Today was Day 2, and I wanted my students to get some more practice working with their ePortfolios, reflecting, and interpreting the purpose of a lesson. I decided to use one of my older lessons, but re-purpose it a bit.
Here is what we did, as described by Anthony (click on image to go to their ePortfolio):
Here is what we did, as described by Anthony (click on image to go to their ePortfolio):
As you can see, there are many skills being taught and practiced in this activity that span several subject areas. I spent the first 30 minutes of the lesson talking about the steps in the Scientific Method, how to measure using a meter stick, how to find the mean average, and lots of preventative behavior advice.
Students spent about 30 minutes experimenting, measuring, showing restraint while using balloons, and helping each other interpret the directions. This lesson was extremely valuable because it accomplished so much of what I wanted my students to learn and practice in the first few days of school! They are now more confident in their collaborative abilities and they know that they refrain from acting on impulses (there were zero behavior problems!).
After the experiment, everyone created a blog entry and started reflecting by stating what we did, what they learned, and why they thought this lesson would be valuable for other students to do. Here is what Sam had to say (click on the image to go to his ePortfolio):
Students spent about 30 minutes experimenting, measuring, showing restraint while using balloons, and helping each other interpret the directions. This lesson was extremely valuable because it accomplished so much of what I wanted my students to learn and practice in the first few days of school! They are now more confident in their collaborative abilities and they know that they refrain from acting on impulses (there were zero behavior problems!).
After the experiment, everyone created a blog entry and started reflecting by stating what we did, what they learned, and why they thought this lesson would be valuable for other students to do. Here is what Sam had to say (click on the image to go to his ePortfolio):
Sam mentioned "Trial and Error" which was not something that we talked about together, so I'm glad he connected this lesson with that strategy. I also like that he said that "some things are not possible to predict and this is one of them" because it shows that although he thought about trial and error being a valuable strategy to try, that strategy might not have worked with this activity, even with persistence! To me, that shows deep thinking about the situation he participated in today.
Here, Ed describes important statistical landmarks (without using the terminology) that shows a strong knowledge of maximum and minimum:
Here, Ed describes important statistical landmarks (without using the terminology) that shows a strong knowledge of maximum and minimum:
In addition to all the positive things I can glean from each blog entry, I am also able to get an idea of who needs help supporting their writing with follow-up information, who needs reminders about capital letters and/or end punctuation, and who follows oral directions (what the reflection should focus on) as opposed to written directions. These early ePortfolio entries make excellent Pre-Tests and writing samples!!!
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