Supporting Disciplinary Talk From the Start of School: Teaching Students to Think and Talk Like Scientists

Abstract

In this article, the authors first review the research literature to show why supporting talk from the start of school is important for students’ long-term literacy development. The authors then define and describe disciplinary talk and argue that it is an important entry point into science and disciplinary literacy learning for young students. The authors briefly describe their research project, which found success in improving students’ science talk: SOLID Start (Science, Oral Language, and Literacy Development from the Start of School). The rest of the article describes the SOLID Start instructional strategies for supporting disciplinary talk: the research that supports these strategies, examples of what each strategy looks like in primary-grade classrooms, and how-tos for teachers to start using these instructional strategies.

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