What's New in Science and Social Studies?

Science and Social Studies teachers have been treated to professional development on the Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy. This strategy will assist with the development of questions for students when working on DBQs (social studies) or extending labs to create more inquiry-based instruction (science).

To see what else our science teachers are up to, visit the site below:
http://sites.google.com/site/site219/

What Are We Doing In Science?

The following link is to the DOE site that contains the pacing calendars for the NYC Science Curriculum. It should give you an idea of how fast you should be covering the material.

http://schools.nycenet.edu/offices/teachlearn/science/guides.html

Social Studies Team Meeting - 9/8/08

The following are the notes from the S.S. Team meeting that addressed the following agenda items:

- Student Notebooks: teachers will utilize marble or spiral notebooks to have the students keep their class notes organized. Teachers are free and encouraged to use any graphic organizer they feel will best suit their needs on a particular day and keep the students' interests. One method was to have a column for questions, a column for answers and a column for a textbook reference page;
- Baseline Assessment: will be due on Friday. Seventh and eighth grade teachers will use the multiple choice section of the state exam to gauge the students' knowledge of American History. The exam for grade 6 will be developed by Ms. Gumbs with Mr. Boston-Hill assisting. There was a question of how the bi-lingual students who are taught in native language will be tested. Will they receive the assessment in Spanish or English? The answer will be forthcoming;
- Inquiry Based Learning: students will learn to create their own learning with the guidance of their teachers. Teachers can find more information on Inquiry-based Learning on the school wiki on the Teacher Page. It was suggested that we explore the use of "visual thesaurus" to help students build an ongoing vocabulary list so they can explore the language used in social studies and examine the careers associated with different aspects of social studies to gain more of a connection between the content area and real life;
- Weekly Walkthroughs: teachers understand that administration will conduct a walkthrough every other Wednesday starting this Wednesday. They will be informed of the outcomes within a couple of days of the walkthrough;
- Student Data Binders: it was discussed that the students would carry their own data binders to each class so all teachers can have conversations on goal setting with the student. Inside the binder, the student will have, among other things, their profile sheet obtained from Renzulli Learning System. Teachers can use this to assist in goal setting and when guiding the students in the inquiry or project-based assignments.

Additional resources that can be found on the wiki are The 8 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning and Best Practices in Social Studies.

Science Team Meeting - 9/8/08

The meeting covered a discussion on the following agenda items:

- Student Notebooks: students will have notebooks in science with a table of contents and numbered pages for class notes and labs stapled to the applicable dated page. One suggestion was to have the notebook divided into sections for class notes, labs, etc. The idea is to increase student organization of notes. The teacher will also have a notebook, with a complete set of notes, to model what the students should have;
- Baseline assessments will be distributed by Wednesday to be given to the students by Thursday, Sept. 11. All grades will be given the same assessment, since the science curriculum is spiraled, and will only be scored to note what the students know and what knowledge they will need to gain by the end of the year. As an alternate means of assessment, we will explore the use of SCANTRON now being implemented by the Literacy teachers to do their reading baselines;
- Inquiry-based learning: students will develop projects based on the topic covered in class, with the teacher facilitating the gathering of information. This fits right in with...
- Renzulli Learning System: each grade will be signed onto the system through the science classes, 6 at a time. The students will receive a print out of their profiles which the teachers will use to help students establish their own goals and to help students come up with projects of interest across the curriculum. The target finish date is September 29. A copy of the student profile will be kept in...
- Student Data Binders: students will have a binder in which they will keep their information to track their progress and maintain a snapshot of where they are academically. It was suggested to keep a folder for each subject in the binder for any subject-specific data/assessments;
- Weekly walkthroughs will be conducted every other Wednesday beginning September 17. Several documents were shared with the teachers, including Science Instruction Checklist, Good Science Instruction, Project Based Learning and 8 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning, all of which can be found on the school wiki under the Teacher Page tab.