The teachers at PHS exploring staff development and creating an on-line learning network
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Making them think
I would like your ideas on how we can better make our students think critically on research assignments. What kind of projects have you done with your students that have forced higher level thinking that you would be willing to share?
The biology classes have been doing a research experiment with bacteria where they grow bacteria in 3 different growing environments- but when writing up their report students are to not only report on the 3 environments they used but to also hypothesize what might have occured if they had used a 4th environment. This forces them to record and analyze their data and draw conlusions based from that information.
My Foods II classes are finishing up a unit on being better consumers and choosing foods wisely. We have done taste testing with national brands, store brands, and generic brands. Along with this, students were to unit price items and determine which was the best buy based upon taste, appearance,and price. Finally, they are making a food label for a single serving of rice krispies. Each group had read the nutrition facts from each of the ingredients used. They also needed to know how many servings they used from each item. Currently they are creating an actual food label based upon all of the data they compiled. It will be interesting to see how well they do. I am not sure how this fits into reading strategies, but I think they are beginning to understand food labels. My goal is to make sure they know what they are eating.
When I was in high school, I remember how much I hated to be lectured in art class about various artists and artworks. It was nothing against my teacher. It just wasn't my thing. More than that, I hated reading about them. There was a lot of fluff and vocabulary that made no sense to the average student. My teacher tried vary hard to find ways to make it interesting for us. I now use a few of these things in my classroom. For instance, he always tried to come up with easy ways for us to remember the artists, such as George Seurat who is know for his pointillism (using little lines and dashes to create an image...remember Ferris Bueller's visit to the Art Institute?) we called him Seurat the Dot. I still use tricks like this for my students. And when it comes to reading about artists, we complete WOW sheets. WOW stands for "Wonder, Overview, and Write." We talk about an artist by first looking at his work and talking about why we think he worked in the style he did. Then the second step is reading about the artist. Our last step is writing about the artist. But rather than rewriting what we read, students pick out four things about the artist or the artwork that "wowed" them. This could be things they didn't know or they thought were pretty cool. Then we have our exams, rather than feeding them a whole bunch of dates or facts that I think should be important to them, the students are able to write about what they found interesting and important. I have found that many of my students are learning a lot more about artists this way, than they ever would have by reading and memorizing straight from a book. Now, they are able to take more of an ownership in what they are learning.
Below is an example of what I have done in my AP History class that is easily adated to any class that I teach or that you might teach. It is a group project that includes a newspaper reasearch project.
Students will be divided into three groups for this project. The text readings and supplemental readings are attached. The group project will be broken down into three separate themes covering the years of 1820-1860. The themes are as follows: political and military history; social history with an emphasis on the women’s suffragette movement and immigration; and the life of slaves and slaveries impact on the new country.
There are three steps to this project
1. Write a detailed reference paper describing all readings that will be handed out to all other class members
2. Create a power point presentation over all readings
3. Create a newspaper about your subject and reading. The newspaper should have articles that deal with common themes in the reading, i.e. abolitionist movements, Mexican War, Jacksonian Democracy, Life of a slave, Women’s rights, etc…) I will help you with this. Each member of the group will need to write articles. Each group will need to have an editorial, cartoon, advertisements, pictures, and several articles based around the theme of the paper. The paper will also need to have a name. You will also need to use the internet to find materials. Some sites are listed below
Each part of the project will be worth 100 points or 300 points total. There will also be a quiz over this material, and a possible DBQ. The DBQ will be different for each group. (Example: if your group has the women’s rights movement and immigration, your DBQ will be the topic of one of the other groups. Your test will be similar. This will be a true test in you abilities to cooperate, take efficient notes, write clear materials, and be creative in your work. All other students in this class are counting on your best efforts
One of the biggest projects my sophomores have is their AgriScience Fair projects. They have to of course plan an experiment, but also have to condust a review of literature to find out any previous information that may influence their hypothesis. After they conduct their experiment and analyze their data, they have to provide a conclusion and include what other aspects should have been considered, what changes could have been made, and how they could improve upon their experiment if they were do conduct it again.
Students in my Writing for College II classes are writing literary analysis essays. This assignment requires students to think beyond the information that is actually presented in a text. Instead, they are to critically read the text and make an argument about it.
To gear up for this assignment, students were required to read several short stories, take literary notes, and take part in discussion in small and large groups. When taking literary notes, students were asked to look for several literary elements – plot, setting, characters, theme, and symbols – and write a short evaluation of the text. This allowed them the opportunity to begin thinking about the information and gathering essay topic ideas early.
Students are now beginning to write their essays. They have the option of comparing and contrasting two short stories, making an argument about a literary element in a short story, analyzing the impact the author’s background had on a short story, or researching the time period in which a short story was written and discussing how the social/historical context can impact the “reading” of a text.
Although research is not required for this assignment, most students expressed a desire or need to research certain issues in the topic proposals they submitted. Here is a preview of some of the topics students have selected:
1. Oppression and control in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
2. Technology and the transition from childhood to adulthood in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan
3. Medical and scientific experimentation in Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The essays are due in two weeks, so I am anxious to see how all of these arguments take shape!
The Driver's Ed classes take Chapter 4, The IPDE Process, and divide it into 4 sections: Identify, Predict, Decide and Execute. We then divide the class into 4 or 8 groups. Each group takes one section and summarizes its important ideas. Each group rotates through all four sections adding their ideas of what is important. Once each group has completed all four sections, we meet as a group to review prior to testing.
7 comments:
The biology classes have been doing a research experiment with bacteria where they grow bacteria in 3 different growing environments- but when writing up their report students are to not only report on the 3 environments they used but to also hypothesize what might have occured if they had used a 4th environment. This forces them to record and analyze their data and draw conlusions based from that information.
My Foods II classes are finishing up a unit on being better consumers and choosing foods wisely. We have done taste testing with national brands, store brands, and generic brands. Along with this, students were to unit price items and determine which was the best buy based upon taste, appearance,and price. Finally, they are making a food label for a single serving of rice krispies. Each group had read the nutrition facts from each of the ingredients used. They also needed to know how many servings they used from each item. Currently they are creating an actual food label based upon all of the data they compiled. It will be interesting to see how well they do. I am not sure how this fits into reading strategies, but I think they are beginning to understand food labels. My goal is to make sure they know what they are eating.
When I was in high school, I remember how much I hated to be lectured in art class about various artists and artworks. It was nothing against my teacher. It just wasn't my thing. More than that, I hated reading about them. There was a lot of fluff and vocabulary that made no sense to the average student. My teacher tried vary hard to find ways to make it interesting for us. I now use a few of these things in my classroom. For instance, he always tried to come up with easy ways for us to remember the artists, such as George Seurat who is know for his pointillism (using little lines and dashes to create an image...remember Ferris Bueller's visit to the Art Institute?) we called him Seurat the Dot. I still use tricks like this for my students. And when it comes to reading about artists, we complete WOW sheets. WOW stands for "Wonder, Overview, and Write." We talk about an artist by first looking at his work and talking about why we think he worked in the style he did. Then the second step is reading about the artist. Our last step is writing about the artist. But rather than rewriting what we read, students pick out four things about the artist or the artwork that "wowed" them. This could be things they didn't know or they thought were pretty cool. Then we have our exams, rather than feeding them a whole bunch of dates or facts that I think should be important to them, the students are able to write about what they found interesting and important. I have found that many of my students are learning a lot more about artists this way, than they ever would have by reading and memorizing straight from a book. Now, they are able to take more of an ownership in what they are learning.
Below is an example of what I have done in my AP History class that is easily adated to any class that I teach or that you might teach. It is a group project that includes a newspaper reasearch project.
Students will be divided into three groups for this project. The text readings and supplemental readings are attached. The group project will be broken down into three separate themes covering the years of 1820-1860. The themes are as follows: political and military history; social history with an emphasis on the women’s suffragette movement and immigration; and the life of slaves and slaveries impact on the new country.
There are three steps to this project
1. Write a detailed reference paper describing all readings that will be handed out to all other class members
2. Create a power point presentation over all readings
3. Create a newspaper about your subject and reading. The newspaper should have articles that deal with common themes in the reading, i.e. abolitionist movements, Mexican War, Jacksonian Democracy, Life of a slave, Women’s rights, etc…) I will help you with this. Each member of the group will need to write articles. Each group will need to have an editorial, cartoon, advertisements, pictures, and several articles based around the theme of the paper. The paper will also need to have a name. You will also need to use the internet to find materials. Some sites are listed below
http://www.eiu.edu/~eiuaam/
http://www.historymentor.com/#LINKS
http://www.apstudent.com/ushistory/docs-1451.php
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
www.historycentral.com
http://www.history.com/
www.loc.gov
http://www.archives.gov/education/index.html
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/notes.htm
http://afroamhistory.about.com/
Each part of the project will be worth 100 points or 300 points total. There will also be a quiz over this material, and a possible DBQ. The DBQ will be different for each group. (Example: if your group has the women’s rights movement and immigration, your DBQ will be the topic of one of the other groups. Your test will be similar. This will be a true test in you abilities to cooperate, take efficient notes, write clear materials, and be creative in your work. All other students in this class are counting on your best efforts
One of the biggest projects my sophomores have is their AgriScience Fair projects. They have to of course plan an experiment, but also have to condust a review of literature to find out any previous information that may influence their hypothesis. After they conduct their experiment and analyze their data, they have to provide a conclusion and include what other aspects should have been considered, what changes could have been made, and how they could improve upon their experiment if they were do conduct it again.
Students in my Writing for College II classes are writing literary analysis essays. This assignment requires students to think beyond the information that is actually presented in a text. Instead, they are to critically read the text and make an argument about it.
To gear up for this assignment, students were required to read several short stories, take literary notes, and take part in discussion in small and large groups. When taking literary notes, students were asked to look for several literary elements – plot, setting, characters, theme, and symbols – and write a short evaluation of the text. This allowed them the opportunity to begin thinking about the information and gathering essay topic ideas early.
Students are now beginning to write their essays. They have the option of comparing and contrasting two short stories, making an argument about a literary element in a short story, analyzing the impact the author’s background had on a short story, or researching the time period in which a short story was written and discussing how the social/historical context can impact the “reading” of a text.
Although research is not required for this assignment, most students expressed a desire or need to research certain issues in the topic proposals they submitted. Here is a preview of some of the topics students have selected:
1. Oppression and control in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
2. Technology and the transition from childhood to adulthood in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan
3. Medical and scientific experimentation in Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The essays are due in two weeks, so I am anxious to see how all of these arguments take shape!
The Driver's Ed classes take Chapter 4, The IPDE Process, and divide it into 4 sections: Identify, Predict, Decide and Execute. We then divide the class into 4 or 8 groups. Each group takes one section and summarizes its important ideas. Each group rotates through all four sections adding their ideas of what is important. Once each group has completed all four sections, we meet as a group to review prior to testing.
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