Centers in the Science and Social Science Classroom

This week I started two of my classes at a centers rotation. This is my first step toward differentiated instruction for students. The first class I have also strategically grouped by student reading level and abilities so far in the science and social studies classroom. I am using the ipads and technology in a way to allow students to access information but also remain accountable for work and "silent discussions." My centers are working on a five day rotation. The first day is a group lesson with a skill that includes the "I do" and "We do" practice. This week was line graphing. We are studying biomes so I had students use the ipads to find the daily high and low temperatures for Chicago as the "we do" and then students will gather data on the desert, the current biome we in for our social studies group of Native Americans. This was the center that I modeled on Monday. The rest of the centers the students had some experience doing with guidance in prior weeks. The students are studying world biomes and we have done research on three biomes in a guided manner using Cornell notes for the students to record information about climate, plants and animals, they did this research independently and recorded the Cornell notes at the center. I then created ibooks with embedded videos about the biome of the week and questions for the students to guide them as they watched the videos. The next step was for the students to complete a quiz on the questions in edmodo. The other centers were a blogging center where students spend time going through the writing process and publishing on our class kidblog. Another center was reading biographies about scientists from a book bin which has a variety of reading levels about a variety of famous scientists. When the students are done they complete an exit ticket on my homepage with basic information about the genre, major contribution to science or society by the person, and then add what they found most interesting about the person. The final center was a reading, note taking and discussion center with me about Native American groups of the Southwest. The students complete two centers a day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then have a choice day on Friday. After each day at a center they complete a self-evaluation of their work effort, academic conversations and how well they took care of each center's materials. Friday choice day was by far my favorite. I gave students the day to finish up any of the center work they did not complete. I listed all of the work I would be looking at for each center and then let them determine what items they need to finish, which they wanted to spend more time working on or anything they needed help with I would work with a small group. I then told them once all the work of the centers was completed they could chose to investigate our "big ideas" a step further. We had been focusing on biomes, Hopi people (Native American group), and scientists. From those big ideas the students could pick a creation app that they have experience with (popplet, toontastic, keynote) and create something to show their learning. I was amazed at the work they did! I am a person who has a hard time with using rubrics on creative endeavors as I think it often stifles some creativity and boxes thinking into the rubric. I did not give any rubric or guidelines past the topic. I saw a lot of very positive things on Friday beyond creativity. I saw students making responsible choices and evaluating where they were in their work production and what still needed to be completed. I saw students recognizing they wanted some assistance on things that they worked on independently during the week, and I saw students who were proud of the work they had accomplished all week long. Lastly, I wanted to also get feedback from students about the centers and what they thought was interesting, challenging or not enjoyable. The feedback from students was very interesting to me because there was no "winner" and almost every center was someone's favorite. I have added some of the edmodo comments and I will embed the toontastic app creations.

When it's not easier....

This week I had my students read directions to create a bar graph, use a table of data for graphing and then provided graph paper in PDF form for the students to use on the ipad app, Notes. I have had students do and submit work that they have annotated in PDF form and in the past it seemed to work well. In this case the students struggled to create a labels for the graph and also fill in the bar graph properly based on the table. I had on section of students complete the activity on paper and they not only completed it quicker, they seemed to struggle less on the idea of the graph. Some times paper and pencil are the right method for the time. Here are some examples

Students determine Deciduous Forest plants with Snapleaf App

My students are learning about organisms in ecosystems and we have started with Deciduous Forests since it is the biome we live in. We are going to continue to discover the organisms and the environments of the other biomes, but we started in our home biome. To learn about the plants in the Deciduous Forest biome we used an app called Leafsnap. This is an app that has a variety of leaf and tree images and has a great feature that allows you to "snap it" which takes a picture of the leaf and then students need to look at the 10 closest and determine the leaf and its match. For this science investigation I had students use "science process skills" of observation, sketching the leaf, determine the properties of the leaf including the shape and the edge as those are usually defining features when matching the leaf with the choice on leaf snap. The students were excited to notice the differences between the leaves, similarities and then to see MORE about the specimen, the leaf, branches, fruit or nut, bark, etc. Although we did this in the classroom with samples, in an authentic experience they could see if the organism had all the matching features! Although late in the season, the kids really learned a lot and also used science skills with technology.

Feedback in the fewest steps.....

My last post discussed how nice it is to keep things paperless. The next question is how do you get feedback to students and stay paperless, but still making it meaningful? My teaching partner, Jennie Magiera and I have been working this out. The first idea was to create a Dropbox file for each student and place their work and any feedback on a spreadsheet that was a running document. After thinking about this it seemed we had the students in too many programs and we wanted to streamline the work for them and for the teachers. Jennie suggested we use Edmodo to send direct messages to students and attach any PDF files they submitted. The Edmodo allows it to be password protected and private for the students. The nice thing as the teacher is I can create a template for each assignment and then attach student work with my feedback in the template. I could easily click between open windows and cut and paste both the template, scores from a google form, and a PDF document the students' annotated. Benefits The process is still paperless. The feedback remains private to the student and parents can access the Edmodo site as well. Edmodo, Dropbox and Google Forms can all be accessed from home, which makes this task mobile. Another bonus is the organization of the student work. I always cringe when handing back work with feedback to students or really any sheet and hope it gets put in the right folder, but this is already placed in the "spot" for students. Here are some samples:

Assessment with Noterize

My students took a final assessment for Earth processes this week and I had the short answer/diagramming portion uploaded to Dropbox which my students then downloaded to Noterize. The process of having the students sign in to Dropbox, locate the file, then work and return it to the class folder was difficult, but it was also the first time they used the Dropbox tool. Overall, it went well with no major problems. Some work samples are below. I think the flexibility for the students to use "hand writing" or text as well as the use of color and pen size. Next time, I would do allow more space under each question for students to show their work. Also, the students were not very familiar with the noterize app and some were a little clumsy producing work that on paper would have been clearer.

Screenchomp examples about 9/11 murals

Students in September spent time learning about the events of 9/11 and then how it was being remember ten years later. Their task after learning about the events and the memorials was to create their own memorial with symbols of both remembrance and America to honor the event and people who lost their lives on that day and the years following. Here is some of the work.

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/JzUTH9Xu7LR

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/euFZtmSxpB

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/foxX0D3ep

Popplet Graphic Organizers

Students explored popplet lite today to create graphic organizers. I had students take the rock samples for igneous rocks and create a graphic organizer about each rock's properties. Some of the organizers were very detailed and organized in a way that works for the student. Although it may seem like something that could be done with paper and pencil the fact that students can manipulate the size, color, and organization of each box makes the popplet experience unique. As you can see a students used a variety of ways for the same task of igneous rocks and properties.

Click on each popplet to see it a larger version. They are not all readable but give a general idea. Amazing tool!