Assignment #9: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 9: Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE READ THE NOTE BELOW!!!
***Don't forget to only post "Part D" ;)
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of Generating and Testing Hypotheses in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter.
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 9 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section of Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you should reflect upon how you would use this strategy in your classroom.)
D. Final Strategy Reflection: A sequence of questions posted below asks you to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Nine: Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Generating and Testing Hypotheses effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use Generating and Testing Hypotheses in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about Generating and Testing Hypotheses?
How has the information you read in this chapter on Generating and Testing Hypotheses effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use Generating and Testing Hypotheses in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about Generating and Testing Hypotheses?
10 comments:
After reading this chapter, something I now understand better is the importance of having students explain their thinking around their hypotheses and conclusions. This suggestion lends itself very naturally to much of the current work I am doing with my students around the Common Core and having students work to explain their thinking using the word “because.” Next year, as students generate hypotheses, I will have them explain their thinking orally and in writing. This chapter also suggested using sentence frames to help support students in explaining their thinking which is a great suggestion to use in my first grade classroom!
Hi Laura – as you mentioned, with the new CCSS standards having students be able to explain their thinking and provided evidence from the text that supports that thinking is going to be VERY important…even if first grade! I’m glad that the sentence frames will be able to provide you with some support as you work on this next year!
This was great for me to reflect on and re-prioritize the importance of thinking through each step of a question or problem to get to an answer. While the chapter focused specifically on hypothesis creation with kids, I couldn’t help but think of our programming and how this applies to running efficient systems as an adult. The “Decision Making” series was especially thought provoking, encouraging step by step reasoning for decision making. I frequently find tremendous value in looking at why we do the things we do in specific ways, and if we can’t find that value, letting the answers to those questions guide us to new actions. I could see this being a great tool to examine classroom systems and procedures. Teaching this form of metacognition to kids is essential for educational decisions, but also, for difficult social decisions they encounter as they get older.
jiAssignment #9
I plan on using more generating and testing hypotheses across my curriculum. It will be a great way to encourage kids to think critically about a topic before delving into it, consider their hypothesis during, and reflecting on it after the fact as well. The idea for providing students with templates for reporting work and highlighting areas for their explanations will be something that I will use to assist my students. I understand that a hypothesis is a great tool for all subjects, not just science.
Lesson #9 Generating and Testing Hypotheses
I read and reread this chapter several times. I was struggling with making sense of it and how I could use it in my classroom across the subject areas. I feel strongly that students need to practice this skill daily. In order to support my students I think that we will need to do many whole group activities and generate discussion around our thinking before students can successfully transfer this knowledge to self- directed learning. I have used my father as a speaker many times in my classroom. Dad, before he retired, was an inventor. Students are always amazed at how many times he attempted to problem solve for his company before he had a successful product. I can see using Dad again when teaching math problem solving skills and showing more than one way to solve for the answer. I know that I will have to do a graded scientific inquiry project with my students for benchmark. I wonder if we can practice a weekly hypotheses in one area ( i.e.: weather) and then transfer that learning to life cycles and polliwogs later in the year.
Hi Nicolette – Interesting point…I think that many educators need to be taking a closer more reflective look at their teaching decisions (at the federal, state, district, school, and individual teacher level) and make sure that there is value in our educational expectations. I also think that we need to do a better job analyzing when something isn’t working…and supporting decisions for change!
David – Your fifth grade students are at a great age to be generating and testing hypotheses across the content areas…math, social studies, science, and language arts – glad to hear that you will be implementing some of this work with your students next year.
Debra – I think that especially with your third grade students, you will need to use the gradual release of responsibility as you move your students towards independent thinking. They will definitely need quite a bit of modeling. I love that you can invite your Dad in as a real life example of someone who needed to use generating and testing hypotheses in a very real and understandable way for your students. Transferring their thinking from their “weekly hypotheses” within your weather unit…to having them think about life cycles later on would be a great idea.
Assignment #9 Chapter 9 Generating and Testing Hypotheses
I enjoyed this chapter. Our class practiced a simple approach to forming and testing hypothesis in the pre-school and kindergarten. One example of our practices included observing different things like ice or rice in water, and making a guess or hypothesis about how the item will change. We put rice in water and observed the changes over time, then re-checked the rice and discussed how it had changed and if our hypothesis was correct. Another activity involved snow and what would happen if we left a bowl of snow inside and a bowl of snow outside. We did many activities that required the students to form hypothesis or predictions about different processes including math, reading, science, and art.
I am looking forward to trying the structured decision making framework with a group of second graders.
Laura – Sounds like you created some great learning opportunities with your Pre-K and Kindergarteners as you used testing and hypothesizing in science!
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