Partnering to Progress K-5 Science Alliance November 18, 2008 Blue Licks State Park Good Morning! Please help yourself to some refreshments and make sure you have signed in.

Group Norms Start and end on time Put cell phones on silent Be respectful of all comments Everyone participates Exercise the rule of “two feet” Come prepared for each meeting Keep side conversations to a minimum

October Review CTS Thinking Like a Scientist Formative Assessment Building Knowledge: Mixtures

Individually, jot down 5 words which bring back your experience of the last session. Share your items with your table group and choose 3. As a group, choose one word which captures the essence of the last session. Be ready to share your choice.

Today’s Roadmap Formative Assessment Deconstructing Standards Measurement

FACTS Chapters 1-3 Learning Targets Identify reasons why some concepts are so difficult for students. Identify important considerations for instructional design for developing scientific understanding. D

Memory Box 1.Take a moment to review what you’ve read. 2.Set your notes and materials aside and in the “Memory Box”, list as many big ideas or important details you can remember. 3.Compare your list with a neighbor. Add as many new ideas as you can. 4.Now find another person to compete with. You get a point for any idea you have on your list that the other person does not have. If you both have the same idea, no one gets a point. 5.Now return to your neighbor and compare how many points you earned. Add any new ideas to your list. Decide which idea on your list is the Most Valuable Point (M.V.P.) and put a star next to it.

Why are some concepts so difficult? What should be the focus of teaching and learning? How can assessment promote thinking and learning? How might FACTs be used poorly or ineffectively?

Instructional Considerations Where did the mass come from? Please complete the sequoia tree probe. Place your answer choice on a small post it and place on the “sticky bar graph”. View the clip from Private Universe.

Take Home Message “Optimal opportunities to learn exist when science teachers are aware of the variety of different ideas students are likely to bring to their learning, see the connections between students’ thinking and the specific ideas targeted by state and national standards, and provide learning experiences that build a bridge between their students’ thinking and accepted scientific ideas.” –Pg. ix in Science Formative Assessment

Please complete the statement below concerning formative assessment: I used to think…….but now I know……

Deconstructing Standards Learning Target I can examine state standards and deconstruct them into knowledge, reasoning, skill, and product learning targets.

Structure and Transformation of Matter Examine the deconstructed standards. Work in grade level bands to… –Compare the deconstruction to the information gained from the CTS. Are all things accounted for? What needs modified? Is there anything to add? Determine learning progressions for K-3

Muddiest Point What is not clear? If I have to teach this, what needs further clarification?

Measuring Area and Volume Learning Targets I can write operational definitions for length, area, and volume. I can use standards in making measurements. I can use tools appropriately in making measurements. I can record the results of a measurement in an appropriate manner. I can use estimation in making measurements. I know that no measurement is exact.

“Glancing down supermarket shelves, we examine the prices but have to make an effort to register the weight of a cereal box or the capacity of a carton of juice. Weights and measures are a given. A pound or a gallon, like a mile or an acre, will be the same from Florida to Alaska. And so will a bushel of wheat and a cord of wood and a hundred other units of measurement. It is a language that is picked up automatically and spoken without conscious thought. Only when it changes, when half a gallon of cola became 2 liters in the 1990s, for instance, or a fifth of whiskey reappeared as 750 milliliters, is there a reminder that there is nothing certain about these units after all. They are not a given but an extraordinary construct, and one of the identifying marks of social life. Without the conscious decision to agree on a way of measuring, cooperative activity could hardly take place. With it, marketplaces and increasingly sophisticated economies can develop, matching barter, cash, or credit to whatever is owned by one person and desired by another.” –Measuring America, by Andro Linklater

How long is the pencil? Please complete the probe. Write the correct answer on an index card. Think-pair-share: as students grapple with measurement, what might be some instructional implications?

Operational Definitions Working with your table group, complete the activities as detailed in the handout. When you get to a “check,” please have one person raise his/her hand in the group to signal a facilitator. Share your thinking at each “check” with a facilitator before proceeding to the next part of the activity.

Take Home Messages These key principles of measurement must be developed overtime: Appropriate units –Use units of measure appropriate to the thing being measured. Identical units –Jelly beans vs hex nuts Measurement conventions –Understand the concept of standards Iteration –Repeated application of identical units Zero point Ready, Set, Science pg. 12

Today’s Roadmap Formative Assessment Deconstructing Standards Measurement

For Next Time Read Chapter 3 in Ready, Set, Science! and complete the reading guide Next meeting is January 13 th