Sample Classroom Map
http://michellebritto.wmwikis.net/Classroom+Management
Student Engagement
There is no way to guarantee that students are engaged. However, there are some strategies that the teacher can use in order to engage as many students as possible. Many students are drawn in by technology so using resources like polleverywhere and kahoot are ways that students can be engaged in discussion and participation. The layout of the classroom is important to student involvement as well. The classroom setup in the picture above shows a good scenario for encouraging students to talk to one another. By having students face each other it makes collaboration easier. Making sure that you know the students and attempt to appeal to their interests is one of the most important factors to influencing their engagement. Below are some sample questions that you could ask or put into Polleverywhere to use to quiz students or encourage students to participate in discussion. If you would like, you can pull other questions from the exit slips or assignments to emphasize an important topic, or a topic that requires further explanation.
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Facilitating and Scaffolding Collaboration
There are 3 documents that will be used to scaffold and facilitate group collaboration throughout the project: group contract, collaboration log, and collaboration reflection.
Students will be placed in groups of 4 for this project. Groups will be partially selected by students in that they will provide the names of 3 people they would like to work with and 1 person they absolutely cannot work with, and each teacher will try to honor their request. We will try to have at least 1 person from the list of people with whom they wish to work, and we will try to keep the 1 person they cannot work with out of their group. This will set the stage for student voice and choice in the project, as well as giving students a scaffold for collaboration - they will tend to work better with groups they helped select. We will also attempt to balance the groups by gender and ability. Having diverse groups for this project will allow for greater creativity and a wider range of life experiences so that students can use their backgrounds to help select a focus and final product. Students will have a few layers of scaffolding to help them use their time efficiently and ensure equal participation. Students will be assigned roles within their group which will hold them accountable to certain tasks each day (see group contract). One of the Leader/Task Manager’s roles is to assign daily tasks for each member of the group depending on where they are in the process. In addition, the group contract has sections for time management and behavior so students should be aware at all times what the expectations are for participation. Students will have a hand in creating these norms, and a copy of their chosen norms will be kept with the group and with the teacher. Students will be referred to these norms when they are reporting for the collaboration reflection or log. Students will also report on their accountability daily through a collaboration log (see above) which asks them to report on their group member’s effort, their own individual effort, and to provide evidence for their report. Teachers will check these collaboration logs on a daily basis to help facilitate group issues and mediation support if groups are dysfunctional. Within the timeline provided, we have limited group time each day to put groups in a time crunch, so they are aware they don’t have many full class periods to work, so they will need to be efficient. To put further pressure on the groups to get busy, teachers will also use a timer, either physical or online (www.online-stopwatch.com) to help students budget their time. At the end of the project, students will reflect on the collaboration of their group through the collaboration reflection, which will be a determining factor in their final grade. Students will be provided with daily task lists towards the beginning of the project to help focus them on what needs to be accomplished and to give Leaders/Task Managers a scaffold for how to delegate tasks. We will also include approximate times for each task so students can see how much detail and effort should go into each task and split things evenly. It also acts as a time management scaffold. As the project progresses, Leaders/Task Managers will completely take over this role and will not receive a task list with times. This places the responsibility on the Leaders/Task Managers to take over some of the time management and accountability aspects of the project. Towards the beginning of the project, teachers will hold a team meeting with each group daily during work time to talk about collaboration efforts and ensure individuals know what good and poor collaboration looks like. Teachers will use the collaboration logs as a tool to teach collaboration and mediate problems throughout this project. After the first couple of group work times, the teacher will pull back this scaffold and only address collaboration problems with groups as they arise. This is also one of the Leader/Task Manager roles - to bring problems/issues to the teacher - but every member of a group is responsible for holding group members accountable to norms and reporting on issues with collaboration. Students need to also take responsibility for their final product by making sure they are satisfying the requirements of the rubric. Students will receive the rubric at the beginning of the project, and the first day they have it, we will go over how to read and understand the rubric. We will also collect and respond to “need to knows” about the rubric terminology. After questions are answered and students know how to read a rubric, the responsibility for the final project will be turned over to the Editor. |
Preparing and Faciliting Students
Students will be prepared for their project first by setting the environment. The classroom will be arranged into the format shown at the top of this page so that students will be encouraged to participate in discussion with their group members. Students will be mentally prepared by completing a proposal for how they plan to accomplish their group project. This will be used to make sure they understand what their group is expected to accomplish. Students will be prepared for the nanotechnology content using the activities provided on the timeline. These activities will get students familiar with the content so that they can make a better and well thought out project explanation.
Being able to guide students in their work and discussion is important to making students more focused learners. Before that can happen, there must be some guidelines set so that discussion is appropriate and meaningful. Making sure that expectations of how students should respond and that they stay positive and respectful must be articulated in order to maintain that environment. Knowing your students' passions and interests is helps to facilitate discussions and leads into how you can formulate questions. Asking open-ended questions that require students to reflect back on their activities, research, and classroom experience leads students to recall and hopefully develop meaningful explanations.
Examples of questions that could be asked include:
Being able to guide students in their work and discussion is important to making students more focused learners. Before that can happen, there must be some guidelines set so that discussion is appropriate and meaningful. Making sure that expectations of how students should respond and that they stay positive and respectful must be articulated in order to maintain that environment. Knowing your students' passions and interests is helps to facilitate discussions and leads into how you can formulate questions. Asking open-ended questions that require students to reflect back on their activities, research, and classroom experience leads students to recall and hopefully develop meaningful explanations.
Examples of questions that could be asked include:
- How does this relate to the driving question?
- Based on what you saw, how does this explain ... (Surface area to volume ratio, Size-dependent properties, Forces, ect.)?
- What energy usage are you trying to optimize?
- Where does that energy come from?
- What energy is used most in your home, community, state...? Why do you think that?
- How does nanotechnology impact that energy?
- Does that seem like it is reliable information?
- How could that apply to your research topic?
Helping Students Reflect
Exit tickets will address content questions as well as updates on group/individual progress. These will be completed each day so that students will think about what they have done and what needs to be done the following day. This will also keep the instructor informed on their individual progress with content and the group project.
Where Students Will Have Difficulties and How to Address Them
Students will have difficulty working in a group and relying on each other to accomplish tasks. This will be addressed by having students sign a Group Contract where students agree to follow norms set by group members and assign specific roles for each person. Each group member will also fill out collaboration logs periodically to evaluate how well the group is collaborating.
Students will also have difficulty in finding valid resources for research. They will need to learn how to conduct an internet search without solely relying on a simple web search to give them one correct answer. This will be addressed during the Information Literacy mini lesson. Students will learn how to search for reliable sources using databases and more advanced search tools. This serves as a "just in time" direct instruction lesson. Students may ask how to find quality information or struggle with finding information due to a lack of research skills. As a facilitator, we will notice these struggles and either guide students into asking how they can find good information or address the student need with the "Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!" lesson in Day 7 on the timeline.
Another area of difficulty for students will be presenting to their peers. Many students have anxiety about presenting and lack skills for conducting presentations. There will be time for a presentation workshop within the timeline if needed. Besides that, students will have ample time to practice their presentations with their groups. A portion of the final grade will be based on the presentation, so students will need to practice and help each other develop their skills.
Students will also have difficulty in finding valid resources for research. They will need to learn how to conduct an internet search without solely relying on a simple web search to give them one correct answer. This will be addressed during the Information Literacy mini lesson. Students will learn how to search for reliable sources using databases and more advanced search tools. This serves as a "just in time" direct instruction lesson. Students may ask how to find quality information or struggle with finding information due to a lack of research skills. As a facilitator, we will notice these struggles and either guide students into asking how they can find good information or address the student need with the "Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!" lesson in Day 7 on the timeline.
Another area of difficulty for students will be presenting to their peers. Many students have anxiety about presenting and lack skills for conducting presentations. There will be time for a presentation workshop within the timeline if needed. Besides that, students will have ample time to practice their presentations with their groups. A portion of the final grade will be based on the presentation, so students will need to practice and help each other develop their skills.
Where Students Will Have Misconceptions and How to Address Them
Misconceptions arise frequently when discussing abstract topics, such as the nanoscale. Students will have a hard time understanding how small a nanometer is, especially when relating it to the macroscale. This will be addressed during the first nano activity, “How Big Is It?”. Students will arrange cards with various objects printed on them in order from biggest to smallest. They will have to compare the size of objects first without help and then they will be able to use the internet as a tool.
Students will also have misconceptions about properties at the nanoscale. They will not know that prevalent forces change at the nano level. Gravity no longer plays a role in forces between nanoscale objects; only electrostatic forces matter. We will address this misconception during the “Does it Pour Out” activity. Students will see that when on a smaller scale, electrostatic forces keep molecules from separating.
Students will also have misconceptions about properties at the nanoscale. They will not know that prevalent forces change at the nano level. Gravity no longer plays a role in forces between nanoscale objects; only electrostatic forces matter. We will address this misconception during the “Does it Pour Out” activity. Students will see that when on a smaller scale, electrostatic forces keep molecules from separating.
How the Instructor Will Collaborate with Students
On day 5, the Information Literacy Lesson will teach students how to search for resources online. They will complete a tutorial on evaluating sources and finding relevant material. This will help students in their ability to find answers on their own. As a classroom policy, we will use "3 Before Me" as the procedure for finding answers to questions. This requires students to ask 3 other people in the room before asking the teacher for help, and then reporting to the teacher exactly what the other people said before the teacher will offer help and guidance.
The teacher will also be able to collaborate with students by reading the daily exit tickets. The teacher will see how students are progressing and be able to evaluate whether any interventions are necessary. If students are struggling with particular concepts the teacher may ask/say:
The teacher will also be able to collaborate with students by reading the daily exit tickets. The teacher will see how students are progressing and be able to evaluate whether any interventions are necessary. If students are struggling with particular concepts the teacher may ask/say:
- How could you find the answer to this question?
- How might you locate that information?
- Who could help you understand this? (other than the teacher)
- Who might know the answer to this? (other than the teacher)
- Show me how you did that/where you found that information/arrived at that conclusion.
- Show (other student) how you did that/where you found that information/arrived at that conclusion.
How to Facilitate Self-Questioning
Students are required to assess their own learning on the exit tickets. They will be asked two nano-content questions from the day (if appropriate), a connection between the content and the driving question, and an update on group progress (once they start working on the project). This will be a form of self-evaluation and self-questioning. This will also be addressed during the debriefing periods every day as students update the Know/Need to know list with their new questions and answering their own questions. The teacher will encourage students at the beginning of every class during the debriefing time to discuss with their group by asking:
- What questions do you have about the project or content?
- What questions do you still have about how to have a successful product?
- What questions could we eliminate or answer?
- So that you can better collaborate, what questions do you still have for your group members about the project?
Scaffolds
Students will be given group roles in order to define what they need to be doing as they collaborate with team members. Students will have time to understand their roles and will use a guide to help them know what they are supposed to do. As they practice their roles, they will no longer need to refer to the roles guide. The timing of removing this scaffolding is on an individual basis. Timing guides will also be used to help students make sure they keep track of where they need to be spending their time on their project. Students initially will depend on the timing guide to cover their material but as they start working on their project and get in a rhythm they will need it less and less. The need to know form will also help students to see the questions they need to answer as they move through the unit. As we answer these questions, they will be updated on a google doc for students to see. This will gradually remove the questions students need to know which provides scaffolding for their learning, Another form of scaffolding is their proposal. Being able to see what is expected and giving students a chance to see mini-presentations gives them feedback and scaffolds their final presentation. When they get to their final presentation that feedback will be removed, giving them the ability to experience success on their own.