"Another list"

Just as Im trying to find cool ideas for my data collection plan I have to stop and write down ANOTHER LIST of cool ideas I come across for something else! Good news: I have a lot of good ideas... Bad news: I never seem to make FORWARD progress on 1 thing!

Thought I would share so you too have "ANOTHER LIST" and since I'm "not working!!" :) 

 

 

TOP 10 STRATEGIES for PAIRS or GROUPS for ACTIVE/COLLABROATIVE LEARNING

1. COMPARATIVE NOTE TAKING

During a lecture stop every 15-20 minutes and have students stop and scatter and compare notes and concepts covered. Ask them to illustrate, highlight, or underline!

2. PARTICAPTION PREP

Ask questions to all… they record answers pre-discussion in notebooks or on paper.

Then sharing begins as you go back and begin ask students to share their written answers

3. INTENTIONAL MISTAKES

You provide groups of students with an illogical conclusion, inaccurate statement,

Incorrect data graph or lack of proof and they work in groups to FIND & FIX mistake

4. THINK-PAIR-SHARE—This one defines itself! Give a group a list of questions or they individually make up questions from current content and provide them to the group!

5. READ-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE—This one also defines itself!

6. ConcepTEST—

Pose a CONCEPTUAL QUESTION and 3-4 choices.

They work in groups and decide which provided answer is correct and why

7. THREE-WAY INTERVIEW:

Students will take turns interview each other (one records)

A. Interviewer: Asks the questions (teacher provides the “starter question”)

              After that the interviewer asks creative follow-up questions

B. Interviewee: Responds

C. Recorder: Records answers (or questions depending on goal of activity)

8. CATEGORY BUILDING:

You give groups 3-10 concepts and they sort them and create a concept map

with written summary of how they were grouped and justification as to why!  

9. VIDEO PREDICTIONS:

You ask students to work in groups to provide WRITTEN predictions of what they will SEE very SPECIFICALLY during the video Then watch and reflect.

Hint: do this after they have seen the HOOK or introduction part of video!

10.  FISHBOWL:  2-5 in middle and the rest on the outside for small group discussion(s) Hint: Allow students to TAP IN!

5. READ-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE—This one also defines itself!

6. ConcepTEST—

Pose a CONCEPTUAL QUESTION and 3-4 choices.

They work in groups and decide which provided answer is correct and why

7. THREE-WAY INTERVIEW:

Students will take turns interview each other (one records)

A. Interviewer: Asks the questions (teacher provides the “starter question”)

              After that the interviewer asks creative follow-up questions

B. Interviewee: Responds

C. Recorder: Records answers (or questions depending on goal of activity)

8. CATEGORY BUILDING:

You give groups 3-10 concepts and they sort them and create a concept map

with written summary of how they were grouped and justification as to why!  

9. VIDEO PREDICTIONS:

You ask students to work in groups to provide WRITTEN predictions of what they will SEE very SPECIFICALLY during the video Then watch and reflect.

Hint: do this after they have seen the HOOK or introduction part of video!

10.  FISHBOWL:  2-5 in middle and the rest on the outside for small group discussion(s) Hint: Allow students to TAP IN!

THE QUOTE ACTIVTIY for Perfect Classroom

Please feel free to steal and adapt this idea!
Le'ts be honest... I got the idea from somewhere else too!
I can't even remember who or where...

I call this THE QUOTE ACTIVITY!
 It starts as an indiviual activity... but then changes into a small group activity and discussion. Ends with sharing out and a whole group discussion! 

PREP: Before students enter the room for the day will post 12-15  quotes around the room. This year they are on SCIENCE. But I have used... thinking, water, oceans, life, ect... character traits would be interesting, or goals... anyway...

Students will be asked to walk all around the room & read the quotes for themselves. They are then to stand next to the one that MOST speaks to them that day. 
When most are at their "spot" I ask them to discuss the quote with anyone else that is at it as well. What does it mean? What does it mean to them? Ect. I tell them that one group member will be responsible for reading the quote aloud to the class and someone will be responsible to summerize and share what was discussed in their small group with the whole group. (Students remain standing around the room in the circle facing inward as the groups share. I have had a reflection or whole group discsussion at their desks after if need or wanted!)

This activity takes 20-30 minutes and the students seem to enjoy it! It promotes discussion and good listening skills... plus quotes are TOUCHY FEELY without me having to be TOUCHY FEELY first. They get to do the thinking! Whop whop!!

Here are the ones I included for my 3rd day in my perfect classroom plans:

Q: Which one do you like the best and why? (Practicing my questioning techinques!) 

                                                   2013 Science Quotes:

1: Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him

    and calls the adventure "Science."  

   ~Edwin Powell Hubble

2. Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.    

     ~Adam Smith

3. A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. 

    It is innocent, unless found guilty.  A hypothesis is a novel suggestion

    that no one wants to believe.  It is guilty, until found effective. 

    ~Edward Teller

4. Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. 

    ~Wernher Von Braun

5. The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts

     as to discover new ways of thinking about them.

    ~William Lawrence Bragg

6. Science is simply common sense at its best. 

   ~Thomas Huxley

7. The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers,

    he's one who asks the right questions. 

   ~Claude Lévi-Strauss

8. The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.        

   ~Albert Einstein

9. Life preys upon life.

   This is biology's most fundamental fact. 

   ~Martin H. Fischer

10. The saddest aspect of life right now is that

     science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. 

    ~Isaac Asimov

11. It is through science that we prove,

     but through intuition that we discover.

    ~Jules H. Poincare

12. We know from science that nothing in the universe exists

      as an isolated or independent entity.

     ~Margaret Wheatley

13. Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more.

     ~George Bernard Shaw

14. Nature does nothing without a purpose. 

    ~Aristotle

Next Year...

There are many exciting things for me next year. Some of which I may have mentioned in previous posts but to summerize... since the time is drawing near(er) each day:

1. I am excited that BHS will have a new principal. Nothing against the old one accept that he was a science guy and I always put or felt more... pressure somehow... on myself because of it! Also the high school hasn't had an administrator OUTSIDE of Barnum.. like new, new... for 15 years. So its tiime to shake things up a bit!

2. I am excited about my CLEAN SLATE, GUTTED room. Everything old is out and the new awaits.

3. I am excited about only teaching TWO classes.
    3 sections of 10th grade Biology and...
    3 sections of 7th grade Life Science!
   In my ten year carreer I have never taught ONLY two... 5, 4, or 3 at least!! I wonder if Ill like it?

4. I am excited for my AR. Specifically the idea of asking more essential questions and using INQUIRY
    style teaching. Will it work? Will I be able to do it? Will I see improvements in my students? I hope.

5. And also, I simply love the START of the year. Im excited... and there not. But soon... I trick them!! :)
   

Stage Two--BDU

I was surprised as I have been working on the second stage of my backwards design unit how easy it was to be creative when you had a list of the enduring understandings and questions right there in front of you. Many of the "tests" I have been coming up with are collaborative group tasks that involve the group making or doing something. When I started the process I thought it would be impossible to create a test before teaching...and after doing it I realize its because a traditional test would only have students reproduce facts that I taught. Big ahaha here. It's the process... Not the product. As I was researching assessment I came across a study of test frequency. It has been documented the you should strive for at least two formative assessments a week. And for summative... 10 in a 15 week time period for greatest percentile improvement!! Something to work for!!