The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have described discipline-specific literacy skills needed to successfully engage with science concepts, and science assessments ask students to use language in many and varied forms to mediate their science thought and actions and prove mastery of content. Yet many science teachers have not been prepared with skills that help them recognize the ways literacy is integral to the discipline of science, much less integrate it. This research explored the experiences of three classroom science teachers as they worked to enact overlapping English Language Arts and science standards inherent in CCSS and NGSS through inquiry-based instruction. The 4Es’ heuristic framed analysis of classroom observations of instruction, teacher interviews, and surveys. Ways the teachers utilized inquiry-based instruction to Engage their students, Elicit/Engineer their literacies, and Examine and Evaluate discipline-specific language practices are analyzed, with recommendations for specific, interdisciplinary, and ongoing support teachers will need in order to realize the disciplinary literacy goals of the CCSS and NGSS.

The Common Core State Standard and Next Generation Science Standards emphasize language and literacy across disciplines, requiring shifts in teaching practices and inventive approaches. This case study focuses on the instructional decision-making and activities of one uniquely experienced and qualified seventh-grade science teacher, whose English Language Arts background made her approach to vocabulary instruction distinctive, as she selected focus vocabulary and incorporated morphological instruction and lexical enhancement into science teaching practices. Results highlight the differences between content literacy and disciplinary literacy and the pitfalls of applying broad literacy strategies without deep consideration of disciplinary knowledge and requirements and provide examples of naturalistic ways to incorporate morphology instruction into science instructional conversations to enhance students' relational knowledge.

ways. The NGSS documents make direct connections to CCSS for ELA, linking science and disciplinary literacy through the inquiry process, and promoting inquiry-based instruction while articulating a vision for integration of science and engineering practices with crosscutting concepts and core disciplinary ideas. Although NGSS maintain the distinctness of traditional science disciplines (Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Physics), the standards also encourage blurring the lines between these disciplines, engineering, and technology. The essence of this integration is captured by the term Interdisciplinary Science Inquiry (ISI) (National Academy of Science, 2004).Since "literacy skills are critical to building knowledge in science" (Achieve, Inc., 2013, p. 1), connections to literacy are made explicit through NGSS connections to CCSS for ELA, including "understanding the nature of evidence used, attention to precision and detail, and the capacity to make and assess intricate arguments, synthesize complex information, and follow detailed procedures and accounts of events and concepts" (Achieve, Inc., 2013, p. 1). There are also clear expectations for writing and orally defending positions in scientific arguments by conveying evidence derived from media as well as acquired through hands-on experimentation. Given the demands that NGSS and CCSS for ELA place on science teachers, it is crucial that all stakeholders are aware of factors influencing implementation of these reforms within the classroom. To explore science teachers' beliefs and practices as they attempt to incorporate disciplinary literacies for science within the ISI framework, we asked two questions: (1) how did three urban science teachers enact knowledge of CCSS for ELA curricula when they conducted ISI; and (2) what relationship, if any, existed between their beliefs and perceptions of CCSS for ELA and its implementation in their science classrooms within the context of ISI? Theoretical PerspectivesSocial constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) frames this study: the knowledge, beliefs and values teachers held for teaching, and how these impacted their instructional actions. With its focus on language, learning, and literacy, social constructivism provides an effective lens for viewing the work of teachers in mediating learning, the dynamics of classroom instruction, and systems that support or fail students (Moll, 1990). One crucial element of social constructivism is the notion of scaffolds: temporary supports enacted to assist students while learning a new concept or skill and removed as students reach independence. The most directive scaffolds (Silliman & Wilkinson, 1991) presume that the teacher's primary job is knowledge transmission and assessment and are defined by teacher control such as seen in the initiation-response-evaluation (IRE) teaching sequence (Cazden, 1988). Whereas supportive scaffolding (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) more closely emulates Vygotsky's ideas as it positions learning as a search for understanding, provides opportunities for r...

The accreditation process can provide an indispensable opportunity for teacher preparation programs to reflect, examine, and upgrade their assessment practices, including how they evaluate candidates' teaching dispositions. In this chapter, the authors share a teacher preparation program's step-by-step process to create a teacher disposition assessment and protocol that advances their program's goals while meeting their new accreditor's standards. Through careful review of the body of literature, Rasch analysis of their existing instrument, and their instrument protocol, the program was able to develop and validate a new, six-item teacher disposition instrument that evaluates their teacher candidates' commitment to socially just teaching, reflective practice, professional communication, enthusiasm for teaching, and respectful personal interactions.