Science Chicken Dissect Short

Judy and I have been team teaching a unit on the Human Body to our classes.  The combining of our classes and the combining of our minds has led to some positive results.  A reminder that we are often better when we work together.

We have broken the unit into mini units by the body systems we are learning about.  To launch the Muscles, Bones, and Skin mini unit we hosted a chicken dissection.  The idea came to us in one of our late afternoon planning sessions.  We'd pick up a roasted chicken and "dissect" it in front of the classes.  The chicken clearly demonstrated all the key learning of the unit and more.  Seeing first hand the skin, muscles, bones, cartilage, ligaments, spinal cord, etc made the learning authentic, energized and I think lasting.  This lesson went better than my best hopes.  Of course at the end we didn't want to waste our chicken so after thanking it for its' very considerate sacrifice for the benefit of our learning we shared a delicious protein snack!

Shipwrecked! Class Novels

Stay tuned for a video here...

I have been reading the novel "Peter and the Starcatchers" to my class.  I have used this book as a read aloud a couple of times before. It is an incredible book, the best read aloud I've found by far.  Action, adventure, never a dull moment, strong male and female characters, etc.  The students love it.  The read aloud serves a few purposes as I use this time in our schedule in place of silent reading.  With the read aloud I know the majority of kids are engaged in rich literature, many students get exposed to stories that their current abilities would not allow them to read independently, I can model use of voice/presenting skills as I use a different voice for each character which the kids really enjoy.  We have a common story to work with to work on a variety of skills such as: identifying key plot elements, descriptive writing, imagery, character development, similes, metaphors, dialogue, etc.  The read aloud time is something we all look forward to and another big benefit is it helps many students to self regulate as it is soothing/calming which is why I read after lunch to bring them "down".  I have noticed that the read aloud also helps us build our class community as it is something special we do together, it is ours.

In an attempt to go deeper and build the emotional connections that contribute to lasting memories and to have fun I decided to try a "Shipwrecked" theme.  In the story about half way through the book there is a shipwreck stranding the characters on an unknown island. 

On Monday morning after the shipwreck scene the students came into the "shipwrecked" classroom.  I had messed up the room thoroughly!  Knocking all desks, chairs, tables, etc over in piles.  On the wall I had created (actually my far more artistically talented wife had created for me) a mural of an island in the ocean.  Students started peeking in the windows before school and word quickly spread.  By the time the day started and they actually came into the room their interest level, excitement, enthusiasm, engagement, curiosity were sky high.  Which was the point!  By changing it up, literally changing their environment it jolted them into a place where they were looking forward to being a part of whatever was coming.  

We quickly watched a video clip of a boat sinking at sea in stormy weather and the people swimming frantically to survive, again to increase engagement/emotional response.  Then they were distributed into random "tribes" by selecting a pre cut colour card out of a bag.  They worked together in their tribe amongst the wreckage as there was"no time to rebuild yet, they have to survive!" to generate a list of survival items.  From these we generated a class list.  They then worked together to re-build the classroom and create a table group of their new tribe members, it took just a couple minutes for them to put everything back together.  They came up with a name for their tribe then set about building their survival structures where each group got the same roll of tape and cardboard box to work with and the instruction they could use anything else found in the room, but they did need to ask about using my things first.  Creativity, enthusiasm were very high and the energy was great as they worked on their structures.  When the students are this engaged it feels so good to be in the classroom there are no significant behaviour problems just lots of smiles and on task children.  One student who has many significant learning, behaviour, social challenges wanted to make his own structure and do his own thing not with a group so I said go for it as he was then more engaged and worked harder than he had in a long while.

We have since been creating in our groups pictures/props to add to our mural scene.  Whenever I say they have some time to work on their shipwrecked stuff immediately the enthusiasm spikes and off they go.  This was one crazy idea (and I sure did get some looks from  staff when they saw what I was doing!) that worked out well.

Staying the Course...

Judy and I have been combining our classes and our creative brain power to "lens up"  our science and LA.

I continue to believe that we (with a focus on our students) definitely learn better when we have fun.  This was a dominant theme last year when we spoke with our students about their experience in the TADL project.

We have a very different group of students this year and these invigorating lessons that include combining almost 60 kids can make for more challenging management of the students.  I keep reminding myself that the enthusiasm the students show is really what we are after and this is a different experience for them, a worthwhile experience.

I hope with continued exposure to the "Lens Method" they will become better at self regulating, the whole repeated practice element.  It is worth it due to the positive responses from the students and the level of achievement, retention of learning they demonstrate.  So far in science, where we are doing the most lens work the overall class achievement is significantly higher than other subject areas.  Also this is the area where we as teachers and our students have been having the most fun together, not a coincidence.

So I remind myself, stay the course, it is worth it, we are on the right track, our students benefit as we learn best when we have fun!

Making Memories??? Digestion Machine Video

We are currently learning about the human body in science.  We created a digestion machine to demonstrate the digestive process. 

The goal was to make it memorable.  When we think back to childhood memories what makes things memorable?  Connections to emotions, strong feelings, sights, sounds, smells...  Don't want our students to file the information away in the "boring forget it in a week" place. 


Response to the demonstration was very positive.  Heard from a lot of parents at p-t conferences that this was the first thing their child wanted to share about with great enthusiasm when they got home from school. 

Will assess for knowledge retention this week to find out if the method was effective and helped form real memories.

P.S.
I originally wrote this a couple of days ago and have since given a quiz on the content covered.  The students did very well with no study time provided (on purpose) hopefully a memory has been created that leads to real long lasting learning.

Had some difficulty posting the video, so have put it on youtube, copy and paste the links below into your browser address bar, be sure to open a new window in your browser:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdinpOlFEJA

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybm1YcEAhNw

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwKUZPeDcOA

I Choose Confusion?

At a recent Different Lens meeting we were discussing a focus question to be thinking about/pursuing clarity while participating in this fantastic project.
The word that kept coming up with a variety of connections for me was choice.  This is probably also due to currently reading Glasser's book on choice theory as part of the work a group is doing around restorative practices.
I believe in the power of choice.  It is something I am constantly reinforcing with students.  They choose if, when, how they are going to behave even when they are completely aware of the expectations and potential consequences.  They still make conscious choices/decisions about what they are going to do in order to satisfy their needs.  Yes, there is often an element of impulse or a lack of control with them due to their age, but after the heat of the moment they are again presented with choices on what they should/could/might do to solve/enhance/worsen, etc. the problem/situation.  How do we help children clearly see/understand the potential choices available to them and to help them see the potential impact on their lives/the lives of others through their individual choices?
Giving students choice and empowering them to understand the consequences/benefits of their choices is a very powerful learning tool.  When it comes to learning, academic success, school engagement what impact does choice have?  Providing choice can help students meet their needs for freedom (do what they want to), power (control over what they are doing/how they are doing it), fun (is it enjoyable), belonging (social considerations), but where do we draw the line with choice?
Too much choice or open endedness, does it lead to confusion, misunderstanding, lack of progress, wasted time?  What is the right amount of choice?  When asked to demonstrate their learning elementary students are still learning all the different ways in which they might show what they know and many of these methods must be taught separately so they then have that method/knowledge to draw upon in the future.  Is 2 options enough of a choice to energize, create enthusiasm (is this not our goal in working with students to get them interested/excited/curious/wanting to do the work?)  If they are wanting to do the work then the quality of the work and the learning that occurs will undoubtedly improve.
I keep getting sidetracked in my ramblings here...again what is the right amount of choice, and I guess also what should those choices consider in the school environment (learning styles comes to mind)?  2,3,4 different options for how to present your learning, individually/in partners/groups/with members of other classes/other grades/other people in the community....?  The answer is not immediately apparent so trial and error will play a role.
To add a scientific element and to give me a starting point I hypothesize that 3 choices is an optimal number to allow enough variety without overwhelming and losing focus.  But one thing is clear to me about choice, we as educators should seriously consider how to make choice a regular consistent part of our practice in order to help our students figure out which choices will lead them to success and happiness. 
What was my question again?

Creative Writing Ornaments

This lesson's focus is about how to write very detailed descriptions.  The process:
1) students are given a photocopy of a large circle on white paper, the rest is blank
2) criteria for step one: decorate your ornament using only shapes and patterns (no drawings/words) must have at least 3 colours used and no white showing, do not put name on it
3)write a very detailed description of your ornament.  I have modelled examples of detailed vs not by saying "a girl in class, who is it" not enough info so add details, brown hair, glasses, wearing a red shirt, etc and they easily guess who it is
4) hand in the two papers that you have been keeping hidden from prying eyes while creating
5) number all the ornaments with large felt from 1-27 in this case for number of students participating and display them clearly on the front board
They have been mixed up at this point and no one knows who each ornament belongs to.
6) hand back written descriptions to the owners and have them list the numbers 1-27 in the margin on the back
7) each student takes a turn reading out their description and the rest of the class attempts to figure out which ornament is theirs and write that person's name beside the corresponding number.  The goal was to write your description in a way that it would be easy to guess because it was so detailed and clear!  Read each description twice giving think time between
The students show they can be amazing attentive listeners during this activity.  It is a "contest" to see who can match the most ornaments correctly from the descriptions.  I awarded little prizes at the end.
8)exchange guess papers and reveal time!  Go through each ornamnet and find out who it belongs to, students mark, total it up and you have a winner!  24 correct in this case.
I asked the students for their thoughts about the activity, some of the comments were: they definitely enjoyed it, thought it was fun, they were engaged throughout.  Creating first helped them get more details down when it was time to write, hearing all the descriptions helped them decide what kind of details were important and different ideas for how to write them if they were to do something like this again, helped make a picture in my mind.  Frustrating when peers presented not enough information or not clear lacking detail.
Think I need to do a similar activity for a follow up to see if their descriptive writing improves further now that they've had this experience.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Government?

To help students prepare for an assessment on the services the 3 levels of government provide students worked together in groups of 3 to write songs to the tune of "Head and shoulders, knees, and toes..." only with one level of governement as the focus.  E.G. Fireman, police, and library...municipal, municipal, etc.  They needed to include actions for everything in their songs (pretty funny, especially sewer and water actions!).  They did a great job on these, had a lot of fun with it.  Engagement was high, presentations had accurate information and enthusiastic participants!  This was after doing a tableau activity where they had to demonstrate a government service in their group for the class.  Again they did very well with the activity.

So did these fun engaging activities help them learn the content?  The assessment was a cut and paste quiz where they were given 20 different government services to cut up on one sheet of paper and a 3 column (sp?) chart on another paper, they had to glue the service in the correct level of govt collumn.  I spoke with the class after the assessment about what they thought of the cut and paste quiz format.  The responses was unanimously positive. 
Some of the things they said were: didn't have to but all my energy into remembering the big list, could think about where it belonged, didn't have to do a lot of writing, makes my hand hurt, don't like to write that much (which might lead to reluctance to complete and maybe not a true assessment of what they know).  Could move them around in my hands before gluing to think about where they went, change my mind. 
These comments make me think that we probably got a more accurate measurement of what the students actually knew by removing the writing/memory barriers and increasing the tactile methods for some of our students who respond better to this learning style.
Overall the marks were good.  A few students were not very successful, they were students who often have difficulty academically.  So now to figure out why?  Is it a reading barrier?  This is my suspicion, when these students see a fair bit of text they need to extract meaning from they often "shut down" as they struggle with their reading.  So I think I will re-test them orally to find out if their knowledge is better represented if  it is read to them first one item at a time then they decide which level of governemnt the service described belongs in.