Innies vs. Outies...

To finish off our brief mini-unit on the solar system, we discussed the four inner planets and the four outer planets.  The students were really interested and engaged as we discussed the planets, and I feel confident that they really understood the material.  During these lessons (it took 3 in all) students used several strategies to learn science content and practice reading skills.  Below is a general summary of each day's lessons:



Day 1
Students read two pages in their science books about the inner planets.  These pages named the inner planets and discussed similarities and differences between them.  The students worked with partners to read the text and specifically looked for and recorded ways the inner planets were similar and difference in their learning logs.  At the end, we came up with a list together as a class showing what we read.  This was effective because the students were reading with a specific purpose in mind.  Finally, students created a trading card for each of the inner planets, including the name of the planet, a drawing, what it's made of, the number it is from the sun (ex. Mercury is #1), and an interesting fact.



Day 2
We watched a video from www.brainpopjr.com on reading non-fiction.  It reviewed various text features.  Students read through the rest of the textbook lesson with partners and completed a Non-Fiction Text Feature Scavenger Hunt page.  They had to find examples of a heading, photograph, caption, diagram, and special type (bold words) in the text.  They then had to record what page it was on, write/draw the example on their page, and explain how it helped them understand the text better.  Most of the students did pretty well with this, though some showed a limited understanding of the text features.  For example, some students wrote that the text feature helped them understand the text better, but this did not specifically say how.  Overall, 12/16 students were able to correctly identify all 5 text features, and 11 of these students were able clearly and accurately describe how at least 3 of the text features helped them understand the text better.

Day 3
Students read two pages in their textbook with partners and look for ways the outer planets are all similar.  They recorded these similarities in their learning logs.  We discussed our findings together as a class.  Then, the students worked with partners again, this time to compare and contrast the inner planets and the outer planets using information they have gathered in their learning logs and their textbooks.  They completed a Venn diagram to show this information.  During this time, I noticed one group in particular having difficulty focusing, but the other groups did well.  One group was especially impressive as they used science vocabulary ("They all go around...they all orbit the sun.") and acted as teachers to each other during the process (one student gave a detail, and the other asked her to tell which section of the diagram that should go under).  To sum it all up, we shared what we found as a class and made one large Venn diagram to show this.  During the last few minutes, students worked to complete trading cards for each of the outer planets.

 

These lessons went very well, and I am confident in my students' knowledge about both the inner and outer planets at this point.  I believe this came from a combination of more effective teaching methods (reading with a purpose and more student engagement) and a high interest in the topics being covered.  In my next post, I will share the results from my assessment from this mini-unit.

Using Mini-Books

During this lesson, I utilized reproducible mini-books about the solar system to get students reading and talking about the content.  The mini-books came from the book "Nonfiction Read & Write Booklets: Science", by Alyse Sweeney (2010), and they are wonderful because they use various text features, discuss science content, and ask students questions based on what they read.  During this lesson, the students worked in pairs, reading the books and answering the questions.  There were many discussions that came about from this book, especially regarding one question that asked "Which planets do you think are the hottest?  Why?"  Some of my discussions are transcribed below.

A discussion with Leslie revealed that sometimes students don't think things through, but just take what the textbook says as "Gospel Truth":

• Me: Which planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Leslie: Um… (looks at the diagram in the mini-book) Mercury…and Venus.
•  Me: Why do you think they’re the hottest?
•  Leslie: I think because…it said…in our science book.
•  Me: Is there anything from that diagram that makes you think that they would be the hottest?
• Leslie: Because they’re closest to the sun. 



Calvin shows some strong critical thinking in answering this question.
 

A discussion with Kara and Caleb exposed some misconceptions about why some planets are warmer than others:

• Me: Which planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Kara: Jupiter.
•  Me: Jupiter? Why do you think Jupiter is the hottest?
•  Kara: Because it’s big and it has gas.
•  Me: What about you, Caleb?
•  Caleb: I don’t know. (shrugs)
•  Me: Look at that diagram. How can the diagram help you see which planets are the warmest? (both students look at their mini-books) Like, do you think Venus…is warmer or colder than Jupiter?
•  Caleb: I don’t know. (looks at page)
•  Me: Well, what do you think?
•  Caleb: Warmer?
•  Me: Why do you think it might be warmer on Venus than on Jupiter?
•  Caleb: (scratches his chin and looks at his book)
•  Me: What part of the solar system gives us heat?
•  Kara: The sun.
•  Me: So what planets do you think are the hottest?
•  Kara: The sun?
•  Me: The sun’s not a planet, remember? What planet do you think would be the hottest?
•  Kara: Venus.
•  Me: Venus? Why?
•  Kara: Because it’s closer to the sun than all of the other planets.
•  Me: Is there another planet closer to the sun than Venus?
•  Caleb: Mars?
•  Me: Mars is farther away (pointing to diagram).
•  Caleb: Mmm…Mercury?
•  Me: Mercury. So, Mercury and Venus are probably the hottest because…they are…
•  Kara: Closer to the sun.
• Me: Right. Now being a big planet doesn’t have anything to do with how work or how cold it is…it’s just the size of it, okay?

That conversation took a lot out of me!  I thought we would never get to the point of understanding that the closer a planet is to the sun, the warmer it is.  Looking back, I do wish I would have done a couple of things differently.  I should have asked if there was anything on the page they were looking at that could help them figure out which planets were the hottest instead of directing them to the diagram first.  This would have probably been more effective.  I also wish I would have asked Kara if the sun was a planet instead of telling her.  It's those little things, asking questions to make them think instead of telling them, that can help them become better thinkers.



After reading and completing their mini-books, my students used their Science textbooks to correctly color the planets.


Finally, I had a great conversation with Melanie and Evan, who showed great critical thinking skills to think through their original misconceptions:

•  Melanie: We don’t really know why Neptune and Uranus would be, um, so hot, but I remember reading it in one of the books we read. But at first we said they’re so far out and if they’re so far out, then they would be colder.
•  Me: Mm-hm… So if they’re really far awayfrom the sun, they would be colder, right?
•  Melanie:(nods)
•  Me: So if that’s true, the probably wouldn’t be the hottest planets, would they?
•  Melanie: (shakes head) No.
•  Me: So which ones would be the hottest?
•  Evan: I think the ones that would be it were Venus and Mar- (sounding it out) Mercury.
•  Me: And why do you think that they’re the hottest, Evan?
•  Evan: Because they’re so close to the sun.
•  Me: I think that's good logic.  That's good thinking!  Good job!

Evan's mini-book and the infamous question about the hottest planets...

Using the mini-books was a really helpful activity, and it exposed some misconceptions my students had about the solar system.  I plan to try to use others with this unit to help strengthen my students' reading skills and content knowledge.

Catching Up...

I think I may finally be getting caught up on things now.  This past week nearly killed me, with Site Base meetings, Staff meetings, Face-to-Face class, and a visitation, I've been exhausted.  Thankfully, I've had some time now to get caught up on things and feel more confident about where I am and where I am headed.  Now, for some data...

I recently began my second mini-unit for the study.  During this unit, we focus on the basic structure of the solar system.  It is the shortest unit we will have, but it is an important one to build students' understanding of the solar system and its parts.  I planned to use the textbook a lot more during this unit simply because it has all the information I need right there in one spot.  Since using an outline and having students read the text and complete the outline worked so well before, I decided to use it again during the lesson. 

As the students worked with their partners, I walked around and took notes, talking with students as I went.  Here are some of the conversations I heard...

A conversation between Maria and Nadia (pseudonyms):

• Maria: The sun’s gravity is very strong because of its “blank”. (Nadia begins searching in the book; Maria sits for a second, and then looks in her book too. Then she looks back at her paper and then at her book again.)
• Maria: It’s bec… , the grav..., the gravity is strong because of the sun’s size (motions with her hands to show a large round shape in front of her).
• Nadia: (nods)
• Me: How’d you know that, Maria?
• Maria: Because I read. (points to book and reads) “The gravity on the sun is really strong. That’s because of its great size.”

This was great because it shows how Maria has learned to read non-fiction to find the answer she needs.

Another conversation I overhead happened between Eric, Caleb, and Calvin:

• (The boys are sitting on the beanbags with their books and clipboards. Calvin seems to be unsure of something. Eric is eyeing me, and then continues to talk. Calvin’s book is not open. He opens it now as they talk.)
• Me: Were you two debating something?
• Eric: What’s “debating” mean?
• Me: Debating means, like, kind of arguing, but not like “fighting”, arguing. It’s like discussing back and forth. One of you thinks it’s one answer and one of you thinks it’s another.
• Eric: (shakes head)
• Me: No? I heard you were looking at the one that talks about how big the sun is. Are you thinking about what we saw in the BrainPop [video]?
• Calvin: Yeah, because it said there was a hundred Earths.
• Me: I think it said more than a hundred, so that would... they didn’t give the exact number, but you know it’s more than a hundred.
• (The boys nod and continue to search for the answer.)

The videos on www.brainpopjr.com are a resource I frequently use.  The students love the way the material is presented, often making it fun and easy to remember.  We can take a "quiz" at the end to see what they remember, and there are even games and other activities as well.  This is also a great resource because it provides more exposure to the content the students need to know.  According to Heisey and Kucan (2010), using multiple texts increases the chance that students will remember and really understand the information afterward, which is what I am hoping for. 


References:

Heisey, N. & Kucan, L. (2010). Introducing science concepts to primary students through read-alouds: Interactions and multiple texts make the difference. The Reading Teacher, 63(8), 666-676.

Another "Thick Description"

I certainly hope that "Better late than never" is an acceptable phrase with my study.  It's been a crazy week and a half, and though I've been keeping data and videoing my observations, I haven't had time to post about them on here.  I blame it on my perfectionism.  I don't want to work on something until I have enough time to do it all and do it right.  Unfortunately, in a life as busy as mine right now, that time rarely comes around.  I'm working on it...

This thick description came from a day last week when we were finishing up our first unit.  The unit focused on the Earth, and to review, I had students do an activity called "10 Most Important Words".  This activity is from a book called Content Counts!: Developing Disciplinary Literacy Skills, K-6 by Jennifer Altieri (2011).  For this activity, students work with partners to come up with the 10 most important words about a topic.  Then, all students share their words and create a graph to show which words were most popular.  You can then have discussion about which words were chosen most frequently and why.  Below is a description of the activity within my classroom...

After introducing the activity, I had students get to work and began walking around the room, taking note of what was happening.  The room was again filled with discussion and debate as students worked together to come up with the 10 most important words to describe our Earth unit.  Many students had out their learning logs and were flipping through the pages, finding key ideas and vocabulary.  Walking around the room, I noticed some reluctance of students to look for information.  In one pair, M was actively looking through her learning log for words, while E had his book open, but his head down on his desk.  In the next group, J was writing an important word down and his partner, B, was watching me make my rounds.  Both of their journals were closed.  The next group was more productive, with M writing with her learning log open while R watched and waited.  Then M passed the index card over to R and he wrote a word.  As I made my way to the back of the room, I heard some arguing and went to investigate.  Two groups were in a dispute because one group accused the other of cheating and listening to their words.  With a reminder to keep our eyes to ourselves and whisper so others don't hear our answers, I moved on to the next groups.  The pattern continued as I circled around the room.  In pairs, both students were beginning to work together, with one writing a word as the partner watched and/or looked for the word he or she wanted to add.  A couple of students ducked behind their learning logs as I came around with my camera to capture their interactions.  They are still a little camera-shy.  Some students ask questions as I pass by.  B wants to know if they can use words from when we read The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over.  She also asked for some help in remembering a word from earlier in the week. 

 

B: "What was that word from yesterday?  It was long and started with an "a"."

Me: "Atmosphere?"
B: Yeah!

 

After several minutes of collaboration with their groups, I called the students back together and had them share their words.  With each new word, we created a spot on a line plot and put an "x".  Each time a word was given after that, we added an "x" to the plot.  To help students see the breakdown of how each group responded, I even used a different color for each group's words.

 

 

The most popular words chosen along with the reasons given by the students are listed below:



• Core - because it's the middle of the Earth
• Crust - it's a part of our Earth
• Gases - it's a part that happens in the clouds and a little bit on our Earth
• Mantle - part of the inside of our Earth
• Evaporation - it happens in the water cycle
• Liquid - it's part of how our rain comes down
• Earth - the unit is about the Earth

While most words were closely aligned to the main ideas of the unit, some words were listed that were irrelevant or loosely linked to the unit.  These words are listed below:

• Sink
• Creek
• River
• Toilet
• Pool
• Ocean
• Aluminum

The first 6 words likely came from the list we made during our day discussing water on Earth.  We first brainstormed places where we saw/used water.  Several of these words were on the list.  I'm not sure exactly where "aluminum" came from, however.  We had a discussion about how even though these words were mentioned during our unit, they weren't exactly the most important words we found.
The students seemed to enjoy this activity, and though we had some trouble getting all students involved at the beginning, most students were engaged by the end.  This activity is great for getting students to really think about the most important ideas and vocabulary from a unit and was an excellent review for our first mini-unit.  I plan to use it again!

"Thick Descriptions": Finally a success!

During this lesson yesterday, I finally felt like I had some luck with keeping my students engaged while incorporating science content and reading instruction.  Here are my notes from the observation, which also serve as my first bit of "thick description".  Please note: this is my first attempt at "thick description", and while I am getting the hang of it, I am not quite there yet...bear with me! 

The article the students read

Students were working with partners on reading the article “Why Can We Breathe on Earth?” and then completed an outline together with important ideas from the passage.  First, we previewed the article, and I asked students to identify words they were not familiar with or did not know by highlighting them.  After a few minutes, the students shared the words they had highlighted and we went over them.  I did this because during some of the other lessons, students were not familiar with words used in the reading and this became an obstacle for them.  At least now, the students were somewhat familiar with the words and had heard them before.

Afterward, students paired themselves up and read the article together, working to complete an outline I created.  The students seemed really bored during one of our last lessons when we read and discussed material from the science text book.  Using this article outline gave students a chance to search for relevant science information in the passage and use their non-fiction reading skills as well.  As the students read and discussed the article, I noticed how engaged they all were.

Students read with partners

I walked around the room, careful to avoid stepping on the pairs of students working on the carpet, in the floor, and on the bean bags.  Two students played “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to determine who read the first part of the article.  Other pairs were already busy at work, using their highlighters to help them understand the passage better.  Some students highlighted important ideas, while others used the highlighters to find the information in their outline.  The room was filled with conversation as students read and discussed the article about Earth’s atmosphere.  One pair raised their hands frequently, asking what certain words in the passage were, even though we discussed those words before reading.  I wondered if they had paid attention during that part of the lesson.  Another pair chose to work on their outline separately, reading silently and then completing the outline individually before checking their answers together. Two boys who were working together surprised me as they sped through the outline page, getting all the questions correct.  They are best friends who tend to become more interested in talking to each other than in doing their school work.  Apparently, something about this assignment “worked” for them.  Students followed along with the article as their partners read and debated the answers to some of the questions.  I experienced one pair having this conversation about the answer to question #5 (Some of the gas in our atmosphere is oxygen, but most of it is _____________.):

     M: I think I found number 5.  It’s Nitrogen!
     S: (throwing her hands in the air) I told you that!
     Me: Why do you think it’s nitrogen?
     M: It said (pointing to the outline) “Most of it is a ‘blank’, most of it is, but in here (pointing to text) it said, um, most of it is a gas called nitrogen.

As I continued to walk around the room, I was amazed at how engaged the students were.  Most students were working diligently with their partners, either reading or completing the outline.  Several pairs, like the one described above, had different ideas on what the answers to the quesitons could be.  I heard students explaining their thinking and sharing their ideas.  When I checked the students’ outlines, I saw that most of the answers were correct, showing they read and understood the information. 

At the end of the lesson, I asked a few students whether they preferred this method of reading or reading out of the textbook better.  Of the six students I asked, all of them agreed it was better.  One student explained why:

     S: I like it better ‘cause, um, we get to work with a partner and we don’t have to just sit and listen and then go back to our seats and, like, do our work, and we can just read it and do our work.

This lesson showed me that my students can become engaged in this process.  The students really loved working with partners, especially since they were able to choose them.  Using the outline held students accountable for the new information they had to learn and required them to use the non-fiction reading skills we have talked about during previous lessons.  In addition, the outline really gave them a purpose for reading, making it more authentic than simply sitting and listening.  This gives me hope for future lessons!

More Meaningful Conversations

After a few days of struggling this week, I saw some progress during our lesson about water on the Earth.  The students gathered on the back carpet and listened to a read-aloud.  We read The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over, a book adaptation of the animated TV series based on The Magic School Bus book series by Joanna Cole.  This book was a great choice because my students are highly familiar with the characters and format of the TV series and books.  We watch The Magic School Bus videos often on Fridays when we eat lunch in our classroom.
During the read-aloud, I asked the students to use their learning logs to write down any important information about the water cycle.  This took a little modeling because we did this once before and I had several students who simply listed every word they heard in the story that they could.  Before I began reading this time, I gave some examples of what types of information to write down, including important vocabulary, facts, questions, or connections.  As I began to read, it was obvious that the students were more engaged in the story than they had been with the textbook.  Throughout the story, students took notes about key details they heard.  We had several meaningful discussions about the difference between evaporation, condensation, and precipitation and the three states of water on Earth (solid, liquid, and gas).  The students made connections and asked questions as well.  One student made a connection between the evaporation of water from her deck at home during the summer and what happened in the book.  She said:

"In the summer when my brother, like...um...gets water and puts it on the deck, it dries so quickly.  That's probably because it goes all the way up to the sky."

One student's learning log

Students also had questions about how we are drinking the same water now as people and animals did many years ago.  They were fascinated by this and also slightly disgusted.  Fortunately, the book took a mini side-trip through the water purification process so students gained information about how our water is cleaned up before we drink it.  That information eased some of their worries about drinking water that others had used before them.
At the end of the read-aloud, students turned and talked to the person sitting next to them and shared an important fact they learned from the story.  Several students shared their facts, and while some required a little clarification, others were accurate.  Some facts that emerged from the discussion were:

• Water always flows to the lowest spot.
• The water cycle never ends.
• Water can drip.
• Evaporated water turns into clouds.
• Evaporation is the rain that pours down on the land.  (This one required some clarification and we revisited the meanings of "precipitation" vs. "evaporation".)

Overall, I was pleased with how this discussion went.  The students were much more engaged than they had been earlier this week, and the discussions we had were meaningful and included many references to our new science vocabulary.  I plan to use The Magic School Bus books more during this study to help students have meaningful conversations about content within the context of a story.

Tweaking

This week has been a struggle in many ways.  I'm getting over tonsillitis, it's been a crazy week at school (and yes, it's only been 2 days so far!), and I'm very overwhelmed with the research study right now. 
I can't seem to master being able to teach and deliver my lesson and also take notes at the same time.  I am too busy teaching, redirecting, and working with the kids during the lessons to be able to take notes, and though I'm trying to video tape the lessons so I can review them after school, that adds another couple of hours to my day on top of the regular duties I have as a teacher.  Managing my time and getting good observation notes is absolutely my biggest struggle right now.
Another struggle I have had is the feeling that my students are not as engaged as I would like during our lessons.  We are reading a lot of non-fiction and currently studying how to use text features to read and understand that type of text.  We are applying these strategies to non-fiction texts about the Earth.  I have been trying to have students exposed to a lot of different text about our topics because studies I have read on teaching content through literacy have found it is most beneficial if you don't simply rely on one text (for example, the science book).  I thought everything sounded good to go when I originally planned out my units, but after watching through the taped lessons, I see several students who are not engaged.  They seemed to perk up a bit during today's lesson when we addressed a question they had earlier in the unit.  When we discussed the layers of the Earth, my students wanted to knw how scientists knew what the inside of the Earth was like if they couldn't dig there.  It was a great question, and I let them know I would dig up an answer.  Today, they weren't particularly interested in what we were talking about when suddenly we came across the answer to their question in the text we were reading.  They became excited about it and wanted to know what it said. 
That incident got me thinking...maybe I need to have more student influence in my units.  I don't feel like they can completely guide where we go in our study because I have certain content I need to address, but perhaps we could start a list of questions we have at the beginning of each mini-unit and actively see if we can find the answers to those questions as we read.  This question of how to keep students engaged while still teaching them the content they need is one I am going to ponder for a while.  I am going to try a few different tactics during tomorrow's lesson to keep them engaged while we are reading and see how that works out.  During the next couple of days, I will be in "tweaking" mode for sure.  Stay tuned to see how that turns out!

Pre-Assessments: Lots of Room to Grow!

This past week, my students completed pre-assessments to measure their current knowledge of reading skills and science content which I will teach over the course of the study.  The results are in and it looks like my student participants have a lot of room to grow, especially in the area of science!

The reading pre-assessment tested several different skills, including using text features to read non-fiction, main idea and details, and cause and effect.  The bulk of the test focused on non-fiction text structures because it is such a broad topic to cover and most of the instruction during the unit will focus on introducing and developing these skills.  The assessment included two page-long reading passages (both non-fiction) and was a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and questions requiring 1 or 2 word answers.  Students read the passages on their own and answered the questions with no help from me.  Data from the assessment is found below:

• Range of scores: 16% - 89%
• Mean score: 64%
• Median score: 65%
• Average percentage of text feature questions answered correctly: 66%
• Average percentage of main idea and details questions answered correctly: 65%
• Average percentage of cause and effect questions answered correctly: 52%

When I looked at these scores, I noticed several things.  The students who scored at the top are the students who typically perform the best in my class, so these test results seem to correlate with typical student performance.  Likewise, the students who scored the lowest on the assessment are those who typically perform lower in my class.  On average, students performed worst on the cause and effect questions.  Is this because there were so few of them or because the students have a more difficult time understanding cause and effect relationships within non-fiction texts?

My science pre-assessment was similar to the one given in reading.  It covered science concepts that I will teach during the unit.  To develop the assessment, I took the targets from each unit (which I wrote using the Core Content for Assessment) and created questions to show whether or not the student met that standard.  Some standards had multiple targets, so there were multiple questions.  Similarly, some targets were not as broad, so there were fewer questions.  The questions on the assessment were a combination of multiple choice, true/false, listing, and short answer questions.  One major difference between this pre-assessment and the one for reading is that I read the science pre-assessment to them.  I did not offer any help or hints on what words meant or what the answers were, but I did read the questions and answer choices (if applicable) to the whole class.  The reason for doing this is to really measure the students' science content.  If students were expected to read the assessment and answer the questions, then this would assess both their reading capabilities and their knowledge of science content.  I realize that in real life, students will be required to read assessments (I'm thinking of the KPREP assessment), but for the purposes of this study, I wanted to only measure what they knew about science before and after the unit.  When I give students the post-assessment, I will follow the same procedure, reading the questions and answer choices to them, but giving no help or guidance.  Data from this assessment is shown below:

• Range of scores: 3% - 33%
• Mean score: 21%
• Median score: 22%
• Average percentage of Unit 1 questions answered correctly: 29%
• Average percentage of Unit 2 questions answered correctly: 23%
• Average percentage of Unit 3 questions answered correctly: 97%
• Average percentage of Unit 4 questions answered correctly: 9%

Again, I saw several patterns in the data.  Students did most poorly on the Unit 4 questions.  As I considered why this could be, I looked back at the questions.  Six of the seven questions for this unit required short answer responses, whereas other units contained more multiple choice questions.  The short answer questions are much more difficult for students to answer correctly if they don't know the content because they can't just guess a letter choice or take a stab at writing the correct term down.  Instead, they have to fully understand the concept.  Though I realize these questions are more difficult, I did this intentionally because they take several smaller concepts about the sun, moon, and Earth, and combine them to discuss the effects these bodies have on each other.
Similarly, the students performed best on Unit 3 questions.  These questions are all multiple choice, which tend to be easier because students can simple guess even if they don't know the correct answer.  Again, I tried to match the level of understanding needed for the concept to the level of difficulty for the question, and I hope that students show more understanding in both unit concepts by the end of this study.  Units 1 and 2 were similar in their averages.  Both had some listing questions and multiple choice questions.  Unit 2 also had 3 short answer questions.  Most students had no idea what to even guess on these questions, and it showed in their performance.
One last observation on these scores is that the students who scored highest on the science pre-assessment were not necessarily the students who typically perform highest in the class.  The same is true with those students who scored the lowest.  This is interesting, but since these students have likely had much less exposure to science content than reading, I don't find it too out of the ordinary.

After looking at the data, perhaps one of the most important findings is that students performed significantly better on the reading pre-assessment than the science pre-assessment.  This supports the idea that students receive a large amount of reading instruction, but very little content area instruction.  I hope that by the end of my study, students are able to perform well on both assessments!