Two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently and seven out of ten inner-city and rural fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level (Paige, 2002). With increasing pressure on teachers to elevate reading proficiency because of NCLB, how do you envision a math/science education curriculum that supports literacy while still proving a rich environment for science inquiry and problem-based math learning? For example, how can you balance math practice problems, not drill, with your approach?
One of the further challenges of implementing a problem-based math and science curriculum is that assessment questions often require strong reading comprehension skill levels as well as science and math conceptual understanding. Visit the NAEP site explored in science methods and choose one science and one math question that you could use for your thematic unit as either a pre- or post assessment. What literacy skills would students also have to have to be successful on your selected question?
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16 comments:
1) I wish I had something really profound to say...but I don't. In thinking about the different learning theories - behaviorism, constructivism, traditionalist, etc., I'm not convinced that any one approach is the best way to support literacy in math/science curriculum. I do know that I've been reading some of Alfie Kohn's work lately and I am agreeing with his views on education more and more. One article he wrote in 1995 highlights that behaviorism and reading really don't go hand in hand. He noted that New Gingrich initiated a national campaign to pay children to read, offering them $2 for every book they read. He states, "But educators ought to know by now, in light of research and experience, that rewards are not merely ineffective over the long haul but actually counterproductive" Alfie Kohn, www.alfiekohn.org. I believe behaviorism is not the answer to supporting literacy in math/science. But I wonder if a constructivist approach would get us there. Right now, I am leaning toward a social constructivist approach, building individual knowledge with an emphasis on the importance of culture, individual schema, and context. The social constructivist approach would allow for science inquiry and problem based math (by the nature of constructivism), but could also support literacy at the individual level because of being a student centered approach.
2) I'm not sure I found the right questions, as they don't seem to be as extensive as the ones we looked at in class. However, here's what I found.
The math question I found relates directly to our integrated unit. The problem is to figure out the length of one side of a square if you are given one side:
14.
Below is a square. If side AB is four inches long, how long is side BC ?
It doesn't seem very hard, but if students don't have an understanding of the meaning of a square, they won't get that they have all the information they need to solve this problem. Students will need to have literacy skills of decoding what the question is asking, understanding of length and understanding how to get rid of irrelevant information.
Science question:
On steep slopes along the sides of new roads, highway department workers often grow plants to prevent the soil from being eroded. Describe two ways that these plants keep the soil from eroding.
I think we could use this question as a pre-question, even though we will be addressing plants differently in our lesson, this question still gets at how plants are used. Students will need to have literacy skills to write a description of plants and their uses.
1)On the topic of supporing literacy in the math and science curriculum, I feel that teachers need to provide opportunities for children to practice their reading and writing skills more frequently in these areas rather than just during "reading" and "social studies" time. Students should be given the opportunity to practice reading math and science problems and texts through independent, buddy, and group reading, just as is done in the language arts curriculum. Teachers can have minilessons for students on how to read science and math materials, vocabulary involved in the reading, deciphering meaning from the text, and how to pick out major points. From my experience, math and science reading can be intimidating for kids because they are a seperate genre of writing in of themselves. That is why I think kids need more direct instruction on reading these types of text. Students should become used to communicating their science and math concepts in writing. How to communicate your science and math ideas and how to justify them can be taught to students and practiced. Another technique for students to practice writing in science and math is to keep an ideas journal that allows them to keep track of what they have learned each day, rules or specific equations they should have access to, and concepts they think are important to record.
2)Helena and I are doing an integrated unit that focuses around tobacco. For science, I am focusing on the affects of tobacco on the lungs and having the students explore lung capacity and the effects of tobacco on lung capacity. While there were not any questions about lung capacity, there were several questions relating to how oxygen is carryed throughout the body and heart rates before, during, and after exercise. Aimed at grade 4 as a hard question, the NAEP asks "Julio wants to know about his pulse rate and how it changes when he runs fast. He measured his pulse before, during, and two minutes after he ran. Which graph shows what his pulse rate was at these times?" Only 36% of students were able to identify the correct graph. I could tie this into my integrated unit by having the kids explore not only how exercise affects heart rate, but also how tobacco affects heart rate and how tobacco affects heart rate while exercising. The question would be a great jumpstart for an investigation.
3) In math, our integrated unit will explore the statistics relating to the cost of tobacco usage, the amount of money spent on tobacco advertising and lung cancer statistics. Probability questions show up in both grades 4 and 8 of the NAEP math questions. One I could use, asks studnets to determine the probability of a given event happening. Specifically, what are the chances that the second number in a pair of numbers will be smaller than the first. I could tie this in with lung cancer by asking students to find the probabiltiy they will get lung cancer if they smoke or do not smoke, how the chances change if they are male or female, how many cancer cases are lung cancer, etc.
4)To answer the above questions, students need to be able to read, comprehend and analzye what they have read. They must understand what the question is and what the problem they need to solve is.
1) I agree with Bryn that direct instruction in how to read math and science materials is essential to increasing proficiency overall. It is a different process than when reading narrative text, and students need to instruction in order to develop strategies to identify and decode the important and relevant information. One topic that we have consistently revisited in our literacy methods class is the contextualization makes decoding increasingly less difficult. With that, students need practice reading non-narrative text, but if it is a significant amount of reading it needs to be relevant, engaging and at their reading level. There is definitely a need for non-fiction materials, but the use of children's literature is a way to engage students’ attention and interest. We discussed tons of ideas and resources for incorporating children’s lit in both science and math methods. In addition, journaling gives students an opportunity to practice writing, record findings, write down strategies for problem solving, etc. A constructivist approach makes the most sense to me in terms of accomplishing the goal of a balanced curriculum that supports literacy because I think that the use of multiple materials and opportunities for writing within science and math curriculums will lead to a more conceptual understanding of the content. If students have been exposed to multiple texts and have been asked to write about and discuss materials they have used, they will have more resources and practice verbalizing their understanding, which in my mind is a component of conceptual understanding. Literacy is essential so students can succeed in the other content areas, as well as in life (I am really not trying to sound cliché, but it is).
2) The NAEP questions that I found don’t totally suit our thematic unit, which is “Endangered Species of MT,” but I think they might be helpful for students in that they will have experience with this type of questioning. In terms of science I found a question that asks which animals pictured reproduce by laying eggs, and the choices included bird, gorilla, grasshopper, fox, frog and lamb. I think that I would use this as a pre-assessment question in order to assess student understanding and as an introduction of the differences in reproduction of species. Montana’s endangered/threatened species list includes fish, wolves, grizzlies, eagles, etc.
3) In terms of math, we will be focusing on graphing data that we collect and interpreting data represented on various types of graphs and the NAEP question that I found asks the student to complete a bar graph of student sales in which they are given the first data set on the graph. I would also use this as a pre-assessment question in order to address any information that they forgot from previous lessons. In the NAEP question the labels, title and scale are given, but I would omit these and ask students to develop these from the info given I the question. This requires students to go one step further and use skills that they learned prior to this experience. This also requires students to read and interpret the question carefully in order to develop that information for the graph.
4) In order to answer these questions, the most important skills that students need is the ability to carefully read, decode, and organize the text, and then identify specifically the question they are being asked to answer the question.
It is (I think) hard to seperate math practice problems from drill practice. Students need the repetative nature of the information so it sticks into their long term memory...but isn't that drill? Where do we find the line of creating different ways to approach the same problem? Well we need to creat problems and interactions with different types of objects and hands on activities that dont seem like drill practice so the students will enjoy the learning and listening. I think that students need to be challenged and pushed into the direction of student teaching and learning themselves. In the "big world" out there we (as teachers) are not going to hold the hands of our students day after day, they need to learn to learn on their own and that is where the drill practice would fall out.
My math assessment question relates to using a pictograph to read and learn the information so that they can answer how many students are in the school. Our literature lesson focuses on the pictographs of the native american tribes and how they used them to create an information system and a place to record their information. The students will need to understand how to read information and how to decode the words and pictures on the rocks and on the graph in this problem.
My science assessment questions relates to plants and how the people use the plants to help them in their work. Our science lesson is going to focus on the native americans use of the plants around them and what the importance of each plant is. This questions asks about how the plants are used to stop the soil from the erosion that may happen. Students will need to have an understanding of how to relate the information learned into the real world and put it into use. If they dont understand how to communicate that information with the group or others, the importance of the plants will deminish and go away.
The Science
1. Even without trying many lessons incorporate both the subject and literature together. I am just not sure if the right kind of literature is being joined with the subject. So many schools still depend on the text books and do not add the richer suplimental materials available. Over the past few months I have noticed that our cooperating teacher has the class journaling in many of the subjects. This allows her to assess student progress but they are not taking advantage of the opportunities provided to them. Journaling could help them make sense out of what they are learning and allow them to reflect on the material. In order for journaling to be affective I think that the teacher needs to model good journal usage, frequently revisit and discuss journal entries. The students should also be encouraged to communicate and ask questions that are answered in their journals.
2. I found only one question that could be applied to the unit that Janna and I will be teaching. We may be teaching a lesson on water displacement and I found a question that had students observing two glasses of water that were filled with water to the same level. Two steel balls of different sizes were dropped showing how far the water level raised in each glass. The students then had to make predictions into how the water levels would be effected if one steel ball was dropped into a glass and another ball the same size but wood dropped into the other glass. They then had to write out reasons why they came to this conclusion.
I had a difficult time finding a math question that delt in measuring. I found one that asked: Which of these could be measured with a meter stick. A)Length B)Temperature C)... Janna and I plan to teach a lesson on measuring distance using scale and then converting the distance. This question was too easy and had little to do with our lesson but I now know which question I won't be asking my students!
In order for students to be able to complete the questions correctly they need a solid understanding of the subject matter but they also need to comprehend the question and be able to communicate their thoughts appropriately.
(1) For a math and science curriculum that supports literacy while still including science inquiry and problem-based math learning, literary needs to be included in every lesson. A lesson that is fully integrated with inquiry based experiences, communication, reading, and writing is ideal. This would deepen student learning in science and literacy at the same time. There are many ways to incorporate literacy in your curriculum. In this month’s issue of Science and Children, literacy skills in science are the main focus. One idea that they suggest is using nature books to improve student’s scientific observational skills and also to get student’s interested in science journaling. Through journaling, students are writing about observations, posing questions, drawing pictures that include labels, and reflecting about their discoveries. In both math and science you can use literature to help students understand the concepts that they are learning. For example, Salamander Rain: A Lake and Pond Journal was used in a 2nd grade class to demonstrate a journal entry that included observations, reflections, and questions. In math methods, we used children’s literature also to help students understand a mathematical concept (for example, A Remainder of One by Elinor J. Pinczes to demonstrate numerical division and remainders). Using literature like A Remainder of One to present a practical problem in an entertaining, rhyming text with simple illustrations will help students grasp the concept that is an approach that does not include drill. Literature and journals are just a few ways to incorporate literacy in your math/science education curriculum.
(2) For our thematic unit, we are teaching about Native Americans by region across the United States. We were thinking for a math lesson, we would compare and contrast the populations of different tribes from each region and have students chart the populations on a bar graph and do some problems from the bar graph. On the NAEP website, I found a question that ask students to complete a bar graph from a description of data. This problem deals with dogs, cats, and hamsters with the question, “Draw bars on the graph below so that the number of dogs is twice the number of cats and the number of hamsters is one-half the number of cats.” We could possibly use the populations of each tribe and pose a similar question. Students would have to read the question in its entirety for meaning and be able to decode what the question is asking for. Students have to be able to comprehend the question and interpret the question correctly. For science, we are putting together a lesson on the different structures of each tribe and why they chose to build structures out of specific materials. We were also thinking about addressing heat transfer. I had difficulty finding a question on the NAEP website about heat transfer but I did find a question about the mixture of clay, water, and sand, a possible combination of materials used in the making of a structure from a tribe. The questions asks, “A student put some sand, clay, and water into a bottle and shook the bottle. Then he put the bottle down. After two hours, the bottle looked like the drawing above. What can the student conclude based on what he sees in the bottle?” This question could possibly be used as a pre-assessment question to see if students understand the composition of the earth, the characteristics of rocks and soil, and natural resources used by humankind. All of these areas that could relate to building structures out of materials from the earth, like some Native American tribes did.
Reading can, and should be incorporated into every subject area. Professor Cobbs demonstrated this through the reading of Math Curse, a quality piece of literature that focuses on mathematics. There are numerous books that focus on science and math, other than text books. Text books can be extremely difficult for most students to read, which is why they should be used side by side with qualilty pieces of literature. There is a huge difference between reading a textbook and reading literature, textbooks do allow for reading skills practice, but should not be used as the primary source of reading material. I envision a curriculum that is more focused around quality literature, and taking the math and science aspects of that literature and applying it to the curriculum.
After reviewing the NAEP site I was not sure if I found the right quesitons, but I will stretch the questions that I did find..Science,
"On steep slopes along the sides of new roads, highway department workers often grow plants to prevent the soil from being eroded. Descricbe two ways that theses plants keep the soil from eroding."
For out integrated unit Damian and I will be focusing on recycling, and looking at landfill management. This question can be altered to ask students to describe two ways that landfill are kept from overflowing. To integrate literature I would look for newspaper clippings about landfills, and controversal issues related to landfills.
Math question,
"Ms. Harper bought 6 pints of milk. How many quarts of milk is this equal to?"
I would change this question, "If you save 100 cans and took them to the recycler and got $.10 for each can, how much money would you earn? Literacy could be incorporated by having students reseach the various amounts of money cans are worth, and what they have been worth in the past. It would also be great to find a story relating in some way to money being made from recycled materials.
We were given great examples in class of ways that literacy development can be incorporated into math and science. Lisa showed us tests used in North Dakota and New York. In both of the tests, students were asked to write down their ideas and answers as they went along. A similar approach could be used when students are engaged in science inquiry. While we are having students develop their ideas on a topic, they could be writing them down in a way similar to the test examples. There seem to be so many ways that reading and writing can be added to science inquiry and problem-based math. We just need to find the areas in which it will fit. In problem-based math, students should get a lot of practice actually reading problems and comprehending them. As for practice problems, students could practice writing down their procedure after they do a problem, or explaining why they think their answer is correct. It seems like science inquiry and problem-based math are very conducive to adding reading and writing practice. If we question students to help them build new knowledge, they might discover deeper meanings if they can write their ideas as they are thinking them through.
I found some multiple choice questions on the NAEP site that were somewhat related to our unit lessons. For math, we are working on a lesson on measurement and maps. Our unit theme is about explorers and we are doing a lesson on the miscalculations of Columbus. The NAEP question that I thought was related to this was one about which units to use for measurements. We could ask the students the question when we are discussing using the scale on a map to figure out distance. For our science lesson, we are going to do a lesson on stars and talk about how explorers navigated. The question most closely related was one about the temperature of the sun. We might talk about this when we learn about stars. To answer these questions correctly students are going to have to comprehend the question they read, so they will have to be able to decode the most important words. Changing the format from a multiple choice question to a short answer would incorporate writing.
It is clear that kids are not learning to read and write sufficiently. Yes, students do need to learn math and science, but literacy can be incorporated so that students practice those skills. Every time students do math or science, they should have to read and write. Perhaps we need to go beyond just reading directions and jotting down notes for the writing component but do assessments that require students to read more lengthy passages and write whole paragraphs and essays. Rather than just having students do math practice problems, they could write stories around them. Alternatively, they could describe (in writing) the multiple entry points for a problem.
Our thematic unit is on tobacco. One science question we could use is:
In your body, what two organs work together to make sure that oxygen gets to all the other organs of your body?
This would be a great question because we will be discussing the effect of tobacco on the lungs and so a basic understanding of respiration is necessary. Of course, students would need to be able to read the question. However, no writing is required; it is a multiple-choice question. This is ideal if your goal is to assess science knowledge of kids who are reading below level. However, it is not an activity that strengthens writing skills and it only requires a minimal amount of reading.
A math question you could use for our thematic unit is:
Shade 1/3 of the rectangle below.
(There is a rectangle shown that is split into 6ths. I.e., you need to convert 1/3 into 6ths and then shade 2/6).
We are probably going to ask this type of question in our math component because we might do a pie chart that shows how much money you might spend on cigarettes (a fraction out of your allowance or out of your paycheck). Out fifth grade class is working on fraction-decimal-percentage conversions and after we relate that to tobacco, we could ask a question that requires students to shade a portion of a shape. They are also simplifying fractions. This question assesses if you can convert fractions into other fractions. Again, very little reading and writing is required. To include more writing, students could be required to write a rationale for their answers. Alternatively, they could write about when you would need to convert one fraction into another, equivalent fraction.
In order to achieve the goal of supporting literacy throughout the science and math curriculum it is important to do multiple things to help your students. One of the most important would be to give your students real world situations and problems in which they would have to read in depth on a subject to get at the root of a problem, instead of spoon feeding them worksheets all of the time; we need to implement more problem solving assignments. It would also be helpful to have students journal as much as they can after they have completed an activity. After doing so students are more likely to make a deeper connection while enhancing their writing skills.
For our thematic unit, Tara and I will be exploring how communities sustain themselves in a given area. A helpful math problem for trading and rounding money would be:
Alba needed to know about how much the sum of 19.6, 23.8, and 38.4 is. She correctly rounded each of these numbers to the nearest whole number. What three numbers did she use?
A) 19, 23, 38
B) 19, 24, 38
C) 20, 24, 38
D) 20, 24, 39
We are going to have them pic a biome on another planet that they would live and sustain themselves in. For science a helpful question would be: List four ways that the Earth is different from the Moon.
This last question students would have to have good literacy skills to answer, but for both it would be important to understand the meaning behind it.
As a student reads more, they become a better reader. So the best way to improve their literacy is to increase their reading. Incorporating books into every subject isn't very hard (as we've seen lately!) Providing a variety of materials is important - such as reference books, magazine articles, internet articles, etc. Students need to feel comfortable with a large variety of information sources so they can begin to do their own research. As they read, they need to learn how to ask questions about the content to help with their comprehension.
I believe students learn best when the information is made relevant. Story problems in math are more interesting and make students think more than simple drills. The same goes for science problems. Discussing a situation is more interesting than just learning facts. In both subjects students should learn to journal about what they are learning. Writing about math can be difficult, but students need to practice writing about their thought processes. At first, teachers may need to help students read through problems and model how to journal.
Our science lesson will discuss shelters used by Native Americans in different parts of the country. We'll look at what materials were used, how they were designed, and why. I'm not seeing a NAEP question that fits very well, but there is one that touches on what a candle needs to burn. We'll be discussing tipis and the fires that burned in them. Another question had students looking at a chart to determine the temperature of an area. We'll be discussing the weather and temps of different parts of the country and how that played a role in the shelter needed.
For math, we're looking at using something Georgia showed us this week - the Native American bead lesson. This will involve symmetry and plotting points. There is a grade 4 question that checks if students know how to plot a point given the coordinates.
For both of these areas, students will need to be able to read the information and directions given to them. For science we'll be looking at maps, and possibly data charts showing temperatures, besides written information.
1) I agree with some of the above ideas, that reading assessment questions in math and science is completely different than reading text with a story line. As teachers, we need to provide more opportunities for students to practice reading non-narrative text, and teach them to look for specific ideas, and clues, as well as to use their metacognition while reading. I also feel that it is essential to incorporate other types of children’s literature into all subject areas including math and science. Including children’s literature into other subject areas besides just literature, is one way to get students engaged, relate a concept to a life-like situation, and may give the students another opportunity to practice reading.
2) We will be teaching about how many of the indigenous people were strongly tied to the natural world around them and their ways of knowing. I found it difficult to find a question I would use as a pre assessment or post assessment. One NAEP question gave a statement about a girl who lives in a dry, hot climate, and a boy who lives in a cold wet climate. The question asks the student to write about aspects to the people’s houses that helps them live in their particular climate. They then have to explain how the aspects help. I thought I could maybe relate this to how some tribes, such as the Ojibwa, moved and lived in different places depending on the season. This NAEP question requires reading and comprehension of the question, as well as the ability for the student to write and process their thought into text.
3) For the math aspect of our unit, students will plot points on a graph given specific coordinates. When all the points are plotted, they should make up a specific design. I found a NAEP question that asks students to circle points on a grid, where the two points are equal. We could use a question like this to see where students are at, and if they know how to plot simple points. This question doesn’t require as in-depth reading skills as the questions we did in class, but it still requires to students to be able to read and comprehend the question.
1) Reading is a part of every content area. It is up to us as teachers to make sure that the reading that students are asked to do are at their instructional level. I really liked Math Curse and the other books that Dr. Cobbs presented in class. Allowing students to read interesting materials that can elicit inquiry based questions is far more interesting than textbooks. I agree with Bryn that mini lessons on how to read math and science within books is important. I also agree with Emily that students need to enjoy what they are learning. Worksheets are not that fun to do. The most important thing to remember about reading is that the more a person reads the more they learn and the more they read books that interest them, the more they may enjoy reading.
2) Emily and I are centering our thematic unit around discovering how different communities survive based on their environment. The students will be trading items that they grow within their community.
Mathematics
A question that I found that discusses profit was:
Peter bought 45 sheets of plywood at a total cost of $400. He plans to sell each sheet of plywood for $15. If Peter has no other expenses, what is the fewest number of sheets he must sell to make a profit? (answer E)
A) 3
B) 15
C) 16
D) 26
E) 27
This question requires that students can read and understand the question.
For the science portion of our lesson students will have to determine how much weight their spaceship can carry.
What does the can shown in the diagram weigh?
For this question, students must know how to read a scale and they must be able to read and understand the question.
If fourth graders cannot read at a proficient level then the science and math curriculums need to provide more opportunities for students to comprehend what is being asked of them. Ideally the kids would have more time reading about math and science. Pinpointing key vocabulary words would help students understand exactly what is being asked. For example, if a question asks how does light refract, well first of all they need to understand what refract means. I feel in the science curriculum some questions we ask of students, goes straight over their heads because they have not been introduced to the topic or don’t have any previous knowledge (hence, why they cannot read the science/math terminology). If you also allow your students time to visually see what’s going on first, and come back to the reading then it will make more sense. Allow the students time to explore math and science problems visually or physically then come back to the reading. If the kids have a picture of what’s going on in their minds then terminology will become clearer. Letting students explore (with the teachers guidance) will take away the drill approach.
I only found four different questions for fourth grade. The question that relates best asks about equivalent fractions. The literacy skill would be to understand that equivalent is equal. If students cannot understand equivalent then they cannot answer the question.
For the science question it asked if two cups of water are at the same level and one big ball and one small ball were dropped which water level raised the most. Students would have to have prior knowledge that the heavier ball would create more force on the water making it rise higher. Students obviously would have to be able to read the question to answer it.
1. I see great potential for programs which support active literacy through a math/science curriculum. Using a problem based math curriculum and a inquiry based science curriculum goes hand in hand with many literacy and reading activities which require critical thinking and reading fluency. We can incorporate literature into our lessons to help introduce, support, or produce curiosity around a math or science concept. We can ask our students to respond to the evidence which they find in their experiments by writing to senators, other scientists, or policy decision makers so that students go beyond performing inquiry and problem solving techniques. They learn how to apply their knowledge to real world problems and affect change through the use of communication and literacy skills. Through this aproach I believe that students are more likely to make lifelong decisions to seek "truth" through the use of scientific inquiry and problem based math.
2.For our math question I would ask the question, "Which of the following best explains why the Sun appears to move across the sky every day?" This question be a good pre-asesment for our sciene unit which will focus on using the North Star to navigate to determine which earth movements students are familiar with. Students would use several literacy skills with this question. They would need to unerstand the sentence structure and word meanings in order to answer this.
3. For our math lesson where we are going to ask students to chart their findings using a tool and the north star to determine direction. They will create a bar graph of all class findings. As a pre-asesment we could ask the question, "In the school sale Bob sold 10 boxes of fruit, Kyla sold 20 boxes, and Chris sold 15 boxes. Complete the bar graph below to show how many boxes each student sold." This would help us to see how familiar students were with bar graphs. It would require reading comprehension skills to decifer this question.
1. I see great potential for programs which support active literacy through a math/science curriculum. Using a problem based math curriculum and a inquiry based science curriculum goes hand in hand with many literacy and reading activities which require critical thinking and reading fluency. We can incorporate literature into our lessons to help introduce, support, or produce curiosity around a math or science concept. We can ask our students to respond to the evidence which they find in their experiments by writing to senators, other scientists, or policy decision makers so that students go beyond performing inquiry and problem solving techniques. They learn how to apply their knowledge to real world problems and affect change through the use of communication and literacy skills. Through this aproach I believe that students are more likely to make lifelong decisions to seek "truth" through the use of scientific inquiry and problem based math.
2.For our math question I would ask the question, "Which of the following best explains why the Sun appears to move across the sky every day?" This question be a good pre-asesment for our sciene unit which will focus on using the North Star to navigate to determine which earth movements students are familiar with. Students would use several literacy skills with this question. They would need to unerstand the sentence structure and word meanings in order to answer this.
3. For our math lesson where we are going to ask students to chart their findings using a tool and the north star to determine direction. They will create a bar graph of all class findings. As a pre-asesment we could ask the question, "In the school sale Bob sold 10 boxes of fruit, Kyla sold 20 boxes, and Chris sold 15 boxes. Complete the bar graph below to show how many boxes each student sold." This would help us to see how familiar students were with bar graphs. It would require reading comprehension skills to decifer this question.
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