Educators Guide for Inquiry-based Science and English Language Development

In 2010, the Institute for Inquiry® (IFI) began a district-wide partnership with the Sonoma Valley Unified School District to provide all elementary school teachers with an intensive program of professional development. This program was designed to experiment with new approaches to professional development and equip teachers with classroom strategies that promote science as a context for English language development.

IFI has crafted this Educators Guide for Inquiry-based Science and English Language Development to summarize the thinking that informed and grew out of its partnership with Sonoma and to provide a snapshot of what the integration of science and English language development looks like in classrooms and professional development settings. While it does not act as a step-by-step guide, our intent is that the ideas and strategies illustrated here will serve as a resource for teachers, teacher educators, professional development providers, district leaders, and researchers interested in the integration of science and language development.

This Educators Guide includes:

• a Conceptual Overview that presents IFI’s approach to integrating inquiry-based science and English language development, including descriptions of the various elements that make up this approach: Guiding Principles, Signature Experiences (Hands-on, Inquiry-based Science, Science Talk, and Science Writing), Essential Supports, Contextualized Mini-Lessons, and a Spiral Model for Integrating Science and Language Development;
• a Classroom Video Gallery that includes interactive video annotations, revealing strategies used by two Sonoma teachers that integrate science and English language development in their classrooms;
• a summary of IFI’s approach to Teacher Professional Development that supports the development of language in the context of science;
• A study of IFI’s work with teachers in Sonoma, authored by independent evaluators: Inverness Research and the Research Group at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

This program and the contents of this website were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Investing in Innovation (i3) Program. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal government.

Additional funding for this project was provided by the Vadasz Family Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation.