Chapter 20: Improving ELLs’ Scientific Writing Through Co-Teaching: Collaboration Between ESL and Science Teachers in a Secondary School in Canada

Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, my colleague, Teresa Schwartz, a high school science and physics teacher in Vancouver, BC, Canada, was concerned about her students’ misunderstanding of how to write scientific lab reports, despite the fact that she had provided her Grade 9 and 11 students with lab report outlines, ample front-loading readings and exercises, and guided practice in class. For scientific writing, students are required to move fluidly between the verb tenses, effectively use the passive voice, and be precise on word choice. However, Teresa noticed that the language errors of overuse of personal pronouns, errors with verb tense, including not understanding passive voice, and over-use of modifiers, especially -ly adverbs, were the same between English language learners (ELLs) and mainstream students. Teresa’s situation speaks to the challenges faced by many content area teachers who have both ELL and native English speakers in their mainstream classes. With the move towards inquiry-based assessments in science, students are being called upon to explain their results and hypotheses in greater detail through writing-a challenging task for many ELLs. Typically, writing lessons are not part of the science curriculum, and Teresa concedes that science teachers have an expectation that students know how to write in accordance with the requirements of the discipline. She acknowledges that content area teachers like herself need to access language and writing specialists in their schools to help fill the gap between what students actually know and what teachers expect them to know.