Grouping Students

For the beginning of this unit it would be beneficial to keep them as a whole group as I would be presenting new material about atomic states and physical/chemical properties. As the teacher I would lead the class in a brief lecture to introduce the concept.

After going over the bulk of the information of the new lesson I would have the students break apart into small independent groups to work on the handout on which they are instructed to identify physical or chemical properties. When grouping the students for this task I would want to ensure that the students are grouped with others they would mesh with or work well with. Obviously I would have to be sure to not group all the extroverts together because they could very easily go off topic. In the same reasoning I could not group all introverts together because they might have a hard time getting started. I would want to make sure that they are equally spread out amongst the groups. I would also need to take their learning levels into consideration. Pairing up advanced students with those that struggle would be beneficial.

We would then as a whole group go over our answers and see where some might disagree. I think having an open discussion furthers the learning of the students so they can see as the different views of their peers. For the last part of the lesson I have the students come up with their own chemical or physical properties they see in the world. It would be beneficial for students to work in pairs and defend their answers to each other. Again I would want to pair those struggling students up with somewhat advanced ones to ensure that they can feed off each other.

When grouping students it is important to remember that the goal is for all of the students to succeed. Yes grouping struggling students with advanced students can help both but we need to make sure that the struggling students are willing to try and won’t just bring down the whole group. At the same time you want to make sure that all students are given a fighting chance to learn.

References:

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Organizing for Teaching and Learning. In Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness(2nd ed., pp. 130-135). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy

	Text Link	Rationale for Choosing	Text Frame(s)	Strategy Used and Resource
Engagement Example	Artificial Sweeteners: Friends or Foes?	This article is relevant and informative to students and their diets. It gives just enough scientific evidence in simple text so that students can still comprehend the focus.	Concept/Definition	Power Notes (Buehl)
Guiding Example	Rewritable paper: Prints with light, not ink	This article tackles the ever growing problem of wasting paper. It offers an alternative paper that uses chemicals as the ink that disappears after the chemical reaction is complete.	Concept/definition Problem/solution	Bookmark Technique (McLaughlin)
Extended Thinking	Why Metals Have a Blast in Water	This article was chosen because it involves explosion and that always gets a student’s attention. It explains the chemistry behind metal reactions.	Problem/Solution Proposition/Support	Sketch to Stretch (McLaughlin)

The words chosen for my graphic organizer are 

            “Artificial Sweeteners: Friends or Foes?”: chemoreceptors

            “Rewritable paper: Prints with light, not ink”: oxidation

            “Why Metals Have a Blast in Water”: repel

The graphic organizer I chose to use is Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy or VSS. This strategy involves students choosing a word from a text they deem important and what to learn more about it. After the students are done reading the text they are instructed to choose a word from it, indicate where they found it, what they think it means, and why it should be on the class vocabulary list. Below is my VSS I completed.

1.  Word: Chemoreceptors

Where it was found in the text: “Our tongues are covered in taste buds full of chemoreceptors- cells that send messages to the brain when they interact with certain chemicals.

What it means: It is a cell that has receptors on it that sends messages to a brain about how something tastes.

Why it should be on the vocabulary list: It should be on the list because learning about this certain receptor will lead to an easier understand about other receptors.

 2.  Word: Oxidation

Where it was found in the text: “Oxidation steals one or more electrons from a molecule.”

What it means: It means that one atom is losing an electron to another atom making the latter oxidized.

Why it should be on the vocabulary list: It should be on the vocabulary list because it is an important chemical reaction to learn about and understand.

3. Word: Repel

Where it was found in the text: “After the electrons flee, positively charged atoms remain behind. Like charges repel. So those positive atoms push away from each other, creating spikes.

What it means: To back away from

Why it should be on the vocabulary list: It should be on the list because it describes how atoms act when losing or gaining electrons in reactions. If an atom loses an electron it becomes positively charged and pushes away or repels from other positive atoms. 

I like this strategy because I feel like it involves context clues as well. It makes the student think for themselves about what they feel the word means rather than being told or looking it up in a dictionary. It gives them the freedom to choose what words they believe to be relevant to the course and their education. Once students have chosen the words the teacher can then incorporate them into lessons and assignments to emphasis their importance and meaning for the students. 

References:

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Chapter Five: Using Comprehension Strategies to Guide Thinking.       In Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness (pp.     75-77).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Kowalski, K. (2015, January 15). Rewritable paper: Prints with light, not ink. Retrieved 
    from https://student.societyforscience.org/article/rewritable-paper-prints-light-not-              ink?mode=topic&context=104

Marr, I. (2012, February 1). Artificial Sweeteners: Friends or Foes? Retrieved from                            https://learn.thinkcerca.com/student_assignments/1715015/lesson_steps/1      

Ornes, S. (2015, February 18). Why metals have a blast in water. Retrieved from Society for      Science & the Public - Student Science:https://student.societyforscience.org/article/why-      metals-have-blast-water?mode=topic&context=6