​Dream It​

I plan for at least three transitions in my daily classes.  I want to keep my students engaged for the entire 45 minutes.  From the start of the class period, I have students reflect on the prior lesson, this is the bell-ringer.  The students provide answers on a weekly template sheet; they can find these answers within notes or the textbook.  I then provide at least two learning experiences within the class period, each day is something new, but I want to change the mode of the lesson as much as I can to keep the students engaged.  This is such a small amount of time that I have to keep things moving forward.  

 

When teaching a specific unit I being with basic vocabulary.  I start with a modified Frayer Model and have students look at vocabulary words in four ways.  First they give the textbook definition, then define the word in their own words, draw an illustration and finally use the word in a sentence.  This first step would fall into the knowledge part of Blooms Taxonomy.  I then introduce different resources including  articles, videos, or images to move the students into the comprehension section of Blooms.  I finish my unit with two or three labs or activities that allow the students to apply what they have learned.  When the unit is finished I have the students write a reflection piece to evaluate their participation in the activities or labs.  Much of the work we do in science is collaborative and requires students to work together to reach a common goal.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I try to give my students a variety of experiences in class to engage them in science.  Science in general is a topic that requires the learner to put forward an idea, test it, reflect on what happened and be able to state and explain why.  I use the constructivism approach for the majority of my assignments and activities.  Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas.

 

 

 

Classroom Strategies Frayer Model. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2014,

 

       from All About Adolescent Literacy    

 

       website:http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22369/