Welcome to the Science Leadership Support

Network!

• Post the questions you have concerning personal communication that arose from your reading of Ch. 8 in CASL on the designated chart.

• Post the personal communication strategies that you use that were not mentioned in Ch. 8 on the designated chart.

The SLSN is supported by the Kentucky Department of Education and PIMSER.

Goals of SLSNGoals of SLSN

Participants will:• Articulate the “big ideas” in science, together with

teacher and student understandings (content, process, relevance) that underlie them.

• Develop a broader understanding of assessment and how to use a variety of assessment strategies in support of student learning.

• Develop and act on a personal vision of leadership for sustainable improvement in their school or district.

Group Norms

• Start and end on time

• Put cell phones on silent

• Be respectful of all comments

• Everyone participates

• Exercise the rule of “two feet”

• Come prepared for the meeting

Review

• Reviewed quality item development.• Reviewed and provided feedback on the

deconstructed standards for properties of matter.

• Reviewed and revised the MC and ORQ’s developed during the summer.

• Began developing an instructional model for effective instruction in science.

Roadmap for the Day

Personal Communication

Learning Targets:• I know how to gather

information, make inferences about student understanding, and determine next steps in instruction from PC methods.

• I know some notebooking strategies and could implement them for use in the science classroom.

Personal Communication

• QuestioningQuestioning strategies that promote reasoning

• Conferences and Interviews• Class Discussions

Considerations and deliberate planning

• Oral Exams• Journals and Logs

Science notebooks

How many ways can you * ?

• Working with your members of your grade band group, classify the question stems by reasoning type.

• Working with your “expert” group, generate a list of “signal words” for your group’s reasoning type.

• Using STM standards for your grade band/level, write a couple of questions that could be used to elicit understanding for that reasoning type.

• With these questions and standards in mind, brainstorm some possible next steps for instruction if students lack understanding.

How many ways can you * ?

• Rejoin your original group.• Take 3 minutes per reasoning type to share

signal words, example questions, and next step considerations and complete your organizer.

• As a group, determine one key idea about reasoning questions as a form of AFL to share with the whole group.

• “…rigor is not simply about students being given more or harder work. Rigor is about what students are able to do as a result of a lesson.”– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership

Class Discussions

• As you watch the video clip of the teacher using a class discussion as AFL, note 3 or 4 key points to consider.

• What distinguishes a class discussion as AFL from other classroom discourse?

Seattle’s Science Notebook Program

• Students are motivated to learn new concepts and skills when they are engaged in meaningful learning experiences, such as those in inquiry-based science units.

• The ultimate goal is for students to develop an understanding of science concepts, and to do so, they must learn how to think scientifically.

Seattle’s Science Notebook Program

• Students also need to learn specific scientific skills (e.g., making observations and interpreting data) and forms of expository writing (e.g., data analysis and conclusions) to help them construct their understanding of concepts and develop their ability to think analytically. Science notebooks serve as a tool in this learning.

Seattle’s Science Notebook Program

• Students need scaffolding and modeling to help them learn science concepts, scientific thinking and skills, and expository writing.

• Elementary students have limited time and energy for making entries in their science notebooks, so their entries should focus on expository writing that will deepen their conceptual understanding and/or develop their scientific skills and thinking.

Writing in Science:How to Scaffold Instruction to Support Learning

Science Session• Engagement

– Date and Focus Question

• Active Investigation– Record data, take notes,

make illustrations or diagrams

• Shared Reflection

• Application

Writing Session• Shared Review

– Questions about shared reflection of conclusions based on focus question

• Shared Writing– Model structure

• Scaffolding• Independent Writing

– Use scaffolding to complete notebook entries

Science Notebooks• The science notebook is not a product

that looks good, but it is a product to support learning and to develop expository writing skills.

• The science notebook is not about what students did, but it is about helping them to make meaning of what they did.

• Avoid having students write about how they felt, what was their favorite…,what they did, or a generic, “What did you learn today?”

• Notebooks should be for formative rather than summative purposes and, therefore, should not be graded.

Science Notebook “Rules”

• Date, in numerals, the first page of the entry.

• Write a focus or investigative question for each lesson.

• Write something about each science session.

• Write legibly (not necessarily their “best handwriting”).

Science Session

Engagement

• Write the date in numerals on the first page of your notebook entry.

• Write the focus question on the top line of your notebook entry page.

Active Investigation

Shared Reflection• Discuss investigation• Introduce word bank

– “Students must learn scientific vocabulary after they have had a concrete experience.”

– “Ideas develop from experiences, and technical terms develop from the ideas and operations that are rooted in those experiences. When terms come first, students just tend to memorize so much technical jargon that it sloughs off in a short while.”

– Organize the words conceptually, rather than randomly or alphabetically.– Write “generic” science vocabulary in a different color than you will use for

the unit words. The “generic” word cards can be reused with any/every science unit.

– Add an icon or simple diagram to help students remember the term’s meaning.

– Make multiple copies of the words and place on word bank or in envelopes, so when it is time to write in their science notebooks, students can have a copy at their desks.

Application

• How does the investigation connect to other observations or experiences that you have had?

• What are other questions that you have as a result of the investigation?

Writing Session

Shared Review

• Focus is on processing what was learned from the investigation.

• Question students about the shared reflection of conclusions from the science session.

• “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to think like a rocket scientist.”

– Gerry Wheeler, NSTA Executive Director

Shared Writing

• Model structure as the students provide the content.

• Focus of writing will be on:– Comparing and contrasting– Cause and effect– ReasoningData analysis– Drawing conclusions from data

ScaffoldingData Analysis Writing• Introductory/topic sentence:

– This graph/table shows…

• Summarize the data:– Qualitative data

• More/less; longer/shorter

– Quantitative data• Actual quantities/measurements

• Concluding statement(s):– Therefore, I think…

• Outliers, inconsistent data– Some data were inconsistent. I think this happened, because…

• Connection to the real world– This information could be important because…

Independent Writing

• Use scaffolding to write in science notebooks

Web Link for State Multiple List for Science

http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Curriculum+Documents+and+Resources/Textbooks+and+Instructional+Resources/Adoption+Group+III+-+Science+-+2008+-+2014.htm

Leadership Development

Learning Target:• I can connect the 7

disciplines for strengthening instruction with my work as a science leader.

Reinventing Education

Before Reading:• At the beginning of this article

Wagner states, “…the problem is not that teachers and students are failing, but that the system is obsolete. Reforming our present system is not the solution. We need to reinvent it.”

• If you were given ‘absolute power’ to REINVENT your school, what would it look like? What would drive your decisions?

During/After Reading:• In the last section of the article

Wagner says that, “I personally believe that powerful questions drive learning, answers do not drive learning.”

• What questions really drive the work in your building or district currently? Who’s posing the questions? Who’s trying to answer them? How?

Leading and Supporting Instructional Improvement

Excerpted from a Presentation by

Tony Wagner, Co-Director

Change Leadership Group, Harvard University

A “Theory of Change”

• Student achievement will not improve unless and until teaching improves. Higher standards, more testing, smaller schools, etc. do not, by themselves, improve teaching.

• Teachers, working alone, with little or no feedback on their instruction, will not be able to improve significantly—no matter how much PD they receive.

The NEW Work: 7 Disciplines for Strengthening Instruction

1. The district or school creates understanding and urgency around improving ALL students’ learning for teachers and community and they regularly report on progress.

• Data is disaggregated and transparent to everyone

• Qualitative (focus groups and interviews) as well as quantitative data is used to understand students’ and recent graduates’ experience of school.

2. There is a widely shared vision of what is good teaching which is focused on rigor, the quality of student engagement, and effective methods for personalizing learning for all students.

• Either developed by the district or by the school

3. All adult meeting are about instruction and are models of good teaching.

4. There are well-defined performance standards and assessments for student work at all grade levels. Both teachers and students understand what quality work looks like, and there is consistency in standards of assessment.

5. Supervision is frequent, rigorous, and entirely focused on the improvement of instruction. It is done by people who know what good teaching looks like.

6. Professional Development is primarily on-site, intensive, collaborative, and job-embedded and is designed and led by educators who model best teaching and learning practices.

7. Data is used diagnostically at frequent intervals by teams of teachers to assess each student’s learning and to identify the most effective teaching practices, and teams have time built into their schedules for this shared work.

“Reinventing” What & How We Teach: The New 3 “R’s” for the 21st Century

• RIGOR– Teaching students to use their minds well and to communicate clearly

• RELEVANCE– Helping students to understand why something is important to learn– Fostering curiosity & life-long learning by providing students opportunities to explore

learning that is personally relevant to them

• RELATIONSHIPS/RESPECT– Students won’t learn or work hard for teachers who do not respect them– You can’t motivate a student you don’t know

Looking for Evidence of the 3 “R’s”: 7 Questions for Students

1. What is the purpose of this lesson?2. Why is this important to learn?3. In what ways are you challenged to think in this lesson?4. How will you apply, assess, or communicate what

you’ve learned?5. Do you know how good your work is, and how you can

improve it?6. Do you feel respected by other students in this class?7. Do you feel respected by the teacher in this class?

“Reinventing” How We Work Together: Creating “Communities of Practice”

• For Teachers/Counselors– Work in small groups to analyze “problems of practice” (i.e., looking at individual

students, student work, teacher work and case studies)– Developing lessons collaboratively– Observing one another teach/advise and peer coaching

• For Principals– Share and critique draft School Improvement Plans– Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of teacher supervision; role-play

supervision conferences with teachers– Plan “problem-solving” faculty meetings and seek feedback from teachers

• For Central Office– Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of school and principal supervision; role-

play supervision conferences with principals– Plan “problem-solving” administrator meetings and seek feedback from principals and other staff

on meetings as models of good teaching/learning

Thinking Systemically & Working Strategically: 4 “Rigorous” Questions for Leaders

1. What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? -What does it have to do with improving teaching and learning? -What data (qualitative/quantitative) have you used to understand the problem?

2. What is your strategy for solving this problem? -Why did you choose this strategy? What others did you consider? -Can you clearly explain your “theory of action” (i.e., how you think this strategy

will solve the problem you’ve identified?)

3. Who is accountable for what to solve this problem? -What do they need to get the job done?

4. What data will you track to tell you whether you’re making progress in solving this problem?

Instructional Model for Science

Learning Target:• I can identify areas on

which to focus in order to develop a robust model for effective science instruction.

• “Unless and until there is a focus on how to develop the teaching skills required to help all students meet more rigorous standards and master the curriculum (and all teachers use assessments to improve instruction), student achievement is unlikely to improve more than marginally.”– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership

Qualities of Good Science Instruction

• Examine the categorized list of criteria generated by this group for “good” science instruction.

• Working with your table group, match your criteria with one of the 10 questions from Marzano for developing models of instruction.

• Where are the areas of strong correlation?• Where are the gaps?• What criteria need operationalized?

• “Without agreed-upon definitions (or at least a clarification of how a person is using a term) and observable data that support the person’s assessment of the lesson, conversations about teaching and learning remain ethereal, reinforcing the teaching profession’s weak craft knowledge base, professional language, and standards of practice. We need agreed-upon criteria.”– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership

Qualities of Good Science Instruction

• Spend-a-buck– You have 4 “quarters”

(colored dots).

– Based on the comparison of our criteria to Marzano’s framework, “vote” for the question(s) you feel we need to explore in more detail.

• “Berliner ultimately concludes that effective teaching is a dynamic mixture of expertise in a vast array of instructional strategies combined with a profound understanding of the individual students in class and their needs at particular points in time.”– Robert Marzano, The Art and Science of Teaching from

“In Pursuit of the Expert Pedagogue”

Roadmap for the Day

Take Home Messages

• A wide array of personal communication techniques can be employed to uncover student thinking in order to inform instruction. They require deliberate planning.

• Science notebooks should be used to help students learn science content, to think scientifically, and to communicate scientifically.

• A shared vision of good teaching is essential for robust improvement.

Next Meeting

• October 24th

• Read Ch. 7 in CASL• Read selected chapters

in The Art and Science of Teaching– How does this apply to

our developing instructional model?