I am diligent in providing my students with lots of different activities: from muti-media such as virtual labs, power points, and online research, to reading nonfiction texts, interactive notebooks, and journaling. Students continue to use the class R.A.N. Chart (I wrote about this in a previous post.) to write down information they have learned, questions about something they still don't understand, and things they still wonder about. This is helping me guide my instruction as I follow the curriculum.
There is a lot of discussion in my classroom. We talk about what they have learned, and I try to answer their questions. I admit, sometimes they stump me! Many times a week I am saying to my students, "That's a really great question! Let's research that answer." Then we discuss how to find the answers. Students almost always want to look online! But I don't always allow this. They look in their science text books and other scientific/ student-friendly books that I have in my class library. Even if they can't always find the answers, I truly hope that our discussions help them love the process of learning and researching, and digging deeper for answers.
As elementary educators, we know how essential it is to differentiate instruction in order to make sure that every student learns the subject matter. Once in a while, a class discussion reaches all of my students. BUT that is rare. Students need to be engaged in what they are doing- not just told what they should know.
They do hands-on activities. They do journaling. We have discussions. I make time for students to go online and add more details/ notes to their interactive textbooks and journals. It's A LOT and that's not all we do, but I make sure that I reach as many of my students learning style as possible. The more often, and more ways I can get my students engaged in their learning.... the more authentic learning takes place.
Below you will find photos of what my students learned last week: Weather and Climate Zones.
PLEASE leave me a comment below and let me know what you do to engage all of your students! How do you differentiate your science lessons? One reason I started this blog is to collaborate with teachers all over the world to gain insight so I can continue to learn and grow as an educator!
I heart comments!
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This is a photograph of my hallway bulletin board.
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One student's 3-tab foldable of Weather and Climate Zones: Mountain, Desert, and Swamp.
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The next few photos are my adaption of the Frayer Model for vocabulary words. (A Frayer Model is a graphic organizer commonly used by many educators. It helps students gain a deeper understanding of new words. Students are asked to define the words, give examples and non examples, use it in a sentence and illustrate the word.) I have students do something similar. They write it "fancy" and illustrate the word in one section. They tell 2 ways that they can remember the word in another section. They create 2 test questions and answer them, and then they explain how they can use the vocabulary word in real-life.
Happy Learning!
Happy Teaching!
The best is yet to come!
~Sandra @ The Happy Learning Den
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