Vertical Alignment and Science Inquiry

Last week, elementary science teachers met for the second session of Vertical Alignment. In this session we focused on sharpening the saw by investigating and comparing approaches to science instruction. Erin Graves from the Catawba Science Center led our teachers through model lessons using different approaches to hands-on science. We learned that:

· All approaches to hands-on science are not alike; each has distinguishable characteristics
· Different approaches to hands-on science support different objectives for learning
· Effective science teaching requires using a variety of approaches and matching the appropriate approach with specific content, process, and affective learning goals.


While there are many definitions for inquiry, the following is a structure that is widely embraced.

Map of Inquiry Structure
Inquiry Starter
Raising questions from observing engaging materials
Focused Investigation
Planning and investigating questions


Process for Meaning
Thinking about and communicating what you learned


Specifically, we investigated three different approaches to hands-on science using bubbles as our medium.

Teachers participated in three model activities:

Directed Activity
In this activity, groups were directed to create bubbles in a certain manner and compare the strength of each of the two types.

· Front loaded
· More predictable
· Definite outcome
· Efficient
· Focused on content



Challenge
In this activity, groups were challenged to build a twelve-inch high tower using only bubbles.

· Student constructed
· Competitive
· More teamwork
· Application of problem solving skills

Inquiry
In this activity, groups were given materials to use to discover what makes the strongest bubbles.

· Fun
· Open ended
· Builds on ideas as a team
· Capitalizes on curiosity
· More questioning

Why Inquiry?

The inquiry process more closely resembles the process of science in the real world. Also, the self-directed nature increases student motivation and interest and enhances learning. Inquiry also fosters cooperation and communication skills as students work in groups toward a goal and then communicate findings. In addition, inquiry makes science fun and engaging for the students and allows them to create their own meaning, increasing retention.

What we learned

Our groups discovered that there are different approaches to hands-on science and the importance of matching the correct method to the content and desired outcomes.

Other items of interest from Vertical Alignment
Four teachers received training on science kits for use during the second semester.
Middle and High School Science Teachers will join us at our next session on February 6th.

Teaching for Understanding

Teaching for Understanding

Research on effective teaching and instructional guidelines emphasized the importance of teaching for understanding. Students who learn content with understanding not only learn the content itself, but appreciate the reasons for learning it and retain it in a form that makes it usable when needed.

Clear explanations and modeling from the teacher are important, but so are opportunities to answer questions about the content, discuss or debate its meaning and implications, and apply it in problem-solving or decision-making contexts.
These activities allow students to process material and make it their own by paraphrasing or putting it in their own words, exploring relationships and making ties to prior knowledge, and identifying its implications for personal decision making or action.

Analysis of programs that have been developed to teach school subjects for understanding have identified a key set of principals that are common to most if not all of them.




1. The curriculum is designed to equip students with knowledge, skills, values and dispositions that they will find useful both inside and outside of school.

2. Instructional goals emphasize developing student expertise within an application context and with emphasis on conceptual understanding of knowledge and self-regulated application of skills.

3. The curriculum balances breadth with depth by addressing limited content but developing this content sufficiently to foster conceptual understanding.

4. The content is organized around a limited set of powerful ideas.

5. The teacher’s role is not just to present information but also to scaffold and respond to students’ learning efforts.

6. The students’ role is not just to absorb or copy input but also to actively make sense and construct meaning.

7. Students’ prior knowledge about the topic is elicited and used as a starting place for instruction, which builds on accurate prior knowledge and stimulates conceptual change if necessary.

8. Activities and Assignments feature tasks that call for critical thinking or problem solving, not just memory or reproduction.

9. Higher order thinking skills are not taught as a separate set of skills curriculum. Instead, they are developed in the process of teaching subject matter knowledge within application contexts that call for students to relate what they are learning to their lives outside of school by thinking critically or creatively about it or by using it to solve problems or make decisions.

10. The teacher creates a social environment in the classroom that could be described as a learning community featuring discourse or dialogue designed to promote understanding.

Many of the principals that describe classrooms that teach for understanding support the idea of vertical alignment, the district initiative as well as the building thinking skills curriculum.

Brophy, Jere (2004). Motivating Students to Learn. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc..

Weekly Message Giving Thanks

As teachers, we have an awful lot of responsibilities. We are held to a higher standard because we choose to work with children. Often, teachers work more hours than most with little monetary compensation or recognition.

Sometimes, it is hard to really focus on the positive when we have so much on us as teachers and as Americans – a faulty economy, NC Wise, new writing assessments, required meetings and trainings, cuts in budget, construction at work, days when the heat does not work or works too well, or a 401K that significantly drops every quarter.

It is easy to find our way into negativity, but I have found the best way to break myself of this mentality is to look around me, take a deep breath, and think about how lucky I am.

I know that what you do is not easy, but I am so thankful that you care enough to find new avenues to reach our students, you tutor after school, you take time to build personal relationships with our kids, and you have chosen a life of service.

I have many personal blessings. I have a mother who is a breast cancer survivor, two healthy boys, and a loving husband. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table in a really tough economy. I have family friends who love my boys and really enjoy them. And I have a job to which I am dedicated and personally invested to make a difference in this world.



I am blessed and lucky to be able to work with teachers who spend long hours because they want to help children. I am blessed to work with Principals of vision who keep loving children in spite of their challenges. I am overjoyed to see new National Board Certified teachers and the large number of teachers continuing their personal education in addition to maintaining a classroom.

I challenge you this week and next to think about the following 3-2-1 activity for yourself.

Three things for which I am thankful…

Two things I can do for others less fortunate than I…

One thing I need to work on for myself…

This simple reflection gave me great insight into how foolish it is to waste energy on those things that don’t matter, but to exert my energy on those I love and on those who need what I can offer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have an opportunity to spend time with those you love and reflect on life’s greatest gifts.

Teaching Mathematics

Semiotics

The Study of Change

Research shows that children who are even 6 months behind in math by the sixth grade never catch up with their peers.
-Mel Levine, Thinking Mathematically podcast

Recently, our district hosted Jennifer Parker with All Kinds of Minds in a session called Thinking Mathematically. This new module considers all of the brain functions needed to be successful in math. The module is based on All Kinds of Minds’ neurodevelopmental framework.

This framework is a justification for differentiated instruction and can help teachers match classroom strategies to the developmental needs of their students. This module helped highlight, once again, the critical importance of creating a firm foundation of skills in the Elementary years, particularly in the cumulative field of mathematics.

The module makes good points surrounding math instruction.

Math is the study of change. In all mathematical operations, the basic subject matter is change. (Semiotics is the study of change)
Math places heavy demands on memory function
It is possible to make use of a math skill and not really understand it (fractions, negative numbers, etc)
Speed of processing becomes important with the verbal explanatory part of math
Word problems contain some of the most complex sentence structures children face
Word problems violate the order of mention. In other words, they tell you what to do, but not in the order in which you are going to need to do it


Recommendations for math instruction include:

Requiring students to verbalize processes. It is unacceptable for students to say they did it all in their head
Saying math facts out loud helps that information to be entered in phonological memory. (There is some research that shows a connection between children with phonological problems and children with difficulty learning math facts)
Children who get through math by using a step wise process without any conceptual base face difficulty as skills deteriorate over time
We need to encourage all children to create mental images of math concepts
We need to show linkages between concepts


Virtually every study that’s been done on kids and math show a strong link between math success and strong spatial, nonverbal, thinking abilities.

Levine calls Elementary Math Concepts a platform for sophisticated mathematical thinking and application. He identifies the 7 layers or challenges that children encounter in elementary school.

· Number Sense- having a grasp on how numbers work
· Number Combinations-addition and multiplication facts
· Basic Operations-add, subtract, multiply, and divide
· Geometric Sense- a significant challenge to look at the world of space, its various parameters and dimensions, and shapes and their interactions.
· Data Display/Analysis-Graphing different processes and displaying them in that way
· Word Problems- bridge math with practical world
· Fractions-mastery of fractional thinking is one of the final requirements if kids are going to be competent at mathematics

These areas become the infrastructure for what children will learn beyond the Elementary years.

We have a large number of teachers who have attended Schools Attuned. The training is more than using the attuning process. Pull out your placemats and consider the framework as a rationale for differentiated assignments. The glossary provided will help you as you identify challenges for students and look for strengths so leverage in the classroom.

Part two of our three part refresher will be held at the HPS Instructional Annex on February 24th at 3:30. The topics will include Attention and Memory. It is not too late to sign up for this topic. (SEA Activity 11-96) The third module will be online and completed at your own pace. If there is enough interest, we will also repeat the math module again this spring.

You can also consult the following web addresses for more information.

http://www.schoolsattuned.org/
http://www.allkindsofminds.org/

Visiting Writers Series presents Jonathan Kozol

“There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old “accountable” for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before” (Kozol, 54).














This statement from Kozol’s book Shame of the Nation presents tough questions on behalf of inner city students. Kozol is an acclaimed author, Harvard Graduate, and Rhodes Scholar who is visiting Hickory as part of the Visiting Writers Series at LRU.








Kozol began his career working in an inner city school and is a well known advocate for children. His involvement in equity issues has also contributed to his notoriety. His latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher is the Freshman read at LR.


Kozol has been called the “social conscious” of education and is concerned about the amount of time teachers spend preparing kids for standardized testing.











Hickory Public Schools’ teachers are invited to attend Kozol’s lecture at 4:00 pm on November 6 at PE Monroe Auditorium on the campus of Lenoir Rhyne University.

The lecture will be immediately followed by a special reception at 4:45.
















For more on the book, Shame of the Nation, please take a moment to view the YouTube clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pB-niRGNms

Attached you will find the invitation to the lecture, reception, and interview with Kozol.

References

(2008). Letters to a young teacher. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from Cover browser Web site: http://www.coverbrowser.com/search?q=letters+to+a+young+teacher&mode=searchResult

Bui, Trung (2008). Author finds hope in teacher. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from New Mexico Daily Lobo Web site:
http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2007/09/27/News/Author.Finds.Hope.In.Teacher-2996645.shtml

Kozol, Jonathan (2005). Shame of the Nation. New York, New York: Random House.

More on Writing. . .Sample Content Area Prompts

This week’s message shows links to the state developed Moodles for professional development regarding the new writing assessment.

The link below is to a DPI site with examples of writing tasks by content area. Since the writing tasks have not been content specific in the past, I thought it would be helpful for you to see state provided examples.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/testing/writing/writingtasks

This site could clear up some questions or add to your list of questions.

Let me know how I can help.

NC State Writing Assessment

OODLES OF MOODLES

The face of instructional delivery models is changing. There are now many other options to consider in addition to face-to-face delivery. Our state is using a Moodle-based software program to deliver the information regarding the changes to the NC Writing Assessment model.

The beauty of a Moodle is that it can be accessed online and you can complete the activities are your own pace.



What if you don’t teach Language Arts?

The new model for writing assessment will involve teachers in all curriculum areas. There are two Moodles from the state to support the shift. The first Moodle focuses on writing instruction while the second Moodle explains the nuts and bolts of the new process and timeline for writing assessment.

For this year, we will require that all 4th and 7th grade writing teachers complete Moodle II. In addition, all 7th grade teachers of Social Studies will need to complete Moodle II.

An E-mail was sent to principals with information regarding district-level support for Moodle training. We will offer sessions for 4th and 7th grade at the HPS Annex to assist in logging on and orienting teachers to the Moodle format.



4th Grade October 28th (3:30-5:00) at the Annex

7th Grade October 29th (3:00-4:00) at the Annex


On December 2nd, we will have additional training for 4th grade (3:30-5:00) on closing out the Moodle and setting up dates for the upcoming formative and summative assessments as well as the scoring sessions. The training for 7th grade teachers will be December 3rd from 3:00-5:00 at the Annex.

What about high school and other grade levels?

All teachers are encouraged to access and complete the Moodle.

In the near future, every pre-K – 12th grade teacher will be responsible for completing the Moodle and for assessing student writing in his/her content area.

Participation in writing assessment is now the responsibility of every teacher as outlined in the new North Carolina Writing Assessment Proposal.

For more information or details on this proposal, see the attached document.



MOODLE FAQs

What is a Moodle?

Moodle is an open source software package for producing Internet-based courses and websites. Click here to see an informational video on Moodle.

How will Moodle be used in the North Carolina Writing Assessment Program?

Moodle will be used to provide professional development for all teachers and for digital upload for the pilot schools.

What professional development is available for teachers?

Instructional Writing Across the Curriculum

How do I access the Writing Across the Curriculum course?

Click here to access the NC Writing Assessment System Moodle.

If I have questions, who do I contact?

For passwords, see your school-level testing coordinator

If the questions are technical, contact the NCSU Help Desk at ncdesk@ncsu.edu or (919) 515-1320.

If the questions are content related contact the Writing Assessment Help Desk at writingassessment@dpi.state.nc.us