Agenda: Oct 25 & Nov 1

1. Agenda: Oct 25 & Nov 1 • Children’s garden follow up (1 hour) • Opening activity • Field discussion • Part 1 • Part 2 • How to handle the unexpected • Finishing up the Pigeon Case Study • Strategies • Returning to Science Talks & your assignment • Beginning a discussion on I-AIM model for teaching and learning • Science • Experiences • Planning for experiences

3. Why Teach Science? In groups of four, create a poster explaining how you would respond to the following : You are a teacher in a school that has not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the last several years due to poor math and reading scores. The school board is considering a proposal that would require teachers to cut science instructional time to one hour every other week and use the remaining time for additional math and reading instruction in an effort to increase testing scores. Your principal has asked you to prepare a presentation for the board explaining why science instruction is important for elementary school students and should not be compromised. What would you say?

4. Children’s Garden • What makes the best salad for our school? • Let’s welcome Dr. Norm! He is here to follow up on our lettuce growth and analysis involving: tasting, measuring, collecting data, reporting data and reflecting on data.

5. Getting into the Field • Share something positive you saw in the field this week. You might share: • interesting technology, materials, or curricula • a ‘light bulb’ moment you witnessed (for yourself, a student, a teacher, or other adults) • a pedagogical idea, technique or strategy • a classroom management procedure, evidence of classroom tone or norms or a classroom community building strategy • a question/something you are wondering about.

6. Field Discussion, Continued: Composite Culture Remember, in your upcoming assignment…

7. Science Talk Assignment(Due Nov 15 or sooner if you are done!) • Part 1: Observe your classroom and write up a description of the “classroom culture.” • Part 2: Conduct a science talk with a group of students in your field placement (try to do this week or next) • Part 3: Analyze your science talk for students science conceptions and funds of knowledge (More help on this next week, too) • Part 4: Prepare a lesson plan for your students based on the science talk. This lesson plan will be your initial draft plan for the “big science lesson”.

8. What is the composite culture of the classroom? All classrooms have their own cultures. What does this mean? They have unspoken rules and norms that determine how people act and relate to one another – based on what the teacher does, what the students do, and the subject area. • Rules for speaking: Who gets to talk & when do they get to talk? • Pace of instruction • Language of the classroom • How diversity is acknowledged and affirmed • What topics get talked about • How materials are managed • How discipline is enacted • Most teachers are not fully aware of the cultures of their own classrooms, particularly if they are similar to the classrooms in which they were once students. • Many teachers tend to create classroom cultures that are similar to their home/household cultures.

9. What is composite culture? (From Hogan & Corey, and also NSTA) What does science look like in my teacher’s classroom? Ideals of Science Practice Composite Culture of the Classroom Students’ Experiences and Perspectives Realities of the classroom and scientific Practice Pedagogical Ideals What routines and norms shape activity in my teacher’s classroom?

10. To try to figure out your CT’s classroom culture. Step 1: Figure out the norms & routines in your classroom, and think about how these norms and routines are shaped by: Your teacher’s pedagogical ideas and by science. (see next slide, slide 10!) Step 2: In field-based teams complete a “Culture in your mentor teacher’s classroom” diagram based on the composite culture handout. (see slide 11!) Step 3:Discuss these questions: • How similar or different is your mentor teacher’s classroom culture from the classrooms you remember as students? What is the same? What is different? • How do students in your mentor teacher’s classroom learn to understand and navigate the classroom culture? • Do you think there are any students who are more or less advantaged or disadvantaged in negotiating the classroom culture?

11. With a partner, try to describe the norms for your CT’s classroom across different contexts

12. Ideals of Science Practice Composite Culture of the Classroom Students’ Experiences and Perspectives Realities of the classroom and scientific Practice Pedagogical Ideals Draw a composite culture diagram for your CT’s classroom on your team’s white board - rank from least to most complex in your team What does science look like in my teacher’s classroom? What routines and norms shape activity in my teacher’s classroom?

13. For your Science Talk assignment (seeing kids thinking in science), for part 1, you need to write up a summary of what you discussed today. Be sure to describe the classroom culture in terms of: • Your teacher’s pedagogical ideals – what does he or she do in the classroom? How is this reflected in the norms and routines of the classroom? • The ideals of science – what is science in your CT’s classroom? What does it look like? How is it reflected in the norms and routines of the classroom? • What are your students experiences – How are student experiences reflected or incorporated in the norms and routines of the classroom?

14. Building an empowering classroom practice …

15. How do you respond when students experiences lead them to ask things you are not prepared for?

16. How to Respond to Student Misconceptions and Confusions So if we are not supposed to correct students misconceptions and confusions during our science chats, what SHOULD we say? • Phenomenal teachers often create several scripted responses designed to elicit more information from students without imposing a value judgment on what they are saying. Some responses that I have used in the past are: • That’s one way to think about it. What other ways can • you think of? • Say more about that. • Oh, that’s very interesting! Tell me why you think that. • Tell me about a time when you saw that happen. • Have you ever talked about that idea with someone else? • What did you talk about?

17. What happened in the pigeon case?

18. Jameer 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.

19. Jameer learned the science, but her views about pigeons did not change. • Discussion questions: • Does it matter to you if students can show they “learned” but you get evidence that that learning doesn’t really mean much to the students? • What would you do if you learned that your assessments of student learning really missed the boat?

20. Can pigeons be racists ?

21. Reactions? • What do you think of the student’s question, Can pigeons be racist? • What do you think of the teacher’s response? • What would you do?

22. Digistory Assignment Feedback • As teachers we are always learning and trying to improve our practice. Sometimes it takes a few tries…So…you can resubmit for a higher grade if you are not satisfied. • I gave feedback on the activity sequence, but did not grade it. (I included the rubric for how I will grade it in the future – it is the grayed out area). • Worth 20 points • 20 pts = 100% • 18 pts = 90% • 16 pts = 80% • 14pts = 60% Questions? please come see me!

23. Things to think about… • Try not to cover too many objectives in one lesson. Focus on a smaller number and do them well! • Try to word a driving question that is interesting and understandable for kids. Its often a good idea to put the driving question on the board so that your students can get “the point” of the lesson! • Make sure the question is age appropriate • Try to make the question link the learning goals with the lesson focus (i.e., how can we figure out who can jump the furthest in our class?)

24. Continued… • Prior knowledge (great techniques!) • Interviewing a small group of students • Researching on-line • Talking with your CT • Observing • Be SPECIFIC about what you think your students know and what might be some common “misconceptions”. • Students experiences & funds of knowledge • Try to give specific examples of the experiences your students have that you can draw upon in the lesson, even if informally. These experiences can be: • Things you observed • Things kids have talked about with you • Things your CT told you • Things you imagine kids might have experienced given your own experiences, what you know about kids • Remember you want to bring in the experiences that kids have OUTSIDE of school, such as the home, the community, with peers, etc. Think about the categories of funds of knowledge we discussed!

25. Continued… Activity sequence: Detail, detail, detail • Example: I will have a 5 minute discussion on what my students know about seasons. • Better: I will have a 5 minute discussion on what my students know about seasons. I will start with the question: Who knows what the seasons are? I will listen for ideas like, winter, spring, summer, fall. I will prompt students to tell stories or share experiences with the different seasons. I am hoping to get my students to start thinking about the relationship between weather patterns and seasons.