Guiding Student's Thinking

I believe the best ways we can connect our lessons to the science standard's and engage student's thinking is by first introducing the content and letting students explore the material. It is easy to just tell students what they need to know, but when this happens the student's are not learning. We need to let them demonstrate what they already know and be aware of the misunderstandings student's hold. Practice 1 discusses the importance of anticipating student responses so teachers are prepared for what students may be thinking and can then guide their thought process towards an understanding of the concepts. The 4th practices highlights the importance of the sequence of the lessons and how it will unfold. These practices can be strategically used to enhance the NGSS's #8 and #9 and improve students learning.

In a lesson about static electricity students will first be asked to observe what is happening in the image or a similar demonstration in the classroom. One way of engaging students right at the beginning of a lesson is to first introduce a project, experiment, or a question for them to consider. We can then ask students to write down their observations and what claims they are making about they see. Student's can also support these claims with evidence they are observing and begin to think about the scientific reasoning behind their claims and the evidence they acquired. We must also be monitoring student responses here and try to guide them away from misconceptions they are holding, which is connected to Practice #2.

Students may then be asked to discuss the observations or claims made amongst their groups and to think about the evidence and reasoning that supports this claim. At this point the teacher still hasn't delivered any concrete explanations and the students are doing the talking and learning. The students are developing understandings on their own while exploring the concepts and then having a chance to explore their own findings by communicating with their peers. By engaging students first and allowing them to explore the material by making their own observations and discussing with their peers, students are able to have voice in the classroom and are responsible for their learning.