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.