Writing: A vibrant part of science

Teaching Pre K-8, Feb 2000 by Berglund, Kay, Pakaluk, Debra

Using poetry and metaphors to enhance observation and communication in science

What do the words "Writing Across the Curriculum" mean to you? Essays about "My Summer Vacation" written during biology class? Hours of correcting punctuation and grammar in boring lab reports?

Last winter, science teachers at Norwood School took a writing course that really changed our perception of writing. The Northern Virginia Writing Project's "Write to Learn" course helped us realize that writing is a vibrant part of learning in any subject, and can enhance the learning we strive for in an active "Hands-On/Minds-On" science classroom.

Training the senses. Most interesting writers are naturally keen observers. Training the senses to gather details leads to interesting writing. Conversely, writing itself helps to train the senses. As a writer reaches for description or metaphor, it becomes natural to observe more closely. Writing, especially freely creative writing, can also reveal the nuances of a student's understanding or perception of a topic.

The following activities explore the use of metaphor to hone observation and communicate individual perception.

Kay's Third Grade

Geological observations. My third grade geology unit usually begins with each student collecting a rock to observe and describe. Choosing their own rocks allows students to connect to the subject in a more personal way. Students who initially describe rocks as "gray," "regular" (meaning found rocks, as compared to the fancy ones bought in a store) and "hard" begin to see variety in the color, shape and detail of their rocks.

After students selected a rock of their own from outside, they each took a jeweler's magnifying loupe and examined their individual rocks closely. They then wrote down words or phrases in response to the question, "What does your rock remind you of?"

Modeling metaphors. As they worked (quietly creating their own spellings), I examined my own rock, and wrote phrases on the board to model the activity for them. Students wrote metaphors easily in this context, and vivid, third grade imaginations served them well.

Kathleen's phrases about her rock, with her own spelling: a chocolate macidamminnut cookie ... moon rock ... looks like a river was extinked ... snow leperd ... feells like sidewalk ... reminds me of dirt ... the little puddles of water looks like the great lakes.

My students loved this exploration of rocks.

They concentrated carefully as they inspected their tiny natural worlds. As the class finished, Kathleen exclaimed, "I didn't like my rock at first but now I love it!" The children eagerly asked to be allowed to use the magnifying loupes to inspect their rocks the next day.

Rock poems. With rocks in hand, and the previous day's list of metaphors, the students proceeded to create poems out of their observations of the rocks. I opened the lesson by introducing an unusual activity: writing a poem about a "regular" rock. I read to them the phrases I wrote while studying my own rock.

I asked them to point out the phrases and words they liked best - either because of the image or the sound of the word - and under-- lined these phrases. I then recopied the phrases in a carefully chosen order to form a poem about my rock.

Each student repeated this underlining and rearranging with his or her own rock and the previous day's observations. Several asked if they could expand on their metaphors, or "add more words to explain." Their poems turned into lovely explorations of tiny worlds, with attention to detail rarely conferred on lowly playground rocks. Here are some examples:

An outline of a sorceress

is dancing on my rock

Trails of lava flowing down

Small pictures of meteorites coming

down and crashing

Rocket ships lifting off on the sharp

edges of my rock. - LEE

My rock is the tip of a finger.

My rock's lines remind me of

A maze that

Never, ever, ends.

My rock has little dents that

Almost look like

Paw prints that a small creature

Left. --ANNA My rock it

sparkles like stars

with rivers

of white snow. --VICTOR

A Fifth Grade

Metaphor riddles. Fifth graders used magnifying loupes to examine objects and create metaphors. They chose their own objects from an assortment of butterfly wings, bees, snakeskin and whatever they found around them, as we sat outside on a spring morning.

As the children used their loupes to shut out the world around them, they wrote metaphors for what they saw on this enlarged scale, and followed a process similar to the third graders: brainstorm, underline, rearrange.

Some shared their poems without revealing their chosen objects; others eagerly guessed the subject of the metaphors. All of the poems revealed attention to detail and creative, thoughtful observation of the natural world.

Hand Poem

veins criss cross my palm

like a child's checker board

lightning flashes across

the desert which is my palm

a spiral slowly makes its way

around my thumb. -- MARSHALL

Dandelion

a bright ball of fire

sitting on a green platter

a long pipe running full

of nectar

petals dancing on the