Nov07

Science Notebooks

I've heard about "interactive" science notebooks. I would like to use them with my classes, but I think I need to learn more about them before I start.
—Randall, Columbus, Ohio

For many teachers, the word "notebook" conjures up a traditional folder or binder to hold lab reports, homework, class handouts and notes, tests and quizzes, and/or completed worksheets. The students receive a list of required documents and the specific order in which they should appear. Notebooks are graded periodically on completeness and whether the documents are in the “correct” order. Teachers tell the students to "study" from them. At the end of the school year, some students would take them home; others would casually toss them as they emptied their desks or lockers.

However, many teachers are working with their students to create a more useful and personalized notebook that will be used daily throughout the year. These teachers recognize the importance of helping their students learn organizational strategies, but they also recognize the need for students to improve their data recording and analysis skills and learn how to reflect on and communicate what they are thinking and learning through writing. These “interactive” notebooks are living documents where students have the responsibility to record and use their lab investigations, vocabulary, class notes, sketches, summaries, and other assignments.

Here are some resources you can use to learn more:

  • The NSTA Press publication Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms by Michael Klentschy has become a classic. Don't be put off by the title if you're a secondary teacher. The concepts are the same, and the strategies would be useful if your students are not used to organizing their thoughts and notes. There are many examples of student work, and I was blown away by what these little ones are doing and thinking! You can even read a sample chapter online.

  • NSTA's Science Store also provides access to journal articles on the topic. NSTA members can access journal articles for free.

  • The website Science Notebooks in K-12 Classrooms produced by the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership in Washington state is an excellent resource, with lots of examples of student work, templates, and documents—including many in Spanish.

  • Using Science Notebooks is an online teacher resource from the Tucson Unified School District with suggestions for using notebooks, their benefits and advantages, and examples of student work.

  • The Scientist's Notebook Toolkit from the East Bay Educational Collaborative in Rhode Island is another resource rich in suggestions and examples.

  • The ERIC Digest Science Notebooks: Tools For Increasing Achievement Across the Curriculum provides a rationale for using science notebooks and discusses their effect on learning.

  • There is a forum in the NSTA Communities on Interactive Science Notebooks in which teachers are asking questions and sharing suggestions.

One thing I like about many of these books, articles, and online resources is the examples of student work. Secondary teachers will be amazed at the depth of knowledge expressed by younger students! I suspect these students did not catch on to a new approach to notebooks right away, especially if they have had many years of explicit directions on exactly what papers and information to archive. Their teachers had to provide lots of modeling, feedback, and persistence to get to the point where the notebook is a useful and integral part of their science classes. They also had to try different notebook formats (composition books, binders, folders, digital media) and strategies (logistics for storage, giving feedback) to find what works best with their students. But teachers generally agree the increase in student participation and learning is worth the effort.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone who uses laptops or online notebooks where students record their observations, upload images and videos, and communicate their findings virtually.
Published: Nov-07-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Aug07

Getting to Know Your Students

I've read a lot about the value of making connections with students. But it seems impossible to connect with individual students when I meet with 150 per day in my classes. Any suggestions or advice?
—Bethany, Rochester, Minnesota

When I was student teaching, I had to shadow a student for an entire day and reflect on what I observed. Going over my notes, I realized not once during the school day did my student (a 10th grader) have a conversation with an adult. No teacher called on him in class; no adult said hello in the hallway. The cashier in the cafeteria didn’t even say ‘thank you’ when he paid for his lunch! Perhaps this was not a typical day, but if it was, I wondered how lonely this student must have felt, as one of the many "invisible" students passing unnoticed from class to class. As a teacher, I made it my goal that no student should ever be invisible.

It's easy to connect with the students who demand our attention: the hand-raisers, the outgoing personalities, those who are genuinely interested in science, and those who use negative behaviors as attention-grabbers. Getting to know every student is simpler in a self-contained classroom where a teacher and students are together for most of the day. In a secondary classroom, however, trying to connect with 150 students seems like an impossible task. But there are strategies to make this doable.

Ask each student to record data on an index card: name, birthday, nickname, interests/hobbies, school activities, out-of-school activities (e.g., jobs, community organizations, volunteer work), and other conversation-starters. (Use a different color card for each class.) Then for each class each day, the student on top of the deck would be your "target." This is not a formal student-of-the-day designation or event, but just a subtle way of ensuring that you're interacting with each student. During the class period, greet him/her at the door, call on her for an answer or to share a thought, ask him to be the assistant to write on the board or overhead, or interact with him/her during seatwork or groupwork. In a little more than a month, you will have interacted with each student in this focused manner. The cards can also be used to randomly select a student for an answer or a job, ensuring that it's not just the hand-raisers or those in the front of the classroom who participate.

Some other ways to connect include
  • Stand in the hallway to talk to students as they come in. A friendly hello, compliment, or comment may be one of the few positive interactions students have with an adult that day. (For some classes, especially if lab equipment is set up, stand just inside the door to keep an eye on things.)
  • Use students' names in class conversations: "That's a good idea, Marcus" or "Do you have anything to add, Maria?" A seating chart with the students' nicknames is helpful at the beginning of the year to connect names and faces.
  • A quick note, e-mail, or postcard with a positive remark goes a long way to making the student feel accomplished and part of the class.
  • Get to know students in a different setting by attending school functions and events occasionally. Some students' parents may not be able to attend, so a friendly cheer or bravo may mean a lot.
  • Consider having lunch with students or talking to them in the lunch line.
  • My colleague and I strongly believed labs should not be used as homerooms, so we volunteered for morning hall duty instead. We stationed ourselves at the bus door and pleasantly greeted students as they came in. For many students we were the first adults to interact with them in the morning, and they looked forward to seeing us. (/ul>

There is also the option to connect with students online, but there are a number of pros and cons to this approach. If you're intrigued with using social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), the August 2009 issue of Learning and Leading with Technology has an interesting point/counterpoint discussion Should You "Friend" Your Students?

Of course, your connections with students should always be on a professional level. Most of the students already have friends to hang out with. But many of them need caring adults in their lives who take an interest in them and make them feel valued and "visible."

Please feel free to add your suggestions for getting to know your students.
Published: Aug-07-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jul17

Students and Cheating

With all of the technology that students have (e.g., cell phones, laptops), I'm concerned about "cheating" on tests and writing assignments.
—Anne, Rochester, New York

This is a very timely question, in light of a recent report Hi-Tech Cheating: What Every Parent Should Know from Common Sense Media.

In the old days, students tried to get away with not studying or doing original assignments: turning in a "report" copied from an encyclopedia; writing notes on a shirt cuff or a piece of paper to use during a test; spreading the word about pop quizzes; discussing the content of a test; copying homework on the bus; sharing copies of old tests; forging parents' signatures; paraphrasing information without citing sources; reading summaries of books rather than the originals.

I suspect this is a high-profile issue today because high-tech applications make it easier: copying and pasting, texting, downloading from online term paper factories, accessing online answers and solutions to textbook review questions and problems, getting online homework help, taking pictures of a test with a cellphone camera, storing information on an iPod. So is the solution to ban all electronic devices in the schools? The study indicates students still use them even in schools that do so. But there are many creative and legitimate uses of these tools in learning environments. The study suggests we need to discuss the appropriate uses of these devices in terms of "digital literacy."

From the survey, it appears many students don’t know what cheating really means, especially in terms of these newer media, and they assume helping (or being helped by) a friend is acceptable in every situation. (The incidence of cheating was the same with honors and non-honors students.)

It might be helpful to discuss the topic as a faculty and develop a school-wide policy about academic integrity. What is your school's definition of cheating (including examples)? What are the consequences? Is the policy published in the student handbook, on the school's website, and in course syllabi? How will parents (who, according to the survey, are aware of cheating but not by their own children) be informed of the policy?

In addition to having consequences, it's also important to be proactive with the students. Have a frank discussion about what is or is not acceptable. For example, in a cooperative learning situation, helping each other is desirable; in other situations, individual accountability is necessary. Review the differences between copying, paraphrasing, summarizing, and original thoughts. Set interim due dates for parts of a longer projects to help students organize their time instead of waiting until the last minute when the temptation to copy is greater. It's easy to say "we shouldn’t have to do this" or "why didn't they learn this in an earlier grade," but the technology and the online resources change rapidly along with student access to them. We assume students know the boundaries, but the study suggests they do not.

Does how assignments are graded affect the temptation to cheat? Do we evaluate the process as well as the correctness of a response? Do we demand perfection on even practice assignments or is it permissible for students to make mistakes during practice exercises without a fear of failing the unit? Do we encourage students to submit interim drafts of important writing assignments for our feedback? (I realize this is time-consuming, but I'd rather have students submit original writing in need of a little tweaking rather than a perfect report simply downloaded from another source.) Do we give students interesting, meaningful assignments rather than busywork? Do students understand the purpose of these assignments?

In a practical sense, be aware or "with it" in the classroom. Resist the temptation to sit in the front of the classroom and grade papers while students take a test or work on an assignment. Use formative assessments during the lesson to check student understanding on-the-spot. There are lots of tools for creating multiple versions of an objective test (same questions but rearranged). Give different essay questions to each class—you'll also get a broader view of what students learned. Some teachers encourage students to use their science notebooks during a test.

Model appropriate behavior yourself. Be sure to cite any sources you use for a handout or worksheet (and credit yourself if it's original). Model how to cite direct quotes and paraphrased or summarized information. Review and model note-taking and study skills useful for your class. Resist the temptation to check your own e-mail or text messages during class. And learn more about the very positive and creative applications of these technologies that are part of our students' everyday lives.

Published: Jul-17-09 | 1 Comment | 0 Links to this post

May29

Recycling Efforts

My school does not have a recycling program, but as a science teacher I'd like to set an example of "green" behavior. What can I do in a single classroom?
-- Tyler, Louisville, KY

I'm sure you've heard of the expression "Think globally, act locally." Although many schools do have recycling programs, their success depends on what happens in individual classrooms like yours.

Isn't it depressing when you have a desk or locker clean-out event and you see students discarding tests, handouts, and papers you thought had gone home weeks ago? I read about a teacher who started her recycling efforts with a "garbology" lesson. She collected her classroom trash for a week. The students weighed it, and they examined the contents (wearing gloves), separating the actual trash and recyclable materials such as paper, cans, and bottles. They then weighed the recyclables to estimate what percent could be recycled. Perhaps the amount of paper used in your classroom might be a good place to start your efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Save old handouts or outdated materials printed on one side. Cut the paper in halves or quarters to use for quizzes, notes, or practice work. Use the double-sided option on the copier for any new copies. Put a box next to the copier for any "mistake" copies whose blank sides could be reused.

Use science notebooks in which students do their assignments (notes, lab reports, diagrams, etc.) rather than lots of handouts. Encourage students to write on both sides of the paper. If you teach more than one section of a subject, consider whether it's necessary to give each student a copy of a multi-page test. Could you make a class set of tests and have the students use separate answer sheets?

For lab activities, you could give a copy of the directions to each group, rather than to each student. A lot of teachers laminate handouts so that they could be used again. My school did not have a laminator, so I used 3-ring sheet protectors. As a plus, I could take out the papers and re-use the protectors for other handouts.

Take advantage of available technology. Use a class website to share announcements and your class newsletter or syllabus. Post copies of class handouts, too. Some teachers also post podcasts of their lectures/discussions rather than giving out notes. Use parents' email addresses to send announcements home. Depending on the grade level, students could submit written work online.

Since your school does not recycle paper, you'll have to be creative as to what to do with it. If your community has recycling bins or curbside pickup, you could recycle there. Perhaps a high school student or class is in need of a project and could pick up your recycling periodically.

Another suggestion is to recycle inkjet printer cartridges. Some organizations collect them as a fundraiser (a Google search could give you some ideas). Check with a local office supply store to see if they have a recycling plan. The one in my neighborhood has a "reward" program giving a credit for each one recycled. (I recently got a coupon for $30 in the mail to spend at the store!) Some parents might send in their used cartridges for this program so you can get extra goodies for your classroom.

Be sure your students are aware of your efforts and ask them for other suggestions. For example, one elementary class suggested adding a "recycling monitor" to the list of classroom duties. This student would remind others to put materials to be reused or recycled in the proper container. Another class suggested covering bulletin boards with plain fabric or wrapping paper rather than construction paper that fades quickly and has to be replaced. Once you and your students show reducing, reusing, and recycling can be done in a classroom, perhaps your local effort will lead to a schoolwide one.

Readers, do you have any tips to share?

Published: May-29-09 | 3 Comments | 0 Links to this post