Lesson Planning Guide

1. Lesson Planning Guide • Main Components • Curriculum and Goals • Knowing your students: Resources for Learning • Strategic Function of your lesson • Activity sequence • Assessment Lesson planning handout

2. Lesson Planning Guide • Main Components • Curriculum and Goals • Knowing your students: Resources for Learning • Strategic Function of your lesson • Activity sequence • Assessment

3. Planning Part 1 • Selecting Learning Goals • Designing objectives connected to learning goals • Unpacking your learning goals • Deeper understandings • Connections

4. Planning Part 2 • Making sense of “knowing your students” • Conceptions • Everyday connections • Funds of knowledge • Special needs Cultural resources for learning

5. Planning for Instruction from the perspective of students • Conceptions in Science: The understandings that children have about the big ideas in science. • What conceptions do they have about science? • What conceptions do they have about themselves in science? Getting to Know Students Planning instruction means that you have to know a lot about the learners you are teaching, especially if you want to help build bridges between their lives and science. Children’s Science Toolkits o Knowing o Doing o Talking • Cultural resources for Learning: The personal and cultural resources children draw upon in learning science. • Youth ways of knowing, talking • Funds of Knowledge Special Needs: o ELL o Dis/Abilities

6. Funds of Knowledge • In your readings for last week you learned about funds of knowledge. • What does “funds of knowledge” mean? • What are some examples of the funds of knowledge you bring to learning science?

7. Children from all background have a wealth of experiences that are powerful to them and can support them in developing scientific literacy. Building connections between science and these experiences is important for children if science is to seem relevant to them and if we are to help them build positive identities in science. One helpful way to think about how to understand children’s cultural experiences & identities is: Funds of Knowledge Funds of knowledge Funds of knowledge (or “FOK”) refers to those historically developed and accumulated strategies (e.g., skills, abilities, ideas, practices) or bodies of knowledge that are essential to a household's functioning and well-being. These funds of knowledge can be drawn upon in the science classroom to help build bridges between the knowledge/experiences that youth have at home or in their communities and what they are to learn and do in school. Think, Pair, Share: Looking at the FOK table (FOK handout, on angel) pick one example of FOK and reflect on how that has helped you learn science. What is your experience?

8. Useful strategies Finding out about children’s funds of knowledge and youth ways of knowing, talking, and doing • Observing • Careful observation in the classroom, especially during times when kids are self directed, working in small groups, and having “free time”. • Who do they chose to work with? What kinds of things do they do? Do they talk about? How do they talk about it? etc. • Careful observation on the playground, before and after school, and during other informal times • Listening • Science Talks • Other types of classroom discussions where teacher solicits student stories, experiences, and ideas. • Reading • Student blogs or journals (as appropriate) • Reading local papers and newsletters • Reading books and journal articles • Community Participation • Participation in community events • Interviews and conversations with children and their family members (Open house, parent teacher conferences, before and after school, home visits)

9. Looking at 3 culture cases • Learning & Engagement • To what extent do you think the student in this episode makes gains in developing understandings of the science learning goals for the lesson? • To what extent do you think this student, and perhaps others, develop a positive attitude towards science and/or a positive identity in science (felt like they could “do” science)? • Science for All: What’s culture got to do with it? • What kinds of cultural experiences and knowledge (funds of knowledge and everyday connections) play a role in this episode? • How does this episode support or not support children’s out of school culture and experiences? • What role did the teacher play? Culture cases guidelines.doc

10. Culture Case #1The Bone Song L.OL.M.4 Animal Systems- Multicellular organisms may have specialized systems that perform functions which serve the needs of the organism. L.OL.05.41 Identify the general purpose of selected animal systems (digestive, circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, muscular, nervous, excretory, and reproductive). L.OL.05.42 Explain how animal systems (digestive, circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, muscular, nervous, excretory, and reproductive) work together to perform selected activities

11. Culture Case #1The Bone Song • Preparation for test on skeletal system • Students to prepare teacher endorsed method of flash cards • In addition to flash cards, Ginny “wrote” a bone song, using the tune of a popular song • Taught bone song to a few peers • Bone song acknowledged by teacher and made available as learning resource to rest of class • Copy of bone song also posted on common corridor Ginny’s bone song.doc

12. Ginny’s bone song A little bit of cranium on my head A little bit of mandible on my jaw A little bit of scapula on my back A little bit of humerus on this bone A little bit of radius on the back A little bit of ulna on the front A little bit of carpals just like that A little bit of meta carpals on my hand A little bit of phalanges on the end A little bit of tibia on the front A little bit of fibia on the back A little bit of torso just like that A little bit of metatarsals on my foot A little bit of phalanges on the end Just wave your phalanges, yeah yeah yeah Just wave your phalanges, yeah.

13. Culture Case #2UrbanHeat Islands • Urban heat islands occur when the temperature of an urban area is 2-6 °F higher than the surrounding natural land cover. • Humans contribute by: • Modifying the land for urban development • Waste heat generated by energy usage

14. Heat Islands During a 3-week unit, 5th grade students conducted experiments to: • Learn the relationship between surface color and .. material and surrounding air temperature • Use global positioning data to target potential urban . heat island zones in Lansing • Conduct authentic investigations at one selected site through temperature records and interviews with area workers and residents • Prepare a 7-8 minute video news brief on UHI

15. Where da Heat go?

16. Culture Case #3Pigeon Project • 6th grade science • Environmental Statistics and taxonomy • Inquiry- and “place-based” approach

17. Curriculum Context

18. Pigeon KWL Chart • What we know • All pigeons are alike • Rats with wings • They are dirty • Eat leftovers • Tend to fly in groups • They are ugly • Carry diseases like rabies

19. Student observation: Eat then poop • Teacher: See how they follow each other • Student observation: Alpha male • Teacher explaining pigeon morphs

20. Student observation: I could get encephalitis! • Teacher’s aid: see their necks?

21. Pigeon KWL Chart • What we know • All pigeons are alike • Rats with wings • They are dirty • Eat leftovers • Tend to fly in groups • They are ugly • Carry diseases like rabies • What we have learned • Follow each other • Many types or morphs • Majorities are bluebars and checkers • They get along together although they are different types • Pigeons don’t attack (not aggressive) • They fly fast

22. Jameer Resisting and challenging the pigeon study unit Jameer: I wouldn’t have studied pigeons in the first place. Researcher: What would you study instead? Jameer: Neighborhoods or something, not pigeons. It doesn’t affect, what we are going to do? Change the way pigeons look or something. It really didn’t help me with anything. I didn’t really like it. Researcher: Did you learn anything? Jameer: I learned the different types of pigeons, I learned what attracts them like if they see one pigeon after that a whole lot of them are going to come, and a lot of them are dying. I see a lot of dead pigeons on the street… rats are everywhere, they’re in people houses. I’m dead serious. I’d choose garbage. It don’t even have to be an animal because you see garbage all over the street on Amsterdam like they don’t pick up the garbage or something, and then on Broadway it’s just not there. Researcher: What do you think the point of the study was? Jameer : Trust me I have no clue. It didn’t have any point to me. I don’t know where you guys got it from. It had no point. Do it at a point like, … I would go to other neighborhoods, not just where we are. Let’s say to a cleaner neighborhood to see how many are there because pigeons don’t really do anything they just eat and that’s it. To see where pigeons like to live, in dirty neighborhoods or clean neighborhoods.

23. Class objective:biology of pigeons • Andre raises a question • Leading to a class discussion, which develops due to Mr. N’s support. Transcript: One of the tools we used… [interrupted] Which brings up an interesting issue. I will just make a quick comment and move on. What’s the difference between animals like pigeons and other animals and animals like humans? [He explains that we need to think about the differences and similarities between pigeons and humans] That was an excellent question. What tool… We are going to leave it open though. I don’t think we can answer it easily. What tool… or what tools.. • Internal tension for the teacher between staying with a plan and venturing out with new opportunities of science teaching and learning

24. Reflection Questions: • 1. What are the teachers goals in the pigeon project? How does this shape the “composite culture of the classroom”? • 2. What funds of knowledge and goals did the students bring to the pigeon project? How does this shape the “composite culture of the classroom”? • What did the students know about pigeons? • How does this knowledge shape what their goals might be for the pigeon project? • How was this knowledge about pigeons useful in science class? In other words, how did the teacher draw upon the students' funds of knowledge to help them engage in the pigeon project? • How does Mr. Nader try to balance his goals versus his students’ goals? How does he draw upon his students ideas and experiences in ways that go beyond “tokenism”? Do you think he should have done more? • 3. What strategies did Mr. Nader use to elicit students’ funds of knowledge? Can you think of other strategies (you experienced as a learner, that you have seen your CT use, that you’ve read about or thought about) that would be useful to elementary school teachers? • In groups, read the handout describing the Pigeon Project. • Discuss the following questions (also on last page of the handout): • In your group, summarize your discussion by creating a poster that documents the “composite classroom culture”

25. Kay & Naomi’s PSA

26. Culture cases share out Share your insights and observations with your team mates at your table (10 mins) Have a spokes person share out your groups’ thoughts on the cases

27. In your placement, look for and think about … • patterns and influences in your students’ ideas and ways of interacting with each other and with the CT. • examples of your CT’s/school’s attempts to recognize students’ (cultural) diversity. • possibilities for you to learn more about students’ lives outside of school and connect to these in the classroom. • ways in which the curriculum materials make room to get to know students and/or (mis)represent student diversity.