Abstract This article presents analyses of fourth-grade students’ written explanations in a science unit on magnetism. The purpose of the study was to explore connections between students’ science conceptual understanding and written communication. Data include science notebooks collected from 16 fourth-grade students in two classrooms; our analysis focuses on notebooks produced by five linguistically diverse students. Using formative assessment tools and tools from systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we determined the genres used in the science notebooks, the adequacy of students’ explanations, and the lexicogrammatical resources applied. Findings revealed that most students were successful in making and supporting claims with evidence, but often struggled to represent their scientific reasoning in writing. This study reinforces the need to model scientific reasoning orally and in writing and support students’ efforts using both preplanned and more flexible, contingent scaffolding. The study also demonstrates how SFL can enrich our assessment of student writing and thinking.

中文翻译：

---

“我们观察到磁场比重力强”：探索科学笔记本中语言多样化的四年级学生的书面解释

摘要 本文分析了四年级学生在磁性科学单元中的书面解释。该研究的目的是探索学生对科学概念的理解与书面交流之间的联系。数据包括从两个教室的 16 名四年级学生收集的科学笔记本；我们的分析侧重于由五名不同语言的学生制作的笔记本。使用来自系统功能语言学 (SFL) 的形成性评估工具和工具，我们确定了科学笔记本中使用的体裁、学生解释的充分性以及应用的词汇语法资源。调查结果显示，大多数学生成功地用证据提出和支持主张，但往往难以以书面形式表达他们的科学推理。这项研究强调了对口头和书面科学推理建模的需要，并使用预先计划的和更灵活的临时支架来支持学生的努力。该研究还展示了 SFL 如何丰富我们对学生写作和思维的评估。