Description
The MELVA-S team brings you four professional development webinars that incorporate evidence-based strategies to support science vocabulary instruction for students of all ages. Within these videos, we share findings related to the MELVA-S project, resources that can be adapted to support your students’ learning, and prompts to lead you to critically reflect on your own practice. Though these webinars can be watched independently, we encourage you to watch them with your team and use the discussion and planning prompts.
We welcome any questions or feedback:
- Doris Baker, principal investigator, doris.baker@austin.utexas.edu
- Holland Kowalkowski, project coordinator, hollandbriggs@utexas.edu
Webinars
Webinar 1
Science Vocabulary Instruction: Differentiation and Best Practices
This video provides an overview of science vocabulary. Why is it important? How can we support all students in developing critical language and literacy within science?
Webinar 2
The MELVA-S Teacher Dictionary
The MELVA-S Science Dictionary supports teachers in providing quality science vocabulary instruction. It contains definitions in Spanish and English for target science vocabulary, images, example sentences, and the part of speech. The terms in this dictionary align with state and national science standards and were incorporated in the larger MELVA-S project. Within the webinar, we encourage you to reflect on and discuss how you can use this tool to support your instruction. We also provide planning time for you and your team to integrate the resource into your upcoming units.
Webinar 3
The MELVA-S Frayer Model Guide for Science
In Session 3, we introduce the MELVA-S Frayer Model Guide for Science. This vocabulary tool can be adapted to support all learners, encouraging them to explore science terminology in depth. This webinar includes discussion about differentiation and planning time to consider how to incorporate the resource into your lessons.
Webinar 4
Drawing on Students’ Funds of Knowledge in Science
In our final webinar, we explore the importance of incorporating students’ funds of knowledge, including their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, into science instruction. With a variety of practical strategies, teachers will walk away with concrete ideas for how to adapt science instruction to build on students’ diverse strengths.
About the Project
MELVA-S (Measuring the Language and Vocabulary Acquisition in Science of Latinx Students) is developing and testing an online formative assessment that measures the depth of word knowledge in science of second- and third-grade Latina/o students. This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (award number #R305A200521). The views expressed within these professional development resources are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Education or the Institute of Education Sciences.