This photograph shows classroom teacher Stephanie reading while teacher-librarian Lisa Martin leads the students in the water cycle hand motions.

Teacher-librarian Lisa Martin and third-grade classroom teacher Stephanie at Banks Elementary School, Tucson, Arizona field tested this lesson. They taught these lessons in the classroom. In May 2007, they conducted the entire lesson using a team teaching approach.

Team teaching allowed Stephanie to read while Lisa guided and monitored student participaton. The educators shared responsibility for guiding the students' water cycle drawings. The students went beyond non-linguistic representations and labeled their work to create scientific illustrations.

 

Sample Student Work: Valerie Mendoza's Water Cycle with Labels (Scientific Illustration)