It’s now been a month since I’ve been back at school, and I’ve got to be honest here. I have to admit that I haven’t been working too hard at trying to incorporate what I’ve learned from Lesley this past summer. I haven’t been writing little notes to remind myself to "give reason", or to create lists of probing questions to ask my students. I haven’t been sitting down trying to come up with new ways to get my students to share their ideas about science. Many of those things that I thought I’d be doing to make my lessons better, aren't even getting a second thought. I guess I should feel somewhat guilty, but I don’t.
I don’t feel guilty because I don’t have to think twice about what I learned this summer! Everything is coming out naturally. I’m asking my students to make their predictions and support them with their own reasons. I’m listening to their ideas and asking, “Why do you think…?” The words “tell me more” roll off my tongue. On some occasions, I consciously caught myself giving reason to “abstract” student responses, which in the past wouldn’t have caused hiccough in the day’s lesson. It has been so easy to follow the path that I tread this summer. Students in my classroom are already benefiting from Lesley almost as much as their teacher.
I’ve found the easiest way to get my students to share their ideas through predicting! I don’t know why I rarely did this before, but I’ve only now started asking my students to give reasons for their predictions. Now, I want to know why they predicted something to happen just as much as I want to hear their prediction. For example, we investigated leaves using qualitative and quantitative observations as few weeks ago. The students needed to predict what kind of leave they might find on a tree, in the woods, behind our school. Then they were asked to supply reasons for their hypotheses. On the first day, they drew pictures and wrote down predictions for shape, color, length width, texture, disease, insect damage, and etc. They also had to share that all important reason for each prediction they made. I liked these: “The leaf will be green in color because it contains a green pigment called chlorophyll” Or, “The leaf will be multicolored since leaves change color in the fall.” (These questions would set up so many probing questions to explore.) I didn’t accept any one-word answers. They had to tell me more! The second day, involved the data collection in the field. On the third day, I passed back their papers to compare their predictions and actual observations. I got quite a surprise as each student was handed his or her papers. The kids were visibly shocked by what they saw on their sheets. Some gasped when they realized how far off they were, while others couldn’t believe how close there predictions were to the actual leaf collected out back. I heard comments like these: “What was I thinking?” “I knew there were oak trees out there, and that’s what I found!” “I thought the leaves would have changed color by now!” “I think a caterpillar was eating my leaf.” We had a great time, sharing their ideas as well as the reasons why! I want more!
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