Teaching Strategies and Activities-
Anchor Charts/Visual Aids
Anchor charts are exactly what the name signifies—to help anchor or support the lesson. When I create anchor charts, I have the end in mind. It is a tool to assist in the learning process of the lesson by guiding the focus and to nail the importance of the concept and the skills taught. The rationale behind having anchor charts within a lesson is that they improve on students’ comprehension. They are also designed to scaffold learning which is important in a heterogenous atmosphere. When creating anchor charts, I make it a point to use colors and drawings to draw upon connections and to provide visual stimulation to improve retention. It is important to me to make a neat anchor chart with legible penmanship, colors, and fun illustrations. By using colors and the other methods, it helps the anchor charts come alive. There are three anchor charts that I will be making for this unit. I will also shrink a copy of each anchor and copy for students to put into their interactive notebook. This strategy within a strategy eliminates the stress of students trying to duplicate my anchor charts and helps students that cannot keep up with the pace of notetaking. This also helps when we move on to other material and my big anchor chart gets removed or covered up for other charts.
- Types of Pollution
- Respiratory System
- Indoor Air Pollution
A strategy that the curriculum unit will employ is meaningful posters and vocabulary cards through visual aids from whole group lectures and student-centered groups. These will be used by incorporating foldables into the students’ interactive notebook. Foldables within the students’ interactive notebook are a way to include the science and math TEKS aligned vocabulary into daily practices and routines. These posters, foldables, and vocabulary cards will be accessible to all students on various levels. These methods are collaborative, engaging and provide visual cues to better support understanding of key vocabulary terms. These tasks of vocabulary cards will be revisited throughout the unit for various activities such as warm-ups or cooperative learning activities. Another visual aid that will support understanding is the use of graphs and charts. This will help gauge the information students retain. The teacher will use graphs and models to display information and create a picture model in the students’ learning toolbox. Some of the graphs that will be used are vocabulary graphic organizer, t-chart, webs, or Venn diagrams. The students will record information in their notebook after information is modeled. Based on past experience, conferences, and research it is clear that this method of visual support encourages compression in a number of ways.
During my research for the unit, I found the book Breathe In, Breathe Out Learning About Your Lungs by Pamela Hill Nettleton. This book is an easy read for any leveled learner. In the book, the author shares a basic introduction to the lungs. She describes how the lungs function within the body. There are other items discussed such as the concepts of blood and oxygen, as well as asthma. This book will be read to students in order for students to glean and understand about lungs.
Another strategy that I will include in the unit is more whole group discussion. I plan to use learning talks throughout the year so my students will use content specific vocabulary to explain their science and math thinking. The other way I will employ whole group discussion is by utilizing a word wall. I will model and use vocabulary to begin discussions by referencing the word wall. The goal is that over the school year, students will become comfortable with conversing using academic language and it will become a habit.
The students will watch me create a model of a lung from everyday items. This do it yourself model of lungs will simulate the lungs in our bodies and give students another visual approach while learning. The model will be constructed with tape, straws, three nice sized balloons, a plastic bottle with the bottom portion cut, the bottle lid, and a glass. This model will display by pulling on the diaphragm, how one inhales and exhales daily. This will be just like how lungs operate within the respiratory system. I do, we do, you do is an instructional strategy that helps students become confident and capable learners. This learning approach shows students by watching me model the activity, just what I expect of the students. It provides students with a level of understanding prior to getting started by visualizing step by step.
Inquiry-based learning involves the teacher and the students by allowing questioning to guide learning. This method creates an interest and motivation for learning. It also allows students to have some buy-in in their learning. Inquiry-based learning is conducive for all learners because it is individualized. I will use this method to effectively engage students on the topic of the unit by using high order thinking skills that requires students to think critically, creatively, and reflectively. I will have the students watch a short video and deduct from it by listing a series of questions from the topic at hand. I will utilize students’ natural curiosity by using the inquiry skills circular process that begins with asking questions. The next steps have the students research answers, interpret information, present findings and lastly, reflect.
The students will be given a handout or a virtual checklist to complete the home indoor air quality check on each of their homes. I will emphasize the necessity of including the number of yes answers in each question in order to gather a complete reading of the results. The students would then need to add up the total yes answers to give them an idea of the air quality in their homes. The more yes answers that a student may have, may indicate poor indoor air quality in their home. We will have a class discussion on the results and see how many of their homes indicated a poor indoor air quality rating. These findings will be written on the whiteboard or virtually on Jam board in google slides or in a discussion on google classroom. there will be an open discussion about what was learned in regards to their homes and indoor air pollutants. This discussion will be put into flip grid for students to record responses. The students will complete a foldable in their interactive notebook.
The students will have a collaborative approach by working together in a table group or in a zoom breakout session if we are completing this virtually. The students will have a series of questions to ask each other in their group. These questions will lead to discussion and interest considering that most students have some form of connection to respiratory issues. The respiratory issues or experience might be from the student, their siblings, a parent, another family member or a peer. Students will be engaged by questioning, hands-on, and by having to display their findings. The students will use Jam board in google to compile their group’s answers. The students will be encouraged to be creative in their groups and make their Jam boards their own. It should be appeasing to the audience, easily read, and compiles answers to all of the five questions. The students will share and reflect on their group discussion with the whole class. The questions that each member of the group will be asked to complete are below.
Questions
- What are some respiratory issues?
- Do you have any respiratory issues?
- Do you know anyone that has major respiratory issues?
- What are some triggers that cause respiratory issues?
- What are ways we can reduce respiratory issues?
The students will then move into collecting data from simulated indoor air pollution conditions over a period of six week. Each of the five classes will create two models representing the leading pollutants in the area on mock lungs. The mock lungs will consist of balloons, straws, bottle and glass. The students will work in a group to monitor, record, graph, and highlight the effects the model has on the lung representation. If this is done virtually, I will make all of the pollutant models and have students observe and record daily via zoom. The students will still get to work as a group because they will be placed in zoom breakout rooms. This allows for peer assistance The students will get to create flip grids based on their findings and observation. This allows students to incorporate technology and engagement. The flip grids will lend to the student’s voice and understanding as well as provide students with a free resource that can be used in or out of the classroom.
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