Redressing Science Learning Through Supporting Language: The Biology Credit Recovery Course

Annually, thousands of U.S. students fail high school introductory biology. The language demands of biology are large, and science teachers are often unprepared to support students’ language needs. Here, we describe a 4-week summer high school introductory biology course executed in a large West Coa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban education (Beverly Hills, Calif.) Calif.), 2019-12, Vol.54 (10), p.1489-1519
Main Authors: Gomez, Kimberley, Gomez, Louis M., Cooper, Benjamin, Lozano, Maritza, Mancevice, Nicole
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Failure
Academic Language
Access to Education
Biology
College School Cooperation
Content Area Writing
Credit
Credits
English Language Learners
Faculty Development
High School Students
Introductory Courses
Language
Language acquisition
Language usage
Learning
Metacognition
Minority Group Students
Notetaking
Public Schools
Remedial Instruction
Scientific Literacy
Secondary School Science
Secondary school students
Students
Summer Schools
Teachers
Urban Education
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Summary:Annually, thousands of U.S. students fail high school introductory biology. The language demands of biology are large, and science teachers are often unprepared to support students’ language needs. Here, we describe a 4-week summer high school introductory biology course executed in a large West Coast city. Our aim was to help 33 students recover their biology credit. A centerpiece of the 4-week course was the embedding of metacognitive language support tools in class lectures and assessments. Of 29 regular attendees, 28 passed with a C or better. Student science learning was reliably associated with use of the language support tools.
ISSN:0042-0859
1552-8340
DOI:10.1177/0042085916677345