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Curriculum Statement

ERIN VANREGENMORTER

5/9/2024

It is important to look at curriculum as teaching students the skills and knowledge they need to navigate their adulthood and acquire what is needed to maintain stability in their lives. According to The Saber Tooth Curriculum, sometimes the curriculum has to shift to keep up with changes in society and the world. Crucially (and obviously), our students need to be taught 21st Century Skills to succeed in the 21st century. This minimally includes learning technology, communication, and information literacy skills, and vital to being able to use these skills, students need to be able to think critically and creatively to solve problems. reflect upon and refine their learning, understand the value of collaboration, and think about their role as a global citizen.

One of my favorite areas of increasing student engagement and ownership of their learning is Project-Based Learning. Having students do inquiry-based authentic learning encourages creativity, collaboration, and the forming of 21st century skills. Allowing them choice in what they will create lets them hone their talents, and publicly presenting their findings creates connections with community members as well as business and political leaders.

Students in modern society are constantly barraged with news, social media, and communications from all over the world, which is overwhelming at times. Teaching students ways to be mindful is important for emotional regulation, focus, and reducing anxiety. Having students be aware of their emotions (e.g., using a “mood meter”) will inspire reflection about, specifically, what is influencing their mood, how it affects their behavior, and how they might do things differently.

Educators and parents are often leery of changing curriculum because they fear students will not be as competitive on standardized tests or in college courses. Alternative curricula are great for trying out and comparing to mainstream curriculum, but there are ways we can shape student skills that make them competent adults in any situation. By giving students more autonomy and making learning authentic, their learning becomes deeper, their recall is better, their ability to transfer the knowledge and skills increases, and their confidence and ability to collaborate improve. Project-based learning, problem-based learning, action research, and cross-curricular studies are all ways to deepen student learning and improve achievement. I look forward to well-designed comparative research studies to further our understanding of the ways we learn.

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Project-Based Learning in Secondary Science Curricula

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Project-Based Learning in Secondary Science Curricula

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ERIN VANREGENMORTER

Project-Based Learning in Secondary Science Curricula

27 April 2024

Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that moves away from traditional education models (i.e., lectures and tests) by assigning students to collaboratively choose a path of inquiry regarding a real-world topic, research and analyze it, and create a product that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding. PBL has the potential to increase student engagement, investment, ownership, positivity, and achievement outcomes.

Larmer & Mergendoller (2010) outline parameters for designing PBL inquiries in their article Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning. Students will be engaged with projects if what they are learning can be useful to them outside of the classroom. Student choice (in topic or in how their final product will look like) allows students to take ownership and use their talents to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.. A driving question can focus their research, and collaboration and technology skills prepare them for the workplace. Importantly, public presentation of their creation to an authentic audience increases meaning and builds skills.

Middle and high school science education is well-suited to PBL as science is all around us and authentic inquiry is easy to establish. Climate change, for instance, has effects that students feel from global to local levels. Students can choose a meaningful topic and design how they will conduct their research - what information they need to obtain and the resources they will consult. Students can then choose a product that can have an impact on the issue - from newsletters or contacting political representatives to creating a public forum or organizing a group to create a native garden. I look forward to practicing ways to introduce “need to know” questions into the content I will be teaching.

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I recently had the opportunity to watch a great high school Algebra lesson. The class was packed and there were many EL students in the room (I was there to help for the hour). The teacher started class in a way that reminded me of the Video Clips narratives, so I started taking notes right away (and helped students, of course). I purposely use a stream-of-consciousness style for the next part to show how fluid and quick the lesson was.

The class began almost before the bell rang. While students came in, the teacher wrote a direction on the board up front: “Create an arithmetic sequence.” He started circulating around the room asking “are you ready? Anna, are you ready? How about you, Angel, are you ready?” He did so to almost every student and they sat in their seats as they said “yes.” He went up front and said, “you know what to do.” This meant that every student had to get a white board, expo marker, and Kleenex to erase with. Most students did this quickly. He circulated, telling some to get going. Back up to the board, he told students they had to write an arithmetic sequence on their boards, not copying their neighbors. He modeled this on his own small whiteboard (2,4,6,8…). Again, quickly walking around the room, speaking a few words in Spanish, he prodded a few students to get going. He then said students had to find a partner and each had to say what the pattern was and exchange boards, then go to another partner, then another. He started it off and kept exchanging boards with students while helping those who needed it.. The process was repeated with a geometric sequence (3,9,27…). Some pulled out their notes where there were examples. I walked around helping translate (both language and math) and urged things along. Everyone was moving. Energy was in the room. He challenged some with difficult sequences and highlighted creative ones. Then it was over, everyone quickly put their boards and markers away, and they were on to notes. There were Spanish and English copies. Mathematical vocabulary was used. We kept a fast pace, but it was here where some students really stopped paying attention, copying only the sentence starters he wrote (“Porque…”) without finishing the sentences. I could explain what was being asked in Spanish and said they needed to explain why. I wonder if this part of the lesson was maybe too fast? He talked through the answers without writing everything down. Homework was assigned, class was over.

The teacher did a great job of using discourse particular and essential to mathematics. Students had to do so as well. The word pattern was never used, rather, geometric. arithmetic, sequence, etc. The routines of class were established for quick transitions and few new directions to be understood. Students knew the traffic signals he gave from start to finish. I was quite impressed.

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PBS Learning Media https://wgvu.pbslearningmedia.org/

NASA For Educators https://climate.nasa.gov/for-educators/

EPA Climate Change https://www.epa.gov/climate-change

NSTA https://www.nsta.org/

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PBS LearningMedia | Teaching Resources For Students And Teachers

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Inspire your students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning

Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE LEARNING

Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the four domains of science, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design.

When these concepts, such as "cause and effect", are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them.

Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. The practices better explain and extend what is meant by "inquiry" in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Students engage in practices to build, deepen, and apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts.

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.

More about 3D Learning

GET TO KNOW

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K-12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.

A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K-12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students' interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship.

Get to Know the Standards

IMPLEMENT

The NGSS call for a three-dimensional approach to K-12 science instruction. This represents a significant transition from previous state standards. That's why effective implementation demands a great deal of collaboration and patience among states, districts, schools, teachers, and students.

Thoughtful and coordinated approaches to implementation will enable educators to inspire future generations of scientifically literate students. That is the vision of the NGSS. This website provides a range of high-quality resources that empower educators, administrators, parents, and the general public to help bring this vision to life.

Find Tools and Resources

WHY

Science-and therefore science education-is central to the lives of all Americans.

A high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills-communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, and flexibility-that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.

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Home Page | Next Generation Science Standards

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

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I see communication as one of the most challenging skills to acquire for both teachers and students. I can’t say how many times I have had to explain the day’s assignments to students in almost every class. I write it on the board, read it out loud twice while pointing at the directions on the board, and direct them to Google Classroom for directions and details. Yesterday I passed out an assignment and one student said “what is this?” with the most expressive look of disgust I think I’ve ever seen. I do know some students are purposely occupying their attention elsewhere, but this is more widespread than that. How can we more effectively communicate our expectations with our students?

I see this through another lens as a parent. My child has come home far too many times not knowing where to find the assignment posting, directions, or where to turn it in. Inattention? Complexity? Confusion? I can start another “In my day…” quote, because things were much simpler back then - you either wrote down the assignment, had a handout, remembered it, or phoned a classmate for directions and due dates. Maybe simpler, but not effective for many. Technology makes education resources adaptable to many learning styles, but it can also make it messy. Technology literacy has become complicated, and maybe we need to parse it down a little. As a student myself, this has been the biggest stumbling block in my recent endeavors. With all the competition-driven education tools about, I really wish we could go back to having a word-processor, spreadsheet, and art tool. Many of the newest Google Tools have almost no improvement than the ones in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The best improvements for student needs are accessibility tools and the ability to insert hyperlinks, in my opinion. Sure, we can have more complex software for higher education and the marketplace, but having 15 different tools to record a video, many with different procedures, doesn’t it become a little complicated? Students don’t need and don’t have the expertise to be able to use photo-editing functions, like what increasing the “noise” or adjusting the “gradient” will do. That comes with taking upper level college art classes and beyond.

By lowering the complexity of technological literacy (and our own classroom platforms), students and teachers will be better able to communicate, process, and learn the skills and understandings we are aiming to achieve.

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3 New strategies you learned regarding implementing UDL:

3.1 Watching the webinar made me realize that understanding a student’s background is important for teachers to understand. One example was a girl who was literate in her own language and had strong academic skills. Another example was a boy who had interrupted education and low engagement with school subjects but was resourceful and had a lot of practical knowledge and experience with hands-on, real-world tasks. This information would help with knowing how to engage and motivate students.

3.2 I had not thought much about giving some students the option of doing an assignment in their own language. I don’t like the idea of the teacher not being able to read it - the ELL resource team should be able to help with that. Being able to give feedback is really important, and will help the student know if they are on the right track.

3.3  I read in one of the UDL articles that ESL students usually learn to speak English before they can write it. It’s a really good suggestion to allow ESL and students who have difficulties writing to be able to (audio) record their responses to activities, or to use text-to-speech technology.

2 ways UDL assists ELLs in your classroom

2.1 I have supported newcomer ELL students a fair amount. I would go to classrooms with the students to help explain the assignments and assist with classwork. I would often have Google Translate open on my computer and I would click the microphone option so the teacher’s lecture would be translated during class. The translation did have some mistakes, but I could read Spanish well enough to catch them. I also taught students how to use Google Translate on their phones to take pictures of documents and have them translated right then.

2.2 I have found that having sentence frames and giving a choice of 2-3 words from which students guess the correct word helps a lot. Word banks are unusually too difficult as that requires a lot of working memory.

1 example of how you can implement UDL in your Unit Plan

1.1 I could work out a list of key terms and have the definitions printed (translated if needed) for the whole class. The definitions should be fairly simple. I would also have diagrams and illustrations that represent the terms.

1.P.S. I think it would be so wonderful to have an images option for Google Translate that would be similar to the normal format choices in regular Google searches. Does one exist? Por que no?