by: Emily Bularzik
BHS English
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
BHS
Science
Mrs. Carey's Human Anatomy & Physiology classes designed a brochure to inform the public about the Coronavirus. They compiled the main ideas about the virus and wrote to an authentic audience.
See the brochure here.
Science
Mrs. Carey's Human Anatomy & Physiology classes designed a brochure to inform the public about the Coronavirus. They compiled the main ideas about the virus and wrote to an authentic audience.
See the brochure here.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Tammy Scelsi
MSMS
Grade 7
Science
A challenge that I face as a science teacher is deciding how to implement new initiatives, but also to stay consistent with the things that I know work for students. For example, in science the new NGSS standards and phenomenon based teaching practices have been introduced this year. I also participated in a book study about the universal design for learning, which focuses on empowering students in their own learning. These are all great, but I am a KTL coach and I want to stay focused on developing literacy too. The key is in finding ways to implement the KTL strategies into the new curriculum designed to shift focus away from teacher-driven lessons.
Ideally finding resources that can lend themselves to all, or at least most, of it would be important. Stanford University and NGSS created an integrated curriculum unit that “fit the bill.” We just completed a unit entitled “Matter Matters” in which the students learned about water scarcity issues facing the planet. The unit started with a phenomenon and required that the students generate guiding questions. We created a class concept map for these questions.
We used our Bloom’s question prompts from Keys to help write the guiding questions.
Each task in the unit ended with a summary of what was learned in a two-column note format.
Throughout the unit the students were working on vocabulary - previewing in quick writes (the 1, 2, 3, 4 method) and defining other words that were more critical to the understanding of the unit. We kept a running list of new vocabulary that was covered in each task. We revisited Bloom’s with additional questions at the end of each task. We also worked on our summarizing skills using main ideas and transition words from various reading material throughout the unit.
The final task for students required that they consider a specific location on the Earth that has a water shortage and devise a method for solving the problem. Students were given a few options for their solutions. In keeping with UDL principles they were given freedom in choosing their location, devising their own solutions, and deciding how they would present their information. For example, some groups created mechanical solutions and shared those ideas with their classmates in a Google Slides presentation (one example shown below), while other groups created public service announcements, posters (shown below) or used iMovie to create videos.
A challenge that I face as a science teacher is deciding how to implement new initiatives, but also to stay consistent with the things that I know work for students. For example, in science the new NGSS standards and phenomenon based teaching practices have been introduced this year. I also participated in a book study about the universal design for learning, which focuses on empowering students in their own learning. These are all great, but I am a KTL coach and I want to stay focused on developing literacy too. The key is in finding ways to implement the KTL strategies into the new curriculum designed to shift focus away from teacher-driven lessons.
Ideally finding resources that can lend themselves to all, or at least most, of it would be important. Stanford University and NGSS created an integrated curriculum unit that “fit the bill.” We just completed a unit entitled “Matter Matters” in which the students learned about water scarcity issues facing the planet. The unit started with a phenomenon and required that the students generate guiding questions. We created a class concept map for these questions.
We used our Bloom’s question prompts from Keys to help write the guiding questions.
Each task in the unit ended with a summary of what was learned in a two-column note format.
Throughout the unit the students were working on vocabulary - previewing in quick writes (the 1, 2, 3, 4 method) and defining other words that were more critical to the understanding of the unit. We kept a running list of new vocabulary that was covered in each task. We revisited Bloom’s with additional questions at the end of each task. We also worked on our summarizing skills using main ideas and transition words from various reading material throughout the unit.
The final task for students required that they consider a specific location on the Earth that has a water shortage and devise a method for solving the problem. Students were given a few options for their solutions. In keeping with UDL principles they were given freedom in choosing their location, devising their own solutions, and deciding how they would present their information. For example, some groups created mechanical solutions and shared those ideas with their classmates in a Google Slides presentation (one example shown below), while other groups created public service announcements, posters (shown below) or used iMovie to create videos.
Students were also tasked with using their two-column notes to write a four paragraph digital article about the importance of water, the different states of matter and the positive and negative aspects of their proposed solution. In the end, this particular unit ended up being a good link between the Keys to Literacy strategies that I find so valuable and the new methods that are being used to teach science. The best part - there was no need to “recreate the wheel!”
Monday, March 2, 2020
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
BHS
Environmental Science
WAG
This year I wanted to do something a little different than a standard google slides presentation for a unit on Biomes for my Environmental Science class. I created a mini-WAG assignment in which students had to create a children’s book about the biome. They had to choose an animal from that biome as their main character and create a story with that animal to hit on key points of the biome (plants, animals, climate, landforms, human impacts).
I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results! ALL of my students handed in the COMPLETED assignment ON TIME - which has never happened yet this year. They were all efficiently working on it in class, and got really into it; they were joking around and sharing their work! I then had them present their finished books to their table and a couple students volunteered to share their story with the whole class.
After completing these books, we did an activity in which each table group had to list 1 animal, 1 plant, the average temperature, the average rainfall, and color the location in on a map of 4 different biomes - the table that got the most correct won! I found that the students really knew the material better than in year’s past and I believe it has to do with their enthusiasm and effort they put into their biome books!! It was such a different way for the students to write and express themselves that I think it really had a positive impact.
Here are some examples of the final products:
This year I wanted to do something a little different than a standard google slides presentation for a unit on Biomes for my Environmental Science class. I created a mini-WAG assignment in which students had to create a children’s book about the biome. They had to choose an animal from that biome as their main character and create a story with that animal to hit on key points of the biome (plants, animals, climate, landforms, human impacts).
I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results! ALL of my students handed in the COMPLETED assignment ON TIME - which has never happened yet this year. They were all efficiently working on it in class, and got really into it; they were joking around and sharing their work! I then had them present their finished books to their table and a couple students volunteered to share their story with the whole class.
After completing these books, we did an activity in which each table group had to list 1 animal, 1 plant, the average temperature, the average rainfall, and color the location in on a map of 4 different biomes - the table that got the most correct won! I found that the students really knew the material better than in year’s past and I believe it has to do with their enthusiasm and effort they put into their biome books!! It was such a different way for the students to write and express themselves that I think it really had a positive impact.
Here are some examples of the final products:
Math Vocabulary Sort
Grade 4
FH
The topic seven Envision math unit had some important vocabulary that the students needed to be able to identify and understand before they took the test. I decided to have them review the vocabulary by doing a sorting activity. I gave them a mix of definitions and examples that needed to be sorted and placed next to the correct vocabulary word.
Once it was sorted, the students could paste the strips onto the two column note that I gave them. Next, I had them write their own example for each word in the left hand column. Finally, they could take it home as a study guide for the test.
The topic seven Envision math unit had some important vocabulary that the students needed to be able to identify and understand before they took the test. I decided to have them review the vocabulary by doing a sorting activity. I gave them a mix of definitions and examples that needed to be sorted and placed next to the correct vocabulary word.
Once it was sorted, the students could paste the strips onto the two column note that I gave them. Next, I had them write their own example for each word in the left hand column. Finally, they could take it home as a study guide for the test.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Grade 5
Francis Wyman
Carrie Casey
Extracting Information from a Video to Answer a Prompt
Fifth grade students watched a science video. They were asked to take two column notes as they watched to answer a science prompt, "Where do animals get what they need to survive?". This student is using his notes to respond to the prompt.
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