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1 What's Really Different?
Pages 1-32

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From page 1...
... 1This description is a summary of classroom experiences in the second-grade classrooms of Lori Farkash, Nancy Jo Michael, and Ruth Purdie-Dyer, who worked with Brian Reiser and Michael Novak to develop a three-dimensional storyline intended to involve their students in science practices to get at key elements of the disciplinary core ideas about plant growth. Their storyline, with examples of student work, can be down loaded at http://www.nextgenstorylines.org/why-is-our-corn-changing [April 2016]
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... 2 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 3...
... SOURCE: 1-2 a variable they could manipulate; rather, the students themselves identified the need to resolve a question, and the teacher supported them in designing an experiment that would resolve it. Figure 1-1 shows part of the record the teacher made of the class discussion in which the students decided how to explore their questions about the corn.
From page 4...
... . 4 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 5...
... They are designed so that students will do science themselves, not just learn about how other people have done it or memorize facts. Good teachers have always known that learning doesn't happen in a tidy, straight line, but now research has given us ways to describe science learning more accurately.
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... 6 Seeing Students Learn Science
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... The crosscutting concepts are: • Patterns. Observed patterns of forms and events guide organization and classifica tion and prompt questions about relationships and the factors that influence them.
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... . 8 Seeing Students Learn Science
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... It is important to learn science this way because doing science requires multilayered thinking. The practices that scientists and engineers use are tools for collecting or making sense of data, testing a hypothesis, or in some way answering a question What's Really Different?
From page 10...
... It's a key aspect of the new vision for science learning. 10 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 11...
... Coherence Science education that helps students develop requires careful coordination of all its elements, or coherence. For a science education program to be coherent: • instruction, curriculum, and assessments, as well as professional development and other key elements, must all be aligned to the same learning objectives and work together to support student learning; and What's Really Different?
From page 12...
... 12 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 13...
... A big difference across the stages is seen in how crosscutting concepts and core disciplinary ideas are woven in. The phrases in italics in the learning progression in Box 1-2 show how ideas become more sophisticated over time -- each building on the strong foundation established in earlier years.
From page 14...
... The goals for units and stages of growth describe what can be expected of students at a particular stage; they are also stepping stones for the more sophisticated and complex understanding students will be capable of as they integrate crosscutting concepts with disciplinary core ideas, using their developing expertise with science and engineering practices. New science standards and curricula are designed so that students encounter concepts and practices as they are ready for them; the concepts and practices become more elaborate as students grow and gain experience.
From page 15...
... . Capitalizing on Students' Natural Curiosity One way to engage students in active science thinking -- and help them to see connections and to understand how and why science ideas are important -- is called "anchoring instruction in a phenomenon." With this approach, the teacher identifies a phenomenon -- a puzzling or counterintuitive circumstance, event, or process -- that is apparent to her students.
From page 16...
... . 16 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 17...
... All students bring valuable life experience and ideas to their classrooms, and their science learning is most successful when instruction draws on and connects with that richness. Because science involves specialized language, as well as the precise use of words and ideas that are understood more loosely outside the science context, English-language learners have an extra challenge in the science classroom.
From page 18...
... Key Ideas Teachers who are teaching in a three-dimensional way will structure student centered instruction that weaves together a wide variety of science practices with learning about ▲ ▲ important crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas; ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ is flexible, allowing students to explore as they pursue learning objectives; works cumulatively, helping students develop their understanding over time, and provides continuous support at all stages of the learning process; ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ engages students in investigating phenomena from everyday life; recognizes that learning requires repeated engagement with important ideas, guidance, and opportunities for reflection; and ▲ ▲ provides all students with avenues to science learning. A NEW WAY TO THINK ABOUT ASSESSMENT What exactly do all these changes mean for assessment?
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... Whether your school is using the NGSS or other standards that support three-dimensional science learning, you have learning goals What's Really Different?
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... 20 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 21...
... In this kind of system8: • all assessments are truly linked to instruction and curriculum so that each one is measuring -- and reinforcing -- what and how students are really taught; and • all assessments work together -- so that regardless of their purpose they reflect the same vision of how students learn science. The idea of an assessment system begins with a commonsense point: no one assessment -- or assessment occasion -- can meet all the needs for information about what students know and can do in science.
From page 22...
... Assessment Is Grounded in the Classroom Three-dimensional assessment for any purpose has to be grounded in what takes place in the classroom: that is, in the curriculum and the way it is taught. The classroom assessments you use are not an intrusion into what you do; they are an integral part of your teaching because you want information about what your 22 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 23...
... This sort of linkage has always been important, but aligning each element to a set of written standards is not enough. The three dimensions of science learning -- practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas -- need to play a part in everything teachers and students do in science class.
From page 24...
... . 24 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 25...
... Many factors could limit students' access to learning: Some are practical, such as a lack of resources, teachers who have not received necessary training and professional development, or insufficient time allotted for science learning. Other factors are more subtle, such as unrecognized assumptions about what will be familiar to students, or a reliance on communication styles that students are not comfortable with, which might impede their learning.
From page 26...
... Key Idea Assessments that measure three-dimensional science learning are integral to instruction because they allow the teacher to see how students are progressing. As districts and states adapt the NGSS-based approach to science education, all science assessments will need to be designed to measure three-dimensional learning that develops over time, and to work together as a system.
From page 27...
... Assessment of any sort is a way of gathering and evaluating information, and in that way, it is like a scientific investigation. As in a science investigation, you have to identify the precise questions you want to answer, design a way to collect data to answer these questions, and design a structure for interpreting your results.
From page 28...
... Summative assessments provide results that can be used for purposes such as: • assigning grades to individual students; • informing parents about their children's progress; 28 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 29...
... For example, a test that is designed at the district or state level to assess the understanding of a large group of students, such as all fourth graders, may not also provide informa tion about the specific areas that an individual student needs to work on. Different people have different reasons for asking questions about student learning, and you also will have different purposes for testing in your classroom depending on what aspects of your students' learning you are focused on.
From page 30...
... To do that fairly, you need to be sure that all 30 Seeing Students Learn Science
From page 31...
... Many three-dimensional assessments will have students engaged in doing science -- and won't just rely on paper-and pencil tasks -- but it is still possible to make these tasks consistent and even to standardize their admin istration for large-scale accountability purposes. You'll want to ensure that the conditions are consistent and that the guidance, resources, and support the students have access to as they do the activity are con sistent.
From page 32...
... Coherent instruction and curriculum will allow students to build increasingly complex understanding across their years of schooling. • Assessment is an integral aspect of this new kind of instruction because teach ers need regular information about students' developing capacity to integrate the three dimensions of science learning: the practices of science and engineer ing, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas.


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