Episode 13 – Writing in Homeschool Science: Middle School and Beyond

I am back with the second part of the writing in science series! We are looking at what writing in science should look like and how it progresses through the years.

In episode 13 of the Tips for Homeschool Science Show, I am sharing the second part of this two-part series on tips for writing in science. In this episode, we will look at the middle school years and beyond.

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The Highlights

As your student matures, their writing and reading abilities increase and they are beginning to work independently. These students will still go through three stages of writing – fact-finding, organizing, and summarizing.

Stage 4 – Fact-finding

• Students are learning how to pull out the key facts from a selection they have read.
• Discussion time with these students is critical because talking over the material before writing will help the students to pull out the important information.
• In science, the students will read the selection on their own, discuss it, and write a list of six to eight facts from what they have read on a piece of paper.

Stage 5 – Organizing

• Students are working on organizing the key facts into an outline.
• In science, the students will read a selection on their own, create an outline from what they read, discuss it with you, and adjust as necessary.
• In the beginning, this will be a single level outline with the key facts. Their outlines will progress into multi-level outlines with the key facts and several supporting points underneath.

Stage 6 – Summarizing

• Students are learning how to write a connected, multi-paragraph summary on their own from what they have read.
• In science, these students will begin writing their own summaries from an outline.
• I prefer to have the students type their reports at this point as it seems to make them more willing to actually do the work.

Again, the main thing you are looking for is consistent progress year after year.

Additional Resources

Don’t miss the following book to gain a broad picture of the progression of writing skills:

• The Complete Writer by Susan Wise Bauer

Here are several articles to related to this show that you don't want to miss reading:

• Episode 12 – Writing in Homeschool Science: The Elementary Years 
• 3 Content Related Tips for Notebooking 
• What should middle school science look like? 
• Science Essential #3 – Keeping a Record  

A Quick Programming Note

You may have noticed that this show's title went from the Tips for Teaching Science at Home Show to the Tips for Homeschool Science Show. After some feedback, we decided to make the change so that the show would be easier to find. We are still sharing the same great tips and are so thankful you guys are enjoying them!