches and teacher leaders can support a broader view of what counts as literacy in science and engineering, and how student success is defined.

This work takes time, but it can be supported by high-quality instructional materials that include a transparent three-dimensional assessment plan. By unpacking that plan, educators can more readily blend disciplinary literacy with assessment of Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts.

References

• National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2012.
• National Research Council. Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2015.

To learn more

• Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy in the Secondary Classroom: Grades 6 to 12
• Components of an Equitable Assessment System
• Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards
• Disciplinary Core Ideas in NGSS
• Michigan Math & Science Leadership Network HQIM Resources

This information is aligned with the Assessment Literacy Standards at michiganassessmentconsortium.org.