Michaela+R.

Apr09.11 Teaching Tremendously Reflection

** Science Lesson ** What went well... As a part of my science lesson, I planned on having students ‘act out’ how sound travels. While it was difficult to know exactly how this would go with only four of us, I liked how that activity meshed with my lesson. It came at a good time because it gave my ‘students’ the chance to get up and out of their seats. Though the timing was serendipitous this time, I made a mental note to carefully place my bodily-kinesthetic activities in future lessons as well. After reading my feedback sheets, I also found that my peers commented that my lesson catered to diverse learners, so this is something else that I thought went well.

What I hope to improve… I definitely need to be more clear and explicit in my instructions. When teaching my lessons, I have to bear in mind that my students don’t know the direction in which my lesson plan is going. For example, I gave my ‘students’ a worksheet, assuming that they would know to fill it out since I had given it. A few minutes later, I realized that no one was writing. Shortly after that, I realized that it was because I hadn’t explicitly stated that the students were to be filling in the boxes on their worksheet. I also want to do a better job of speaking fluidly. I felt kind of stilted in front of the group, but I’m hoping that this will get better as I get more practice. Even within that lesson, I could feel a difference between how I felt at the beginning and how I felt by the end. I think I can also help myself by keeping in mind the direction in which I want to be moving so that the things I say flow logically. Hopefully I will continue to improve!

** Math Lesson ** What went well… I think my engage section went really well in my math lesson. My lesson related to echolocation, and I found a video of a blind boy who taught himself to echolocate. He could do some really amazing things, including riding his bike down the street, shooting a basketball through a hoop, and dominating a pillow fight. I think that this was an interesting start to the lesson, and it seemed to go over well with the girls in my room.

What I need to improve… Again, I want to work on the instructions that I give. I think I did a better job with my math lesson than with my science one, but I still need to develop that skill. I need to make sure that when I think through an activity, I think though exactly what I will //say//, not just what I want the students to do conceptually.

Mar28.11 Formative Assessment

I liked that Stiggins’ article delved into the reasons for assessment, stressing the fact that we need to use the data we collect to shape future instruction. At times, I think we get so caught up in jargon (diagnostic, formative, summative, etc.) that we lose sight of the importance of each type. Stiggins makes two suggestions: test more frequently, and manage data more effectively. The idea behind these improvements is to give teachers the clearest, most accurate snapshot of student learning and performance. This information, coupled with frequent teacher reflection, can help to shape instruction so that it is tailored to best meet the needs of students.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">With Stiggins’ suggested assessment practices in mind, I can think of several different ways to weave formative assessment into my unit plan. My first science lesson, for instance, includes a worksheet with four boxes. One of them is labeled “What I know now…,” and students are to use the space in this box to explain how sound is produced and how it travels. After class, I would be sure to briefly read through their explanations to make sure that they are scientifically accurate. I would address any misconceptions, and I would make decisions about which concepts to revisit and which seem to have been covered adequately.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I could also incorporate formative assessment into my math lesson, in which students will study the volume of various sound sources. This lesson involves many opportunities for predictions (ex. which sound do we think is the loudest?) and for estimation. Formative assessment can be informal—as basic as having students defend their predictions and estimations. From this, I can gauge how my students are progressing in terms of number sense. For instance, it would not be reasonable to guess that a vacuum cleaner is 10 dB when students know that a whisper is also 10dB. Students will have a range of data, so they can make predictions based on what they already know.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Finally, in any unit, authentic questions or problems can be an excellent opportunity for formative assessment. After learning about how sound enters and moves through the ear, I could pose a simple question to students: How do earplugs work? I could either ask the whole class, or I could have them jot down their answers on some sort of exit slip. If students can articulate the fact that earplugs block the path of sound from the pinna to the inner ear, then I know that they have at least some basic understanding of the anatomy of the ear. If they say something like, “Earplugs work by making things quieter,” I would make a mental note that I have not done a great job of explaining how sound moves through the ear.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sources of formative assessment include our textbooks (the back half of our science book is all lesson plans), sample lesson plans, and internet resources, such as Edutopia.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I can think of a few different ways to document formative assessments. Of course, when students write something, I have that concrete piece of evidence in front of me. To give my data more structure, I could use a very simplistic rubric that corresponds to a specific objective. For example, one of my objectives is: SWBAT explain that sound comes from vibrations that travel through some medium (here, air). My rubric (either mental or written down) could be:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1 – Student response does not discuss sound or is scientifically inaccurate. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2 – Student explains either that sound comes from vibrations OR that it travels through air. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3 – Student explains that sound comes from vibrations and that it travels through air.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Then, I could simply record student ‘scores.’ If they are low across the board, I would know to devote more time to this topic and to rethink the way in which I am presenting it. If most scores are high but a few students are struggling, I might give them a little bit more scaffolding or individual attention in the days to come. This type of information can easily be recorded on a SmartPhone, especially if you created a template with all students names to fill out when necessary.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mar24.11 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Solar Farm Field Trip

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Grade: 3 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">NCSCOS <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Competency Goal 3: The learner will make observations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the earth/moon/sun system. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 3.01: Observe that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object and is reflected and/or absorbed.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">SWBAT… <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Identify the sun as a source of light. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Explain that light may be either reflected or absorbed. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. Make predictions about how solar panels convert sunlight into energy. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. Explain that solar panels absorb light and use its energy to generate an electric current.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Before the field trip… (Engage) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Make sure that students have a very basic working knowledge of light, specifically the fact that it may be either reflected or absorbed. Don’t go into detail about how solar panels work—this is something that the kids will “discover” later on. Even reading a book such as Lisa Trumbauer’s [|All About Light] could lay enough of a foundation for the field trip. Also ensure that students make the connection that the sun produces light.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">During the field trip… (Explore) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The students’ “job” for the day is to come up with some possible explanations of how solar panels might work. The teacher could provide some sort of worksheet to scaffold them if she felt it was necessary. A sample question could be:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Do you think that the sun light is absorbed or reflected when it hits the solar panel?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">After the field trip… (Explain) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">At this point, the teacher should ask students to make predictions then explain how the solar farm actually works. This [|site]provides a good, basic explanation.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Math activity (Elaborate) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The NCSCOS lists ‘pictographs’ as one of the skills that third-graders need to maintain.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Once kids have learned all about the benefits of solar energy, they might begin to question why we don’t just implement it everywhere. To convey to students the economic aspect of alternative energy, they could make a pictograph displaying the costs of various forms of energy. Hopefully, this would illustrate one of the biggest drawbacks to many different sources of alternative energy. Another option would be for students to graph how much it costs to power basic items (ex. a computer) using solar power.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Feb24.11 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Connecting Music and Math

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">CONTENT: While I am sure that there are many connections between math and music, the one that I would like to focus on is fractions. Specifically, I would teach my students about whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes—both halves and quarters as specifically mentioned in the NCSCOS for second grade. If there were a few kids in the class who needed a challenge, I might introduce them to eighth notes. Further, I would illustrate the relationships between the quantities (four quarters is the same as one whole, two quarters are the same as one half, etc.).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">PEDAGOGY: In addition to teaching math and music, I would love to add a bodily kinesthetic dimension. After explaining that four beats make up a whole measure, I would divide the class into three groups—one group that would be our whole notes, one that would be our half notes, and one that would be our quarter notes. I would then assign each group a movement or sequence of movements. The whole notes would have a sequence that consists our four moves (ex. touch head, touch shoulders, touch knees, touch toes). The half notes would have a two-move sequence (ex. touch head, touch shoulders), and the quarter notes would have just one movement (ex. touch head). Students would practice doing their movement to the beat of my clapping (or a metronome). After reminding the kids that there are four beats in a whole measure, I would assign jobs to each group. One group would do their movement to the beat; another group would count four beats (to represent a measure) and shout STOP! when one measure has gone by; and the last group would count how many completed sequences the first group got through. Since all moves involve touching the head first, this last group could simply count head touches. The groups would rotate jobs until we reached the conclusion that you can fit only one whole note in a measure (or a whole), two half notes in a measure, and four quarter notes in a measure. Hopefully this is a constructivist approach that would lead the students to discover how many wholes, halves, and quarters can fit in a whole while also letting them get out their wiggles!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">TECHNOLOGY: We could use a digital metronome to keep the class on beat, as the students would not reach accurate conclusions. We could even videotape our class “doing” their notes! Apart from this particular activity, technology can be used to play and compose (at a basic level) music.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">SUSTAINABILITY: Had we not talked about song birds in science last week, I would have really struggled to think of a sustainability connection! We could do something similar, but make up our own “calls,” or clapping patterns. I would then introduce a lot of noise to demonstrate that when noise levels are too high, birds can’t tell patterns apart. We could then segue into a discussion about noise pollution.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ASSESSMENT: For an assessment, I could do several things. I could have them compose their own “music” (or clapping patterns) using what they know about how many notes go in a measure. I could have them arrange whole, half, and quarter notes according to how long they last, writing a brief explanation of how they know that. Really, I could assess in any way in which students could demonstrate that they must use parts (here, notes) to make up a whole.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">MEDIA: This [|YouTube video] is of a step team performing. This performance could be used to engage students: “How did all of those people do all of those moves at the exact same time? Well, they knew all about fractions…” This could get students excited about fractions, which might otherwise intimidate them.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">APP: This [|app] is a metronome, and it would support the activities described about in the pedagogy section. It could be used for tons of other things, especially if students are given the opportunity to create their own rhythms.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Jan27.11 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Counting on Estimating

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My estimation question: How many ounces of drink (water, soda, juice, milk, etc.) get poured out between 12:45 and 1:00 at the pit on a given day?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">CONTENT: Estimation exercises obviously lend themselves well to math, but this particular question can be discussed in the context of science and social studies as well. Estimation is an important mathematical process because it involves basic number sense and the concepts of “less than” and “more than.” For example, we have a good idea of how tall we are. Because I am five feet and two inches tall, and most trees are taller than I am, I know to estimate their height as something taller than five feet and two inches. This number sense and ability to make comparisons is a skill that can be refined in math classes. In science, we discussed that it may be helpful for kids to start learning how to measure by using nonstandard units. Revisiting my tree example, while I may not know exactly how tall a tree is, I might think to myself that it is about four times my height, or about four Michaelas tall. This would lead me to a rough estimate of 21 feet. While this might seem silly, it is a good way to get kids interested in measuring. In my question about how many ounces of drink get poured out in the pit, we might think in terms of glasses (ex. a quarter of a class) instead of ounces. We can introduce the need for standard units of measurement as children progress in this area. This specific question can also be examined with an eye towards social studies if approached from a responsibility standpoint. For young children, it might be a novel idea to try to take only as much of something as you will consume. We could then talk about waste and why it is important for us to try to reduce it—part of being a good citizen.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">PEDAGOGY: Both the estimation activities that we did in class and the question proposed above involve getting out of the classroom and investigating to find an answer. This fits in with the constructivist view of learning in which students must actively build new knowledge. While a teacher could stand in front of her class and tell her students that a lot of food and drink gets wasted unnecessarily, it would not be nearly as effective as having students see for themselves just how much liquid gets poured out in a ten minute span. This could also be a great problem solving opportunity. If we wanted to compare our estimates to a “true” answer, how might we find one? Students would have to devise a plan for measuring the liquid. Would it be feasible to measure each glass individually? Or would we somehow need to collect it all and measure it later? Students might also be asked to seek school approval, making this plan into a more refined, authentic proposal.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">TECHNOLOGY: In class on Thursday, we were asked to estimate how many cars drive past ZSR in a seven minute time period. To calculate an exact answer, we used the stopwatch feature on a smartphone. For my pit beverage question, we could also use some sort of timer, but a watch could work, too. We could also use technology to communicate our findings, coming up with creative graphics to visually display the amount of drink that is wasted at the pit (for example, two glasses—one representing a single glass of drink, and one that is proportionate to the amount of beverage that is wasted).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">SUSTAINABILITY: The obvious sustainability connection to my question is the issue of waste and how, if we pay more attention to portion size, we can reduce it. We could tie in the water crisis and explain how, even though we have different names for beverages like soda, juice, and milk, they are still predominantly water. Wasting these beverages, then, does waste water. While adults probably know this on their own, young kids might need to be taught (or led to discover) that just because something is classified as a soda doesn’t mean that we can waste it without wasting the water that is in it.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ASSESSMENT: For this activity, I would assess student understanding by having them communicate their findings in an authentic way. Earlier I mentioned coming up with graphics that illustrate the amount of waste we produce, but students could also write about what we found and generate some possible solutions.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">MEDIA: This [|blog], written by Jonathan Bloom, discusses different issues pertinent to why we waste food (ex. how cheap it is) and what we can do about it (ex. composting). There is also a current events dimension to the blog, as it puts these issues in the context of relevant things going on in our society. At the top of the blog when I first visited it was the GOP’s decision to “scrap the Capitol composting plan.” This could segue into a number of questions for discussion—for example: why might the GOP decide not to compost even if we know it is good for the environment?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">APP: The [|Kitchen Calculator PRO] has two features that I particularly like. The first is that it scales recipes for the desired portion size. I could use this to teach students how to plan so that they waste as little food as possible. It also performs recipe conversions, which we could use to explore the idea of measurement, standard units, and how different units relate to each other.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Jan20.11 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Less than, More than, Scarcity, and Abundance

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">CONTENT: This lesson could easily be incorporated into math, science, and social studies classes. The concepts of “less than” and “more than” are consistent with the basic number sense that all elementary school students need, and the real-world context provides something concrete so that learners can make connections to their everyday lives. While we obviously approached this concept from a college perspective (ex. too few parking spaces), younger children could still easily come up with things of which they have too much or too little. Moving away from this strictly numerical concept, scarcity and abundance can be applied to resources as they might appear in a science course. For instance, students can discuss the consequences of too little water (scarcity) or too much pollution (abundance). Students could also consider what the “right” thing to do is when confronted with scarcity, be it environmental or other. This concept would fit into a social studies course in the form of civic duty, civic virtue, or even just the more general sense of character (i.e. we have to share when there isn’t enough of something).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">PEDAGOGY: Examining this lesson with an eye toward pedagogy, I can appreciate how much it catered to different needs to students. It required interpersonal intelligence because students were in groups and had to interview other students on campus. Students also got to walk around campus, which is a nice change of pace for students who like to move around or who like to be outside (characteristics of bodily kinesthetic and naturalistic learners, respectively). Activities like this are also holistically more engaging and meaningful because students have to be active, a key component of constructivist learning.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">TECHNOLOGY: In this specific activity, students used smartphones to record their findings. If we wanted to expand upon this lesson (this might only be appropriate for upper elementary grades), we could use a site like SurveyMonkey to collect data from a greater segment of the student body. This could add the dimension of determining what seems to be the most troubling scarcity/abundance, which relates back to basic number sense.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">SUSTAINABILITY: Lessons about scarcity and abundance have obvious sustainability implications because they can be applied in the context of resources. As I mentioned earlier, students can discuss what happens when there is not enough of something we need to live the way we do (ex. water, plants, gasoline) or when there is too much of something we don’t want (ex. pollution). We could also think about ways to reach a balance. For instance, if sunlight is abundant and gasoline is scarce, how might we use this information to make decisions about the types of vehicles we design? Students could research potential solutions that are in the works, showing them real-world examples of problem-solving and higher-order thinking skills in the context of sustainability.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ASSESSMENT: To assess student understanding, I would have them recap (either in writing or in the form of a class discussion) the things of which we have too much or too little. To make sure that they are able to use and apply this information, I would ask the students: 1) what we would need to do to make ___ less scarce/more abundant and 2) how we might go about doing it. This would assess whether or not students are operating at the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, as they would have to create solutions based on a mastery of the other levels.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">MEDIA: This [|YouTube video] discusses water scarcity, and I chose to include it for the visual dimension it adds to an understanding of water scarcity. For instance, it shows the portion of the Earth's water that we can actually drink as a tiny sliver in the globe (like a pie chart). It shows the portion of the world that does not have ready access to clean, drinkable water--something that might be difficult for young kids to conceptualize. I would have to do some scaffolding with this video, as some of the terms it uses would be difficult for students to understand on their own. At these points, I would pause the video and help the class to come up with a way to express these concept in our own words. However, I thought that the visual benefits of this video outweighed the fact that it might be above the reading level of some students. I think it could be a great tool in a lesson about scarcity and sustainability!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">APP: The MathPad 3 [|app] provides practice with basic inequalities. I thought this could be used in conjunction with this lesson, as one of the key concepts is getting a sense of “less than” and “more than.”