Supporting L2 Elementary Science Writing with SFL in an Age of School Reform

Abstract

a powerful case for reconceptualizing grammar as a functional social semiotic system, rather than seeing it as a set of decontextualized rules or list of fixed edicts regarding correct usage. A number of L2 literacy scholars have demonstrated that combining this view of language with a social theory of learning can support K-12 students, including ELLs, in making simultaneous gains in subject matter knowledge and academic reading and writing abilities To contribute to this growing body of research, this chapter presents a case study from co-author Cecily Selden's fourth-grade classroom. Cecily was a participant in ACCELA (Access to Critical Content and English Language Acquisition), a professional develop-ment program that supported K-12 teachers from high-poverty urban schools in earning a masters degree in education and state license in teaching reading and/or English as a second language (ESL) (Gebhard & Willett, 2008). Participating teachers were introduced to Halliday's systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and genre pedagogy while they conducted action-oriented research projects in their classrooms, schools, and communities with the support of university researchers. Co-authors Meg Gebhard, co-director of the ACCELA program with Jerri Willett at the time, and Kathryn Accurso, a researcher interested in SFL and teacher education, supported Cecily in her collection and analysis of classroom data. During Cecily's ACCELA coursework, she designed a unit that drew on genre pedagogy to address narrative writing in English language arts. Encouraged by her students' recep-tivity to the unit and progress in developing genre knowledge of nar-ratives, Cecily continued to explore the potential of genre pedagogy in other areas of her teaching after she graduated from the program. This chapter reports on a 12-week writing unit on the genre of scientific explanation Cecily designed and taught as part of this exploration of the potential of SFL-based pedagogy to support her continued professional development and her students' academic literacy development. She designed this writing unit to parallel three shorter units of study in science, with her teaching staying focused on the genre of explanation across the changing science content. In what follows, we describe how Cecily used Halliday's (1985) SFL and Rose and Martin's (2012) genre pedagogy as core constructs to design the unit and to analyze students' emerging science literacy practices. 128 Kathryn Accurso et al. In particular we focus on the literacy practices of a fourth-grade ELL named 'Ana Sofia' (a pseudonym). We conclude with a reflection on the potential for using SFL and genre pedagogy to narrow the persis-tent opportunity gap that exists between ELL and non-ELL students attending public schools in the United States in the context of cur-rent high-stakes school reforms.