Rethinking Labs

In this week's Learning Module I viewed a video featuring a science teacher who approached lab activities in a different way. The initial part of the activity that the teacher was using could be very beneficial in my classroom. instead of having the students read from a WRITTEN procedure and completing the steps, the teacher reviewed the steps AURALLY before the students began. The students were then responsible for writing their own procedure. This is the particular part that I was interested in. Having the students compose their own procedure has many benefits. Apart from the traditional lab procedure, this requires the student to put the procedure in their own words. In this process the student will have to understand what is happening in the investigation prior to composing a procedure. They will also be making use of many relevant vocabulary terms that may be slightly unfamiliar to them. This almost forces them to become accustomed to the unfamiliar words while teaching what they mean and how to use them. Following the development of a procedure the students in the video were free to come up with any question about the investigation that concerned them. A hypothesis was then created to further investigate the question. Having the students write down and manipulate the questions that they had could prove to be a very valuable vocabulary practice tool, as well as an engaging practice. In the future, I plan to amend my labs to reflect this sort of strategy.

Visual Literacy

My students find themselves dealing with visual literacy on a daily basis in my classroom. In science, I have found that students respond better to visual representations of content more positively than simple regurgitation of material. They may experience this through concept/thinking maps, demonstrations, video clips, and even simple drawn illustrations of scientific concepts.
The most recent strategy that I have added to my teachers toolbox is Thinking Maps. As a school-wide effort we have implemented using these graphic organizers across all curriculum. Initially the students are introduced to approximately 6-7 mapping formats. Each format has a simple purpose, whether it be sequencing events, part-to-whole relationships, or describing. We can usually apply one or two of these maps to concepts we are teaching each week, and after a few weeks the students can decide on which map is appropriate for what topic.
I highly reccomend these maps in any classroom. Not only are they a quick assesmsnt to student learning, but they also reveal a higher level of thinking on the part of the student. You can also integrate artistic freedom and the use of technology in the mix to make the task more enjoyable.

Questioning???

I think the topic of "Questioning" in our reading class has helped me the most as a teacher to help my students with effective reading. I always seem to ask myself how I can make my students more involved and aware of their reading process, which has now lead me to encourage questioning. I used the strategy of highlighting in my advanced chemistry class this week. With so many in depth articles and readings that accompany such a class, my students often feel frustrated because its like reading o foreign language. The highlighting technique really seemed to help them to become aware of where they get tripped up during reading.
Many of the students are also realizing their strengths and weaknesses in their reading process. For example, one student made the comment that she has realized that she has a weak vocabulary in science. I encouraged her to not get frustrated and just to consult her group members, me, or even use her context clues to figure out the word's meaning.
In doing these types of activities, I have come to the conclusion that MANY of my students struggle with reading. And so few of us teachers have helped them to understand how to read in our content areas.