A Physics Story: Literacy technique for learning the language of physics

Abstract

Illustrations provided by Daniel Murrell, dansmurrell@gmail.comWhen I began teaching high school physics, I found that many of my students were not just struggling with the mathematics of physics but the way the language was used. Physics is sometimes discussed as being a second language where common words are coded with specific alternate definitions (consider how you use the word “delta”). Furthermore, many of our students are English Language Learners. Thus, providing developmentally appropriate assistance to building scientific vocabulary not only addresses equity issues but can be a highly effective teaching strategy. In this article, I provide an example of one such approach to addressing literacy issues: a vocabulary building story on Convection, Conduction, and Radiation.