“We observed that the magnetic field is stronger than gravity”: Exploring linguistically diverse fourth-grade students’ written explanations in science notebooks

Abstract

This article presents analyses of fourth-grade students’ written explanations in a science unit on magnetism. The purpose of the study was to explore connections between students’ science conceptual understanding and written communication. Data include science notebooks collected from 16 fourth-grade students in two classrooms; our analysis focuses on notebooks produced by five linguistically diverse students. Using formative assessment tools and tools from systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we determined the genres used in the science notebooks, the adequacy of students’ explanations, and the lexicogrammatical resources applied. Findings revealed that most students were successful in making and supporting claims with evidence, but often struggled to represent their scientific reasoning in writing. This study reinforces the need to model scientific reasoning orally and in writing and support students’ efforts using both preplanned and more flexible, contingent scaffolding. The study also demonstrates how SFL can enrich our assessment of student writing and thinking.