With the increasing globalization, and the increasing need for a scientifically literate population, it is essential that secondary school (Grades 6-12) students not only receive meaningful science and literacy instruction, but also see the seamless nature of how each informs the other. A LEA-IHE-Business partnership initiative was interested in two research perspectives: How does cross-discipline instruction benefit and enrich each subject discipline? How does integration of science learning with literacy in G6-12 impact college/career readiness? This opportunity provides a chance for 120 Grade 6-12 Science and ELA teachers from ten school districts to join with ELA and Science faculty and STEM professionals to form a strong professional learning community focused on the integration of Science-ELA. The purposes of this presentation are: 1.) to describe the project that paired secondary school science and ELA teachers for the purposes of developing integrated lessons; and 2.) to report preliminary findings about this project.

Abstract available through the 11th Annual TN STEM Education Research Conference.

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The authors suggest that students need to become physically as well as academically involved in their learning. In this light, there are procedures presented for having students make stick puppets that can be used in a variety of learning activities including, but not limited to, readers' theatre and story retelling. We propose that fables can provide a good foundation for developing activities featuring stick puppets, speaking and reading fluency oriented activities. We enncourage teachers and librarians to help make the puppets in order to incorporate first-hand knowledge of the procedures for their students.

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Reading and sharing poetry fosters richness in languages and encourages understanding of ideas presented through a beautiful form of expression. Poetry takes the reader through expression of emotion and the ideas that these emotions inspire in the poet. Further, the poet stimulates the reader to explore his or her own feelings and ideas. Discussion of what a particular poem means to individual students provides opportunities to share ideas and feelings which the poem evokes. The use of poetry invites students to read lines or particular phrases which are appealing to them or about which they have a question. Furthermore, teachers should be encouraged to combine the aesthetic dimensions of poetry with skills development. A poetry guide for encouraging basic language skills is presented herein.