• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org

This Is Who I Want to Be! Exploring Possible Selves by Interviewing Women in Science

414 views 4

Author: Jessica Singer Early

Summary: This article examines how a classroom-based writing project, centered on interviewing and writing profiles of women in science, helped a group of high-school girls explore and articulate new possibilities for their future selves. It could serve as a useful model for educators engaged in equity and inclusion work, particularly in using research and writing to help underrepresented students connect to a larger world beyond their own experience.

Original Date of Publication: July/August 2017


Excerpt

Download “This Is Who I Want to Be! Exploring Possible Selves by Interviewing Women in Science”

This study represents a model for teachers across disciplines to use the teaching of writing for students to access, explore, and articulate possibilities for their future selves in connection to science. More specifically, this project offers a means for teachers of writing to support their students in studying high-achieving women working in science-related careers as a step toward narrowing the gender divide in the sciences and to practice writing as a real-world, transferable skill with meaningful purpose (Bystydzienski & Bird, 2006; Early & DeCosta, 2012). Within the Girls Writing Science Project, students participated in a writing unit to plan, initiate, and conduct an interview of a woman scientist working in a field of interest to each of the girls. As a culminating project, the girls each wrote a profile of a woman scientist to share what they learned and how they were impacted by this work. Through communication with and writing about women mentors, this literacy community had an opportunity to imagine future pathways in relation to science.


Related Resources

  • Working at the Intersections of Formal and Informal Science and Literacy Education
  • Composing Science (NWP Radio)

Original Source: International Literacy Association, https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.635

Early, J.S. (2017). This Is Who I Want to Be! Exploring Possible Selves by Interviewing Women in Science. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(1), 75–83. doi: 10.1002/jaal.635 ©2017 International Literacy Association.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Tags:middle/high schooldiversityresearchsocial justicescience

Would you recommend this resource to others?

4 Yes  No
ABOUT

write.learn.lead. is a collection of resources, insights, and reflections from National Writing Project teacher-leaders. You can also find us at nwp.org and Educator Innovator.

SEARCH BY TAG
agenda assessment bibliography bilingual/bicultural coaching community connected learning continuity curriculum diversity dual language elementary facilitation family grammar/correctness key reading mentor/thinking partner middle/high school multimodal narrative new teachers partnership preservice professional growth protocol publication reading/writing connection research retreat revision rural school-year program science/math social justice social studies standards study group summer program technology urban video writing center writing group writing prompt youth program
NWP Logo
NWP ON THE WEB
NWP.org
Educator Innovator
The Current
STAY CONNECTED WITH NWP
Get more great resources on teaching and writing delivered to your inbox every month by subscribing to our Write Now Newsletter.
  • © 2020 National Writing Project. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.