Most students were finishing up the wiki project on this day in class. Lynn sets up her class for less than 5 minutes and then begins meeting with students to provide feedback and complete the rubrics. Although we want all kids to reach mastery before moving onto Part 2, it does take time to meet with all the groups. Sometimes, student may move forward as they wait for your feedback. In this instance, the IOS app game Cell Explorer allows students to continue their learning while waiting to meet with their teacher.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Moving Students Through Assessment 1.1
In the video below, you can see how Lynn sets up her class for one of the last days students will be working on Part 1 of the NGSS 1.1 assessment for 6th grade. Prior to shooting this video, students had been working in groups of 4 to collaboratively complete a wiki project. Each student researched 3 organelles using articles provided on Haiku LMS. As a group, they decided on an analogy to represent the cell and the organelles and each student had to write three paragraphs explaining how their organelles related to the analogy.
Most students were finishing up the wiki project on this day in class. Lynn sets up her class for less than 5 minutes and then begins meeting with students to provide feedback and complete the rubrics. Although we want all kids to reach mastery before moving onto Part 2, it does take time to meet with all the groups. Sometimes, student may move forward as they wait for your feedback. In this instance, the IOS app game Cell Explorer allows students to continue their learning while waiting to meet with their teacher.
Most students were finishing up the wiki project on this day in class. Lynn sets up her class for less than 5 minutes and then begins meeting with students to provide feedback and complete the rubrics. Although we want all kids to reach mastery before moving onto Part 2, it does take time to meet with all the groups. Sometimes, student may move forward as they wait for your feedback. In this instance, the IOS app game Cell Explorer allows students to continue their learning while waiting to meet with their teacher.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Week 3 Agenda
Here is a look at Week 3. We will be finishing up the organization of life slide shows and Introducing our first NGSS Assessment 1.1 in 6th Grade. The first performance task is being implemented right now at Orchard Hills School and the teachers think that the rigor of Part 1 may be a bit too difficult to be considered a Part 1.
Here are the original performance tasks with students researching an organelle and creating a media product to explain the structure and function. After reflecting on part 1, we are going to revert to using the original versions of the assessment found below.
OLD version of the student directions of assessment 1.1.
OLD version of the teacher directions for assessment 1.1
The reason we changed it in the first place to the analogy project was due to the fact that students are required to peer review and use student products to answer questions in Part 2. We were worried that we would not be able to check the accuracy of the videos before students were ready to move on to Part 2 and that students would not be able to peer review if they researched a different organelle. We also thought that having a more shallow understanding of each organelle would be better than a deep understanding of just one. However, we have changed our mind.
With the addition of the IOS App game Cell Explorer, it allows students to attain an overall understanding of all organelles and it helps with peer review. It also can be used to take notes to help with answering questions in part 2. It seems best to have students move onto the game Cell Explorer at the end of Part 1.
You might also want to make sure you have more than one student/group researching the same organelles to help with peer review. The game will also give you time to view student products, provide feedback and check for mastery before being shared with the class.
Here are the original performance tasks with students researching an organelle and creating a media product to explain the structure and function. After reflecting on part 1, we are going to revert to using the original versions of the assessment found below.
OLD version of the student directions of assessment 1.1.
OLD version of the teacher directions for assessment 1.1
The reason we changed it in the first place to the analogy project was due to the fact that students are required to peer review and use student products to answer questions in Part 2. We were worried that we would not be able to check the accuracy of the videos before students were ready to move on to Part 2 and that students would not be able to peer review if they researched a different organelle. We also thought that having a more shallow understanding of each organelle would be better than a deep understanding of just one. However, we have changed our mind.
With the addition of the IOS App game Cell Explorer, it allows students to attain an overall understanding of all organelles and it helps with peer review. It also can be used to take notes to help with answering questions in part 2. It seems best to have students move onto the game Cell Explorer at the end of Part 1.
You might also want to make sure you have more than one student/group researching the same organelles to help with peer review. The game will also give you time to view student products, provide feedback and check for mastery before being shared with the class.
Week 2 Reflection
Due to the curriculum planning day and Femineer Program Training at Cal Poly Pomona this week, Jen and I have still not met to reflect on the lessons.More will be added once we meet.
Below you will find a video of Lynn setting up students to complete the Organization of Life analogy.
Below you will find a video of Lynn setting up students to complete the Organization of Life analogy.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Week 2 Agenda
Here is a look ahead to week 2. We will be finishing up the slide shows on the characteristics of living things and moving ahead into the Organization of Life.
Click here for Week 2 Agenda
Week 1 Reflection
I have talked with several of you about Week1 and the consensus is that Week 1 was a huge success!
The Living, Nonliving, Dead lab was a nice introduction to the instructional shift of providing opportunities for students to figure out concepts on their own. It is hard for most of us to not correct students as they go through this process. However, the final class list of characteristics of living things culminates the activity to make sure students do not walk away with misconceptions and the student created slide shows at the end provided evidence of their accuracy in understanding.
I know that Lynn found one station where she stayed while the students rotated through. This allowed her to connect with every student, look at their characteristics and begin addressing misconceptions. And of course, they had them!
We will add more to this on Monday when Jen and I meet.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Week 1 Agenda
We are estimating at this time to begin Week 1 on October 17th, 2016. You will also find a possible introduction activity to introduce the students to the three domains of NGSS. Possible revisions may be made to the agenda as we work our way through the week. Reflections will soon follow!
Background on Unit 1
Throughout the year, I will be working closely with my current TUSD Connect fellow, Jen Smith, and former fellow, Lynn Okenwa, to help determine weekly agendas that will connect each unit's overarching concept into a variety of lessons using new instructional models to try and meet the requirements of the NGSS. Both Lynn and Jen were on the curriculum design team that met for a week in August to begin designing the day to day lessons in Unit 1. Together, we will reflect on the implementation of these lessons to hopefully help others in their transition to the NGSS.
In Unit 1, we will be focusing our lessons around the overarching concept that "A cell, a person and planet Earth are each a system made up of subsystems."
We will start the unit by having students develop their own understanding of what it means to be living, nonliving, or dead. They will create a list of characteristics for living things and we will spend the first half of the unit going deeper into this topic. The organization of life will be used as the system to classify the levels of living things into subsystems. We will also spend several weeks discovering the characteristics of living things at the smallest living subsystem, cells (MS-LS1-1, MS-LS1-2, MS-LS1-3).
A transition to nonliving will occur after our microscopic investigations come to and end, studying the Earth system and the classification of the subsystems into Earth's four spheres. Students will make connections within and between Earth's spheres, looking at interactions and transfer of matter and energy (MS-ESS2-4, MS-ESS2-6).We will not take a deep dive into these topics in Unit 1, but will revisit these concepts in later units and in 7th grade.
We will end the unit by introducing the engineering design process and having students ask questions, define problems, and brainstorm solutions to the human impacts that have negatively impacted Earth's spheres (MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2).
Throughout this unit and the entire year, our focus is to try and create a student-centered culture in our classrooms that promotes student inquiry and requires students to formulate their own understandings rather than simply providing the information they need to know. We will also be focused on meeting the district's TUSD Connect Vision which is:
In Unit 1, we will be focusing our lessons around the overarching concept that "A cell, a person and planet Earth are each a system made up of subsystems."
We will start the unit by having students develop their own understanding of what it means to be living, nonliving, or dead. They will create a list of characteristics for living things and we will spend the first half of the unit going deeper into this topic. The organization of life will be used as the system to classify the levels of living things into subsystems. We will also spend several weeks discovering the characteristics of living things at the smallest living subsystem, cells (MS-LS1-1, MS-LS1-2, MS-LS1-3).
A transition to nonliving will occur after our microscopic investigations come to and end, studying the Earth system and the classification of the subsystems into Earth's four spheres. Students will make connections within and between Earth's spheres, looking at interactions and transfer of matter and energy (MS-ESS2-4, MS-ESS2-6).We will not take a deep dive into these topics in Unit 1, but will revisit these concepts in later units and in 7th grade.
We will end the unit by introducing the engineering design process and having students ask questions, define problems, and brainstorm solutions to the human impacts that have negatively impacted Earth's spheres (MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2).
Throughout this unit and the entire year, our focus is to try and create a student-centered culture in our classrooms that promotes student inquiry and requires students to formulate their own understandings rather than simply providing the information they need to know. We will also be focused on meeting the district's TUSD Connect Vision which is:
We will continue to focus on including and increasing the rigor of scientific literacy in our curriculum to meet individual school site writing goals and the goals of CCSS and the NGSS.
I want to mention how appreciative I am to Lynn and Jen for taking this huge risk of opening their classroom doors and sharing their reflections with the rest of us who are following along. Thank You!
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Here We Go!
The time has come and we are all about to begin implementing the NGSS in middle school classrooms in TUSD! Our transition units are coming to a close and many of us are not sure exactly where to start. This blog is dedicated to those of you who would like someone to follow.
As a part of the TUSD Connect Fellowship, I will be coaching teachers through our first year of transition to the NGSS. We will posting together on this site and providing a sample weekly agenda. Do not feel you need to follow us the way we are implementing the lessons, go ahead and make it your own. Hopefully, our reflections on the curriculum will help you learn from the risks we are taking as we dive into this great big ocean of the unknown.
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