I recently had the opportunity to observe Ms. Rachel Eggleston, a 10^th grade Chemistry teacher at Paul Cuffee High School .  Most science educators I’ve spoken with seem a little apprehensive about teaching Chemistry because it involves bringing together two of the areas that many students struggle with. Namely, Science and Math. Going in, I was curious to see how Ms. Eggleston was managing the task in an inner city school where the demographics showed that most of her students had learned English as a second language and a number of students required additional supports.

            The very first thing that stood out to me was the number of students in her classroom. Every seat was filled, which in my mind meant: “She’s got her hands full.” It quickly became apparent that she was extremely organized not only in the physical aspects of her classroom but also in her methodology. The typical periodic charts that one would expect to find in a chemistry class adorned the walls, but she also included extremely effective prompts for organizing concepts and solving chemical equations that I hadn’t seen in my many years of chemistry classes. Clear and concise directions and expectations, which she kept posted at the front of the room, made it so the students were quietly completing a “Warm up” while she welcomed each student into her classroom.

According to the agenda, students would be watching a movie about Percy Julian. Once again I was confused. When was there a movie made that would lend itself to teaching chemistry? She certainly had my attention. Students brought out a multi-page graphic organizer that they were using in conjunction with the movie to focus in on the important ideas as well as to reflect on each section of the movie that they were watching. The movie itself was the biography of an African American chemist who, against all odds, made astounding contributions to the pharmaceutical field via his research and his involvement in the NAACP. The students watched attentively and every few minutes she would pause the movie and with great enthusiasm, she would reiterate the concepts that she had outlined in her graphic organizers.

To say that I was impressed would have been an understatement. In this room I was witnessing something that had not been in the forefront of my mind until SED 407. Her lesson was literacy based. Every page required students to reflect on what was happening in this man’s life and how his contributions shaped the world of chemistry, as we know it today. She had spaced the movie out over three days to ensure that she would have time to discuss key points towards the end of each class and to address an essay that the students would be writing at the end of the unit about Percy’s accomplishments.

I took away several things from these observations. Most importantly I learned that being well prepared, organized, and engaging can make the most intimidating subject areas much easier to teach. This teacher had set each student up to succeed simply by preparing them with a graphic organizer that would encourage them to stay focused and think back to the information that was being presented. Classroom management wasn’t even an issue because her expectations and routines had been set in place way in advance, at the beginning of the school year.  These students were learning about the scientific method, chemical compounds, and civil rights movements all at once, in a classroom where I had expected to find difficult chemical equations and frustrated students who would be overwhelmed and disengaged. Bringing in Literacy as a component not only ensured that these students would spend extra time digesting the lesson, it also made it easier for them to relate the lesson to their own experiences and appreciate the importance of these otherwise seemingly “Useless” equations.

Going forward, it will be important for me to think outside of the box and always look for ways to create lesson plans that contain literacy at their center, regardless of how impossible it may seem to connect the two.