Laura’s Rules for Innovation

February 6th, 2010

For a while I’ve been wrestling with what the term ‘innovative’ means, at least in terms of teaching and learning…and I think I may have come to some conclusions, however the key word is ’some’. I’ve been struggling to decide when exactly a lesson becomes innovative, in other words, what makes it innovative? We seem to have a dichotomy between innovative and not innovative, but clearly there are not only two ways to design a lesson.

The idea of innovation seems very complex to me because you can have a seemingly innovative activity that ends up being not very innovative because there was no big picture or connection to other learning and experiences which renders that possible innovation useless. You can also have an innovative lesson or unit that has seemingly non-innovative activities within it, but when viewed in the context of the big picture, becomes innovative. Are you confused yet? Let’s try an example…

Exhibit A: Student centered activity physically exploring and constructing a model of DNA by fitting the backbone and base pairs together (made out of a physical material) and thus learning what makes up DNA by exploring the pieces and connections and kinesthetically figuring out how they fit together (maybe not quite total inquiry, which should be saved for another post, but I would consider it innovative).

This activity is centered around student exploration and could be considered innovative, but if their explorations and experience are not shared, discussed, reflected upon and connected to the bigger picture, then it served no purpose and thus becomes non-innovative.

Exhibit B: A power point delivering notes which the students write in a notebook. This learning activity is a common occurrence in schools and leaves little room for creativity, inquisition, explorations etc. So we could agree that this is not innovative.

However, if you conduct this activity with student-centered demonstrations and frequent class discussion and use it as a tool to make sure students have the specific vocabulary and facts for understandings that have already or will be explored (preferably have already been) AND situate it within a lesson and larger unit that are connected by a bigger picture…it can become innovative.

SO… given these examples, we can pull out some common themes that must be present for a lesson or unit to be innovative and I would challenge the notion that any specific activity can be classified as innovative or not innovative. We have to look at the bigger picture (which fittingly is what we need to help our students do).

Laura’s Rules for Innovation

1. Student centeredness: for the most part, lessons and activity must be centered around the student and their learning and not on the teaching or method of delivery.

2. Big Idea: lessons and even units need to be connected under an overarching big idea or essential question and this connection must extend to other disciplines and out of school life experiences that the students have had.

3. Community: strong relationships between your students and between you and your students will enhance and support the other components of good lesson design such as student-centeredness, ownership, and inquisition. Each student must feel like they are included in this community.

4. Ownership: This ties into student centeredness, big ideas and having a community of learners. If the students see connections between their life and what they are learning and co-create information with their peers (and teacher!), they will feel like they have the most important role in their learning. This kind of student investment will help ensure deep understanding and meaning making that will benefit the student beyond their school years.

5. Inquisition: Call it inquiry, call it questioning, call it exploration…call it whatever you want, but the outcome is the same…students actively seeking understanding, students wanting to learn more. This is essential for student-centeredness, ownership and fostering a community of learners and it is supported by having big ideas that connect learning to life.

Each of  my rules cannot properly exist in the classroom without the other four. This list is not exhaustive, but I think that if you plan with these desired outcomes as your big idea, your lessons and units will be innovative.

In conclusion...it doesn’t really matter what activities you are choosing to do (well they help, but don’t look there first) if you want to be innovative. You must ask yourself “Am I creating an environment that is student-centered, fosters deep understanding, provides a sense of community and creates ownership over learning?” If not, step back, take a look at the big picture and see if you can change your design so that these important “rules” are included. The activities you create can certainly help you with these aspects of good lesson design but they wont be enough on their own, they will only become innovative if they are centered within this big picture. And if you are fretting over an activity that you think is not innovative, don’t worry, it can become innovative if given the proper support and structure around it to be meaningful for you and your students.


Small lessons, big plans

January 27th, 2010

As my first placement comes to a close, I figured some reflection is in order. I have certainly had a whirlwind experience but I can look back and say that in my role as a teacher, I have become a different and better person.

I have experienced a ton of growth in the past 4 weeks but I just want to highlight some of the “bigger” revelations:

1. I am not nearly as nervous as I started out. In general I hate giving presentations and talking in front of people and I was worried that I would feel the same way while teaching, but I don’t! It is different somehow and a huge relief to me.

2. Sometimes I would really struggle with trying to come up with activities and ways of exploring science but over the course of the 4 weeks it started to become a little easier and a little less stressful. I feel like I have a few good ideas in my toolbox and I am more comfortable going out and finding more.

3. The students are so much fun and I love being around their energy and passion! The relationships you build are so crucial to creating a safe and learning-filled environment. Looking ahead, this is something I need to work on even more, to be myself and be open so the students can get to know me because I know that I can be hard to get to know in a short period of time.

Some goals for my next placement:

1. Use more authentic assessments.

2. Integrate a long-term project with rubric.

3. Open up more quickly.

4. Attend more student events (games, dances…whatever).

5. Continuing efforts to make science relevant and utilize students’ questions and interests to drive teaching and learning.

Finally, I am a teacher.

2009 STARS Conference!

December 5th, 2009
I decided to create a concept map to highlight some reflections and emotions from today's conference!

I created a concept map to highlight some reflections and emotions from today's conference!

To download free software to make concept maps like this one visit CmapTools!

IMG_3085

Purple Science Extraordinaires' interactive station

Poster detailing the girls' investigation

Poster detailing the girls' investigation

Teaching family and friends about their investigation

Teaching family and friends about their investigation

Solutions and Solubility unit: student work

December 5th, 2009
This is one of the posters my 8th graders made to illustrate a solubility concept which was then 'taught' to their peers via presentation.

Aqueous: "when water is used as a solvent its called a..."

IMG_3024

Solution: "The outcome of two or more solid, liquid or gas combinding."

IMG_3022

Insoluble: "a measurement where no madder how much of a substance there is, it wont dissolve into another substance."

IMG_3026

Soluble: "measurement that describes how much solute dissolves in a certain amount of solvent (can't separate itself)."

These are  posters my 8th graders made to illustrate solubility concepts which they  ’taught’ to their peers via presentation. In case you were wondering, the second poster is showing steel being made from iron and carbon!

Do extrinsic motivators have their place?

December 5th, 2009

One of my students at Wheatland Chili was fairly notorious for not completing homework, not paying attention in class and often not even coming to class at all. Well, the past couple of weeks he has been to every class with every homework assignment completed (and completed well). I mentioned this to my CT and he said “well, it’s  basketball season.” So, this students is doing really well in school because he doesn’t want to get kicked out of playing basketball. This got me thinking about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivators. This student is clearly being motivated by an extrinsic power, the coach (and school) will not allow students to participate in sports if their academics suffer from it. However, he is doing well in science and because he is doing his homework he is able to contribute to class discussion and is clearly getting a lot more out of class than he had in the past.

Of course I want him to do well in science because he is interested in science and not because he doesn’t want to get kicked out of basketball, but I have learned a few things from this occurrence. The first is, our students are capable of so much more than they are letting us believe. He basically did a 180 as a science student and I wouldn’t have guessed that was even possible in such a short amount of time. So, how do I get other students to make a a change in their investment in science class (without extrinsic motivators)? Secondly, how do I encourage this student to keep up this work even when basketball ends?  Should I expect him to drop back down to his original level of involvement or will he recognize the good that has come from this investment and choose to continue it for himself?

Do extrinsic motivators have their place in jump starting student investment and involvement in science? I want this student to do science for the sake of science, not the sake of basketball…but he is learning so much more now! Maybe I should just take what I can get!

STARS Week 11: Conference Preparation

December 3rd, 2009

My favorite part of the day was receiving hugs from all of my girls as they got off the bus to visit their half-team at East! They genuinely seemed excited to be there and excited to see Becci and I! It was a little hectic because we had so many people (and so much pizza!) in one place but the energy was high and you could tell everyone was ready to do awesome science and have a lot of fun!

We had a big group of all 12 girls today so it was a great thing that we planned a carousel activity to get ready for Saturday’s conference. The four stations the girls rotated through were…

1. Draw a revised picture of a scientist

2. Graphing data for the poster

3. Making conclusions from the data

4. Discussing future implications of the data

The girls were really engaged at each station, although at times it did feel a little school like but we had a lot to get done since we were a little behind in our investigation. The girls got to watch part of the video Erin made for the conference (which was awesome by the way!) and they had some time at the end to be silly and bond. The girls got along much better this week than they had when they first met at the beginning of STARS.

Attention please!

December 2nd, 2009

I’ve decided I need to find a way, which is comfortable to me, to get students’ attention. I need to pick something that I won’t mind doing consistently so they come to expect it and quiet down quickly.  I’m not sure how to go about figuring out what will work best for me, because there are so many different things that teachers do and in all fairness I would need to give the technique some time to see if it works and if I like it. I am still also concerned with my questioning technique, but my supervisor reminded me that leading questions can have their place in the classroom! This is good, because I don’t know if I could never use them…sometimes the students just don’t have enough background knowledge to get to where I want them to go but I want them to have a quick idea about what we’re talking about. I now realize though, that asking good questions might be the most important part of teaching…If I can ask a question that’s helps a students really get at the core of a topic on their own, then the answer they give back will be a valuable assessment tool. This goes for written questions/tasks as well. My favorite part of this lesson was seeing the students work together in groups to become experts on one topic. They were able to collaborate and do the work they needed to do on their own while I could float around and ask probing questions and answer any questions they had. I think they feel comfortable asking me questions, which is really great because that is one of my favorite things about teaching, seeing them interested and inquisitive about their learning.

Creating a safe space…

December 1st, 2009

I need to preface this blog by saying I am currently student teaching in Wheatland Chili which is a really small, almost rural district.

One of our classes is a 9th grade class intended to prepare students who did not do well in 8th grade to take Earth Science and Living Environment in 10th and 11th grade. This class revolves around giving the students a lot of science skills and trying to help them think like a scientist and practice being detailed in their work. My CT took the day off today and left me with some plans (and obviously a legal sub).

Well, we showed a couple of short videos on maps and directions and afterward had them draw a map from the front of the school to their home with a legend, landmarks, compass rose and scale. This was a good exercise in creating models that are detailed and accurate at representing the thing you are modeling. They also previously had a lot of problems creating graphs with appropriate scales so this also helped them think about how numbers can be used to provide a reference point for other information.

A few minutes after they got started on their maps, one of the students raised her hand and asked me if I could help her. When I went over to her seat she told me that she lived really far away and it would be too hard to draw a map from the school all the way to her house. So naturally I asked her where she lived so I could help her out or possibly modify the assignment for her. At first she didn’t want to tell me where she lived, she kept saying far away or that I didn’t want to know and then she said Chili, and then she said, “well in Rochester”. I asked her if she lived in the city and she shook her head yes. I told her it was ok, I also lived in the city, and she didn’t believe me at first. She said “No you don’t!” and I said “Yes I do”. She proceeded to ask me where and I explained to her where I lived, then she asked me where she should draw her map to. I pulled out my computer and pulled up her street on googlemaps, located a nearby park and had her do her map based on that.

She was very embarrassed about where her family lives (I’m not sure how she can technically go to school here but that’s not for me to worry about). It broke my heart that she was so frustrated about something she has no control over. I know this is not uncommon but I think it was the first time I witnessed a student’s life outside of school connect  deeply enough with an assignment that they didn’t want to do it (she kept asking me if could draw the map from school to her friend’s house instead, but I really wanted her to use her house to validate her life as an individual and show her that she didn’t need to be embarassed). Maybe this type of occurrence is more common in an urban setting, but it was new to me here and I was glad I was able to connect with her in such a way that she felt comfortable doing the assignment after we talked.

But it got me thinking about creating safe spaces in the classroom. If I hadn’t lived in the city I might not have been able to reassure her that it was ok and she didn’t need to be embarrassed about it. I could have still said those things but the meaning wouldn’t have been as strong. Creating a safe space is not only about being respectful and open and creating a community of learners, it is also about the direct connections and bonds you can make with students and in some cases may not be able to create.

States of Matter

December 1st, 2009

STARS Week 10: analyze data!

November 19th, 2009

This week the main focus was to collect summative video assessments of the girls. They all did a fabulous job showcasing their scientific expertise in front of the camera! While Becci assessed the girls, I led them through a graphing activity to help them represent their data visually and draw some conclusions. All of the girls jumped right in to graphing and there were rulers, colored pencils and construction paper everywhere! The girls struggled a bit to come up with implications for their data. They were able to identify which soils were the best and the worst but were not sure what they could now do with that information. We will need to re-emphasize the importance of looking to the future when analyzing data when the girls meet as a whole team next week.

To finish up the day, we let the girls look at a bunch of video footage and pictures of them on the computer. I had video of practice assessments from a few weeks earlier and they really got a kick out of watching that footage. This was good for them to  begin getting comfortable with seeing themselves on video and especially with hearing the things they had to say about science and the investigation. Students rarely get a chance to look back at assessments and assess themselves.

Check out some STAR work below!

Bean and Pea heights in 6 different soils over 3 weeks.

Bean and Pea heights in 6 different soils over 3 weeks.

Graphs!

Graphs!