The project took place in the spring semester of PSTs’ junior year, when PSTs learn content methods for different disciplines, including science and literacy methods. Twenty-one PSTs interested in becoming elementary school teachers were part of this project. Our aim was to support students in learning and applying core concepts and processes of literacy and science by leveraging a popular fiction text in our methods courses in a concerted effort to better prepare teachers to integrate literacy and science in their own future classrooms. To address these challenges, we (a science educator and a literacy educator) created an experience for PSTs to consider the ways in which a popular text, Song for a Whale ( Kelly, 2019), could lead to an exploration of a range of science content and practices underscored in the Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS NGSS Lead States, 2013). As PSTs experience their methods classes in these silos, they do not experience-and may fail to recognize-the “synergistic relation between literacy and science” ( Grysko & Zygouris-Coe, 2020, p.
Furthermore, the structure of many teacher preparation programs facilitates the isolated development of content-area methodologies. Many teacher educator preparation programs do not provide opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to experience and examine the use of popular fiction as a connection point to science teaching as a result, PSTs are unlikely to bring such practice into their future classrooms ( Kurt & Pehlivan, 2013). Research has shown that when making connections across disciplines, teachers and students alike draw heavily on popular culture (specifically, movies, fictional texts, and novels) researchers therefore suggest that educators look to the area of popular culture as a means by which to engage students in science and literacy practices ( Moje, 2008). 2) describe the ways in which literature can provide a launching pad into inquiry: The use of literature in the science classroom can strengthen students’ scientific inquiry skills by presenting a context for exploration and providing a springboard into interdisciplinary, real-world problem solving ( Bush et al., 2015 Cook & Dinkins, 2015a, 2015b Grysko & Zygouris-Coe, 2020). This tendency to embed literature into the science classroom indicates that many teachers use literacy as an access point to spread disciplinary instruction across content areas ( Cook & Dinkins, 2015b Yager, 2004).
Teachers often use literature both as a hook into and throughout inquiry-based instruction ( Cervetti et al., 2006 Pearson, 2010).
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