This worked

This past week I utilized a pre-active teaching strategy that I saw varying examples of online. Before beginning a section on nutrition I had my 7th grade classes list everything they ate during their last three meals and all other food intake in between meals. Next we brainstormed the types of nutrients the body requires, listing them on the board. Then I asked them to try to figure out how many servings per meal and snacks they had of the various nutrients. After they finished I handed out a printout that described serving sizes of various foods. At this time I allowed them to go back and make adjustments in regards to their serving sizes (most had to increase what they had put). Next, they were given an empty food pyramid with the various nutrient types labeled and asked to plug in their data they had come up with. This led into the final discussion using the headings in the book to discuss the six nutrients and their role in proper nutrition.
I believe, by allowing the students to formulate associations between the foods they recently ate and the various types of nutrients the body requires, they will have a cognitive structure to build new ideas off of.

Assessments quick ones that work.

As I think about the various types of assessment I have used this semester the first thing that pops into my mind is free-writes. I have used free-writes for pre-assessments and formative assessments. The most useful were the pre-assessment free-writes that allowed for opinion.
Another quick formative and pre-assessment that has been useful has been section heading discussions. To get an idea where the class and students are on a subject I will simply open my book and ask questions from the bold headings. If the students respond quickly with a good show of hands I know they are getting specific subject matter. If they need to refer to the book then I know who is weak in an area. Sometimes I will use popsicle sticks to pick who will answer.
I have followed suit with my cooperating teacher in regards to unit test. We will test over limited amounts of material, so test end up being about every two weeks. I sometimes will give the students a pretest so they know where they need to focus.
Most days we start class with bell work. The bell work is five questions that cover past material. The students keep a bell work notebook and we talk about the answers. Sometimes I will include a bell question to find out if they understand current material. Bell work is a school wide implemented strategy.

Let them learn

A week ago I tested the 8th grade on Earth’s biological diversity and geological history. This past week I decided to continue teaching aspects of this topic, going beyond the state standards. I wanted to give the students an opportunity to work on a team to research and gather data, and then to organize the data and present it to a non partisans committee (myself and cooperating teacher). The unit will end with a round table debate between the two groups.
My approach started with a lesson designed to have the students investigate and discover how to determine the validity of internet sources in regards to research. The rest of the week the students chose to be part of opposing lobby groups representing various natural resources. Chair persons were chosen to lead the lobbies and daily agendas were given to guide the two groups in their preparation for their presentation and end of unit debate.
The lobbies begin presenting their cases tomorrow during class. I originally had some concerns about how well the 8th grade boys would handle this activity. I worried that they would not be able to handle working independently within groups. However at this point I have been very impressed with both the girls and boys classes. They have all taken ownership of this process and have really done an impressive job of working as teams to achieve specific goals set forth.
I did not give the students much information about how to approach this project. I guided them but allowed them to make decisions within their groups. They have been really excited about this activity and have been sharing new information with each other with excitement. I look forward to their group presentation and the final debate.

Badboys

Last week was spent reviewing for an end of unit tests. One of the review games I like to use is a basketball type game that the students ring in and answer a question and then shoot the ball for points. This review has worked great in the past when I’ve used it with the 7th grade girls and boys and the 8th grade girls. Well this week I tried to use it with the 8th grade boys.
A little background: the 8th grade boys have become increasingly unruly with all their teachers in the past few weeks. I had to end the review game after about fifteen minutes because they simply would not behave as a whole. This began a major crack down on the whole class. The rest of the hour I did not allow them to speak. I read the questions for the review and then read the answer. They sat there a little shocked. The last couple days I have begun each class with a lecture about what is expected and the consequences for not doing it. Well see if it works.

Dealing with a not so bad student

This past week has been one of my busiest. I am on my second week of teaching 7th and 8th grade girl’s and boy’s classes for a total of four classes. I have had a few students between all the grades who at one time or another have struggled with doing work in and out of the class. Most of these issues were easily dealt with by communicating with parents using “pink slips” which I will describe in a moment. However, I have an 8th grade boy that is beginning to slack off. He has been an average student but for some reason lately he is showing little interest during class. He also has started missing homework assignments. I quietly tried to encourage him in his work during class and after school I tried to casually talk to him, but it was obvious he didn’t really care to talk to me. I asked other teachers how he was doing and they said he was doing okay in their classes. So for now I am going to keep my eye on him and if he continues to miss assignments I will go beyond the present method of dealing with missing assignments, which is “pink slips”. When a student does not have an assignment they fill out and sign a pink slip that goes in their file, they also receive a sticker that must be signed by a parent that explains the missing assignment. Everyday the student fails to bring in a parent signature they have lunch detention. My next step in dealing with this student will be a student conference followed by a phone call to the parents.

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Classroom mangagement

Within every classroom there is going to probably be issues with behavior. Recently we have been having trouble with excessive talking and interrupting. So in order to address this issue in our science classroom we initiated a “Classroom Interuption Log”. The first time a student is called down they receive a warning. The next is outside lunch privileges are revoked, and so on. For the most part the kids figured out that they could talk until the first warning and then they would behave. After a couple of weeks of implementing this plan the results differed in some classes and grade levels. The classes that got the message the log only has to be pulled out every once in a while to get results. The classes that wanted to push the limit on talking got a speech from me. I basically talked straight to them, telling them that I really didn’t enjoy having to use the log and that I knew they were tired of it. I explained to them that there was really no reason for us to have to keep dealing with this issue and that I knew that were old enough to know better. It has not been an issue for a couple of weeks.

It really worked well.

Last week I started a new unit with the 8th grade, the Earth’s biological history. I knew that this would require a tactful yet challenging approach. My pre-assessment started with some video clips that depicted the leading scientific views of earth’s formation and biological history. At the end of class the students did a free write on what they learned and what they personally thought about the material. The students, the boys and girls classes equally, freely shared their objections to the material. Most revealed a Christian world view that opposed evolutionary thought.
The next day I put a statement on the projector that had two columns, one that agreed with the statement and one that disagreed. At the bottom of the projection I put a conclusion box. I projected the visual on a white board and had a student write the responses in the appropriate columns. The statement was: “I believe that the predominant view of the scientific community in regards to the earth’s biological and geological history should be taught in all schools.” This statement took the students back. Most were ready to disagree right off the bat. After allowing opinions to flow freely until only one column was being filled, I began my interjections of questions. My questions helped lead the students to list reasons why they agreed it should be taught. And then they developed a conclusion that was written in the bottom box. The conclusion that both classes came up with dealt with the agreement it should be taught and the reasons for why.