Phase 3
As my ImagineIT project has unfolded, I’ve wanted to focus on student assessment. What ways can I engage students in deeper learning? How can I integrate technology more effectively, along with student interest, to uncover more of what students need to know and ultimately understand? How can I push students to understand content more deeply?
Since my new position is more clearly defined as the summer has passed, I’m excited to have one aspect of my fifth grade science curriculum be the focus. At some point during the year, my students will be studying Earth system science, digging deeper into the processes that move energy and materials among the four major Earth systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere.
The key ideas in my unit focus on the following: the Earth’s four systems interact daily, the amount of water and fresh water on the Earth can be measured and influenced by the ways in which the four systems interact, and humans, who are part of the biosphere, have had opportunities and success in protecting the Earth’s resources and environments. I want students to leave my classroom knowing that THEY have ownership in being part of the success story of humans who have positively impacted the world in which they live.
In all this, students need to be assessed. I want to offer flexibility in the assessments beyond standard assessments I have to give (right now I am thinking about standard vocabulary assignments, knowing the four components to Earth’s system, and how various processes shape the Earth, like erosion and deposition). I would like to deepen my assessments so that students can not only have voice, but the assessments can deepen their learning, all within the TPACK framework. Some of my initial ideas include the following:
Each of these assessments, and others that will evolve, will allow students to experience deeper learning because they give students an opportunity to uncover something that they could apply to a new context. Adding the right technology to the mix can help me find that “sweet spot” with my teaching.
Where will students’ learning go next?
Performances of understanding are activities that require students to publicly showcase their understanding. They ask students to carry out some activity that requires them to go beyond what they have learned. Here are the performances of understanding for my unit on Earth systems.
This fall, I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade science at Alcott College Prep. This is a new position and school for me, and I am eager to jump in! I have met with my team (there are two other science teachers in the building with me...YAY!) and my administration, and they are all incredibly open to me exploring ideas that I’ve learned as a result of participating in the MSU Urban STEM and Leadership Fellowship, as well as the repertoire of science teaching “tricks” I’ve gained over the last 13 years of my teaching experience. I’ve also been told that I must balance my sense of excitement with the realities of starting a new position. This is so incredibly true.
My school has an incredibly supportive parent community, and I am eager to utilize their gifts and strengths along with my own. I have had the privilege of selecting some new science curriculum that strongly aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards, so I will be spending my year learning alongside my students.
When asked to describe my classroom, I always like to say “controlled chaos.” It’s really a place where students run the room, and I just help facilitate their learning. I spend large amounts of time in the beginning of the year establishing classroom routines and procedures, so that in due time, we can dig deep into the practices of being scientists and engineers. And yes, that’s what my students are when they’re in my room. They’re the ones planning the investigations and doing the science. They’re the ones designing solutions to problems just like a real engineer would. We will have no time or interest in dealing with the nitty-gritty stuff at that point, which is why we get that all out of the way in the beginning of the year.
I have a SMARTBoard in my room, a document camera, and two desktop computers. I will also have access to checking out a laptop cart and a set of chromebooks. Utilizing sets of these technologies is going to be the biggest push for me this year. I saw what utilizing technology in the TPACK framework did for me during the two weeks this summer. I can only imagine what it can do for my students this year.
Content:
I want students to start thinking more specifically about the world around them. Science is everywhere, and engineers use science to improve the world around them. Because my focus is going to be on Earth systems, I want students to dig deeper into understanding the connections between these systems. Those idling signs outside our school--why are they really there? That recycled plastic composite on our playground--why did the developer use that material over another? And how do our choices in our everyday lives affect others we will never meet?
Pedagogy:
The most focused pedagogical approach I will use in context of this project is the workshop model. The workshop model is comprised of three parts: the mini-lesson, the independent practice, and the closing. It’s during the mini-lesson where I set students up for what they’ll be doing in small groups. I’ll be using a variety of strategies which may include scientific simulations/videos, think-pair-share opportunities, or note-taking and model-development. During the independent practice, students will be collaborative and I’ll step out of teacher role into facilitator mode. Most often, students will be using materials and talk moves to deepen their understanding. And our closing will allow students to make sense of their learning and ask more questions to dig deeper into their understanding. It’s a cycle of learning that’s interwoven by me and my students each taking turns leading the classroom.
Through all this, I want to be realistic and tell myself that failure is going to be a part of this whole process, and I am okay with that. Just like I tell my students, failure only leads to success. When one strategy or approach doesn't work with my students, I’ll be able to try another in hopes of success with that one.
Technology:
Since much of my experience in my teaching comes from using the SMARTBoard and document camera to build classroom community, I am going to be doing the same thing in my new position. Sharing student work is important to building classroom community, as it recognizes that all voices have importance in showing and evaluating what has been learned. It also gives me a way to show what I have also learned as a student myself.
Because I also have access to laptops and chromebooks, these tools will also be valuable in sharing what students create, whether it be a set of slides, a set of data collected from their site, or a video they create to showcase connections and possible effects on their site. I am not sure at this time if it’s realistic for students to create online portfolios, but I have every intention of sharing what students create that they are unable to on their own accord. I am incredibly excited to see what happens when that “sweet spot” is hit in the TPACK framework!
As my ImagineIT project has unfolded, I’ve wanted to focus on student assessment. What ways can I engage students in deeper learning? How can I integrate technology more effectively, along with student interest, to uncover more of what students need to know and ultimately understand? How can I push students to understand content more deeply?
Since my new position is more clearly defined as the summer has passed, I’m excited to have one aspect of my fifth grade science curriculum be the focus. At some point during the year, my students will be studying Earth system science, digging deeper into the processes that move energy and materials among the four major Earth systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere.
The key ideas in my unit focus on the following: the Earth’s four systems interact daily, the amount of water and fresh water on the Earth can be measured and influenced by the ways in which the four systems interact, and humans, who are part of the biosphere, have had opportunities and success in protecting the Earth’s resources and environments. I want students to leave my classroom knowing that THEY have ownership in being part of the success story of humans who have positively impacted the world in which they live.
In all this, students need to be assessed. I want to offer flexibility in the assessments beyond standard assessments I have to give (right now I am thinking about standard vocabulary assignments, knowing the four components to Earth’s system, and how various processes shape the Earth, like erosion and deposition). I would like to deepen my assessments so that students can not only have voice, but the assessments can deepen their learning, all within the TPACK framework. Some of my initial ideas include the following:
- Creating detailed diagrams through an online drawing tool that showcase the connections (i.e. water in foliage evaporates into the air) between the systems in their local environment (i.e. at the playground)
- Creating a physical model of how water moves throughout each of the Earth’s systems.
- Creating “What if…?” movies that show how each Earth system interacts with another system, and how hypothetical scenarios (i.e. the effects of temperature increase or rainfall decrease) would affect each of the connections between systems.
- Optimizing a design solution that focuses on protecting the Earth’s resources (i.e. designing a wind turbine to minimize fossil fuel consumption, a water filtration system to clean contaminated water, or an oil spill cleanup process).
Each of these assessments, and others that will evolve, will allow students to experience deeper learning because they give students an opportunity to uncover something that they could apply to a new context. Adding the right technology to the mix can help me find that “sweet spot” with my teaching.
Where will students’ learning go next?
Performances of understanding are activities that require students to publicly showcase their understanding. They ask students to carry out some activity that requires them to go beyond what they have learned. Here are the performances of understanding for my unit on Earth systems.
- Identify the major components of the Earth systems.
- Interactive Science Notebook Activity
- Students identify something from each of the four spheres of the Earth system (geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere) that they interact with every day.
- Students determine how each of those things impacts their life.
- Students share and add additional components after group share-out.
- Infer connections among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere by describing connections among examples at a student-chosen study site near school.
- Classroom Field Trip
- Students go on a “field trip” outside of school, picking a small plot that they will observe over time. They’ll identify the location in relation to our school as well as whether it’s an urban, suburban, or rural area.
- They will measure the site in meters.
- They will identify some examples of the four major components of the Earth system in their small plot.
- They will Identify and record connections among the four components of the Earth system by: making observations and speculating carefully about the connections that might be taking place (i.e. Atmosphere-Hydrosphere, Atmosphere-Geosphere, Atmosphere-Biosphere, Hydrosphere-Geosphere, etc.)
- They’ll take several photographs of the study site, with one in each of the four cardinal directions (N, E, S, W) showing as many as possible of the four major Earth system components. This will be repeated throughout the year.
- Predict ways that changes in one component of the study site might affect changes in other components.
- Students state a claim about the effects of a rain storm on their site (effects of water level on plants and animals, soil moisture levels, erosion rates, streamflow, bottoms of bodies of waters, cloud cover affecting vegetation, etc.), providing evidence and reasoning to support their claim.
- Students state a claim about what would happen with a rise in temperature (effects of prolonged heat wave, changes in evaporation, soil moisture, living things’ life spans, total amount of water, etc.), providing evidence and reasoning to support their claim.
- Design a solution to a possible problem that connects two systems (i.e. excess use of fossil fuels, water pollution, overconsumption of goods, etc.)
- Students research ways in which humans (which are part of the biosphere) have positively impacted connections between the Earth’s systems, such as the hydrosphere or the atmosphere (eliminating idling, developing clean energy alternatives, restoring natural environments, etc.)
- Students develop technologies that use the engineering design process to optimize a solution (i.e. Optimize the design of a wind turbine’s blades to maximize wind energy, optimize an oil spill clean-up process to restore balance to an ecosystem, or optimize a water filtration process to improve water quality in a body of water, etc.)
This fall, I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade science at Alcott College Prep. This is a new position and school for me, and I am eager to jump in! I have met with my team (there are two other science teachers in the building with me...YAY!) and my administration, and they are all incredibly open to me exploring ideas that I’ve learned as a result of participating in the MSU Urban STEM and Leadership Fellowship, as well as the repertoire of science teaching “tricks” I’ve gained over the last 13 years of my teaching experience. I’ve also been told that I must balance my sense of excitement with the realities of starting a new position. This is so incredibly true.
My school has an incredibly supportive parent community, and I am eager to utilize their gifts and strengths along with my own. I have had the privilege of selecting some new science curriculum that strongly aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards, so I will be spending my year learning alongside my students.
When asked to describe my classroom, I always like to say “controlled chaos.” It’s really a place where students run the room, and I just help facilitate their learning. I spend large amounts of time in the beginning of the year establishing classroom routines and procedures, so that in due time, we can dig deep into the practices of being scientists and engineers. And yes, that’s what my students are when they’re in my room. They’re the ones planning the investigations and doing the science. They’re the ones designing solutions to problems just like a real engineer would. We will have no time or interest in dealing with the nitty-gritty stuff at that point, which is why we get that all out of the way in the beginning of the year.
I have a SMARTBoard in my room, a document camera, and two desktop computers. I will also have access to checking out a laptop cart and a set of chromebooks. Utilizing sets of these technologies is going to be the biggest push for me this year. I saw what utilizing technology in the TPACK framework did for me during the two weeks this summer. I can only imagine what it can do for my students this year.
Content:
I want students to start thinking more specifically about the world around them. Science is everywhere, and engineers use science to improve the world around them. Because my focus is going to be on Earth systems, I want students to dig deeper into understanding the connections between these systems. Those idling signs outside our school--why are they really there? That recycled plastic composite on our playground--why did the developer use that material over another? And how do our choices in our everyday lives affect others we will never meet?
Pedagogy:
The most focused pedagogical approach I will use in context of this project is the workshop model. The workshop model is comprised of three parts: the mini-lesson, the independent practice, and the closing. It’s during the mini-lesson where I set students up for what they’ll be doing in small groups. I’ll be using a variety of strategies which may include scientific simulations/videos, think-pair-share opportunities, or note-taking and model-development. During the independent practice, students will be collaborative and I’ll step out of teacher role into facilitator mode. Most often, students will be using materials and talk moves to deepen their understanding. And our closing will allow students to make sense of their learning and ask more questions to dig deeper into their understanding. It’s a cycle of learning that’s interwoven by me and my students each taking turns leading the classroom.
Through all this, I want to be realistic and tell myself that failure is going to be a part of this whole process, and I am okay with that. Just like I tell my students, failure only leads to success. When one strategy or approach doesn't work with my students, I’ll be able to try another in hopes of success with that one.
Technology:
Since much of my experience in my teaching comes from using the SMARTBoard and document camera to build classroom community, I am going to be doing the same thing in my new position. Sharing student work is important to building classroom community, as it recognizes that all voices have importance in showing and evaluating what has been learned. It also gives me a way to show what I have also learned as a student myself.
Because I also have access to laptops and chromebooks, these tools will also be valuable in sharing what students create, whether it be a set of slides, a set of data collected from their site, or a video they create to showcase connections and possible effects on their site. I am not sure at this time if it’s realistic for students to create online portfolios, but I have every intention of sharing what students create that they are unable to on their own accord. I am incredibly excited to see what happens when that “sweet spot” is hit in the TPACK framework!