I especially like their articles on animals and behavior.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 May 2006

Back to main page.

Comments

Here is the link to the website. To get to the Science page, click on the Cool Sites tab on the left. Be sure to check out her Math tab as well--it's under the Cool Sites tab.

http://www.district87.org/staff/platoj/default.htm

-- KarenA - 19 May 2006

I think it's an excellent summarizing activity too. Science is one "content area" that is sufficiently objective to be tackled by a young child learning to pull out the right amount of important details.

At our school, they have kids read TFK, TIME For Kids, by the publishers of TIME magazine, almost every week. The cost of the subscription includes worksheets to go with every issue. Recently, they had an issue with an article describing STARDUST, the NASA comet sample return spacecraft. The extended response question on the worksheet asked kids to pretend they were going to tell their younger brother three different things about STARDUST. Not the three most important things, just three different things. Okay, fine... This worksheet was being "graded" by me, with explicit instructions from the teacher to note the presence or absence of three facts, and not get bogged down in a constructive response. Okay, fine...

I was pleased to see that my child chose three independent, interesting facts to tell about the spacecraft mission. I was pleased to see that many children found slightly different sets of three facts compelling. I was saddened to see that many other children were not able to complete this little assignment. Whether they couldn't, or whether they knew they shouldn't waste their time on something the teacher did not deem important... who knows?

It was the difference between a set of three facts that looks like this:

1. it is a spacecraft

2. its name is STARDUST

3. it went into outer space

and a set of facts that looks like this:

1. the STARDUST spacecraft was in space for 7 years.

2. it used aerogel to catch comet dust

3. it landed in Utah

or another nice set of facts that looks like this:

1. comets are dirty snowballs

2. comets are 4 billion years old

3. The stardust spacecraft was really small

But alas, the opportunity to explicitly teach summarizing skills is lost.

-- BeckyC - 20 May 2006

Becky how old are these kids? what grade?

That's actually a good starter assignment - it's "retelling" again.

(I found a GREAT book on summarizing, written by a teacher with a FABULOUS voice - will get it posted - who explained retelling, paraphrasing, & summarizing. Terrific!)

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 May 2006

4th grade. It saddens me that all these beautiful little opportunities to teach skills that will be important for these kids to use in summarizing (some day in the far future) are being let go, in favor of assigning fully-formed summary paragraphs in social studies content areas, as part of big social studies projects. Without hope for constructive (formative) analysis of each child's work by the teacher. Or other responsible adult.

-- BeckyC - 21 May 2006

Is homeschooling an option?

I sure wish I'd figured out a way to go that route....

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 May 2006

Now that the principal is leaving, Ed & Christopher both are adamant he's going back to school in the fall, and staying there.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 May 2006

I just revisited the above website. This teacher teaches Reading, Science and Math (sixth grade). Her website is a model for how to do it right. Grades are posted and updated in a timely manner, the class calendar is posted, and under the Reading section, she has posted a rubric for a paper. She has even posted a a "works cited" worksheet.

I am coming to realize that, at least from my perspective, a number of our junior high teachers seem to be doing a lot of things right.

One thing I have seen them do is to try and provide models and examples for the kids, especially when it comes to projects and papers. The teachers clearly seem to understand that the kids want (and need!) to see examples from past years.

I apologize if the following sounds self-serving; I don't mean for it to. Meg tends to go all out when it comes to projects and as a result, she has been asked if they can keep her work as an example for future years.

This isn't a problem for her if it is a paper or something that can be duplicated, but she doesn't like to part with "one of a kind" items. An example: she told her English teacher that she could keep her poster project for "A Christmas Carol" but then snuck it home one day when the teacher was absent.

My goal is to "sneak it back to the teacher." : )

-- KarenA - 21 May 2006

Meg tends to go all out when it comes to projects and as a result, she has been asked if they can keep her work as an example for future years.

Megan is wrecking the "executive function curve" for the rest of the kids. Tell her to knock it off. :D

-- BeckyC - 21 May 2006

LOL!! Meg adored one of her sixth grade teachers. Her teacher had high standards, but she also was very generous with praise. As a result, Meg's goal was always to "knock her socks off."

I felt like I had died and gone to heaven that whole year. For the first time in Meg's school career, she was positively recognized and rewarded for excelling, and as a result, she wanted to continue to excel!

Yet I will also note that Megan is still a work in process when it comes to Executive Functioning. As Catherine would say, "I still serve as her frontal lobes."

Every Monday, her 7th grade teachers require the kids to copy down the assignments for the week in their daily planners. Just writing it down seems to help. The assignments are also posted on-line for parents to access. Every day, I ask her, "Do you have any homework? Did you bring home the books that you need? Do you have any notes for me?"

I also transfer certain items and due dates to my calendar to help serve as a reminder for me as well. For example, she has a Reading Log due every Friday. I have that ticklered on my calendar, and I constantly reminder her throughout the week to read. However, on more than one occasion, even in spite of the above questions, she won't have the book she needs. She also likes to play first, work later, and sometimes she underestimates the amount of time something will take.

However, my goal is to instill certain habits--almost to automaticity if you will.

This approach worked fairly well with my older daughter--I served as her frontal lobes in this way through 8th grade. By 9th grade, she started to do pretty well on her own. However, this is also a child who scatters her books and papers throughout every room in our house, who will return empty coke cans to the refrigerator, who leaves money, gum and earrings in her jeans pockets, etc.

-- KarenA - 21 May 2006