Learning Community Inquiry Project

1. Learning Community Inquiry Project Lindsey Reeves TE 804 Spring 2011

2. Issue • Many students have trouble discussing their ideas or findings in partners or small groups while engaging in experiences with scientific phenomena.

3. Question • How can I help students increase their ability to discuss their ideas or findings about scientific phenomena in partners or small groups?

4. Hypothesis • If students are assigned roles during partner or small group work, then they will learn more while still having individual accountability for their learning. Encourager Strategy Suggester Mistake Manager Summarizer

5. Background Information • Partner Work • Reader’s Workshop • Writer’s Workshop • Small Group Work • Math Workshop • Strategy Groups Where’s the science??

6. Professional Research • Conversations with my mentor teacher and grade-level team • Dorothy Simpson; Collaborative Conversation: Strategies for Engaging Students in Productive Dialogue • Ready, Set, Science; Chapter 5 – Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument • Reggio Emilia Approach

7. Strategy Implementation • Strategy Suggester: Challenges the partner or group members to try other methods/explore other ways to investigate the phenomenon. • Encourager: Probes their partner or group members with questions/comments such as what do you think? Can you add to that? Etc. • Summarizer: Summarizes partner or group members thoughts, ideas, and findings to the whole group • Mistake Manager: Examines their partner’s or group’s work and makes sure all ideas were covered, included that their evidence matches their findings.

8. Data Collection • Interviews & Discussions • Observations/Clipboard Cruising • Student Work Samples • Photographs

9. Scaffolding & Guidance • Reminders • Modeling • Practice • Rotating Roles Strategy Suggester Encourager Summarizer Mistake Manager

10. Findings & Results What properties of liquids did you observe? How are some liquids different than others?

11. Findings & Results “Look, the water turned the rocks clear!” – JM “I think it’s crystallizing…” – GM “What?” – ZB “Crystallization, it’s what happens to salt when it sits in water for a little.” - GM “Ew they are so squishy!” – ST “Look, it’s turning the water cloudy too!” – KC “Oh yeah. Maybe the raisin juice is going into the water.” – ST “Maybe. I wonder if the water tastes like raisins now!” - KC “The water turned pink!” – OR & AA “The red on the candy is doing that.” – OR “Yeah look you can even see the red going from the candy to the water.” - AA

12. Findings & Results Working with a partner or individually to separate corn starch, rice, mung beans, and lima beans, using three different sized screens. What’s gonna work? TEAM WORK!

13. Change over time Scientific Explanation: How do the Seasons Change? Sharing the illustrations they created with a partner to the whole class.

14. Conclusions Scientific Phenomena + Partner/Group Talk = Science Learning & Understanding + =

15. Implications • Implementing assigned roles across the curriculum: • Reader’s Workshop • Writer’s Workshop • Math Workshop • Social Studies Design the classroom to facilitate group work by using tables or grouping desks together

16. Bibliography • "Google Images." Google. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.com/imghp>. • Michaels, Sarah, Andrew W. Shouse, and Heidi A. Schweingruber. "Chapter 5 – Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument." Ready, Set, Science!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms. Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2008. • Reddy, M. "Creating Scientific Communities in the Elementary Classroom." (1998): 18-32. • Reggio Emilia Approach • Simpson, Dorothy. "Collaborative Conversation: Strategies for Engaging Students in Productive Dialogue." (2000): 177-83.