Imagine you are a graduate student conducting a research study. You realized you only have about 2 weeks left to gather data for your study. How do you feel?
A. Excited. You are almost there!
B. Anxious. There is still so much to do!
C. Apathetic. It isn't really THAT important...
D. Both A and B.
The correct answer is, of course, D. Actually, either A, B, or D would be accepted, but C is definitely not an option, at least for me! With only a couple of weeks left to gather data, I thought I would stop and take a look at where I am in the study. Hopefully this will help me focus on what really needs to be done during the next several days. Here we go...
Where have I been?
- My first unit covered the Earth and its properties (science) and using text features to read nonfiction (reading). The students did fairly well with the science content, and began to use text features some when reading. We did some round-robin reading (why, oh, why did I do that???), partner reading, and read-alouds. I felt like my students were not as engaged as they should be, though, and I sought out ways to "up" their engagement with the texts to make learning more interesting and meaningful.
- My second unit focused on the general structure of the solar system (science) and continued with text features (reading). I had students do a lot of partner reading while completing an outline of the main ideas. This increased their engagement and also held them accountable for the material. I also included read-alouds and some more "fun" activities like creating trading cards for the planets and completing a mini-book on the unit. The students really learned the material well, and were highly engaged in the learning process. Lots of great discussions took place between students as they interacted with the texts. The students showed skill with using text features to find information, though not all showed this learning through the assessment.
- I am finishing up my third unit, which introduces students to the basic properties and locations of the sun and moon. The reading skill for this unit is identifying the main idea and details in a passage. This unit sets students up for our final unit which explores the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth. This is a BIG idea for our unit. This unit has been okay. It wasn't as big of a flop as I thought the first unit was, but I'm not sure it is going as well as the second unit did. I am still using some read-alouds and some partner reading along with outlines. Integrating the main idea skill with the science content has been difficult to do. I feel as if I am either doing "reading" time or "science" time, but not doing them together well. Part of this "scrambled" feeling may be because we've had so much sickness at school that it seems I never have all my students there. It could also be because we've had a difficult schedule lately with assemblies, scrimmages, snow days, and other interruptions. Finally, THE TEST is looming imminently in the future, so the concerns of "Have I taught everything I need to?" have also been running through my mind. So...
- I will finish up my third unit and head into unit number four. This unit has students combine knowledge from other units to explore the relationships between the sun, moon, and Earth. I will focus on identifying cause and effect for the reading skill in this unit, which will be important because students are, in fact, looking at cause and effect relationships between these three objects in our solar system. After this unit, students will complete the post-assesment (the same as the pre-assessment) for both the science and reading content. This will (hopefully) show student growth in both areas.
- Continue to use nonfiction texts with students
- Really focus on integrating science and reading, not just having both things during the same time
- Keep my students engaged and interested!
WOW! This looks amazing! I am excited to see your research. Are you going to have enough time to finish up unit 4? Or do you think you will finish after your project? Also, science through reading, how has it been?
ReplyDeleteI hope to finish it before the project is due. It will be close, but that's the plan! My biggest concern with the science and reading combination has been how to combine them seamlessly. Sometimes it feels like I am teaching science and reading, but not really "together". I am worried instruction will be more beneficial in one area than another. The difficulty is really finding that balance that allows both areas to benefit and really feed off of each other.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you presented what you have done, what you are doing, and what you will do. It was easy to understand and gives context to what's been going on in you classroom. I understand about your concerns for spending one time on one and not the other. Of course, today in my language arts class we were reading a social studies passage and one student asked why we were reading social studies in language arts class.
ReplyDeleteJust from your posts it seems like you are doing a great job of balancing.