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Need help getting started? You can review the discussion topics below. Then post your response under the topic you learned more about. Please include your name in your post to make sure you receive attendance credit. 

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Need help getting started? You can review the discussion topics below. Then post your response under the topic you learned more about. Please include your name in your post to make sure you receive attendance credit. 

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What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

What are some things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

What are some ways we may be communicating that mimics what we want students to do— even if that is not what we want?

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1. What is one way you can embrace learner variability in your classroom?

2. What is one example of how you might use blended learning to increase student engagement, sustained effort, and/or self-regulation?

3. What can you do to take UDL implementation to the next level ?

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1. What science standards do you think you might be able to address through relevant eclipse lessons in your classroom?

2. What is one lesson/activity/project idea you got from this webinar that feels do-able?

3. What questions do you still have? What support do you need?

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Vocabulary: Possible Topics of Discussion 

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Vocabulary: Possible Topics of Discussion 

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1. How can we best leverage science/social studies to also support reading comprehension? What are the essential teacher moves to do this?

2. What is a vocabulary strategy or practice you can implement tomorrow that will improve your students' vocabulary knowledge?

3. What did you learn about the connection between reading comprehension and vocabulary?

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Possible challenges include a different way of doing things when our students are often in routines that they know and understand well. A good thing about teaching kindergarten is that we can begin the process of having kids think for themselves so that as they get older, it will feel natural to them to problem solve on their own. Kelly

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A challenge I have noticed is that kids don't want to try and potentially fail.  Teaching them that problem solving is the process of thinking, trying and not getting it correct the first time is okay.  I often find that students give up easily when they hear the words "problem solving" I have started to use the word "tasks" and students don't immediately shut down or complain. My students have loved finding different tasks in the hallway.  Whoever did that... Thank you!  Great idea! Karyn

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A challenge I have noticed is that kids don't want to try and potentially fail.  Teaching them that problem solving is the process of thinking, trying and not getting it correct the first time is okay.  I often find that students give up easily when they hear the words "problem solving" I have started to use the word "tasks" and students don't immediately shut down or complain. My students have loved finding different tasks in the hallway.  Whoever did that... Thank you!  Great idea! Karyn

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I like how the Eclipse resource also has ideas for how to include information about our solar system, sun, moon and Earth. There is a neat 3D simulator for finding the position of the sun, Earth and moon on any given day and time. That would be fun to try in the classroom. I also would like to use this resource because it includes some computer science standards that would be great to do during testing weeks when the kids will be ready for a "fun" activity. The "Micro:bit" lesson especially.

Ashley

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Wow! I've not had the time to research eclipse resources yet, so it was great to finally sit down and read through activities and watch videos. I used to LOVE the Boards that Discover Ed used to have for students to conduct very guided research on topics; reinforcing student choice and taking charge of their own learning. I miss them...so, I used the resources to create a similar "board" page to post on my Canvas on Thursday so that my students can learn through a guided research time to be prepared for the eclipse over break. My class needs more visuals and videos, so this will help prepare them.

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I found it fascinating that one of the articles stated that elementary is more and more getting away from teaching science and social studies, and spending more and more time on just teaching reading. The article stated, however, that research has proven this is counterproductive to reading comprehension. Research has proven that MORE science and social studies, particularly in elementary, leads to more vocabulary understanding, which leads to better reading comprehension.

The exact issue stated in the article is one that we face in our school and it is a TREMENDOUS challenge!! There is so much pressure for test-prep, hitting all the standards for "core content" for ILEARN, such wide academic gaps to close, increasing behavior issues, more and more added to our plates with MTSS, SEL, and so much to squeeze in, that there is literally only 10 minutes to just TALK AT the students about social sciences. When we're told to "integrate", that's great in theory, but then we're told to follow curriculum with fidelity and the two instructions are contradictory to each other. We already have so much "tweaking" of the curriculum that we do to meet the multitude of other expectations. Then because of this, my personal cognitive load becomes quickly spent and I have nothing left in me for creative thinking/problem solving to meet yet another expectation. This is one of the many times I feel like elementary teachers have to be the "jack of all trades, master of none", and it is exhausting!

I LOVE social sciences and understand the benefits and importance of teaching it! However, how exactly do we do that when we quite literally don't have the time? HALP! (-:

-Wheeler

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The model to represent UDL vs. differentiation was insightful.  I am seeing alot of barriers in student learning.  After reading about UDL beliefs it brought to my attention that I need to value what students like to enhance their learning and to provide more choices.

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The model to represent UDL vs. differentiation was insightful.  I am seeing alot of barriers in student learning.  After reading about UDL beliefs it brought to my attention that I need to value what students like to enhance their learning and to provide more choices.

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I found more clarification on differences between differentiated instruction and UDL. The caption about one teacher carrying the students up the stairs, as opposed to finding ways for all students to enter the building, clicked for me. This is a great way to look at things for a RA teacher. We do not need to differentiate for 450 students. Instead, we can use UDL to plan ways to help all students be successful by eliminating barriers. -Dara

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I really like the idea of a "virtual calming room/area".  It is hard to have manipulatives out in the calming corner in the gym, so this could be a great alternative for some students. -Mary

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I really like the idea of a "virtual calming room/area".  It is hard to have manipulatives out in the calming corner in the gym, so this could be a great alternative for some students. -Mary

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In a time of digital natives and a rise of technology, I think UDL brings up some great ideas on how to incorporate technology into classroom for learners who are growing virtually. I believe that as time goes on, technology is going to be further embedded in our (and students') lives. Whether or not we like it, it is important to keep up with technology to further engage students while not allowing it to replace teaching.- Divya

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I like the emphasis that teaching students to use context is crucial for comprehension, not just vocabulary acquisition. Rather than pre-teaching specific words, students should be given opportunities to encounter unfamiliar words in real reading situations.

Personally, I have always previewed those difficult words without realizing that I was taking away that opportunity. Also, I feel like dictionary, glossary, and thesaurus skills are weak. Hey Siri, what does ________ mean?

-Nathan Frazer

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Having several non-English speaking students, I like the idea labeling the classroom with English and Spanish words. Labeling both objects in the classroom as well as anchor charts that we create, will help with their understanding of the language.

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I found it very interesting in the first article to consider that academic language is so much different than social language. The importance of giving ELL students lots of exposure to specific vocabulary with concrete examples and lots of practice. I loved the idea of the Word Wizard and giving students the opportunity to share their knowledge. I really liked the second article's focus on teaching vocabulary in context and through morphology instead of just preteaching and stopping to ask "What does this word mean?" Helping to teach students to use context and look back to find the meaning seems like an excellent way to not just teach specific words but to truly teach them how to find meaning for words they don't know and give them practice in using this strategy.

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I thought Teaching Vocabulary in Context was interesting and a good idea. It would help teach them the skills to do this as they're reading alone.

Teaching Content & Reading Simultaneously is strong evidence to be doing more science & social studies.

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I have always read about the importance of activating background knowledge prior to reading a topic to develop reading comprehension. I just felt it was nice to read that social studies and science really should be emphasized more than they currently are since these two can also develop reading skills. I feel like this was a different style of thinking than I had learned previously which was that reading/ELA was the priority and social studies/science was a secondary subject rather than can be easily added into a reading block for effective instruction.

Kevin Fleming

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Vocabulary is always in the back of my mind whenever I am looking at content. Being a K teacher, this is something that we tend to focus on since our learners are still building their vocabulary bank. It is especially important for young ELLs to have the opportunity to be front loaded and pre-taught words/phrases to help them understand text. Labels and real life photos help them build and connect their knowledge. With that being said, I sometimes struggle with how much is too much and when to ease up on the support.

Timothy Shanahan, from the 2nd article, believes that we should be teaching students how to determine what words mean using the context. He did something that really stood out to me. Instead of asking specifically what "uprooted means", he would ask students "what caused the animals to lose their food source?" This would force the students to activate background knowledge and see if they really comprehend the sentence. From this response, teachers can see if they need to take a step back and provide more scaffolding.

He also stated "we need to give students a chance to deal with these words in real reading situations." This is something that I am sure a lot of us struggle with, finding the balance of support and productive struggle.

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Dr. Shanahan’s recommendation to allow students to figure words out independently when the meaning can be determined from the context/morphological analysis is a key takeaway from his article. I often don’t have the time to teach all the vocabulary words students need to close the gap, so I rely heavily on strategies/tools they can use in the classroom (such as using context clues).

-Allison

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A challenge, especially in a HA classroom this year with my students, is the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how to do steps A, B, C, etc. with a certain type of task. Within the podcast it shared that the level of uncertainty and perhaps uncomfortableness can lead to great thinking! When it comes to mimicking, I have noticed this in HA because they want to know the right answer/perfect the task vs. trying it out themselves and problem solving. By using these tasks, it's a great way to change their mindset and break them out of their shell. I love the quote in the podcast that said, "It's what we do when we don't know what to do that creates great thinking." I am excited to try these in my classroom and in the hall; to piggyback off Karen...thank you to whoever did that!!

-Brittany

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"Thinking is a necessary precursor to learning, and if students are not thinking, they are not learning."

In this section of the chapter and podcast Peter shared that in my classrooms he notices that teachers were planning their instruction on the assumption that students either couldn't or wouldn't think of how to solve the problem or get to the answer. He then goes on to share why this is a common problem seen in my classrooms, in many grade levels. My biggest takeaway is giving students the opportunity to problem solve. Give them that opportunity to think and grow. I have noticed that in doing random grouping with some activities is that they can lean on one another.

I really would like to incorporate some of these "thinking" task at the beginning or end of math to challenge the kids. I plan to explore many types of task to meet the needs of all my students. The book said all students want to think deeply,I couldn't agree more!

Sara L

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In the first article, "Vocabulary Development with ELLs" I love the idea of creating a Wizard Box! Students are asked to write down a word that they don't understand the meaning of that they hear at home, on TV, in a book they are reading and place it in the Wizard Box. At the end of the day, the teacher will pick a word card and the class will discuss the meaning of the word and where or how the word was used. I love this idea because it promotes student choice in vocabulary learning, and focuses on words that the individual student does not know. It's not just the teacher picking new vocabulary words. This is an easy student centered way to make vocabulary learning exciting!

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I can embrace learner variability and encourage others to do so, by offering students choice in how to respond during a classroom mini lesson, how to take in new information (read an article, listen to a book, read a book, read with a partner, etc) and choice in how to record their learning/respond to an assignment (written, typed, drawn, recorded, images, etc). When creating PBIS plans and 504s with teachers, we think critically about what instructional methods and tools will best meet the student’s learning style.

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I have a connection with Dr. Shanahan’s article, “How I Teach Student’s to Use Context in Vocabulary Learning.” He suggests that if the meaning of words can be determined from context or morphological analysis, then those words should not be pre-taught. I attended the Teach Indy Conference with Kristina and participated in a breakout session on vocabulary instruction. A Marian University professor led this discussion, and she said the bulk of pre-teaching vocabulary should focus on Tier 3 (discourse level) words. This might look different for teachers with MLLs in their classrooms. Pre-teaching of targeted Tier 2 (sentence level) words like “uprooted” may need to be pre-taught depending on MLLs English proficiency level.

I also liked the idea of using a Word Wizard Box from the first article, “Vocabulary Development with ELLs.” This instructional strategy has students writing down words they heard on TV, home, in their community, etc. and putting them in a Word Wizard Box. At the end of each day, the teacher pulls out a word and the student that wrote the word shares where they heard the word and how the word was used. Students then practice using these words in discussions and in their writing. This instructional strategy builds student agency by encouraging students to pick what words they would like to learn more about, while also developing MLLs (all students) productive and receptive language knowledge.

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Cognates to bridge language for ELL students 

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Cognates to bridge language for ELL students 

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I learned about cognates and the similarity in words between languages. If the students are taught the strategy, they can bridge their learning faster. Here’s where I found this in part of the text, “Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the same original word or root. Note that about 40% of all English words have similar cognates in Spanish!”. It makes me wonder the percentage of English word cognates to other languages as well.

-Jessica

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A challenge for math tasks is teaching students how to work together in random groups so that each student contributes to the discussion. Students can learn from one another when they share their thinking, but talking about math doesn't come easy to everyone.

The following thinking task provides an easy context for students to talk about math and to realize how this type of discussion should look, feel, and sound.

It's called the 100# task - modeling group work.

This is a task that involves each group member. Students are numbered (student 1, student 2, student 3). Student 1 finds the number 1 on a 100 board (numbers are placed randomly). Student 2 finds 2 and so forth, finding as many numbers in order as possible in 3 minutes. Meanwhile, the teacher takes pictures of the group working together. After 3 minutes, students discuss the task and view pictures of what group work looks like. Students are challenged to do the same task again and use a new strategy to find their numbers quicker.

This seems like an easy, low stress but high participation type activity that can help encourage future math thinking-task work.

~Susan

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One of the activities that they presented was a book for Investigating the Eclipse. I thought this one would be great for my class because it has several different visuals to engage and teach students. The lesson would be introduced as a class but it would be an activity that we could incorporate into free time throughout the day. It also incorporates the artistic element.

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Something that felt immediately right to me in chapter one is that in order to get kids to think in math, the best place to start is with problem solving. Problem solving should be messy, and non-linear. Students will get stuck, think, and then hopefully get unstuck (however that can be a challenge for students that lack grit).

Something that also sounded right to me is that good problem solving should have a low floor to start (meaning any and all learners can find a point of entry), but they evolve in complexity allowing kids to talk and to collaborate.

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Something that stood out to me was the ability to release control of the thinking tasks and allow your students to truly problem solve on their own. I feel like this can be really difficult to do for us as teachers and for the students. Breaking the typical schedule or routine that we are used to can be hard. As well as sending our kids off to work/problem-solve without teaching them how to do it first.

I've noticed some of my students mimicking during Math even in Kindergarten. I loved when they discussed teaching and showing students what thinking is/how it helps us grow. I think the earlier we can start teaching them that it's okay to make mistakes while they are thinking and problem-solving, the more likely they are to build upon their thinking skills and create a really solid foundation.

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The 3D simulator from TuTiempo.net is an awesome interactive resource students can access to see what causes a total eclipse. It shows a model of the sun, moon, and Earth that can be manipulated by date and time to show the rotation of Earth and orbit of the moon. It shows how day is lit up and night is dark on Earth. My only wish is that it would show the shadows created during an eclipse. The resource wasn't too complicated to use, but I was using my mac and not an ipad. I would suggest modeling how to use the resource before letting kids explore on their own, and I would create an activity for them to complete to show their understanding.

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With this simulator of the local solar system, with data from the earth, the sun and the moon, you can know the exact position of the moon and the sun with respect to the earth for any date. On earth, the area where it is night is drawn in darker color.

Current simulation date

The calculations are made in universal time (UTC). Local time is based on the time difference provided by your operating system.

Current date and time

To see the position of the moon and the sun with respect to the earth and the areas is what they are at night or day right now, click on the following button.

Select another date

Select the date you want to know the position of the moon and the sun with respect to the earth. The date and time must be entered in universal UTC format. The year must be greater than 1000 and less than 3000.

Options

To facilitate the use of the simulator, several display options have been added.

Distance from the sun

The average distance from the sun to Earth is 149.6 million km. For the simulator we have not moved the sun so far, since it would be almost impossible to represent it at that distance. Also, if you want you can zoom in a bit more to make it easier to see it. Although we are not respecting the distance, it always shows itself at its zenith with respect to the earth.

Bring the sun closer

Fix earth on camera

By changing the display date, by default, the whole scene is redrawn and you can see the rotation of the earth with respect to the sun. If you prefer, you can fix the earth on the camera and it will seem that the sun rotates around the earth, but you will not lose the current point of view.

Redraw

When drawing the universe, the earth, the sun and the moon are made according to the size of your browser window. If for some reason the size of the window changes (you have resized the browser or rotated the device) the display proportions may be lost. In this case, use the following option to redraw the entire content without having to refresh the page.

Sample dates

We leave you some examples of dates and times with some special astronomical meaning.

Total lunar eclipse May 26, 2021

Total solar eclipse April 8, 2024

Total solar eclipse August 12, 2026

Other dates

If you want to know other dates with astronomical events, you can see them at:
All the solar eclipses of the 21st century Total solar eclipses Annular solar eclipses All the lunar eclipses of the 21st century Date and time of the solstices and equinoxes
It may interest you
Moon phase calendar Moon and Sun Information 3D Complete Solar System Weather on earth Weather on the planet Mars
Simulator

This simulator is designed to know the exact position of the three stars (sun, earth and moon) at any time. The orbital navigation system allows you to move the three stars in the universe at your whim to find the perspective that you like the most.

To navigate simply drag your finger or mouse on the screen to rotate the stars. To enlarge use the mouse wheel or enlarge with your fingers.

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Sun, Earth and Moon Position - 3D Simulator

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With this simulator of the local solar system, with data from the earth, the sun and the moon, you can know the exact position of the moon and the sun with respect to the earth for any date. On earth, the area where it is night is drawn in darker color.

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After reading the articles about teaching vocabulary, the thing that stood out to me the most is that instead of always pre-teaching vocabulary words, we should be guiding students to figure out the meaning based on the context. While we don't want students "guessing" at words based on context when they're reading, it is actually beneficial for them to do this when figuring out the MEANING of a word (once the word is actually decoded or read). This makes sense to me and I can see how that would greatly benefit students and help them grow in their capacity to do this work independently, because they won't always have someone around to pre-teach them vocabulary words. This is something I want to get better about in the future!

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With having so many students with differing needs in classes, having learner variability can be such a powerful instrument to help reach everyone where they are and how they learn/ express themselves best. Having material on the board for students to read while you are talking or using closed caption to help sustain attention for students while also reaching visual learners. Blended learning can increase engagement by allowing students to work with an adult, work with peers, and work online, which is highly motivating to many students.