So I've been doing some incredibly geeky things online tonight, and I found this brilliant quote by George S. Patton of all people. It's a weird reference, I know, but it really seems to sum up what we've been learning about for the past few years.
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
Just some food for thought.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Lesson Plan: Magnets
Physical Science-Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism
State Frameworks:
2. Apply an understanding of properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects, and properties of magnetism.
c. Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and magnetism.
d. Classify materials that are or are not attracted to magnets and cite examples of useful
magnetic tools in everyday living (e.g., can opener, compass, refrigerator door seal.)
Objectives:
· Construct a compass using needle magnet, corks, and water
· Write a journal entry that demonstrates the use of a compass
Big Ideas:
· There are many forces that affect objects on earth. Magnetism is one of these forces and it has an effect on certain types of metal.
· Magnets are a naturally occurring force, but humans have harnessed their power to make life easier.
Preparation:
1. The teacher will read the book What Makes a Magnet? By Franklyn M. Branley
2. She will engage students by asking them questions about magnets.
a. What are some magnets you find in your house?
b. What are some interesting things you’ve discovered about magnets?
c. How did people in the past use magnets?
d. What are some ways we use magnets today?
3. After reading the book, she will go back and reread pages 12-13 and 16-18 that describes how to make a magnet using a needle and then how to use the needle to make a compass.
4. Students will work in groups and follow the directions in the book to make a magnet and then a compass. Each group should have copies of the necessary pages.
5. Once students have made their compasses, the class will return to whole group discussion.
6. The teacher will remind students of a social studies lesson where they learned the cardinal directions. She will ask students to explain the directions.
7. The teacher will explain that the needle became a magnet, because it has a very weak magnetic force and when we rub it against a magnet, it makes the magnetic force stronger. Basically, it is like “turning on” the needle’s magnetic force.
8. The teacher will explain that the compass is a magnet because earth can be thought of as a big magnet, and the magnet in our compass is attracted to the northern magnet.
9. The teacher will then reread pages 22-24.
10. She will ask students to imagine what it would have been like to live long ago and how they could use compass to find directions.
Guidance:
1. The teacher will read the text, stopping at appropriate places to ask questions. The text is not difficult, but there is new vocabulary such as pole, compass, etc. The teacher will explain these new words, and some new concepts such as polarity.
2. The teacher asks questions both about how magnetic forces work and how people use magnets.
3. The teacher observes the group activity, and helps students with the needles when needed. The teacher may also have to stick the needle into the corks so that students do not get hurt.
4. The teacher reiterates important passages about how people use magnets.
5. The teacher accompanies students on their compass walk and assesses whether students are using their compasses correctly.
Application:
1. Students will go on a walk through the school and use their compass to tell them which way they are going. Students may be told to go west, for example, and will have to walk in that direction.
Assessment:
1. Students will write a journal entry pretending they are using their magnet to find directions. They must include some of the information they read about in their journal entry.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Subject Area Text
I wasn't sure if we were supposed to post this here, or print it out and bring it to class, so I figured I'd better do both.
Content Area Used: Science
Frameworks:
1. Develop abilities necessary to conduct scientific investigations.
a. Formulate questions about objects and organisms and predict outcomes in order
to conduct a simple investigation. (DOK 2)
2. Apply an understanding of properties of objects and materials, position
and motion of objects, and properties of magnetism.
c. Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and
magnetism. (DOK1)
d. Classify materials that are or are not attracted to magnets and cite examples of
useful magnetic tools in everyday living (e.g., can opener, compass, refrigerator
door seal). (DOK 2)
Big Ideas:
There are several big ideas within these frameworks. First is the concept of scientific inquiry. Students need to learn how to set up scientific investigations. They need to do this by asking questions, making predictions, and experimenting. Second is the concept of relationships and how forces affect objects. Third is the idea of magnets as not only a force of nature, but something we have utilized to make our lives better.
Text:
Branley, F.M., & Kelley, T. (1996). What makes a magnet?. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers.
Audience: 2nd graders
Suitability to Develop Understanding:
This text not only explains the properties of magnets; it encourages students to conduct their own experiments with magnets and suggests ideas to try. Throughout the book, it gives examples of how magnets are used in our lives. This text could not be used as the sole teaching tool when doing a lesson on magnets, but it could serve as a great introduction and a reference tool during later investigations.
Complexity:
Using the FLIP Readability Assessment, this text seems like it would work well with the chosen audience. The pictures are colorful and actually enhance the text as opposed to serving as mere illustration. The text itself is easy to read and there is rarely more than four or five sentences per page. The book has a clear purpose: the introduce students to the properties of magnets and how we use them in our world. Most of the language is words that students would already know, but some vocabulary may need to be discussed, such as compass, cardinal directions, direction, magnetite, lodestone, and repel. Students should find the book interesting because it is colorful, it is interactive, and magnets are a high-interest subject with students. Students need some prior knowledge about magnets, but not much. They need to know what they are and what they do. This text will also be easier if students know their cardinal directions and the uses of a compass.
Interest/Motivation:
From my experience, children love science, especially when they get to figure things out and do their own experiments. Further, magnets are usually of high interest to children; magnets are easy to manipulate and are fun to play with. Most children have some experience with magnets from playing with the ones found on their refrigerators at home. This text could be highly interesting to students if it is used along with appropriate inquiry based learning tasks. If students get to do some of the experiments found in this book, they will be likely to enjoy reading the text both before and after their experiments.
Frameworks:
1. Develop abilities necessary to conduct scientific investigations.
a. Formulate questions about objects and organisms and predict outcomes in order
to conduct a simple investigation. (DOK 2)
2. Apply an understanding of properties of objects and materials, position
and motion of objects, and properties of magnetism.
c. Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and
magnetism. (DOK1)
d. Classify materials that are or are not attracted to magnets and cite examples of
useful magnetic tools in everyday living (e.g., can opener, compass, refrigerator
door seal). (DOK 2)
Big Ideas:
There are several big ideas within these frameworks. First is the concept of scientific inquiry. Students need to learn how to set up scientific investigations. They need to do this by asking questions, making predictions, and experimenting. Second is the concept of relationships and how forces affect objects. Third is the idea of magnets as not only a force of nature, but something we have utilized to make our lives better.
Text:
Branley, F.M., & Kelley, T. (1996). What makes a magnet?. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers.
Audience: 2nd graders
Suitability to Develop Understanding:
This text not only explains the properties of magnets; it encourages students to conduct their own experiments with magnets and suggests ideas to try. Throughout the book, it gives examples of how magnets are used in our lives. This text could not be used as the sole teaching tool when doing a lesson on magnets, but it could serve as a great introduction and a reference tool during later investigations.
Complexity:
Using the FLIP Readability Assessment, this text seems like it would work well with the chosen audience. The pictures are colorful and actually enhance the text as opposed to serving as mere illustration. The text itself is easy to read and there is rarely more than four or five sentences per page. The book has a clear purpose: the introduce students to the properties of magnets and how we use them in our world. Most of the language is words that students would already know, but some vocabulary may need to be discussed, such as compass, cardinal directions, direction, magnetite, lodestone, and repel. Students should find the book interesting because it is colorful, it is interactive, and magnets are a high-interest subject with students. Students need some prior knowledge about magnets, but not much. They need to know what they are and what they do. This text will also be easier if students know their cardinal directions and the uses of a compass.
Interest/Motivation:
From my experience, children love science, especially when they get to figure things out and do their own experiments. Further, magnets are usually of high interest to children; magnets are easy to manipulate and are fun to play with. Most children have some experience with magnets from playing with the ones found on their refrigerators at home. This text could be highly interesting to students if it is used along with appropriate inquiry based learning tasks. If students get to do some of the experiments found in this book, they will be likely to enjoy reading the text both before and after their experiments.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A Good Website for My Student
I searched around the National Geographic Kids site, because my student loves animals, especially dogs, and wants to be a veterinarian. When asked what she would do with $1,000,000, she said that she would open an animal shelter. How can you not love that?
Anyway, I found this site about the different types of work dogs do, and I thought she might find this interesting. If she loves dogs, then she probably already knows a lot about them, but this article may give her some new information.
Anyway, I found this site about the different types of work dogs do, and I thought she might find this interesting. If she loves dogs, then she probably already knows a lot about them, but this article may give her some new information.
There is an article, a link to a game about working dogs, and links to organizations that train these animals.
Check out the site here: Working Like a Dog.
Check out the site here: Working Like a Dog.
This Blog is Made of Awesome
I chose Information Overloaded partially because I thought the title was cool. When I got to the blog, I saw that the blogger has tons of awesome information on her site. On the first page alone, she has tons of links for sites that would be great to use in the classroom. One link goes to a website that has videos for all the elements on the periodic chart, another links to a site for making Wordles, which kids will love. Check out this site if you're looking for something fresh to do in your classroom.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Chapter 5: Understanding and Using Texts
Using texts in the classroom involves so much more than choosing which pages your students will read from the textbook. Teachers have a variety of texts to choose from in any content area, and should use all forms of text in the classroom. We live in a world where students will need to be familiar with all types of texts. Teachers must take many factors into account when choosing texts including student movitvation and subject matter familiarity, readability, and the complexity of the task that goes along with the text.
One of the factors that interested me the most is student motivation. I have always been a reader, but there is a bit of a disclaimer: I read voraciously, but I only read what I like. So, while I may love to read, I am not going to tear my way through my biology textbook just because I love the written word. I think there are three levels of reading (there are probably more, but this is a Lisa-ism, so you have to take it as it is): reading with no understanding, reading, and engaging with the text. Reading with no understanding is pretty self-explanatory. This is the reading where you call the words or you read while thinking of something else and remember none of it. Regular old reading is what you do when you've got that biology exam (why am I picking on bio?) and you've got to understand chapters 3-8; you'd much rather be doing something else, but you need that B (or A depending on how much of a perfectionist you are). And finally there is engaging with the text. This is the type of reading where your mom has told you to go to bed, but you sneak a flashlight under the covers and finish that Harry Potter because you have to know what happens. This is the type of reading where you devour that book on string theory because it is so interesting. This is the type of reading where you analyze every word of an e-mail or love note to suss out how your other half feels about you. And this is the type of reading you want your students to experience, because this is the text they are going to remember when they're telling stories at the nursing home.
I think that getting students motivated, getting them engaged with the text, involves a lot of other factors mentioned in this chapter. First, students need to be familiar with the material. I only became interested in string theory and black holes once I got into science fiction and time travel; before that, I wouldn't touch the stuff. Likewise, students are going to have a hard time caring about something they know nothing about. Give them as much background as possible, relate it to their lives, and do what you can to make it fascinating. Second, students need stuff they can read. If it's too hard or too easy, they are going to get bored or frustrated, neither of which lend themselves to motivation. Finally, reading and tasks need to be balanced. If the students have a complicated task, such as DOK 4 analysis, then don't ask them to read 400 pages of Faulknerian sentences on their first go at this type of complex task. Sure they can get there, but you've got to build them up. Imagine if you'd been asked to write one of Mrs. Beaver's lesson plans before you even hit Intro Block. I know that I would have dropped out then and there. Finally, give students strategies for the text they are reading. Show them how to interact with it; tell them what you do when you read that kind of text.
Note: Thank you if you made it to the end of this, for soldiering on through my rambling paragraphs and abundant use of paragraphs. It's late and I'm tired.
One of the factors that interested me the most is student motivation. I have always been a reader, but there is a bit of a disclaimer: I read voraciously, but I only read what I like. So, while I may love to read, I am not going to tear my way through my biology textbook just because I love the written word. I think there are three levels of reading (there are probably more, but this is a Lisa-ism, so you have to take it as it is): reading with no understanding, reading, and engaging with the text. Reading with no understanding is pretty self-explanatory. This is the reading where you call the words or you read while thinking of something else and remember none of it. Regular old reading is what you do when you've got that biology exam (why am I picking on bio?) and you've got to understand chapters 3-8; you'd much rather be doing something else, but you need that B (or A depending on how much of a perfectionist you are). And finally there is engaging with the text. This is the type of reading where your mom has told you to go to bed, but you sneak a flashlight under the covers and finish that Harry Potter because you have to know what happens. This is the type of reading where you devour that book on string theory because it is so interesting. This is the type of reading where you analyze every word of an e-mail or love note to suss out how your other half feels about you. And this is the type of reading you want your students to experience, because this is the text they are going to remember when they're telling stories at the nursing home.
I think that getting students motivated, getting them engaged with the text, involves a lot of other factors mentioned in this chapter. First, students need to be familiar with the material. I only became interested in string theory and black holes once I got into science fiction and time travel; before that, I wouldn't touch the stuff. Likewise, students are going to have a hard time caring about something they know nothing about. Give them as much background as possible, relate it to their lives, and do what you can to make it fascinating. Second, students need stuff they can read. If it's too hard or too easy, they are going to get bored or frustrated, neither of which lend themselves to motivation. Finally, reading and tasks need to be balanced. If the students have a complicated task, such as DOK 4 analysis, then don't ask them to read 400 pages of Faulknerian sentences on their first go at this type of complex task. Sure they can get there, but you've got to build them up. Imagine if you'd been asked to write one of Mrs. Beaver's lesson plans before you even hit Intro Block. I know that I would have dropped out then and there. Finally, give students strategies for the text they are reading. Show them how to interact with it; tell them what you do when you read that kind of text.
Note: Thank you if you made it to the end of this, for soldiering on through my rambling paragraphs and abundant use of paragraphs. It's late and I'm tired.
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