You may have noticed in the odd blog post that I do think a little about learning pathways. How is the science linked through the years? What do middle and senior classes do to build on science experiences in the junior rooms? How much science or how should the science look for the Juniors?
One big focus can be the science capabilities and this gives a lot of freedom for teachers. It doesn't really matter what the context is as the children are developing how they observe, explain, critique and communicate. Because of this,the contexts are simply that! Contexts for students to develop science thinking so it doesn't matter if they only do floating and sinking at Y2 or the solar system at Y7.
My worry about this approach is that it's the depth of the science context that will build a greater development of the capabilities and the above approach may end up having children stuck at Gathering and Interpreting Data as each new concept taught probably needs a Level 1/2 approach before extending to Levels 3/4. In fact sometimes the children may never get past that early level.
Imagine if there were particular topics the school thought were vital (and I don't think one of those would be Floating and Sinking), for example, sustainability or an estuary study. It would be advantageous if these were local contexts that connect to the children's lives. The Rocky Shore may be a great one off topic for children who might visit there once in a while but a River study happening often would be good for a school where a river is a part of the community.
By carefully mapping out what the study might look like at different years, how each level will build on capabilities and content knowledge and topics, children won't get the sense of déjà vu! Junior classes may simply explore the river, looking at flora and fauna and learning the names of some of the creatures that live in, on, and around the river whilst middle levels may go into a bit more depth looking at how life around the river might depend on each other, how the ecosystem works. The seniors might monitor different aspects of the river, connect with scientists and explore various issues such as pollution. Of course, this is just an idea but the thought of ensuring different levels have different stuff to teach as well as different foci are very important
It's funny when teachers suggest they can't do a particular topic because it has already been done at a younger level or senior teachers couldn't possibly do butterflies as the juniors already have. When I get told this I think about whether there are scientists exploring the topic such as a lepidopterist (a butterfly scientist!) -are they still working at Level 1 or 2? What on earth could they be doing to still be interested in butterflies when most children (and some teachers) state they've 'done' butterflies by Y2! I think there's a real richness in revisiting some of those previous topics as well as having some topics that children will revisit. This way they can jump straight into the learning!
A few times with my PLD in schools, we've got teachers to share what they're doing with their respective classes. This is so valuable just in terms of connecting with one another and exposing each other to schoolwork that they otherwise may never have seen. I also hear teachers saying Oh, I wonder if my class think that! What an interesting opportunity to see if the children have developed further!
Finally, what about from your school to the next level up? It might be the local intermediate or college. What do those teachers teach in terms of topics? How do they view the capabilities? Are there particular skills that the children could be introduced to earlier? Particular vocab? Are there topics that it could be beneficial for the children to have at least been exposed to?
There's a lot to think about here but I think it's an essential topic to discuss with the staff. As we move towards the end of the year and start thinking about topics for next year, are there some 'essentials' that the school thinks is important? Is there a chance to revisit a topic?
Thanks for reading
Paul
Friday, 5 October 2018
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Invisible Gorillas
The other week I was listening to a podcast. It's my newest "find" and those of you who know me will know that I can be rather obsessive with "finds" -you should see my lovely Lego collection started a few months ago... I'm still on the hunt for minifigures!
Anyway this is from the How Stuff Works: Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast and is more of a science one. I have quite a few I listen to on my travels around the countryside and one of them recommended this site. The only problem with all my podcasts is I need to start finding some schools further away so I have time to listen to them all as I travel! Here's the link: https://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/podcasts/the-obvious-invisible-gorillas-of-the-mind.htm. I don't remember if it's perfect for the children to listen to but it is interesting! As a wee squirrel... I like the ideas of children having opportunities to be immersed in science perhaps through a podcast, video or article...
The podcast was about "Invisible Gorillas", that idea that we can 'see' but actually can zone things out of our vision. A good example is driving. A few times I can sort of focus in and not really recollect earlier parts of the drive. It's not that I've fallen asleep (hopefully!) but just that my brain decided it wasn't important!
There's a couple of videos as a part of this. There's also a very funny Monty Python sketch mentioned on the podcast that took me a long time to find it and the first part illustrates this perfectly with additional cast members in the background that you don't even notice! One Invisible Gorilla clip is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo. There seem to be a few different versions out there. If you can, get the children to watch the video by themselves on their own device to limit 'Oh! Look at that gorilla!' moments. I tried to find one without telling the viewer they missed the gorilla but wasn't lucky. Ask the children who spotted the gorilla the first time. Research has shown it's usually about 50% -although there are other versions where it's even lower and that's after the viewer has already seen one video like this!
It's a good chance to talk about honesty in science -what if I don't want people to know I missed the gorilla? I might lie so I don't feel dumb. What might that do to the research? How could I find out who saw the gorilla in a way that didn't let them feel dumb. We're sort of playing a bit here in ethics. Asking the whole class at once in itself is an interesting experiment -we all want to be the same!
There's another video from a British road safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4. This has similar findings and interestingly, having watched one video previously doesn't seem to impact the second video's findings! What did children notice this time? As an aside you could use bit.ly to shorten the videos... I have: http://bit.ly/Paul_Gorilla and http://bit.ly/Paul_Bear.
Why would I do this? I really like the idea of opportunities for children to investigate ideas that scientists wonder, in this case, selective attention. Children could investigate a bit further -perhaps play the video to their whaanau and see what results they get -is it around the 50% mark? Are particular genders or ethnicities more susceptible to selective attention? Can we collect data and graph it? Or build up some inferences?
Children can also dip a bit deeper with the website: http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html. There are presentations on the websites that the children might like to watch to get some more thinking about what this is all about. But why do this? What's the point of the research? What do children think about this? Why do we have selective attention? What's the point of it? For us humans, we really don't want to or perhaps need to see everything! I'm typing this on my keyboard and if I stop, I can see the icons at the bottom of the screen or the blue 'on' light. But as I'm typing, I'm not aware of them at all! They must still be there! If I'm driving along and nothing is different as I drive through towns, my brain doesn't see the need to record the images or even notice! There are a few different articles out there including this one: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-selective-attention-2795022 that might be worth reading for those particularly interested.
In terms of capabilities, there's lots happening here. The idea of the science capabilities is that they don't really all operate in one-off situations but together. As children carry out the investigations, do they all do it the same? Do some say "Can you see anything strange in this video?" which might lead the viewer? Do others giggle as the gorilla turns up on the screen? It gives us a chance to talk about how we could investigate scientifically and carefully. It also helps us to talk about our own questioning -how do we make sure we don't ask leading questions?
Anyway, it was an interesting podcast, and I thought it could be interesting for you too! I know this doesn't have a lot of capabilities mentioned but they're there!
Paul
Anyway this is from the How Stuff Works: Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast and is more of a science one. I have quite a few I listen to on my travels around the countryside and one of them recommended this site. The only problem with all my podcasts is I need to start finding some schools further away so I have time to listen to them all as I travel! Here's the link: https://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/podcasts/the-obvious-invisible-gorillas-of-the-mind.htm. I don't remember if it's perfect for the children to listen to but it is interesting! As a wee squirrel... I like the ideas of children having opportunities to be immersed in science perhaps through a podcast, video or article...
The podcast was about "Invisible Gorillas", that idea that we can 'see' but actually can zone things out of our vision. A good example is driving. A few times I can sort of focus in and not really recollect earlier parts of the drive. It's not that I've fallen asleep (hopefully!) but just that my brain decided it wasn't important!
There's a couple of videos as a part of this. There's also a very funny Monty Python sketch mentioned on the podcast that took me a long time to find it and the first part illustrates this perfectly with additional cast members in the background that you don't even notice! One Invisible Gorilla clip is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo. There seem to be a few different versions out there. If you can, get the children to watch the video by themselves on their own device to limit 'Oh! Look at that gorilla!' moments. I tried to find one without telling the viewer they missed the gorilla but wasn't lucky. Ask the children who spotted the gorilla the first time. Research has shown it's usually about 50% -although there are other versions where it's even lower and that's after the viewer has already seen one video like this!
It's a good chance to talk about honesty in science -what if I don't want people to know I missed the gorilla? I might lie so I don't feel dumb. What might that do to the research? How could I find out who saw the gorilla in a way that didn't let them feel dumb. We're sort of playing a bit here in ethics. Asking the whole class at once in itself is an interesting experiment -we all want to be the same!
There's another video from a British road safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4. This has similar findings and interestingly, having watched one video previously doesn't seem to impact the second video's findings! What did children notice this time? As an aside you could use bit.ly to shorten the videos... I have: http://bit.ly/Paul_Gorilla and http://bit.ly/Paul_Bear.
Why would I do this? I really like the idea of opportunities for children to investigate ideas that scientists wonder, in this case, selective attention. Children could investigate a bit further -perhaps play the video to their whaanau and see what results they get -is it around the 50% mark? Are particular genders or ethnicities more susceptible to selective attention? Can we collect data and graph it? Or build up some inferences?
Children can also dip a bit deeper with the website: http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html. There are presentations on the websites that the children might like to watch to get some more thinking about what this is all about. But why do this? What's the point of the research? What do children think about this? Why do we have selective attention? What's the point of it? For us humans, we really don't want to or perhaps need to see everything! I'm typing this on my keyboard and if I stop, I can see the icons at the bottom of the screen or the blue 'on' light. But as I'm typing, I'm not aware of them at all! They must still be there! If I'm driving along and nothing is different as I drive through towns, my brain doesn't see the need to record the images or even notice! There are a few different articles out there including this one: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-selective-attention-2795022 that might be worth reading for those particularly interested.
In terms of capabilities, there's lots happening here. The idea of the science capabilities is that they don't really all operate in one-off situations but together. As children carry out the investigations, do they all do it the same? Do some say "Can you see anything strange in this video?" which might lead the viewer? Do others giggle as the gorilla turns up on the screen? It gives us a chance to talk about how we could investigate scientifically and carefully. It also helps us to talk about our own questioning -how do we make sure we don't ask leading questions?
Anyway, it was an interesting podcast, and I thought it could be interesting for you too! I know this doesn't have a lot of capabilities mentioned but they're there!
Paul
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Wrapping up the term
Recently I had a day visiting a school in Huntly where we did some co-teaching (which usually means I have to really focus on not squirrelling to different ideas as well as general interference with the lesson!). For the workshop we used my handy dandy new capabilities posters (the second updated version that went out to all schools that asked) to review the science for the year. Teachers wrote down specific skills they did with the students.
I'm sharing because I think it's a really good way of looking back at what we've done, how it has fitted into the science capabilities as well as challenging teacher understanding of the capabilities -where do particular skills go? We did it on post-it notes with different colours for the different levels of the school and this was helpful to think about how are we teaching the capabilities across the school: is it more Gather and Interpret Data at the junior levels? Are there more Use Evidence and Critique Evidence at the senior level? Does Interpret Representations show up across the board?
It was great seeing all the different topics and skills students were developing -especially seeing "floating and sinking" happening in the senior rooms! Sometimes we forget to revisit these ideas as we tend to think of them as 'junior class topics' and they very certainly are not!
From this, I typed them all up on a google doc for the school to review. I think it's really important for the teachers to see what each team or syndicate is up to, what they're doing and how... It also gives us a chance to critique our understanding, add more and plan for next year -what's missing, what could we be doing more of?, what can we focus on next term or year? We don't tend to do a lot of critiquing of our teaching in science and I wonder if a bit more would be helpful for our own understanding. Using google docs means we can add some comments to the side, asking questions, etc... I looked at what had been written and thought for next time, as teachers become more tuned to the capabilities, I'd like to see differences with some tags. For example, many teams wrote about observations or diagrams, but what differences might we see across the levels?
We also looked at the front end of the curriculum but this time wrote the activities we did and this also was interesting. You can see the cards at the bottom of the photo. From this, we can start talking about what areas are we doing well in and which areas could we perhaps target with science. I think some of the areas eg equity or diversity in NZC Values may be more difficult but through discussion and brainstorming, integrating science with other curriculum areas could support development in these areas.
I believe it was a really worthwhile activity for the staff with some good opportunities for follow ups -so I thought I'd share! We also talked a bit about questioning -are the questions asked in the junior rooms the same as in the senior rooms? Sometime they might be eg What do you notice? but with the expectation of a deeper answer from higher up in the school. However, are we also asking questions with more 'scientific verbs' eg compare and contrast, match, interpret, extrapolate...?
Finally, my apologies for the blog mailing list mix up. Thanks to all who replied to be put back on this! If you'd like a copy of the capabilities posters or my NZC ones (which are really just the front bits of the curriculum), do ask!
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
 |
| Our work... and I don't know why it's on this angle either! |
It was great seeing all the different topics and skills students were developing -especially seeing "floating and sinking" happening in the senior rooms! Sometimes we forget to revisit these ideas as we tend to think of them as 'junior class topics' and they very certainly are not!
From this, I typed them all up on a google doc for the school to review. I think it's really important for the teachers to see what each team or syndicate is up to, what they're doing and how... It also gives us a chance to critique our understanding, add more and plan for next year -what's missing, what could we be doing more of?, what can we focus on next term or year? We don't tend to do a lot of critiquing of our teaching in science and I wonder if a bit more would be helpful for our own understanding. Using google docs means we can add some comments to the side, asking questions, etc... I looked at what had been written and thought for next time, as teachers become more tuned to the capabilities, I'd like to see differences with some tags. For example, many teams wrote about observations or diagrams, but what differences might we see across the levels?
We also looked at the front end of the curriculum but this time wrote the activities we did and this also was interesting. You can see the cards at the bottom of the photo. From this, we can start talking about what areas are we doing well in and which areas could we perhaps target with science. I think some of the areas eg equity or diversity in NZC Values may be more difficult but through discussion and brainstorming, integrating science with other curriculum areas could support development in these areas.
I believe it was a really worthwhile activity for the staff with some good opportunities for follow ups -so I thought I'd share! We also talked a bit about questioning -are the questions asked in the junior rooms the same as in the senior rooms? Sometime they might be eg What do you notice? but with the expectation of a deeper answer from higher up in the school. However, are we also asking questions with more 'scientific verbs' eg compare and contrast, match, interpret, extrapolate...?
Finally, my apologies for the blog mailing list mix up. Thanks to all who replied to be put back on this! If you'd like a copy of the capabilities posters or my NZC ones (which are really just the front bits of the curriculum), do ask!
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
Monday, 17 September 2018
Wash and repeat...
Just like the shampoo bottle, repeating is a great thing! If you are a reader of my blog, you'll know that I'm a firm advocate of doing a science lesson (at least the first bit) twice. If the children are making oobleck, although I will do all my questioning and prompting, it will be the first time the children have made it so there's loads going on in their heads! The second time, which could be the next day, I might challenge them with thinking like a scientist or how could we record our noticings like scientists?
It's interesting that even Year 7 and 8 students can benefit from repeat opportunities. Yes, you could change the experiment a little, for example, replacing the paper for photocopy card when making copters, but it's impressive the improvement in student thinking and communication with a second go.
I'd also revisit the ideas later in the year too. It may not be the same experiment but might have sufficient links that you can see whether students have developed that thinking and vocabulary. If I had made oobleck, I might make cornflour and conditioner 'dough' and remind children of what we had done previously.
This repeating is also good for me too! I get to try out my questions again, challenge with vocabulary, encourage further questioning and since I have a better idea of student response, I can refine my goals of capability development further.
I spent a lovely few days working with sole charge schools in Wairoa last week and saw this in action. In one school visit, we had the children looking at a tree log (which we originally thought was a stump!) with the aim of developing student questioning. The class had a bit of a chat first about how we should investigate as scientists -can we just rip the tree apart, does it matter about the flora and fauna we discover, etc... it was interesting the the first look captured some students' interest but not deeply -we sort of just looked! We then headed back up to the school where we discussed what we had seen and looked at questions we had written on post-it notes during the look. Immediately heading back down to the tree, I was really surprised at the difference of student behaviour with the second look. More questions were written, children got right into the log with a lot more close observation of what they were seeing. There was more interest and more engagement in all the children.
Our goal from this lesson was for children to investigate further on their own back in the classroom -what did we see and can we learn more about this 'stuff'. During the second visit the principal and I both realised we should have brought iPads down to photograph and in hindsight, I think it would have been good to have got the children into pairs -one can photograph and jot down notes and wonderings whilst the other investigates!
I met a principal that I had worked with the previous day (was a busy week) and he showed some student diagrams that we had the children make after an experiment. The children had carried out the experiment, we discussed it, and then the principal carried out the experiment in front of them and they drew diagrams that we critiqued later in the day. He had carried out the experiment again the next day and the children drew diagrams again after they had all critiqued their efforts from the day before. The difference was very visible. Detail had been put in and labels were more accurate and self-explanatory, as well as titles added.
In chatting with the literacy facilitator (we were doing a joint teacher-only day PLD session with the schools), there was a lot of conversation about the need for practice. When we're practising a PE skill such as shot put, we don't tend to do it once, critique the efforts and then move onto long jump! We keep going with the shot put and perhaps we need to think about this with science as well. The repeating of the same diagram definitely showed improvement. The Austin's Butterfly video (on youtube) is a really good example of this -good to play for your syndicate but also for the class!
So there we have it! Have a try. Often we teachers tend to think we need "new and exciting" for every lesson, but there's real value in repeating lessons and activities. Have a try!
As always, I'm happy to discuss this further -send me an email or comment on this blog. I do have a facebook page called "Science Happening NZ" where I post photos, videos and ideas to support science teaching.
It's also time to think about whether you'd like some science PLD for 2019. There's lots of different ways this can look in schools. I'm happy to chat further if you're curious.
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
It's interesting that even Year 7 and 8 students can benefit from repeat opportunities. Yes, you could change the experiment a little, for example, replacing the paper for photocopy card when making copters, but it's impressive the improvement in student thinking and communication with a second go.
I'd also revisit the ideas later in the year too. It may not be the same experiment but might have sufficient links that you can see whether students have developed that thinking and vocabulary. If I had made oobleck, I might make cornflour and conditioner 'dough' and remind children of what we had done previously.
This repeating is also good for me too! I get to try out my questions again, challenge with vocabulary, encourage further questioning and since I have a better idea of student response, I can refine my goals of capability development further.
 |
| A giant spider seen on the log... okay it wasn't "giant" but was really big -about 2 cms! |
Our goal from this lesson was for children to investigate further on their own back in the classroom -what did we see and can we learn more about this 'stuff'. During the second visit the principal and I both realised we should have brought iPads down to photograph and in hindsight, I think it would have been good to have got the children into pairs -one can photograph and jot down notes and wonderings whilst the other investigates!
 |
| I'm assuming these are all eggs with the ones on the left fresh -but not sure from what! Slugs? Snails? |
In chatting with the literacy facilitator (we were doing a joint teacher-only day PLD session with the schools), there was a lot of conversation about the need for practice. When we're practising a PE skill such as shot put, we don't tend to do it once, critique the efforts and then move onto long jump! We keep going with the shot put and perhaps we need to think about this with science as well. The repeating of the same diagram definitely showed improvement. The Austin's Butterfly video (on youtube) is a really good example of this -good to play for your syndicate but also for the class!
 |
| And I have even less of an idea on these... we decided that they were natural because there were different sizes and some of the rings seemed stuck together. Originally I thought there were man-made but not so sure! |
As always, I'm happy to discuss this further -send me an email or comment on this blog. I do have a facebook page called "Science Happening NZ" where I post photos, videos and ideas to support science teaching.
It's also time to think about whether you'd like some science PLD for 2019. There's lots of different ways this can look in schools. I'm happy to chat further if you're curious.
Keep on sciencing!
Paul
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Class discussions
I have had a lovely couple of days working in Huntly with the Year 1 to 4 children which are always a lot of fun to work with. Teachers had planned out a lesson and I was meant to be co-teaching alongside them... although I always feel a better descriptor would be interferer or interrupter!
As a part of the lessons, there were opportunities for class discussions and watching these in action really got me thinking about the whole idea of 'on the mat' time (or 'sitting at desks' if they're seniors!).
It's not something I have spent time musing, it really is a 'right now' type of thing but I think it's a valid topic for schools and syndicates to be discussing further. I'd like to ask the question of 'why are you using a class discussion right now?' along with 'how will you know that you have achieved the objective?'. For example, if you are have decided to see whether children understand what you did yesterday with them, how will you know that they all understand?
The class discussions that I was a part of sometimes had the same children answering, small groups disengaged -who would be brought back in to the discussion "And what do you think Paul?" followed by a "Please listen carefully so you do have a view"! My time in front of the classrooms I'm certain were no different. There were certain children I'd ask because I thought they would know the right answers for everyone to listen to so they knew as well, certain children I didn't ask because I didn't want a 7 1/2 minute response or a gripping account of how their cat went missing the other night (and I know you all have those kids too!). But if the point is knowing what the children understand, and the medium is "class discussion", was this best?
Sometimes class discussions can be a bit of 'teacher tennis' with the teacher firing the ball out, children answering back and then the teacher firing out to a different child. What if the discussion could carry on without the teacher so other children instead responded? Often students aren't really listening to the person before them -they're desperate to have their view even if it's already been shared three times!
This isn't a topic that I'm an expert in but I wanted to share my thoughts and observations, not as criticisms but more of 'so how can we improve these?'. And I'm thinking of me visiting classrooms too! One teacher shared how she almost forced the discussion by asking a question and then simply stopping... those seconds of waiting for a response would have been very long! Slowly children did get the idea that this was their discussion not hers!
The science talk moves (on the TERC website) are brilliant to support this kind of thinking with well thought out prompts to promote conversation.
If it's always the same group of children playing the class discussion game, how could you better involve them? If you want them all listening carefully, how do we do this? As I said, I'm no expert but this week's discussions came up with some ideas...
As a part of the lessons, there were opportunities for class discussions and watching these in action really got me thinking about the whole idea of 'on the mat' time (or 'sitting at desks' if they're seniors!).
It's not something I have spent time musing, it really is a 'right now' type of thing but I think it's a valid topic for schools and syndicates to be discussing further. I'd like to ask the question of 'why are you using a class discussion right now?' along with 'how will you know that you have achieved the objective?'. For example, if you are have decided to see whether children understand what you did yesterday with them, how will you know that they all understand?
The class discussions that I was a part of sometimes had the same children answering, small groups disengaged -who would be brought back in to the discussion "And what do you think Paul?" followed by a "Please listen carefully so you do have a view"! My time in front of the classrooms I'm certain were no different. There were certain children I'd ask because I thought they would know the right answers for everyone to listen to so they knew as well, certain children I didn't ask because I didn't want a 7 1/2 minute response or a gripping account of how their cat went missing the other night (and I know you all have those kids too!). But if the point is knowing what the children understand, and the medium is "class discussion", was this best?
Sometimes class discussions can be a bit of 'teacher tennis' with the teacher firing the ball out, children answering back and then the teacher firing out to a different child. What if the discussion could carry on without the teacher so other children instead responded? Often students aren't really listening to the person before them -they're desperate to have their view even if it's already been shared three times!
This isn't a topic that I'm an expert in but I wanted to share my thoughts and observations, not as criticisms but more of 'so how can we improve these?'. And I'm thinking of me visiting classrooms too! One teacher shared how she almost forced the discussion by asking a question and then simply stopping... those seconds of waiting for a response would have been very long! Slowly children did get the idea that this was their discussion not hers!
The science talk moves (on the TERC website) are brilliant to support this kind of thinking with well thought out prompts to promote conversation.
If it's always the same group of children playing the class discussion game, how could you better involve them? If you want them all listening carefully, how do we do this? As I said, I'm no expert but this week's discussions came up with some ideas...
- changing the culture of what class discussions are
- lots more work in pairs or threes or even groups rather than 'teacher tennis'; children
- children recording ideas shared in a discussion -the teacher might prompt this or scaffold it... Ooooh, that's really interesting... make a note of what Paora has just said about a ski car working best on the sand. We might investigate that tomorrow.
- wrapping up the discussion by getting children to write down what they learnt from the discussion or an interesting point or a question that they've had resulting from the conversations
- using the talk moves... or even better, the children using the talk moves!
I guess that you would need to model and scaffold the children through at first but I'm imagining better discussions! A question that popped into my head as I was writing these ideas: how are children accountable to listen during the discussions? Is being silent enough to 'appear' to be engaged?
I think this would be a great topic for staff meetings -what do teachers think? And how can we improve the point of them?
I think this would be a great topic for staff meetings -what do teachers think? And how can we improve the point of them?
Anyway that's all! I'd love to hear your ideas about how to enrich class discussions. Why not stick some of these questions in your planner to think about your next discussion (or one you've just had). You could even video one! I get a lot of teachers doing this with my modelled lessons. Now I want to go back to see how the discussions were for all the children!
thanks for reading
Paul
Thursday, 23 August 2018
Juniors and Seniors -what do you know?
Kia ora koutou
This is just a quick post (mind you, I do say that a bit!) from a thought that popped into my head this week.
On the wall I have two NZC posters which have been up for quite some time. I decided to look closer and something about them struck me. One is for levels 1 and 2 of the curriculum and the other for levels 3 and 4. I have a funny feeling I downloaded them from the Ministry of Education website. Really the posters are focusing on the two different levels of the Key Competencies but they also had a different title on each with the juniors one titled "Emergent Understandings" and the seniors one "Developing Understandings".
It was a bit of a light bulb moment for me. Sometimes when I'm in junior rooms, I can see teachers working hard to develop quite intense and complex ideas for the children to get their head around. I'm always amazed when the children are able to share back what they've learnt but the minute I start asking questions it all starts to fall apart a bit. I'm not against going in-depth into science topics and certainly as the children learn more, they get hungry for more. One teacher I worked with told me once that her class had studied bubbles for the whole term. It wasn't a unit that the teacher had planned out every activity and direction before the class started but one where the teacher had some capabilities foci and the children led the whole inquiry themselves. This is exactly what science should be about!
Anyway back on track... In the junior classes we're dealing with "emergent understandings" -just the beginning bits. We don't have to worry about whether or not children understand magnetic fields, tectonic plates, photosynthesis or the molecular structure of matter (all real life examples) we're just introducing these ideas to the children! We'll use some scientific vocabulary but the big focus is those ideas for Gather and Interpret Data concepts, and growing awe and wonder and curiosity AND an idea of what science is about (phew!).
If the seniors, and I mean Y5-8, are "developing understanding" this might make the programme at this end a little different. There's still space for new ideas, but to me (and here's the light bulb moment), if the children are developing understanding, there has to be some understanding that they have been exposed to in the junior room. And here's the big questions... do we know what the children learnt during the junior years? Do we know what ideas were shared, what units were taught so we can develop these ideas and understandings further?
For some reason there does seem to be "junior" themed units: shadows, butterflies, float and sinking, etc but I reckon these are all great with the seniors too. With such beautiful weather outside, take the kids out quick and get them to point out their shadows. Now ask them to stand with their shadows on the other side of themselves -a lot will try to do this which shows where their understanding is: the emergent level: the sun's light source is creating a shadow of me. As a teacher I might try to develop it further with the seniors with "translucent" and "transparent" and what shadows actually are and...and... I might even dig out the Building Science Concepts shadows book for levels 1 and 2 and see what's in there!
As I said earlier, there is room for new topics for the seniors but I love the idea of this 'learning pathway' happening through the school. As I wrote this sentence, the thought occurred to me could any 'new' topic the seniors want to do be at least introduced at a junior level? It's up to the junior teachers to find out what senior teachers might be wanting to do units on and vice versa!
And that was my light bulb moment!
This is just a quick post (mind you, I do say that a bit!) from a thought that popped into my head this week.
On the wall I have two NZC posters which have been up for quite some time. I decided to look closer and something about them struck me. One is for levels 1 and 2 of the curriculum and the other for levels 3 and 4. I have a funny feeling I downloaded them from the Ministry of Education website. Really the posters are focusing on the two different levels of the Key Competencies but they also had a different title on each with the juniors one titled "Emergent Understandings" and the seniors one "Developing Understandings".
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| http://jodyreganmath.blogspot.com |
Anyway back on track... In the junior classes we're dealing with "emergent understandings" -just the beginning bits. We don't have to worry about whether or not children understand magnetic fields, tectonic plates, photosynthesis or the molecular structure of matter (all real life examples) we're just introducing these ideas to the children! We'll use some scientific vocabulary but the big focus is those ideas for Gather and Interpret Data concepts, and growing awe and wonder and curiosity AND an idea of what science is about (phew!).
If the seniors, and I mean Y5-8, are "developing understanding" this might make the programme at this end a little different. There's still space for new ideas, but to me (and here's the light bulb moment), if the children are developing understanding, there has to be some understanding that they have been exposed to in the junior room. And here's the big questions... do we know what the children learnt during the junior years? Do we know what ideas were shared, what units were taught so we can develop these ideas and understandings further?
For some reason there does seem to be "junior" themed units: shadows, butterflies, float and sinking, etc but I reckon these are all great with the seniors too. With such beautiful weather outside, take the kids out quick and get them to point out their shadows. Now ask them to stand with their shadows on the other side of themselves -a lot will try to do this which shows where their understanding is: the emergent level: the sun's light source is creating a shadow of me. As a teacher I might try to develop it further with the seniors with "translucent" and "transparent" and what shadows actually are and...and... I might even dig out the Building Science Concepts shadows book for levels 1 and 2 and see what's in there!
As I said earlier, there is room for new topics for the seniors but I love the idea of this 'learning pathway' happening through the school. As I wrote this sentence, the thought occurred to me could any 'new' topic the seniors want to do be at least introduced at a junior level? It's up to the junior teachers to find out what senior teachers might be wanting to do units on and vice versa!
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| faithlivedout.wordpress.com |
And that was my light bulb moment!
Thursday, 9 August 2018
Data, oh Data, wherefore art thou?
No I'm not going all Shakespearean on you... or (if you're a bit nerdy like I'm rumoured to be) Star Trek The Next Generation... I'm talking about the data we use for that first capability Gather and Interpret Data and then needing it for further analysis with the Use Evidence capability (and elsewhere too!).
Often in science we either think of the first capability as simply observations using our senses or we might gather some very simple data like how far a car will roll down a ramp. Particularly for our older children, grabbing hold of good data to formulate rich and robust explanations is really important. Although we can gather that data ourselves, there's plenty of places we can find some examples to use...
The nzmaths website has the Figure it Out series and there are three that are specifically science-based (although I think there are others you can use too). Some of these have data for their own activities (which are good in themselves) but why not grab out that data and do some of your own activities with it?
Jo Mathews, one of our University of Waikato maths facilitators, is great with the whole statistical literacy idea in science. She once brought in some data and said nothing about it... from memory, it was just a pile of numbers! She challenged us to figure out what the data were saying, what it were measuring. I really liked this idea and it could be an easy one to do yourself. Grab the weather data from the last week and take off all the measurement units. Can students start making sense of this data? If you shared the unit measurements, what does the data now say?
Another place to go is your local council or environmental council website. The one above is from my council and is easily accessed. The fourth capability also comes into play, Interpret Representations. What do we need to know to be able to read this? Why is the information presented like this? Is it easy to read? Why or why not? What information might be missing? Remember that the author is deciding which data to show and how -might there be more going on here? I'm curious that my local council doesn't elaborate on results or action points or even share what all the terms means and if I should be worried or not!
Besides graphs, tables are useful too:
Again, challenge our children -what do we think of the data? What is it showing? And not showing!
If I'm doing a topic study on the oceans, get children to analyse data, think about it and then use it for explanations. And an extra step -could children critique theirs and each others data? Scientists do this all the time! There are some who think climate change is real and others who are challenging the gathering of the data and the interpretation of it.
So there's some ideas for data! I hope it helps! If you would like further conversations about statistical literacy or science or the capabilities, get in touch!
Paul.
FUN FACT... "data" is actually a plural word! The correct grammar is to say "The data are showing us..." and after three years of knowing this, it still sounds weird!
Often in science we either think of the first capability as simply observations using our senses or we might gather some very simple data like how far a car will roll down a ramp. Particularly for our older children, grabbing hold of good data to formulate rich and robust explanations is really important. Although we can gather that data ourselves, there's plenty of places we can find some examples to use...
 |
| www.nzmaths.co.nz |
Jo Mathews, one of our University of Waikato maths facilitators, is great with the whole statistical literacy idea in science. She once brought in some data and said nothing about it... from memory, it was just a pile of numbers! She challenged us to figure out what the data were saying, what it were measuring. I really liked this idea and it could be an easy one to do yourself. Grab the weather data from the last week and take off all the measurement units. Can students start making sense of this data? If you shared the unit measurements, what does the data now say?
 |
| Matamata Piako District Council website |
Besides graphs, tables are useful too:
 |
| Also Matamata Piako District Council data |
If I'm doing a topic study on the oceans, get children to analyse data, think about it and then use it for explanations. And an extra step -could children critique theirs and each others data? Scientists do this all the time! There are some who think climate change is real and others who are challenging the gathering of the data and the interpretation of it.
So there's some ideas for data! I hope it helps! If you would like further conversations about statistical literacy or science or the capabilities, get in touch!
Paul.
FUN FACT... "data" is actually a plural word! The correct grammar is to say "The data are showing us..." and after three years of knowing this, it still sounds weird!
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