Resource Blog #3

For my resource this week, I chose the website Science Friday. This website offers students and teachers weekly updates of what’s going on in the scientific world. There are articles and videos of topics ranging from current events, like tracking hurricane Dorian, to “Changing Up Your Homemade Ice Cream Recipe With Chemistry. The website also has a tab for educators that allows you to put in grade level, activity duration, and topic filters. It then compiles a list or resources, activities, and lesson plans for teacher use in the classroom. The website is great because it’s really informative of current points of discussion and issues plaguing our world. I could see myself using this website instead of a textbook as a tool in curating a lesson on climate change or ocean pollution. Not only is it a great way to build an engaging lesson for students, but the website also offers videos and articles on related subjects that students could view on their own time for extra enhancement.

I thought this was a great tool to use in a middle school science classroom since it has articles and videos covering so many topics we’ll study in class. It’s also free and accessible for students from home, in case they wanted to do their own exploring. Science Friday isn’t just limited to scientific topics, math and language arts topics are also available to choose from.

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Synthesis Blog 3

Chapter 6 in Subject Matters was all about textbooks; why they’re harmful and why they shouldn’t be our only resource. The chapter brought up some good points about teaching from the textbook that I hadn’t realized before. What stuck with me the most was how ill-designed they can be and how superficial they are. Textbooks shouldn’t be your one-stop shop when it comes to teaching material in the classroom. Teaching from the textbook is oftentimes extremely boring for students too. Most of the time a textbook gives information overload with copious amounts graphs, pictures, and anecdotes in an attempt to make something resonate with a student. This is unnecessary and just adds to the list of why other resources like videos, different texts, and activities should be supplemented in place of the textbook.

Textbooks are also really expensive, making it difficult for schools (and students) to constantly get the latest and greatest textbooks on the market. This can lead to outdated information or information that’s biased in general. Many times a textbook has a handful of authors and by teaching solely from the textbook you're constantly subjecting your students to the opinions of those few authors. By providing students with a multitude of resources, you’re creating well-rounded students that have been exposed to a multitude of opinions and perspectives. (WC: 219)

Resource Blog #2

For my resource this week I found a website called PlantingScience.org, and it connects teachers and students with plant scientists from around the world. The website offers students a unique experience by allowing them to create inquiry-based experiments alongside real scientists. Students collaborate with these volunteer scientist through a liaison in order to design and carry out an experiment. This would be a great resource when teaching topics like reproduction, genetics, and plant growth. The website offers teachers a step by step guide to use throughout the process, so it's very user-friendly. The best part about it is that it's completely free. The website also offers resources to students like, tips on basic plant care, where to begin when designing an experiment, and what steps should be taken to ensure a successful experiment. This program offers students the ability to practice authentic science all while enhancing their communication and collaboration skills, with their peers as well as professionals in the field.

While this website is strictly for science teachers I would encourage teachers in other content areas to look into programs that offer this type of collaboration with professionals. It's a great way for students to receive extra guidance and ask questions we may not know the answers to.
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Synthesis Post #2

I can remember in middle school the embarrassment that would follow after mispronouncing a word during "popcorn reading" or the buildup of anxiety as your turn approaches. You reread your assigned paragraph, carefully practicing any big words you might stumble over. That's not how students should feel in the classroom when having to read aloud. Chapter 11 in Subject Matters states, "Many struggling readers feel that adults have somehow abandoned them, or pre-concluded that they are failures. Effective teachers find their own individual ways to demonstrate that this is not true" (Subject Matters, pg. 281). It's incredibly important to make your students feel comfortable in your classroom, especially students who may be struggling. If they feel like they can read a text and mess up without being embarrassed by their peers or lectured by the teacher they'll be less stressed and more willing to participate since there is no fear of failure. The chapter discussed a multitude of strategies for struggling readers beyond making students feel comfortable and taking away that fear of failure inside the classroom.

Reading is more than reciting a text fluently it's comprehending it as well. So, what do we do to ensure comprehension in our subject areas? Engagement in the text was the strategy that stood out to me the most. Students all have different learning styles so I think engagement of the text through drawing or acting things out it a great way to bring in differentiated learning. For example, my content area is science, so having students draw the stages of mitosis while they read a passage about the process would stimulate tactile/kinesthetic learners. Having students play the role of a cell, chromosomes, or sister chromatids, etc. and act out each phase of cell division would help visual learners see and understand the process, and listening to someone read the phases out loud would help auditory learners. Engagement in the text is key to a higher level of comprehension, so it's our job as teachers to go beyond assigning a text and having the class read it out loud. We need to cater to every students learning type and create lesson plans that immerse the students in their reading.
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