Digging Deeper

I’m curious, and my curiosity led me to Science. After a circuitous route to education, in which the grand plan was to teach Science, I landed a middle school teaching job where I primarily taught Language Arts. Piece of cake though, right? Because I love to read and I don’t mind writing (which is weird, because I was a horrible student). Hmm, if it only it was so easy.

Fast forward 17 years, and I’ve participated in an enlightening experience through the Greater Madison Writing Project. At the same time, I transitioned into teaching Science only and had a lightbulb moment where I realized I could combine the best of both worlds. Reading and writing IN Science! One year later and a wealth of knowledge about C3WP and argument writing and I think I’ve finally found my groove.

I’m interested in narrowing my focus and eliminating the clutter. Let me explain. Last year we concluded our first unit — a review of the Scientific Method. Next came the telltale moment: an assessment where kids share their vast knowledge, collected over the course of 4 years of middle school science. They would demonstrate how much they have grown and confirm my notion that next year we wouldn’t need to spend so much time on this unit because students have mastered it by the time they have reached the eighth grade. Instead, I had collected piles and piles of a nine page exam comprised of 14 different learning targets that would take over a week to grade and report out through 14 different entries into the online gradebook. And worse than that, not only could I not confirm my earlier notion but I had nothing to report back to students. 14 grades collected from one exam and I didn’t know anymore about them, nor did they about their own skills then we did a month earlier.

SO. What does this all mean? I want to build the skills of my students as scientists so that they are able to connect the the concepts discovered in the classroom to their outside world while lessening the focus on the content. I want students to be more aware of their surroundings and what’s going on in their world and be able to explain why and how it’s happening, or at least be able to hypothesize about it.

The question I’m considering:

How can I build the skills of my students as scientists so that they are able to connect scientific concepts to their outside world?
{focus on skill building, lessen the focus on content}

• 1 year-long essential question
• Tying all units’ learning back to this question
• Understanding how this impacts you & your world
• Student reflections on their growth and learning
• Feedback celebrations
• What was there? What DO you know? Where do you go next?
• Each skill is a snapshot in time.
• That skill’s grade communication changes in that new moment rather than adding new events or every new assignment.

I’m excited to meet my students this year and start this journey. I’m eager to dig deeper and explore this material further. And unlike ever before, I’m ready for the feedback from my colleague and students.