Introduction
"Brrr!" The idea of a crisp winter morning brings to mind specific sights, sounds, smells, and even a chill to the skin and a desire for a soothing hot beverage. For many people, recalling a cold winter experience means remembering snow as part of the sights. Others may recall a very different cold winter experience. If I talk with my five- and six-year old students about the weather and mention snow, very few will have any experience with that word or concept yet. My students, like myself, live in "Sunny California" where the range of weather is very limited. Thus, as young Kindergarten students, their experience and prior knowledge of "snow" are close to non-existent. This is just one example in identifying their struggle with comprehension and expression without a basis of meaningful experience and vocabulary. Amusingly to me, young children, with their curious eyes, hands, and bodies, seek to understand the world around them, and they are naturally intrigued by science. This is one of the reasons why I can't wait to introduce a unit that will focus mainly on science standards, using strategies to connect images and words for deeper comprehension of weather and how it affects the world and earth's inhabitants.
In teaching Kindergarten in East San Jose, I find each year a wider gap between the prior knowledge students already have and the academic skills they must master. In the past, I've been faithful to our district-adopted curriculum and followed the plans as scripted – with allowances for flexibility in differentiation as needed for students. I've used as a mantra "I Do, We Do, You Do" when mentoring my student teachers on gradual-release methods. These wonderful and thoroughly researched strategies — to model expectations (I Do)-practice expectations together with guidance (We Do)-allow students to perform independently (You Do) — are very helpful and energizing, especially when it is the students' turn to be "independent" workers. I love monitoring this portion of each lesson to check their comprehension as students explain their work in progress. I am, however, even more thrilled to implement project-based lessons and methods that sometimes start with students trying things out right away without all the front loading. Part of project-based learning allows teachers to facilitate while students explore concepts with their own curiosity and inquiry leading their learning rather than a teacher-led process. (Please see the link to Project Based Learning in the Teacher Resources for more information.) I will also be able to creatively implement more technologically infused lessons to bridge students' limited prior knowledge with the literacy they'll need to build a depth of knowledge regarding the topic of weather.
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