Ongoing Science

As a young child I visited a summer camp high in the Laurel Mountains of western Pennsylvania. In a sunny glade there was a small log cabin, the demesne of "Miss Alice" the nature teacher. The cabin was filled with all kinds of interesting objects, from turtle shells to paper wasp nests to butterfly wings. Posters of all different ages lined the walls, and new field guides mingled with old mimeographed booklets. It was a place that invited inquiry and curiosity.

Thirty-five years later, I try to cultivate a classroom that feels like the nature cabin. I used to feel embarrassed about this and wish that my classroom looked more orderly and tidy. But I've decided not to feel embarrassed at all. Just like the nature cabin invited me to explore and ask questions, I want my classroom to invite students to do the same.

Birdfeeders

One of my classroom jobs is the "ornithologist", and these students have the task of refilling the birdfeeders each day. I do buy my own birdseed for the classroom, large bags of black oil sunflower seed and suet cakes every few weeks.

It's interesting to watch how students interact with the window and the birds. Many stop by to take a look outdoors as they are going from task to task. They have their own names for the birds--"the chipmunk bird" (wren) and "the one with the mohawk" (tufted titmouse), and they correct each other quickly when needed.

This week I overheard two boys talking about their favorite birds: "I like the female cardinal best. The orange beak is just so cool."

The other student said, "I like it when the blue jays come. They're awesome."

Pond water
Science instruction should be ongoing and pervasive. While one-shot lessons and visitors are fun and engaging, real learning happens when students have many opportunities to explore. Too often teachers get out the microscopes for a single unit (usually a "Science Tools" unit in my area) and then neatly wrap the cords and put them away.

I like to keep the microscopes out for weeks at a time! Right now, I have a pond water exploration station in my classroom. This is a great time to get pond water because there aren't yet any mosquito larvae, but there are lots of copepods, mites, and clam shrimp.

A simple set of guidelines lets students know what to do, and then the station runs itself. Just like with the birds, students stop by, engage for awhile, and then go on to other tasks. It's so interesting to see that some students have extraordinary microscopy skills and can focus patiently on very small creatures. One student called me over to the more powerful microscope to show me the tiny clam shrimp swimming!

So while my classroom may not be the tidiest, I definitely love having natural objects for students to explore. How is your room like a nature cabin?

News and Notes
I finished another Summary and Analysis packet! This one includes a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, a summarizing page, a text-dependent analysis, and a comprehension quiz. Robert Louis Stevenson is frequently anthologized and his writing often appears on standardized tests (my cynical opinion: his writing is public domain, so using a story or passage of his cuts down on costs!) Helping students to see how his writing related to his life and times was an interesting activity.

Close Reading with Chronological Order Texts Grades 5-6  is a reimagined version of some previously published chronological order texts. It includes lesson plans, activities, and a text-dependent analysis prompt. Try it out and let me know what you think! (If you have already purchased the original Chronological Order texts set, re-download and you'll get the new items for free.)

Sea Turtle Release

    I love teaching because I love learning, and getting out to experience new things is a thrill for me. So when I read that the National Aquarium would be releasing sea turtles at Assateague, I knew that we had to arrange our week to attend!

My kids check out the sea turtle models before the release.

    I never learned about sea turtles as a student. In fact, I don't remember learning much about animals at all--unless you count the sixth grade teacher who made us write notecards about all of the animal groups, working up from sponges. (We never made it past cephalopods.)
    Today's students need to learn about sea turtles. Not only are they important in their own right, but sea turtles are so interesting and engaging that they get student attention for larger conversations about ecology, our oceans, and pollution.
   

Seeing the Release

    Staff from the National Aquarium set up the area for the sea turtle release at one of my favorite places, Assateague National Seashore. (You can find text structure materials that I wrote about Assateague here.) My youngest was so excited to attend--in his words, "I've never seen a wild sea turtle!"
    The day was cloudy and threatened rain, but that didn't stop a crowd from gathering. Two green sea turtles that had been rehabilitated by the National Aquarium and ten Kemps ridley turtles from the New England Aquarium were set to be released.
    Staff members brought around the turtles for onlookers to see. Everyone got great views! My son was amazed by his chance to see the sea turtles up close.
    The turtles were placed down by the surf. Most ambled right in, while a few seemed hesitant. (That water was cold--I'd hesitate too!)      For the rest of the day I thought about the sea turtles, out in the vast ocean, and wondered what they were doing. I wonder what they're doing now.
    Even though the weather was cold and rain fell as we were leaving the beach, it was a perfect beach day.
     See for yourself how students can become engaged in learning about text structure and sea turtles with this Sea Turtles Expository Text Mini-Unit.
    Student-friendly videos about sea turtles can be found on this YouTube playlist.
    What are you doing to explore and learn this summer?

   

After the release we went birding along the Life of the Marsh Trail

The Phenology of the Classroom

A vernal pool at Caledonia State Park, June and July

If you follow my Twitter feed, you'll probably notice lots of pictures of flowers, many with #phenology. I'm incredibly lucky to live in a place where two gorgeous state parks are within a 20-minute drive--and one of those state parks is on the way to a larger town where we do a lot of our shopping. So I get to walk a great deal on the same paths and see the same places day after day, week after week.

And yet they're not the same places. Even within one season a location can change a great deal. Year to year, I can see the same patterns unfold in different ways. This is the joy of phenology! Cardinal flowers that were in one location are a few feet away the next year. Mushrooms sprout after a wet August but remain hidden in a dry one. Garlic mustard invades a few more feet each year. A new stream erosion prevention barrier has been built--does it work? I could walk these paths a thousand times and still see new things.

When school begins, I take this same sense of phenology back to the classroom. Each week with a new class is like rediscovering an old trail in new seasons. Just as I know to look for blooming skunk cabbage as an early sign of spring, I also know to look for very early signs of class cohesiveness. In the first week someone will have an idea that goes beyond my imagination--an idea that takes the class in a new direction. This is as miraculous as that first spring flower.

A skunk cabbage flower wouldn't fit in August. Some routines that work
well in May just don't work at the beginning of the year.

In the later weeks, I see the same kinds of patterns unfold. Sharing becomes a treasured routine in the classroom, but each group of students shares in a different way. Each class has certain favorite classroom spots, favored clean-up songs, favored ways of tweaking our classroom routines. Seeing these patterns emerge is as delightful as watching spring come to a forest. Not quite as restful, though--because in the classroom I am always a participant, not an observer!

Walking the paths near my house helped me to see how the seasons naturally unfold. As you begin your school year, I invite you to try out the lens of phenology. How does your classroom ecosystem develop? What differences do you see as similar patterns build? If you see a negative event happen--the same kind of thing that happens every year--how can you intervene to change it?

A classroom bird feeder

I can't believe that it took me this long to get a bird feeder for my classroom! In just a few short months, I've seen how this one little tool engages and motivates students. (Thanks to Cornell Birds for the bird feeder!)

Our school is located near an oak forest and an orchard, so we are in a perfect spot. At first, juncoes were our main birds. Now, we have seen chickadees, cardinals, tufted titmice, house finches, mourning doves, and English sparrows.

The tufted titmouse is a frequent visitor

Long-term observations
Students have been able to engage in long-term investigations with the bird feeder. As they have looked at the data over time, students have come up with some generalizations. "We see more birds on rainy days than on sunny days," one student said. Another said, "We haven't seen the juncoes in awhile. They must be winter birds." I made an observation binder to keep track of what we see. It will be interesting to compare data across the years to see what changes we can notice.

A page in the observation binder

Attentional switching
Is the bird feeder too distracting? I know that I sometimes stop mid-sentence and say, "Hm, the chickadee is here right now." However, I've learned that practice in switching attention back and forth can really help students to focus. (I wrote more about this in my book, The Forest and the Trees: Helping Readers Identify Important Details in Texts and Tests.) Being able to look up at the bird feeder, see what is there, and then focus back on the task at hand is important for students.

During state testing, kids did ask me to shut the blinds. :)

The cardinals in February

Using resources
Kids use many different kinds of resources to identify the birds. I have put up the Ned Smith posters of Pennsylvania birds and animals, which are a handy resource. (I started out by using them to decorate the walls during state testing, and then left them up.) I also have several bird books on the windowsill. Students have gone from saying "What is that black bird?" to asking "Is that a starling or a crow?"

But students, like people in general, like to learn through social interaction. Students share what they know and quickly tell students from other homerooms what the different birds look like. "Oh, the brown one with the orange beak is the female cardinal!" Several of them have become more interested in birds in general, and now are observing birds at home as well as at school. They compare stories when they come in and ask more questions: "Mrs. Kissner, do kestrels live around here?" or "___ said he saw a peregrine falcon. Do you think that can be true?"

Sharing information
One day a student brought in a camera from home to take photographs of the birds. The student shared the camera throughout the day and the students took turns trying to capture the best images of as many different birds as they could see. They scrolled back through the image file and compared their pictures: "That one is the best one of the junco," and "I never noticed that the tufted titmouse had that orange part!"

The bird feeder is such a focal point, as a matter of fact, that I trudged out in heels in the rain to fill it up with sunflower seeds this afternoon. This delighted my students, who watched and waved from inside, and then gushed about the amazing new bird they saw at the feeder. (I'm glad they didn't take a picture of this.)





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