Analyzing Sources and Making the Thinking Visible and Apparent to Others

As teachers, we must ask ourselves...

1. If students are asked to analyze sources, then how will I use the notebook to assess this skill ? 
2. How do students make their thinking apparent and visible to me, the teacher? 

Mrs. Meier's 5th graders are using the colony of Jamestown as an entry point to thinking about the broader conceptual ideas within the unit.  Throughout the Changing Face of North America unit, conceptual goals ask students to think about social/cultural, economic, and political institutions.  In addition, one desired result states that students will be able to analyze primary and secondary sources.

Mrs. Meir found a lesson (Stage 3 - Resources, CCAP) as part of Jamestown as a Case Study.  

To view the actual linked resource, look here. 

As part of analysis, students looked at the pictures and determined what elements of culture were revealed in the pictures.  Students would show their thinking by marking the different clues about culture on a chart.  Student charts looked different, giving the teacher an opportunity to formatively assess student application of skills; she could look to see how well students were analyzing the images. The thinking and writing process was modeled so students could see the thinking that was needed and how to show that thinking in their notebooks.  Here are two samples of student notebooks:

As you look at the skill goals for a unit, you are paying close attention to what students should be able to do. Paying attention to skill goals is one way to plan with the end in mind.  In addition, since we don't have the ability to see inside a student's mind, we have to show students (by modeling) how to take their thinking and make it apparent and visible to others. This is one reason why students use a notebook in science and social studies.  It's a place for students to show their application of skills.  They can use writing to show the thinking taking place inside their heads.

What are next steps?  Mrs. Meier is going to make an instructional choice about how students can use this information.  Students might apply this content knowledge to other skills or students use use this to connect with essential questions (conceptual goals).

Changing Face of North America: Connecting Facts/Details to the Concepts

This week, we had an excellent conversation about the unit Changing Face of North America: Emergence of a New World Society.  In this unit, it's easy for teachers to think that lots of content information is important.  As we look at concept-based instruction, one thing we have to remember as teachers that more information does not necessarily equate to smarter students.  Concept-based instruction involves helping students to connect the facts they learn to the broader, more enduring concepts.  In looking at the role of the notebook as part of this learning, we asked this question. "How do we support students in connecting facts/details to concepts?"  We discussed establishing some pages as "holding places" within the notebook that students would come back to often as they learn more factual information and work to connect these facts to different conceptual lenses.

The use of essential questions is connected to inquiry (and to concept-based instruction).  As students learn more information, they can approach each essential question with greater complexity.  Essential questions are written with students as the audience while their corresponding understandings are written with teachers as the audience.

Last, when teachers look at the Stage 1 Desired Results for a unit of study, there are content specific words and phrases that can also be used by teachers and students in classroom conversations (and writing).  These words and phrases are Big Ideas or Organizing Concepts.  In this unit, these words and phrases are connected to history and geography.  Teachers might consider how to weave this vocabulary and these ideas into classroom discussion (and writing) knowing that these big ideas and organizing concepts continue to appear for students from preschool through 12th grade.  

As we move ahead in our learning, 5th grade teachers at Van Arsdale are going to explore how they might use the notebook to connect students to the unit's concepts (essential questions, big ideas, and organizing concepts).  These connections help students to make sense of their learning so the unit is not about a string of facts; the unit is about broader concepts and students have the opportunity to connect the facts/details to the broader concepts.

Writing to Learn at the Hutchinson Staff Meeting

September 11, 2013

The inquiry notebooking team met with the Hutchinson staff Wednesday morning.

We began our meeting looking at how they have begun to build a foundation for their inquiry classroom.  We did this through a Schoology discussion.  Check out the conversation here.

We moved into thinking about how Writing to Learn can be used a foundation for using science and social studies notebooks effectively.  We looked at some resources from the CALI and support documents. You can find them under the Notebook resources in our Schoology group.

Next, grade-level teams and bands met together to answer some questions about Writing to Learn.  Here are the charts that were developed:

Kindergarten and First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth and Sixth Grades

Teachers determined next steps and made a plan on a sticky note.  Here is a collection of the words teachers used:

Thank you Hutchinson teachers for the thoughtful conversations.  

We look forward to our continued partnership!