Our Zoo To You: The link between zoo animals in the classroom and science and literacy concepts in first-grade journal writing

Abstract

This study examined first-grade students’ journal writing to determine how placing live zoo animals in classrooms for science education links to students’ emergent and early writing. Students were asked to write journal entries during the daily language arts period. Although no direct instruction in informational text writing was offered, teachers suggested that journal writing about the current science topic or the live animal was a possible topic. We found that students in classrooms with zoo animals from the Our Zoo To You project wrote significantly longer and more coherent texts about zoo animals when compared with students who learned about the animals in more traditional ways. Students in Zoo classrooms included significantly more science concepts and vocabulary in their writing. Unexpectedly, using directive writing prompts enhanced texts in classrooms without zoo animals but actually hindered both the quality and quantity of writing in Zoo classrooms.