Data Intentions and Connections...

So... we are one month into my data collection plan.

Things are going ok. I intended to have my students do an inquiry and/or collabrative lesson and complete a survey once a week and I have been! Whoo-hoo! To me the survey after does not seem nearly as important as the learning and team-work I am seeing in my room. Students are helping each other more and certainly helping and challenging themselves more in a team then they would individually.

I have a para collecting data on the number of questions that I am asking students once a week as well. Again... the numbers are the numbers, but I feel so much more prepared and informed on questioning that I much more often sitting down and before and after lessons writing, re-writing, and creating questions. Its really causing me to make connections between concepts and these connections "show up" in my lessons.

Its weird. Cells are still cells and the facts are the facts... but once you start connecting the dots... simply put... it gets easier to see things!  I'm surprised... floored actually. The time I am spending, the attention I am paying, to creating  questions for my students is helping me! Maybe even more then the students.  

DI--ABOUT ME and WHAT I'VE DONE

Jodi Zhukov...

My name is Jodi Zhukov. One of the two Jodi's in our DI group. I'm the red-head. I have been teaching for 10 years. 5 years at one school and now 5 years with my current school. I now work in Barnum. We are a K-12 district with separated K-6 and 7-12 buildings. Our high school consists of 35 staff members and 2-3 people per department meaning that I am the only 7th grade and 10th grade science teacher. Needless to say there is not much collaboration going on but plenty of use for DI! The time needed to make DI great is probably why I seem to struggle with it. So... I am hoping to get some usable ideas for the classroom and how I can make teaching and learning easier for all my students (but still have a semi-life.) Oh... I'm married to a great guy and we have a 3 year old ginger named Nikolai. Very active boy wonder!!

DI--Science Literacy or Literacy in Science?

So... one of the big AH-HA's I (we) had in our saga group discussion on literacy was should science teachers inspire and engage students with an activity FIRST and then read about it... or... should we read to learn and build prior knowledge BEFORE we do the activity or hands-on experience?

At the time I was intrigued but not sure where I stood (or stand.) Recently someone was awarded the Nobel Prize for determining how some cancer cells move around the body. They called it: "Cat and Mouse" or "Run and Chase." I was looking on Science Daily to see if I could find an article covering the idea. I found one and when I cut and paste it the article was one page long. 6 small paragraphs. Seemingly simple. Accept most of the words used were vocabulary that I knew most of my students would not be familiar with.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130616155019.htm

So... literacy to the rescue.

On the back of the sheet I put 9 squares. The title was "SAY WHAT?"
I asked my students to "scan" the article and highlight any terms that they couldn't define on their own.

Then they had to use a dictionary or i-phone I look up the definitions and shorten them in their own words.

Then they had to replace the word in the article with the "easier version/definition" in the margins.

Next,  re-read the article to see if they could get the "jist" of it.

And finally, draw a picture of what they taught the cell "cat and mouse" game looked like inside the body!

It took most of the hour, but I think they will be ready for a great conversation on Monday about cells, cancer, cellular movement, and the visualization they will have to get used to doing IN THEIR MIND as we embark on our journey "into" the small world of THE CELL.

I'm still not sure where I stand... DO then READ... READ then DO...
In this case reading first was the better option. Wow it was a lot of work. English teachers must be busy!

BDU

Okay BD.

First things first. It's hard. 

Here's why... I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl.     

To my AR self having a script of what daily lessons will be seems boring. 

So stage three... The day to day plan is difficult to say the least. 

The thing that I do really like is writing the enduring understandings, stage one. Doing this really brings the content to life. It sets my intention.  I just need to be sure that they are aligned pretty well  to the standards but written in my "Zhukov style." In fact after our assigned BD unit I liked stage one so much that I wrote enduring understandings for all of my units!! Something that I thought would be simple took a long time. what do I want them to learn? Good question for reflection. 

I have also seen a huge improvement in my use of essential questions stemming from my enduring understandings in stage one. My students are responding really well to the idea of "more complex" thinking style, critical thinking questions and I have BD to thank for that. 

Although I will never be a person who does away with the "traditional test"... stage two of BD, thinking about designing the tests in advance to teaching the unit, has help me identify more opportunities for linked in collaborative group activities. 

So... I feel passionate about stage one and two... But I'm not so sure about stage three. I can see that every single day of by BD unit has been different from my original write up. But the process as a whole is worth the effort.