Yearbook Reflection

Background
Many yearbook students seemed to be unmotivated in class. They did get excited however, about the idea of designing yearbook t-shirts.

Purpose of Reflection
I wanted students to I used this opportunity to have students think about why they wanted a yearbook t-shirt by having them think about one of their t-shirts from an event or group and why it is important to them. They wrote the reasons that shirt was important to them in a blank t-shirt drawn on a piece of paper. On the back, I asked them to fill in another t-shirt explaining why they are interested in wearing a yearbook t-shirt.

Extension of Thinking
Instead of just thinking about t-shirts, students reflected on the reasons behind wanting a yearbook t-shirt. Some thoughts that surfaced were that students are proud of their hard work and being part of a fun group at CJHS.

Epifano/Mills ELA 8

Epifano/Mills ELA 8

In co-taught ELA, our goal is to get the students to think about themes in stories and how to then write a universal thematic claim with supporting evidence and explanation.

After reading the short story, Raymond's Run by Toni Cade Bambara, we posted the question "How does this connect to what you already know?".  Students thought about how they could make connections to text to text, text to self and text to world.  The students wrote their connection on a sticky note and posted it on chart paper that was hung around the room.  After each student made their own connection, we then had them "Chalk Talk" and write a comment or connection to someone else's posting.  By thinking and connecting to other students' thoughts, we were hoping that the students would come to a deeper understanding about the text.
After thinking through the text and making connections we were impressed with the thoughts the students had and felt like they were able to better understand the realization or lesson learned in the text.  By having the students see and share their thinking we also had meaningful conversations related to the text and were able to dig deeper for that understanding.  In the end, the thematic claim statements the students wrote showed a deeper understanding of the text.

Science/Kosin

I started a lesson with a question for their C.S.I. journal "What do you think will happen when dropping a popcorn seed and marble in a mixture of flour covered with hot chocolate?" I had the students turn and talk to their partners to discuss and explain their thinking.  I then had the students actually do the activity and then revisit their journal question.  If there was anything that turned out different then what they thought would happen I wanted to them to reexplain what the reasoning was behind it.  This all related to Newton's 2nd Law.  Turned out much better than I anticipated.

Cotaught reflection- Amy and Anita

We introduced photosynthesis and respiration with the open-ended statement. "Energy in ecosystems...." We asked students to list as many things as they could think of that would complete the sentence.  Students were then given time to discuss their lists with their partner and eventually we shared out as a class.   We were pleasantly surprised to see that many of them had listed key ideas that we will be discussing further in the unit.  They didn't always have the correct terminology but the ideas were there!  We believe this activity will be useful as we proceed through the unit because we can recall and build on their prior knowledge.

Questioning Responses from Online Socratic Seminar

  CoT Questioning-Irish

 Background:  My students and I were trying to figure out a new format to have a Socratic Seminar so they could increase their level of participation and work on thinking and responding on deeper levels.  They read "The Ransom of Red Chief" (close reading) by O. Henry and then experimented with an online seminar. They decided to have one student create a Google Doc and then share it with their table groups.  My 2nd hour class used a Google Doc whereas my 5th and 6th hours used Google Hangouts and then copy and pasted their conversation onto a Google Doc. During debriefing, the following questions emerged:

• Did the online Seminar accomplish our goals (increased participation level and allow responses which evidenced deeper levels of thinking)?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What suggestions did we have?
• What worries did we have?

Overview of the Lesson:

     To investigate these questions and try to uncover the complexity of thinking, I decided to spend a class period having groups review transcripts of their seminar responses.  We used "Eight Thinking Continua" from Project Zero to identify the type of thinking and the DoK (Depth of Knowledge) chart to help them determine the depth of thinking so students could then decide, as a group, where their responses would fall on the continuum. I thought this would address the first question from our debrief.  Additionally, I thought students would, at the same time, be able to reflect and assess their own level of participation and, more importantly, assess the depth of thinking evident in their responses .  I also hope(d) that, as a latent function of this lesson, students will be cognizant of, and improve, their depth of thinking and responding in our next seminar, be it online or in the oral tradition. To conclude the lesson, at the end of class, students filled out a "Compass Points" matrix (because I didn't know how to draw lines to my satisfaction on a word document:) to address their Needs, Worries, Suggestions, and Excitements regarding the seminar, and write a brief reflection in their writer's notebook to address the last four questions and help them process their learning. 

Reflection:
     The biggest "Ah-ha" for students investigating the emergent questions from the seminar was the idea that all levels of thinking are essential.  Lower levels of thinking provided a foundation for higher levels of thinking.  For instance, students needed to understand how O. Henry used characterization to convey theme. To answer a seemingly easy question such as, "Were Sam and Bill bad men?"  They needed to look at their actions, dialogue, etc. Bill and Sam committed criminal acts (kidnapping and fraud).  What was the motive? (i.e. to get money to commit even bigger crimes [Theme: Greed]). This brings up authentic questions like, "Is it fair to judge a person based on their actions? motives? both?"
     What I enjoy most about questions is that they inherently produce more questions.  It gives me personal satisfaction to see students realize this truth and become excited about it, rather than annoyed, because the work is never really finished:) In the end, my students decided that the online format was fun because it was different. I liked it because we had transcripts capturing their responses that we could use to assess thinking. All of us, though, appreciate the value of the oral Socratic Seminar because it is the most authentic format and, although time and participation is limited, everyone benefits from hearing everyone's thinking and constructing new knowledge.
      

My students are showing their learning by creating educational videos at the end of a section in our Algebra curriculum.  I go over the topic and explain what we are going to cover for the next week or two.  Then from there my students and I go over practice problem that I have shared with them in class.  After going over the practice I have the students get into groups to create a video on that topic so they can share with me and each other in the class.  I can see by watching the videos which groups have a good grasp of the concept and which groups are going to need extra help with the topic.  This also gives them an extra tool that they can save and use to review for any up coming test or exam.  This link is an example of one of the groups video project.  http://screencast.com/t/lDzLNWaPj

Trzasko-Questioning

To introduce ATP, I previewed the text with students and asked them to read the 2 pages about ATP.  Then I had them think about what they now understand about ATP, and what questions they have about ATP.  They shared these ideas with their small groups and had discussions about them, and then we shared whole group while I recorded ideas on the board.  Students would jump in and answer each other's questions, sometimes asking deeper questions.  It was interesting to see what they pulled from the text when I asked open ended questions as opposed to telling them what they should have understood from their reading.

Questioning - Professional Challenge #1 Jenny Berman

Using Questions to Make Thinking Visible –Jen Berman

I introduced the new concept of cell differentiation to my students by providing them with new vocab terms and I used diagrams to show the various stages in the process.  The next day, I wanted to see if my students “understood” anything from the previous day’s lesson.  Instead of asking “review type” questions, I asked the students an open-ended question.  Q: What would happen to a developing embryo if you transplant cells from one layer of the gastrula into another layer?  I know this seems like a complicated question, but if the students grasped anything from the day before, I think they could use that knowledge to hypothesize what the results could be. 

I had the students discuss the question in their table groups (groups of 3 or 4) and I informed them that each table was going to share out what they discussed.

One table shared the idea that the developing embryo would probably not survive and that group stated their evidence using the previous lessons info and their own prior knowledge.  Another table suggested that nothing would happen to the developing embryo because the cells would adapt to their new surroundings.  They made the connection between these cells and how stem cells work.  The students started to build on each others ideas.  One student asked, “Why would a scientist do this and has this experiment been done before?” I did not know the answers to these questions, so this introduced my next series of questions.

Throughout the class discussion, it was evident that the students were considering different viewpoints, making connections, and reasoning with evidence.

I think that asking the open-ended question gave the students a way to make the connections on their own.  I think that they used each others ideas which allowed them to further think about the question/topic and they started to generate their own questions.  I think this was more valuable then just asking the “review type questions”. 

Cleland - Using Questions to Make Thinking Visible

Using Questions to Make Thinking Visible
Recently, I posed the following question to my 9th grade students, "Why is it important to hear other people's stories?"  This question was born out of our reading of the text, Bless Me Ultima.  Prior to reading the text, I heard a lot of complaints about how boring they heard it was. I used this as fuel to fire them up about the importance of reading a text that highlights a culture with which they are unfamiliar.  When I first posed the question we had a small group discussion and they gave me typical answers such as:

• We can learn from them.
• They can be interesting.
• Stories are meant to be shared.

I wanted them to dig deeper and see more of the significance of hearing other people's stories, especially those stories of other cultures.  So, I teamed up with Emily Grammatico and her ESL students. They took us up on our invitation to come and talk to my students about the stories of their cultures.  Not only did her ESL students share their stories, my students were able to ask specific questions about their cultures and relate some of this information back to Bless Me Ultima, which prompted further questioning related to the ideas and concepts presented in the text.  It was an amazing experience to watch them interact, and see my students learn from Emily's students.  This conversation deepened their understanding of the subject-matter because suddenly what they were reading about wasn't so fictitious anymore, the ideas and concepts in the text were very real to the people of other cultures.

After the visit from the ESL students, I posed the same question a second time. The responses were much different. They wrote and talked in small groups about how their understanding of the story had changed, and they shared how their perspectives of themselves, the world, and the ESL students had changed as a result of their interactions. They were able to convey on a much deeper level why hearing other people's stories matter.  This question and the experience linked to it cultivated thinking dispositions that I want to grow in students and those dispositions are: we not stay stagnant in our beliefs, we grow our perspectives by listening to others, and we understand that just because a text might seem boring doesn't mean that it can't have a significant impact on our growth as a person and how we see our place in the world.  Using  the understanding map, I can clearly identify that students were making connections and considering different viewpoints as evidenced by their written responses and post-visitation discussion in response to the question "Why is it important to listen to other people's stories?"

Cleland - Using Reflection to Make Thinking Visible

Recently, I had my 9th grade students write a brief reflection on their 1st Socratic Seminar.  I posed two reflective questions to make students' thinking visible.  The first question was:  What important idea did you want to bring up in Socratic Seminar that you did not?  This question gave students a voice that did not talk at all during the seminar.  Otherwise, I would have no idea what they were thinking for the duration of the 40 minutes process.  I also asked this question for those who felt there was not enough time or opportunity to offer a new idea to the conversation.  This helps me understand what students think might be important ideas that need to be discussed in order to understand the text. I can then follow up on these ideas in a class discussion or encourage students to  revisit these ideas in subsequent seminars. This opportunity to reflect cultivated students' dispositions toward thinking because they know that I value their thinking beyond the actual seminar. This reflection time is a routine that sets up an expectation that thinking doesn't just stop because the conversation stopped. It sends them a message that I value their thoughts and voices. The entire process of the Socratic Seminar is an opportunity to deepen their understanding of subject-matter, and the reflection is just another piece of the process that contributes to the understanding.  

The 2nd question I posed was,  How has today's discussion of the text helped you understand the world and your place in it?  I asked this question because I am gathering evidence of how students are using texts as a framework for understanding the world and their place in it. This opportunity to reflect cultivated students' dispositions toward thinking because the question is not a typical content question.  It pushes them to think about the relevance of the text in their lives which is a disposition I want them to have with any text they encounter in the future. 
A few student responses:
"This discussion today has made me look at other cultures in a different way.  It showed me that other cultures are surprisingly similar to my own and I have realized I have a stronger bond with other cultures."
"After the Socratic Seminar I feel like life and the world are journeys and there are so many mysteries in the world that have not been answered and I think it is important to think and be open to those mysteries that there are no right answer to because that is what mysteries are."

Professional Challenge: CoT Reflection on Using Questioning & Reflection to Make Students' Thinking Visible

November/December Professional Challenges

Choose 1 of the following challenges to complete and reflect on by December 10th. Then, respond to one colleague by December 17th. I have posted an example of each challenge. They can be found under the Language Arts tag. Once you have written a response you can tag it by your subject area so that we keep the blog organized. The tags have already been created. Feel free to post pictures or videos of your work.

Professional Challenge #1: 

Incorporate a specific type of questioning into a lesson or unit. Use the understanding map to identify the thinking that was evident as a result of your questioning.  For example, were students reasoning with evidence? Building explanations? Then, reflect: How did the students’ learning about the subject matter deepen as a result of your questioning, or how did the questioning cultivate students’ dispositions toward thinking?

Professional Challenge #2:

Have students reflect in a way that makes their thinking visible.  Then, reflect: How did the students’ learning about the subject matter deepen as a result of the reflection or how did the opportunity to reflect cultivate students’ dispositions toward thinking?