On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
I started the year with a grand plan for portfolios. But like most plans, it got changed dramatically. But, I do like that I am iterating the work we are doing in class to match a purpose. At the beginning of the year I had a plan to have a portfolio page per unit that would contain
- List of outcomes for the unit
- Reflections on formative quizzes
- Unit reflection with presentation of summative assessment
As we are moving towards adopting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), I’ve been using science practices as overarching outcomes in assessing student work. So, these same outcomes are addressed across multiple units. This along with a conversation with some people at state ASCD convention, led me to rethink the portfolio design.
The portfolio still has a home page, passion page (where they embed YouTube videos that represent their interests and aspirations), and “Me as a Learner” page (where the learner profile/preferences are housed). But, I’ve changed the unit pages into pages based on the 8 overarching science practices identified by NGSS (we've formally assessed 5 so far). All reflections will be housed on a separate page just for reflections. The hopes are that someday this will develop into a blog type component.
For each Science Practice page, student were required to give a brief introduction of explaining the science practice itself.
After the introduction, students are required to present two pieces of evidence from the term that demonstrate competency for this practice. It turns out that this was a great way to help us all see and understand what each practice was outside of being in the experience of the activity.
I really appreciate this idea of curation and choice of artifacts rather than me just mandating what should be in there. What I really enjoyed was discussing the relevancy of presenting artifacts as evidence of a competency and how that is a lifelong skill that will extend beyond any classroom into the workplace.
The ease of Google Sites has made this processes so much easier to embed evidence and provide a reflection. In addition, Alice Keeler’s WebCam Record Chrome Extension made it possible for those students who have difficulties typing to reflect using a webcam video saved to Google Drive. The students can embed those videos in their portfolio from Google Drive!
I look forward to having students continue to add evidence as they progress through these different practices.
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