Greetings from Nashville, home of the NSTA National Convention for 2016! This is my very first NSTA conference, and boy did I pick an amazing one to start with. From the moment we stepped off the plane things have run seamlessly with healthy doses of southern hospitality. My travel companions (my mom and youngest daughter, Fiona) and I are staying at the absolutely beautiful Hutton Hotel, about a mile away from the Music City Convention Center where the conference is being held. While it would have been great to stay a little closer to the convention center itself, the shuttle service provided by NSTA has been an easy way to get back and forth when you don't feel like making the trek on foot. I really can't say enough positive things about the staff here at the hotel, they have gone out of their way to help me (and my mom while I'm at the conference) with anything that we have needed. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Nashville!
Prior to coming to NSTA, I had a very difficult time deciding which sessions to attend. I reached out to some of my wonderful colleagues in my Twitter PLN and received some great advice about deciding on a couple topics that I'd most like to learn more about, and focus my sessions around those. My initial list had six or seven topics, and some time slots on my scheduled filled with four or more sessions happening concurrently! Since I have yet to figure out how to physically be in four places at once, I had to narrow my focus even more. I am a huge proponent of the Next Generation Science Standards and am always looking for information and strategies that will help ease the transition to those standards next school year. I chose to narrow the scope even further by focusing on the science and engineering practices of modeling and argumentation, and on the planning and developing assessments that align with NGSS.
Here are my thoughts on some of the sessions I have attended thus far.
Modeling Beyond the Flashlight & Beach Ball
The big take away for me from the session was how modeling can be used to elicit student misconceptions and the importance of having students investigate a phenomena that challenges their “mental model” of how or why the phenomena occurs. I can really see using the practice moving forward as a method of both preassessment and post assessment - which will also easily incorporate 2 of the three dimensions into the assessment (that pesky CCC). I think that using the modeling process would highlight student misconceptions in their initial models which would allow for the teacher to design activities and investigations in the learning progression that really challenge the misconceptions the students showed and would provide a great opportunity for reflection on how their initial model changes as they have their misconceptions challenged. The post assessment could easily be to model a particular concept after the learning progression - this would also give teachers a GREAT way to see where students were still struggling in order to drive reteaching.
Scaffolding for Argumentation
The highlight of this session was the presentation of ways to differentiate argumentation for students who are struggling as well as ways to increase the rigor for students needing additional challenge. With argumentation being such a big part of both the NextGen standards AND Common Core standards, the session was packed! Our department is currently working on teaching argumentation using the Claim Evidence Reasoning (CER) framework, and much of the presentation focused on how the presenters use this in their classrooms. Reasoning is one of the things my students struggle the most with; often they just restate the evidence without making the connections to the scientific principles being covered in class. One idea that was presented for working with struggling students was using leveled current event type articles from sources like Newsela to help students take a position on a debatable issue and highlighting evidence within the text that supports their position. She selects the article(s) and dedicates a significant amount of class time to modeling by "think aloud" as she reads the article aloud. The process is repeated in subsequent classes, each time with a different focus (find the data, finding the scientific explanation) prior to working with small groups to develop initial attempts at taking a position on the issue and writing a claim.
To increase rigor for students, the co-presenter recommended adding a third, and then fourth, 'R' to the mix. The first was Rebuttal, and one of my favorite quotes from the session, "Find your counter evidence, acknowledge it, and then tear it apart!" I know our language arts teachers are working with students to write counter-claims as part of their argument writing so it seems to be a great for for science classes to support that as well. The last 'R' was for Revision, and this could be used before or after Rebuttal. In revision, students provide feedback to their peers about ways to improve their arguments. The students then have the opportunity to revise their arguments based on the feedback that they received. I particularly like this piece because it sends the message to students that they can always improve - nothing is final or set in stone if they're willing to take the feedback and make the changes (growth mindset).
More later; I am looking forward to my Short Course on Modeling tomorrow morning!
I'd love to hear how you're using modeling in the classroom or how you've helped students develop their argument writing skills! If you're lucky enough to be in Nashville, what sessions are you enjoying? What have been the biggest AHA moments thus far?
Prior to coming to NSTA, I had a very difficult time deciding which sessions to attend. I reached out to some of my wonderful colleagues in my Twitter PLN and received some great advice about deciding on a couple topics that I'd most like to learn more about, and focus my sessions around those. My initial list had six or seven topics, and some time slots on my scheduled filled with four or more sessions happening concurrently! Since I have yet to figure out how to physically be in four places at once, I had to narrow my focus even more. I am a huge proponent of the Next Generation Science Standards and am always looking for information and strategies that will help ease the transition to those standards next school year. I chose to narrow the scope even further by focusing on the science and engineering practices of modeling and argumentation, and on the planning and developing assessments that align with NGSS.
Here are my thoughts on some of the sessions I have attended thus far.
Modeling Beyond the Flashlight & Beach Ball
The big take away for me from the session was how modeling can be used to elicit student misconceptions and the importance of having students investigate a phenomena that challenges their “mental model” of how or why the phenomena occurs. I can really see using the practice moving forward as a method of both preassessment and post assessment - which will also easily incorporate 2 of the three dimensions into the assessment (that pesky CCC). I think that using the modeling process would highlight student misconceptions in their initial models which would allow for the teacher to design activities and investigations in the learning progression that really challenge the misconceptions the students showed and would provide a great opportunity for reflection on how their initial model changes as they have their misconceptions challenged. The post assessment could easily be to model a particular concept after the learning progression - this would also give teachers a GREAT way to see where students were still struggling in order to drive reteaching.
Scaffolding for Argumentation
The highlight of this session was the presentation of ways to differentiate argumentation for students who are struggling as well as ways to increase the rigor for students needing additional challenge. With argumentation being such a big part of both the NextGen standards AND Common Core standards, the session was packed! Our department is currently working on teaching argumentation using the Claim Evidence Reasoning (CER) framework, and much of the presentation focused on how the presenters use this in their classrooms. Reasoning is one of the things my students struggle the most with; often they just restate the evidence without making the connections to the scientific principles being covered in class. One idea that was presented for working with struggling students was using leveled current event type articles from sources like Newsela to help students take a position on a debatable issue and highlighting evidence within the text that supports their position. She selects the article(s) and dedicates a significant amount of class time to modeling by "think aloud" as she reads the article aloud. The process is repeated in subsequent classes, each time with a different focus (find the data, finding the scientific explanation) prior to working with small groups to develop initial attempts at taking a position on the issue and writing a claim.
To increase rigor for students, the co-presenter recommended adding a third, and then fourth, 'R' to the mix. The first was Rebuttal, and one of my favorite quotes from the session, "Find your counter evidence, acknowledge it, and then tear it apart!" I know our language arts teachers are working with students to write counter-claims as part of their argument writing so it seems to be a great for for science classes to support that as well. The last 'R' was for Revision, and this could be used before or after Rebuttal. In revision, students provide feedback to their peers about ways to improve their arguments. The students then have the opportunity to revise their arguments based on the feedback that they received. I particularly like this piece because it sends the message to students that they can always improve - nothing is final or set in stone if they're willing to take the feedback and make the changes (growth mindset).
More later; I am looking forward to my Short Course on Modeling tomorrow morning!
I'd love to hear how you're using modeling in the classroom or how you've helped students develop their argument writing skills! If you're lucky enough to be in Nashville, what sessions are you enjoying? What have been the biggest AHA moments thus far?