Blackout Poetry: Eclipsing With Words and Images to Illuminate Ideas.

Integrating literacy practices in science classrooms can help students read complex scientific text, write arguments as part of shared cross-disciplinary practices, and engage with content. In the Linking Science, Mathematics, and Literacy for All Learners program, middle school science, mathematics, ELA, and special education teachers have been implementing multimodal STEM text sets that include a range of texts and scaffolds that support instruction and students' content learning. One of these strategies combines reading and writing in unique and creative ways: poetry writing! Blackout and found poems are accessible approaches to help students focus on key words and ideas in a complex text, pull out those words to work with them, and then reconstruct them into a poem.

Instructional Scaffolding to Engage Learners in Complex Science Text.

Meeting the demands of the Next Generation Science Standards requires that students engage in complex science texts. However, for many students, including students with disabilities, this can be a challenging activity. Many students lack the necessary skills and background knowledge to successfully engage with complex science texts.