They are creating a public service announcement that draws attention to their area and why we should visit it. Monday and Tuesday next week they will be building their psa. They are learning how to research! We are trying to teach them to get away from asking Google and teaching them to use key words. One of the search tools we used yesterday was using the search tools on Google after you have typed in what you are searching for. Then click on all results and reading level and the students are able to choose from a significantly fewer choices from 3 different levels. Basic, intermediate and advanced. This was a huge help and we are learning weekly how to be better researchers.
The kids have been researching their specific ecoregions this week. They are finding how about how their area was shaped and when it was shaped. They are finding out about the types of rocks and soil that make it up and if their area has a solution or a plan in place to deal with pollution. They are creating a public service announcement that draws attention to their area and why we should visit it. Monday and Tuesday next week they will be building their psa. They are learning how to research! We are trying to teach them to get away from asking Google and teaching them to use key words. One of the search tools we used yesterday was using the search tools on Google after you have typed in what you are searching for. Then click on all results and reading level and the students are able to choose from a significantly fewer choices from 3 different levels. Basic, intermediate and advanced. This was a huge help and we are learning weekly how to be better researchers. We are still doing a vocab weekly. Trying to figure out how to get the kids to make sure they are looking at it. Many yesterday said that they haven't looked at the vocab since our test a week a ago! Well, ok. We have been focusing on weathering, erosion and deposition and still have some confusion. So, we are back in Socrative and doing Space Race. The kids LOVE it and are competing and even improving on their vocab..... Check out the pics!
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Parents, ALL homework links are on the Boyd7science homework page.
Students, ALL homework links are on the Boyd7science homework page and on Google Classroom page. Monday we will begin our new project with our driving question, problem statement and knows and need to knows. Our driving question is "How can we educate our community on the effects of erosion?" Tuesday there will be a flipclass assignment that will be due on Thursday. This can be done at home, in the mornings at tutorials, during 5th period tutorials, (maybe) in class. There isn't always classtime to work on it. It is supposed to be considered homework and it is used to reinforce what we are studying. It may be a google form or a google doc. The instructions for turning in a google doc are on the homework page. The students are aware of how this works as well. We grade notebooks weekly. Daily we go over test questions and why they answered what they did. The students are responsible for getting everything written in their notebooks. The page # is posted daily for them when writing their bellringers and the table of contents with page numbers are posted in the classroom. I am experimenting with redos in my class. I started seeing a trend of missed comprehension in the questions that they were answering after reading. My goal isn't to "catch" them and count items wrong, it is to ensure they are reading and understanding what it is that we are talking about. So, I made everyone who didn't master the questions, partner up, read the article out loud and then analyze the questions. That made for some good conversations. It did work and all grades improved. In the questions I noted that there is a huge misconception for them that erosion and weathering are the same. We are focusing heavily on that. We have started using our online techbook through Discovery Education. This will also go along with what we are studying. It will include reading passages and videos. I'm still trying to convince them that they don't need to ask me if "this is right?". They do need to discuss with their groups, they do need to follow directions, they do need to read the instructions. Slowly but surely, we are trying.... Last January, my students and I were trying to figure out some of the tricks to the Chromebooks to make life easier. We discovered how to do the degree symbol by this combination of keys:
ctrl + shift + u, release, shift + b, release, 0, space. It is a bit tedious and today someone posted a much easier combination. Thanks DJ! shift + alt + : all at the same time and it will make the ° symbol. Let me know if it works and where you are visiting from!!!! |
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