Agenda

1. Agenda • Sharing Digistories • Strategies for eliciting student thinking • Pigeon Case study • Special focus on: Science Talks

2. Sharing Digistories • Volunteers to share: Mt. Hope & Lyons, different grades • Lesson plan focus, movie focus, FOK connections • In pairs, share digistories (lesson plan focus, movie focus, FOK connections). • Discuss: • What personal resources, or funds of knowledge, did you bring to your Digital Story? • What does your Digital Story "assume" about your students' backgrounds and funds of knowledge?

3. Discussion • Group discussions (with assigned question)

4. Group 1: What are some roles that Digistories might play in your science instruction? For example, digistories can help to connect the topic of the lesson with students’ experiences. What are some other roles? How do these roles connect to some of the goals of science learning described by the NSTA book and in class, such as learning how an idea fits into a child’s understanding of the world, raising and exploring new questions, learning from one another and viewing each other as experts. • Group 2: How might you (or did you) use your Digistory to help you to establish your learning goals for your students – science, social and other? How might you use Digital Stories to assess student progress toward learning goals? What would those assessments look like? • Group 3: What links do you notice between storytelling and learning? Storytelling and comprehension? How have you experienced these links over the last several weeks? Why might storytelling and talk matter in the science classroom (what does the NSTA book say? What do you say?) • Group 4: Digital Storytelling takes the ancient art of oral storytelling and uses technical tools to weave personal tales using images, graphics, music and sound mixed together with the author's own story voice. How and why does this matter in teaching science to young people?

5. Questions, continued • Group 5: The NSTA book talks about the difference between equity and equality, emphasizing the importance of understanding and using “difference” as a way to support all learners (i.e., Different ways to demonstrate mastery, tailoring instruction to students’ learning styles, Varying teacher time depending on students’ needs, Providing bilingual curriculum materials to students whose first language is not English, etc.). As we continue to think about "difference" as an asset, what are some ways by which we can use digital story telling to address "difference"? • Group 6: The NSTA book talks about the importance of imagination in the process of science and also in science learning. How does the book’s authors describe imagination and why it is important? How might you use digistories in your classroom to foster this kind of imagination both in terms of pedagogy and student learning?

6. Strategies for eliciting student thinking • Science Talks • Think alouds, KWLs, and structured talks/writes • Concept Mapping and other forms of mapping

7. What is a science talk? • Science talks are a pedagogical strategy used to help children wonder about the natural world. By generating their own ideas and theories about the world, children become personally invested in seeking answers to those questions, thereby setting the stage for science investigations. • Science talks are open-ended class discussions, and are teacher facilitated rather than teacher directed. Science talks allow children to articulate their own ideas, and, as a group, build on each other’s ideas. A successful science talk is a genuine group thinking session, rather than a sequence of individual ideas. The teacher’s role is to model active listening and open your ears to what your children are thinking. • A good science talk will not only stimulate thinking, but will stimulate children’s enthusiasm to discover answers on their own. • Science talks can form the basis of a rich inquiry science experience.

8. Managing a science talk Science talks begin with an open-ended question that does not have an obvious right or wrong answer. The question may come from the teacher, a child, or a suggestion in a lesson plan. Ideally children sit facing each other, rather than facing the teacher. As the facilitator, the teacher should focus on the following: • Help children connect their ideas to those previously aired. (“Mandy, it sounds like you’re saying something a little bit different than Alison. Can you explain that a little more?";) • Give extra time to children who need it to put their thoughts into words. ("Let’s be quiet and listen to what Rachel has to say.";) • Prevent a few children from monopolizing the discussion. ("That’s good thinking Tim, but let’s give Lindsay a turn.";) • Involve those who look like they’ve got something to say, but remain silent. ("I see you wiggling there Gina, would you like to add something?";) • Let those who prefer to remain quiet do so without pressure.

9. At the beginning of the school year, it may be difficult for you to take a less active teacher-directed role. However, realize that your comfort level with science talks will increase as you become a better listener and observer. • Remember that even if you aren’t directing the conversation, you’re still teaching by modeling effective listening skills. • As the school year proceeds, the science talks will undergo (at least) three stages of development: Beginning of the year or just starting -- Children talk about science in a personal manner, sharing their own experiences with science, not necessarily expanding on the ideas of others. They need help observing basic norms for group discussion. Middle of the year or with repeated practice -- Children begin to relate their own opinions and ideas to those of others and start connecting the relationships with comments from early discussions. They may also refer to experiences and learning from science activities. The norms for discussion are being internalized. End of the year or mastery of discussion skills -- Children direct and focus discussions with each other with less reliance on adult facilitation. They can formulate, conclude, and confidently understand the purpose of a science talk.

10. Our science talk If I swing the pendulum back and forth and then cut the string when the pendulum is at its highest point, just before it gets ready to swing back, what will happen to the washer? First, think, then write or draw your predictions on a piece of paper. Then lets talk!

11. Looking closely at one teacher’s use of science talks • 5th graders learn about periodic motion • Plan • Science Talk • Experiment • Claim building

12. Why look at this lesson? • We will look closely at the first component of the plan: The science talk. • Our purpose in looking at this first part of the plan is to figure out: • What kids know (science conceptions) • What resources for learning are kids brings to the topic that we could potentially draw upon in the rest of the plan (resources for learning)

13. Lets watch • Play DVD

14. Reflection questions • What did you notice about what the students were saying? • What science conceptions did they have?What knowledge, experiences, and stories did they draw upon?

15. KWL An instructional technique known as K-W-L, created by Ogle (1986), allows teachers to activate students' prior knowledge by asking them what they already Know; then students (collaborating as a classroom unit or within small groups) set goals specifying what they Want to learn; and after reading students discuss what they have Learned. Students apply higher-order thinking strategies which help them construct meaning from what they read and help them monitor their progress toward their goals. A worksheet is given to every student that includes columns for each of these activities.

16. Case #2Pigeon Projector what the KWL really told us! • 6th grade science • Environmental Statistics and taxonomy • Inquiry- and “place-based” approach

17. If we were about to start a unit on classification (taxonomy)… and we were going to do a pigeon study to help us to do that.. Then…

18. Curriculum Context

19. Pigeon KWL Chart • What we KNOW • All pigeons are alike • Rats with wings • They are dirty • Eat leftovers • Tend to fly in groups • They are ugly • Carry diseases like rabies

20. Pigeon KWL Chart • What we WANT to know • Do pigeons carry diseases? • Where do they come from? • How many times they eat? • Why do they like Grains or rice? • Do they carry encephalitis disease in brain? • Do they eat other pigeons? • How often do they mate?

21. Student observation: Eat then poop • Teacher: See how they follow each other • Student observation: Alpha male • Teacher explaining pigeon morphs

22. Student observation: I could get encephalitis! • Teacher’s aid: see their necks?

23. Pigeon KWL Chart • What we know • All pigeons are alike • Rats with wings • They are dirty • Eat leftovers • Tend to fly in groups • They are ugly • Carry diseases like rabies • What we have learned • Follow each other • Many types or morphs • Majorities are bluebars and checkers • They get along together although they are different types • Pigeons don’t attack (not aggressive) • They fly fast

24. Reflection Questions: • 1. What were the teacher’s learning goals? • 2. What funds of knowledge and goals did the students bring to the pigeon project? • What did the students know about pigeons? • How did this knowledge shape what their goals were for the pigeon project? • How did the teacher draw upon the students' funds of knowledge to help them engage in the pigeon project? • How did Mr. Nader try to balance his goals versus his students’ goals? Do you think he should have done more?

25. Then, two interesting things happened: • Interviews • Class conversation

26. Jameer Challenging the pigeon study unit Jameer: I wouldn’t have studied pigeons in the first place. Researcher: What would you study instead? Jameer: Neighborhoods or something, not pigeons. It doesn’t affect, what we are going to do? Change the way pigeons look or something. It really didn’t help me with anything. I didn’t really like it. Researcher: Did you learn anything? Jameer: I learned the different types of pigeons, I learned what attracts them like if they see one pigeon after that a whole lot of them are going to come, and a lot of them are dying. I see a lot of dead pigeons on the street… rats are everywhere, they’re in people houses. I’m dead serious. I’d choose garbage. It don’t even have to be an animal because you see garbage all over the street on Amsterdam like they don’t pick up the garbage or something, and then on Broadway it’s just not there. Researcher: What do you think the point of the study was? Jameer : Trust me I have no clue. It didn’t have any point to me. I don’t know where you guys got it from. It had no point. Do it at a point like, … I would go to other neighborhoods, not just where we are. Let’s say to a cleaner neighborhood to see how many are there because pigeons don’t really do anything they just eat and that’s it. To see where pigeons like to live, in dirty neighborhoods or clean neighborhoods.

27. Jameer learned the science, but her views about pigeons did not change. • Does it matter to you if students can show they “learned” but you get evidence that that learning doesn’t really mean much to the students? • What would you do if you learned that your assessments of student learning really missed the boat?

28. How do you respond when students experiences lead them to ask things you are not prepared for?

29. Can pigeons be racists ?

30. Reactions? • What do you think of the student’s question, Can pigeons be racist? • What do you think of the teacher’s response?What would you do?

31. Introducing Science Talk Assignment(Due Nov 15 or sooner if you are done!) • Part 1: Observe your classroom and write up a description of the “classroom culture.” (We will do some activities in class next week to help with that!) • Part 2: Conduct a science talk with a group of students in your field placement (try to do this week or next) • Part 3: Analyze your science talk for students science conceptions and funds of knowledge (More help on this next week, too) • Part 4: Prepare a lesson plan for your students based on the science talk. This lesson plan will be your initial draft plan for the “big science lesson”.

32. If you were going to develop a following up activity to support students in learning about pendulums… • Grade level teams (4 or 5) • Look for GLCEs that support what you want to teach • What is a lesson you might do? (learning goals, GLCEs, 1 slide) • What classroom/school resources would you draw upon in support of your learning goals and your teaching approach? (1 slide) • What home/community resources would you draw upon in support of your learning goals and your teaching approach? (one slide) • Share ppt with class

33. What words would you use to describe “kids science” and “school science” (as many kids experience school science)? • If you think about what ideas kids bring to science, and what the readings say, what words could you use to describe “science for all” (and ideally what you want science in YOUR classroom to be)? Three posters - add your ideas, and comment on others Everyday Kids Science O O O O • Science • Literacy • For All • O • O • O • School Science • O • O • O