Education in science and engineering should develop students' ability to read and write domain-specific texts (NRC 2012). Unfortunately, "science teachers are not generally well prepared to help their students penetrate the linguistic puzzles that science texts present" (Snow 2010, p. 452). Thus, Juanita Boliha (a biology teacher) and Linda Kucan (a researcher with expertise in literacy) worked together for an academic year to identify language challenges in the curriculum for ninth-grade biology. This article describes the instructional approaches they designed to address those challenges.