Interesting Topics from my Credential Classes :)

As my credential classes at NDNU have entered my second semester, I am taking classes focusing on assessment and literacy in content areas.  We've already discussed a couple of interesting topics that I wanted to share:

*Literacy is discipline specific! Students access and develop different cognitive skills based on the subject matter they are learning.  In science, students need to construct meaning out of numbers, symbols, graphs, and specific scientific vocabulary (that they've usually never heard of before!).  Learning science is like learning a foreign language!

*Tips for writing selected response assessments: 
1) Include equal amounts of each answer choice in your solution key
2) Make each answer choice equivalent in length
3) Having a "none of the above" option increases the difficulty of the question
4) Having an "all of the above" option decreases the difficulty of the question
5) More text should be included in the question than in the answer choices
6) Using double negatives confuses students

…hope you enjoyed these tidbits of info! :)

Social Media as a tool for Rich Learning

At the beginning of last semester, Erin Kahn and I joined the
KQED Do Now Working Group and we had our students sign up for Twitter. 

We have found Twitter to be an invaluable tool for our own professional development, but this was our first foray into incorporating social media into my classes. 

It has been a success! 

Not only have our students developed their communication skills -
only 140 characters requires you to be efficient in comments -
they have discovered a new way to use social media as an educational tool.

This week, students, Mana from #APBio3
and Shannon, Lindsay, Katherine, Emily and Nicole from #SMed7, 

were highlighted in the KQED Roundup of the #DoNowConcussions discussion.

KQED has so many incredible resources. 

We encourage you to check them out. #DoNow is such an incredible way 

to get your students communicating their thoughts and ideas. 

It is a fantastic way to build skills specifically 

required through the Common Core State Standards as well. 

We are excited that three colleagues have joined this semester's KQED Working Group. 

We will have more students learning, reflecting, and communicating through Twitter.  

Follow us @NDBEkahn and @TechBioBek and our class hashtags 

to see what else our students are up to 

as they continue to develop their 21st century skills. 

Tweet Tweet!

Communication is the Key

Year after year, teachers face the same frustration...students who appear to have forgotten everything they learned the previous year! It's as if June, July, and August have some magical mind erasing power. I have certainly experienced this phenomenon more times than I would like to recount.

Finding ways to counteract this tragic loss has been a focus of the Science Department and it seems as if we are starting to reap the benefits of our combined focus. The key to designing scaffolding that can survive crossing the scholastic desert of summer is communication!

We began with designing a Department Lab Format handout that would be given to every class each year. This worksheet provides students with the basics of a lab. Not only does this serve as a great resource for them, but as a duplicate each following year, it is a visual reminder of what has been learned. In addition, we are constantly checking in with one another about the activities and projects the students are completing in our classes. 
For instance, I know that in our first year course, Conceptual Physics, students take part in an egg drop and in Biology I can refer them back to the structure and function of the eggshell when we study evolution, classification and reproduction. When the Chemistry students are assigned a lab through Google Docs, the teachers simply say "Go" and they are off since they learn all about GDocs, sharing, and commenting the previous year in Biology. Designing a successful, rigorous, in-depth course like an AP relies on clearly understanding the curriculum the students have already met in the first year course of that subject area. 

If there is one factor that has led to a greater retention of skills and content for our students from year to year, it has been communication. My colleagues and I frequently touch base whether it is during a department meeting, as we come and go in the office, or as we pass by in the halls or classrooms. Developing a culture of sharing and communicating is vital so that everyone knows what the students are experiencing each year in each course. This understanding must then be communicated to the students. Referring back to what the students learned the year before or highlighting what will happen the following year needs to be a frequent occurrence. 

One goal for this blog is for it to be an archive of our collective experiences, ideas, accomplishments, questions, musings and more. We are starting to incorporate blogs/websites/digital portfolios in our classes as well which will enhance deeper connections for our students as they reflect on their academic journey. 

What do you think? What are other important factors that may enhance our students' ability to make connections between content not only from year to year, but across the curriculum?