Reading in Science Class

I have experimented with incorporating more reading into my 5th and 6th grade science classes. This started with a desire to have my students see how the science we were learning was connected to their everyday lives. So, I would find popular science articles for them to read and take notes on.

Class 1: The Trainwreck

However, during this first lesson, I found out that I cannot just give them an article, even when I have already taught the vocabulary and background knowledge. I did not realize that notetaking was such a complicated skill and as a direct result of my ignorance, this lesson failed. So, after trying to salvage the trainwreck of a lesson I went back to the drawing board. 

Class 2: Prepping for Reading

My new, more thought out approach was to print out a shorter article and go over how to read and take notes on it in a very teacher led fashion. I started by teaching a simplified MLA citation. I explained that you can normally find the author at the top or bottom of an article. Then we looked at the article and students raised their hands when they found the author. The students followed my lead as I wrote the author’s last name and first name on the board. We quickly wrote the title of the article. Finally, I showed them how to identify the website name.

With that we were finally ready to start our notes. Just kidding. I still needed to teach them how to take notes from a longer text first, because this is where it really fell apart in the first lesson. I had wrongly assumed that since we take notes each day, my students would know how to create their own. This assumption was far from reality. 

My approach to this involved pulling up some of my own powerpoints and having students open their books to the corresponding page in their textbooks. I asked whether they would prefer to write the paragraph in the book or the phrase on my powerpoint. Then we talked about how to summarize and take notes from a longer piece of writing, and I gave them two simple rules.

1. No sentences allowed
2. Do not just write down a word, you must explain it

After going over this and practicing a bit in our textbooks with familiar material, the class was over.

Class 3: Moderate Success

As the next class began, we reviewed the two notetaking rules from the previous class and I gave my students a warm up where they took notes on a paragraph. We reviewed what they wrote and then I passed out the article from last class. We were finally ready to take notes. As students were looking over the article, I drew attention to some text features (headings, links, underlined/highlighted words) and mentioned that they were very similar to the text features in their textbooks. 

I read the first two paragraphs out loud and we had a class discussion about what to write down. I wrote on the board and my students wrote on their summary sheet. After this, I allowed my students to work in pairs. The quality of this first, reading and notetaking activity was disappointingly low.

I still had about half of my students focusing on minor details or on only the interesting parts of the article, neglecting the important parts. Others continued to copy complete sentences from the article because paraphrasing is much more difficult than simply copying what you read. But I still consider this lesson a success because it was the first time my students have had to do anything like this, in any subject. I should expect it to be a bit rough in the beginning.

Feedback and Progress

I decided that this was worth trying again because I want my students to read challenging content in my subject area (Their textbooks are not so challenging). So, I gave feedback and a few weeks later, we tried it again. This time the results were much better. Students were generally following the instructions (no sentences, and giving explanations) and while some were still getting lost in the weeds, I was happy with their overall progress.

I noticed that many of my students needed more guidance on formatting their notes, just telling them to copy my format was not enough instruction. This led to another mini-lesson where I taught how to use bullet points and indentations in their notes, and to link each section of notes with a heading in the article. (This is a work in progress.)

As time went on, my students were able to complete their notes faster and with greater depth. This encouraged me to continue with it. I ended up making a Google Site in order to give my students a limited range of choice and to save paper. Ultimately, we read and summarize an average of two articles per chapter.

My Own Reflection

In science I am fairly skilled at breaking down concepts or skills into bite-sized chunks. Unfortunately this did not really transfer over when I tried to teach reading and notetaking skills because I overlooked how complicated they were. I am a science teacher and I was simply viewing the skills as a vehicle for learning my content.

Once I took the time to properly break down the skills and pre-teach each step, my students were able to find success. But, my pre-teaching in this area tends to be a bit rough as I am still learning how to teach the more technical parts of notetaking while balancing the need to cover material. Teaching is tricky stuff, but I’ll get there.

 

EduTwitter Tiffs: Drill-work

Recently there was another EduTwitter Tiff. This one was about drill-work in schools. Essentially, one side was saying that drill work serves a useful purpose. The other side said it was outdated and promotes mere rote memorization without helping with understanding.

The meaning of a drill is relatively straightforward. But to make things explicit, here is how an education researcher defined ‘drill’. Schofield (1972) defined drill as “the formation of good or bad habits through regular practice of stereotyped exercises.” 

If we can agree on the definition above, it is clear that drills on their own are neither good nor bad. It depends on how they are used. 

Basketball Drills

Sports are famous for their drill-work. Steph Curry has his own MasterClass full of shooting, dribbling, and passing drills. It should be obvious with a bit of thinking that drills have proven themselves to be an important factor is Steph Curry’s ability on the courts, and it takes only the tiniest bit of transfer to see how drills are valuable for anyone in sports, whether a beginner (a young child) or an expert (Steph Curry).

As education is primarily a mental activity, the value of drill-work is less obvious than in sports, but no less important. In education, drills play an important role in learning facts, concepts, and procedures.

• Facts and Concepts

Drills are great for memorizing facts and concepts. *Flashcards are a classic example of drill-work in education. Flashcards and all other types of drilling are effective because they combine spaced practice (practicing over time) with retrieval practice (calling something to mind). These are two of the most studied and most effective learning strategies. 
*both physical and digital flashcards are effective

• Procedures

Drills are also great for learning procedures. If you teach young children, you have probably taught them how to clean up, line up, etc. Teaching these procedures involves drill-work. You say a statement and demonstrate it, then the students follow your lead.

But drill-work is useful for more than physical procedures. We can (and should) use drills to help students learn academic procedures as well. 

When students are learning to write the alphabet, we give them drill sheets to practice writing. We give memorization drills when we require students to memorize PEMDAS. We give application drills when we give students order of operations worksheets. 

More Than Memorization

Done halfway well, drilling leads to much more than rote memorization, it leads to understanding and transfer. The research backs this up. If we want understanding and transfer, then we ought to incorporate drilling into our teaching.

Feedback: The Secret Ingredient

Drills on their own will not make you into a basketball star or a scholar. Going through the drills did not make Steph Curry a basketball star. His being focused while going through the drills coupled with receiving actionable feedback and then working to immediately act on said feedback helped make him a basketball star.

Learning works the same way. If we do not incorporate actionable feedback into our drills, then we will be helping some students develop and ingrain bad habits.

My Stance on Drilling

We should regularly use drill-work in our classes. Drill to kill ignorance and inability. Drill to thrill by unlocking possibilities and unleashing creativity.

When we drill for facts, concepts, and procedures we are killing ignorance by helping students gain knowledge. This is also a key step in destroying inability because drills are focused and explicit, helping students gain the ability to read/write/apply concepts more quickly.

Once our drill-work has killed ignorance and inability, we are able to use it to thrill. Drill-work is thrilling not because it is always exciting in and of itself, rather, drill-work is thrilling because it leads to the ability to thrill. 

The hours of drill-work Steph Curry and Lebron James put in behind the scenes are a large reason we find it thrilling to watch them play basketball. Likewise, drill-work unlocks academic thrills because it unlocks possibilities. The more we know about facts and concepts, the more likely we are to use them in creative, cohesive ways. The knowledge and abilities provided by the drill-work helps unlock our students’ creative potential.

Get Drilling

If we want our students to succeed, we should drill them, give them feedback, and give them many opportunities to respond to said feedback. This dovetails nicely with research on explicit instruction that I have tried to summarize here. 

If your whole teaching process can be summed up as drill-work, you are a bad teacher because teaching is so much more than drilling. However, if you avoid drill-work, then you are not helping your students as much as you could be. That is also a problem. So, get drilling, judiciously.

Citation
Schofield, H. (1972). The Philosophy of Education An Introduction. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Reading is Rocket Science

I just read a research summary by Louisa Moats from 1999, Reading is Rocket Science. It was an eye opener. But, it shouldn’t really have been. I have looked into the research of explicit instruction, and as a profession we have ignored that research for years. So it shouldn’t really have been a surprise that we would choose to ignore the research on how children learn to read, especially when the research calls for explicit instruction as well. We just ignored the same thing twice.

Ignore it no longer! If we would use research backed teaching methods, it is estimated that 95% of students could learn to read. We knew this in 1999. 

USA: Land of Below Proficient Readers

• 65% of 4th grade students are below proficient in reading. 
• 66% of 8th grade students are below proficient in reading.
• 63% of 12th grade students are below proficient in reading.

We have chosen to ignore the evidence. We have chosen to harm our students. We have chosen to harm your children. Hopefully as these sad statistics become more well known, more teachers will choose to care about students, to care about your children, and to teach them how to read.

The Research Is The Remedy

Research has found that we must utilize teacher led instruction for decoding, comprehension, and literature appreciation. A reason we ought to use teacher led instruction is because students benefit the most when lessons are systematic and children are taught the code of written English explicitly.

“For best results, the teacher must instruct most students directly, systematically, and explicitly to decipher words in print, all the while keeping in mind the ultimate purpose of reading, which is to learn, enjoy, and understand.” (Moates, 1999)

We must be systematic and explicit when teaching reading or writing because it is not intuitive. We do not naturally or easily learn to read and write. The rules are complex and we add obstacles to learning by making students infer the rules. 

We know that some methods of reading instruction are more effective than others because, “Emergent reading follows a predictable course regardless of the speed of reading acquisition” (Moates, 1999). Essentially, because emergent reading follows a predictable pattern, we can infer (and the research supports) a predictable pattern of effective instruction.

Teacher led instruction isn’t the most popular right now. But we shouldn’t let ideology or pop-education culture get in the way of effective instruction. Unless, of course, your freedom of choosing your preferred teaching method is more important than children learning to read. Make your choice.

Research Summary

Teaching Reading is Rocket Science is available for free. I strongly recommend you read it.

 

More Resources

Reading Rockets
Bringing Words to Life
Explicit Instruction
The Reading League

Good Logic is Circular

If you stop to think about it, all logic is circular. What makes a triangle a triangle? Well, a triangle is “a plane figure with three sides and three angles.” What makes this so? People. We decided that all planar shapes with three sides and three angles would be called a triangle. This logic is circular, yet sound.

But maybe you’d argue that math is a bit different than other types of logic. Of course it must be circular, we humans simply decided that shapes meeting certain qualifications are triangles. All shapes that do not meet said qualifications are not triangles. Are other types of logic also inherently circular?

In short, yes. For a short, accessible explanation, see John Frame.

For a more in depth, academic explanation, see William Alston.
So, our concern shouldn’t be whether or not we use circular logic, our concern should instead be on whether our logic uses a “good” or a “big” circle.

Think about morals. But, for sake of clarity, think about controversial morals. What is the correct view on the following?

• Pro-choice
• Environmentalism
• LGBT
• Religion
• War

How do you justify your stances?

It is my contention that, in addition to the fallacious version of circular logic,  there are three other types of circular logic: personally relative, socially relative, and objective.

The Small Circle

If you are a personal relativist, then you must believe that nothing matters objectively. By nothing, I mean not a single thing. For example, if you believe that morals are relative to the individual, then you can only condemn torture and murder as bad because you do not like them. You cannot say that they are bad categorically.
If your morality is only based on your thoughts or feelings, then you are a personal relativist. Ex: “I am pro-choice because I think it is good.” or “I am pro-life because I think it is good.” 

The OK Circle

If your thought process goes deeper than pure relativism, that is good. “I am pro-choice because my friends (my society, my culture) are pro-choice.” or “I am pro-life because my friends (my society, my culture) are pro-life.” Then you believe that morality is dependent upon certain cultural norms. 

This is ok. It is better than bad. But it is still far from good. For example, if you believe this, then you cannot claim that slavery has always been bad. You can only claim that slavery is bad in today’s society. Because, long ago, slavery was ubiquitous. Not just in America, but in the entire world. Go back far enough, and all societies condoned slavery, at the very least. If you believe that morality is dependent upon your context, you are a relativist.

*Note: I am obviously not talking about all of morality. Ex: Expressions of respect do depend on your context and so are relative to an extent.

The Big Circle

Many people want to avoid relativism because something about it just strikes them as being off. So we say that rape, murder, extortion, etc are wrong in all times, among all peoples, within all cultures. But how do we justify that belief? 

If we simply say that it is so, we are either a personal relativist or a societal relativist. We are only saying, “I think these things are wrong, so they are wrong.” or we are saying “Our culture thinks these things are wrong, so they are wrong.”

If we want to say that anything is objectively wrong, we must broaden our circle beyond ourselves and our culture. The only way to have a big circle is to appeal to some sort of God or gods or higher power or powers. We must appeal to something above humanity in order to justify any form of objective morality because if a human (personal relativism) or a group of humans (social relativism) can determine what is moral, then what is moral or immoral will always be subject to change as the data changes.

*Note: Science, on its own, is powerless to prove whether anything is moral or immoral. It can only seek to prove cause and effect. We must use the findings of science with other philosophies to determine right and wrong.

Circular Logic in the Classroom

Many of you are probably educators and probably view education as an objective good. But how do you justify that?

 

Book Review: Cognitive Science for Educators by Robert G.M. Hausmann, PhD

This book provides the teacher with a smooth entry into the somewhat intimidating world of cognitive science. The strength lies in its intentional brevity. Most chapters can be read in around 5 minutes.

Each chapter is written in language that is accessible for those of us with little knowledge of cognitive science. In addition, each chapter follows the same format.

The Formats

It starts with Learning by Doing. These sections simply give you a chance to apply the chapter’s content before you read (Don’t worry, you can attempt this activity without knowing the cognitive science behind it.)

Then it shifts into the main body of the chapter. Here you are served a good midwestern dinner of meat and potatoes. You are introduced to the concept with everyday examples. Often, he will introduce key terms with definitions and examples and then weave them together, showing you the part and whole. This section is all killer, no filler. 

After introducing the topic, Hausmann writes about the Classroom Connection. This section is important. For teachers, research is no good if we don’t understand how to apply it. He gives us some ideas for application. 

Finally, each chapter ends with a section called Going Beyond the Information Given. This section is simply a fancy name for footnotes. But I like it because he cites his sources and gives some of his own thoughts.

Final Thoughts

I do wish that some of the sections had more detail, especially for the Classroom Connection sections, but, his goal was to write a brief introduction and he certainly succeeded. If you want a good primer on cognitive science, here is a good place to start.

Rating (out of 5):⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cognitive Science for Educators (Amazon Link)

George Floyd and the Christian Response

George Floyd, a man, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) has been destroyed by another man. How are we, as Christians to respond to grave injustices?

Acknowledge Reality 

All humans are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14). All humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). 

And because of that, all humans are of equal worth. So, when the life of anyone is ended unjustly, it is a travesty. But when the life of someone is ended unjustly by the police or others who have been given authority, the travesty is magnified because those who had sworn to serve and protect actively chose to break their oath by harming those they were given authority to serve and protect.

Be Angry at Evil.

Psalm 139:19-34 

“Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

But we should also look deeper than the action of murder. It, unfortunately, is only a symptom. The current level of grief and rage is not simply because George Floyd was murdered on tape. His death just broke the dam. In order to begin to have an accurate understanding of why people are protesting and some are rioting we need to look at the dam and the water it was formerly holding. By looking at the dam and what it held, we gain context. This context should help shape our actions.

The Dam. The Water.

The dam is America’s past. Built by those with power. In this case, primarily whites. The water, her wronged people. In this case, primarily blacks.

In America, we have the specter of slavery lurking in our recent past and haunting our present. The last living freed American slave died in 1940. Her name is Matilda. My grandparents were alive then.

Jim Crow laws were enforced until 1965.

Martin Luther King Jr. protested for civil rights in the 1950s-1960s. My parents were alive then.

Redlining has had a systematic affect on blacks and other minorities. It has prevented them from owning homes and building up their wealth, condemning many to poverty. This is, tragically, still happening now, in our lifetime.

Mass incarceration has disproportionately affected people of color, and is an ongoing problem.

And then there is this.

To assume that America’s racial problems are a thing of the past because we no longer have slavery and had a black president is only willful ignorance, an active choice to not connect the dots. How could a few years overturn lifetimes of experience? 

The scars of racism are often visible and in other places merely scabbed over. The murder of George Floyd clawed that scab out. And now the repressed pain and anger are flowing red.

Besides anger, how should we respond when the very image of God has been desecrated?

Fixing The Problem

The place we can all start with is prayer. We should start by praying without ceasing as we learn about the dam and the water. We should pray as we are angry at past and present injustices. Pray as we seek to serve others. And pray as we call out injustice and seek to move towards justice. And pray as we ask God to show us our own sin. And pray as we repent of our own evil, yes I have evil in me and you do too. Examine your heart. What is your gut reaction to the news, your first thoughts? That will tell you a lot. Ask God for wisdom and repent where you need to repent. And we should pray as we mourn (1 Thess 5:16-18).

Mourn with those who mourn (Ecclesiastes 3:4; Romans 12:15). Don’t just be generically sad. Be sad for the lives lost, for the injustices ignored. For the suffering papered over. For the division cemented by willful hatred and willful ignorance. And sit with those who are grieving in that sadness. 

Sitting in it is difficult, but if you want to love someone who is grieving, you’ll sit with your physical or digital arm around them. Jesus just wept, even when Mary was reproving him he didn’t justify or explain himself. He wept (John 11:28-35). Jesus had explanations at the ready, and as he is God, his explanations would have been perfect and perfectly delivered. But his priority wasn’t justifying himself, his priority was loving the person. And that ought to be ours as well.

This love ought to be the driving force of our actions.

Action: Protect Others

Proverbs 24:11

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

Philippians 2:3-8

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

If you have the chance to protect someone with a word, or with your body, do it. View others as more significant than yourself. Humble yourself to serve. Christ did it for us while we were still his enemies. So, certainly, we can walk in step with his Spirit, that he gave us to serve and love others.

Action: Call Out Injustice. Move Towards Justice.

Nehemiah 5

Nehemiah’s time was corrupt. The Isrealites’ escape from Egypt still played a central role in their culture, yet that did not stop them from selling their brothers back into slavery to the very Egyptians their ancestors were previously enslaved to!

So, Nehemiah calls out this evil. 

“I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials….I held a great assembly against them and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” 

Sin runs deeper than blood.

Nehemiah goes on and moves towards justice by calling them to repent, “Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?”

He does not stop there. He continues his march towards justice. He fed the people out of his own pockets and didn’t collect the full range of taxes, explicitly because previous “governors laid heavy burdens on the people”.

As Christians, this is a model for us to follow. We should call out sin. Point towards what is good. And work to improve the situation with what we have been given. Nehemiah was a governor with authority, and he used it to serve his people. While we likely have much less power and authority than him, God still calls us to action. Think about the widow with only two denari.

Unfortunately, I do not have any clear steps or suggestions for applying this, only principles to apply. I am still working out what this means for me in my context. What I do know is that this must move beyond a mere mental exercise. If we have faith, that will produce action (James 2:14-26). We must be teachable (Proverbs 9:9), humble (Colossians 3:12), servant hearted (John 13:1-17), willing to suffer with others (Jesus wept). We must be willing to suffer for others (Jesus died). In addition, we ought to have compassion on Minneapolis and everywhere, those great cities just as God had compassion for Nineveh (Jonah 4:11).

Hope is Present

We believe in redemption (He is risen). So we should never be without hope. Point towards the future, towards the worthy goal of racial harmony. Point to how, in heaven, this long longed for goal is assured. And work to make it happen here on Earth. As we do so, it is right to be grieved. Don’t be above it and stoic. Sit in it.

This is all best done through personal interactions, however, in our increasingly digital world it can and should be done through social media too.

Remind yourself that how others respond when we call out injustice and point them towards justice is beyond your control. 

And remember, Christian, the greatest commandment. Love.

 

Book Review: Powerful Teaching

This book was written by two powerful educators.
Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., a cognitive scientist and founder of RetrievalPractice.org. 
Patrice Bain Ed.S., a veteran K-12 teacher with more than 25 years of teaching middle school social studies.

In chapter one, they introduce “power tools”. These are research backed, classroom proven strategies that lay the foundation of all powerful teaching and then they spend the rest of the book unpacking the how-to’s and implications.

Power Tools

1. Retrieval Practice
2. Spacing
3. Interleaving
4. Feedback-Driven Metacognition

They translate the research-ese behind each power tool into lived, teacher-friendly examples that go beyond explaining the academic benefits you would expect research based strategies to yield.  For students, the beyond academic benefits are significant. Students who are taught with power tools remember more and get better grades. Importantly, this includes SPED, ADHD, and ESL students. In addition, students taught with these strategies show a decreased level of anxiety. Us teachers benefit from using power tools as well! If you utilize these free strategies, you will be able to spend less time grading, and more time refining your practice.

What’s not to love about this? All students learn more and are less anxious while we spend less time grading. Win-win. And while all of this is super valuable, the best part comes next, where they apply the research to their own classes. 

Powerful Tools in the Classroom

Agarwal, Ph.D. applies each strategy in a university classroom while Bain, Ed.S. applies each strategy in a middle school classroom.

For the busy teacher, this is a goldmine. When you read through this book, you will not have to think too hard about how to use the power tools because the authors have already shown the way. What is important is for you to understand the framework the book develops. Once you understand this, you are ready to rock and roll.

Final Thoughts

Powerful Teaching has had a significant impact on my classroom because it has helped me refine my practice. It has confirmed some things I knew subconsciously, allowing me to move forward with confidence in what I had already been doing. While also surprising me with new information. Helping me “redeem” some of my more ineffective practices. 

This may be the best education book I have ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You should buy this book. You will benefit from it.

Rating (out of 5):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Powerful Teaching (Amazon Link)