Reflection-My First Month Of Teaching Phenomena Based Science/Storylines

This reflection focuses on modeling and anchoring/investigative phenomena routine only:

After attending professional development this summer I decided to add one more step toward shifting my instruction. I have decided to work on the anchoring phenomena routine and modeling.  I felt that modeling  should be easier since I implemented one page assessments in my classroom last year.  

Week 1:  I wanted test my students modeling skills.  I was thinking about what could I use for the phenomena and one of the paraprofessionals walked in. She suggested to do something they could relate to.   I remembered the cellphone phenomena from OpenSciEd.

Results:  I found out students were lacking skills in annotation, and thinking outside the box (the seen and unseen).  They had problems with acknowledging that science is happening eventhough we can't see it.  They were more concerned about drawing perfect pictures even when I told them I don't expect them to be perfect. 

I decided to scaffold and differientiate the lesson more by doing to following:

• Show and tell:  I modeled my thought processes for them. See the picture below.
• Tapped into their prior knowledge:  I let them share their experiences about breaking their phone.
• Extra processing time:  I loop the video.
• I address unfinished learning by using Appendix A provided by LDOE, using edpuzzles, and doodle notes that I created.

Week 2:  Students are making progress, their modeling improved we weren't quite there yet.  I decided to looked at exemplars from OpenSciEd again and realized I was expecting too much.  I am very detailed oriented.  So I scaled back my expectations and look for alternatives for teaching phenomena.  I think the anchoring phenomena routine was too long for them.  They were losing interest.

Week 3:  I had to think of alternate ways of getting them to inquire and the Wonders of Science came to mine.  Paul Anderson has a 5 step inquiry process.  I felt this was more appropriate for our population.  I decided to use this with a combination of OpenSciEd instructional strategies to compliment my style of teaching. I tried this and it wasn't quite there.   I decided to talk to one of my mentors from my support group Teaching with AST & OpenSciEd Discussion Group Science Coach Sullivan.  They have been providing awesome support.  We talked via zoom.  She provided and suggested the following documents:

I used the graphic organizers she gave me along with the ones for the Wonders of Science.  Here is mine below: 

Week 4: I decided to have them to notice and wonder about a city bus crash that cause multiple accidents (phenomena).  We shared our notice and wonders.  Then we created our initial model.  This time I created a graphic organizer for them in Canva for Education.  I also provided an exemplar of an initial model.  I implemented additional differientiation and scafolding:

• I added timepoints

After creating the initial model I noticed they were confused about the Law Conservation of Momentum.  I decided to address using a video with doodle notes.  The next day we readdressed the inital model again.  I wanted to see if they can apply knowledge from the previous day.  It improved.

  

The following day I decided to give them a related phenomena as quiz/check for understanding.  I decided to use Newton's Cradle.  I have two in the classroom and found a video on Canva.  I placed the two newton's cradles in front of the classroom and allowed them to look and touch.  I also looped the GIF.   The quiz is below.  I gave them 20 minutes to complete. 

After completing the quiz I decided to use sticky note feedback instructional strategy for positive peer feedback.  Since my desks are in group of fours we did three rotations 5 minutes a piece.  I provided examples of positive helpful feedback, negative feedback, and sentence stems from Ambitious Science Teaching.  Once completed I gave them the opportunity to respond to the feedback and make corrections (if they felt they need to use the feedback provided by their peers) They did well.  

Between perfecting modeling, students learned how to calculate speed, velocity, and momentum using the formula triangle.  I wrote this reflection to focus modeling and anchoring phenomena routine. Next week I will discuss our scientific investigation and unit exam.   Also I would like that AST and OpenSciEd discussion group for supporting me.