Anchor Standard 2: Learning Differences
Intasc Anchor Standard 2: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
Each student in the classroom is an individual. They all learn and process information differently. As an educator, our job is to understand the learners and provide them with the best possible pathway to be successful in their learning. We must set achievable goals for our students and hold them accountable for their own success. We must show learners new information through multiple pathways preparing them for the next level of learning. In each lesson it is important to strive to provide many different strategies to increase understanding. These strategies might include modeling good note taking skills, creating graphic organizers, sketching microscope observations, watching videos to support understanding, linking information to real world applications or connecting the information to something the learner is familiar with, even creating mnemonics and creating fun hands-on experiments to help learners understand. Each of these strategies can be modified to meet the student's needs and their level of understanding on a subject. Providing opportunities for students to communicate the understanding, explore their curiosities, and use their critical thinking skills are key to preparing students for their futures in education and life.
In 7th grade science I combined a mixture of note taking strategy sessions, videos, games, and mini and full labs to teach Newton's Laws of Motion. For Newton's 2nd law of Motion the lesson began with video connecting Newton's Laws to the winter olympic sport of bobsleddinga modeling of proper note taking techniques. students experimented with dominoes, toy cars, and different types of balls (lacrosse, hacky sack, whiffle, and baseballs). They had to complete the mini labs and write observations to the mini lab questions. On Friday, we moved on to Newton's 2nd Law of motion. The lesson began with a video about bobsledding and how the initial force of the bobsledders sprinting provides the initial force to help with their acceleration down the icy ramp. Next, notes on key vocabulary words associated with Newton's second law of motion. Words included accleration, deceleration, velocity, speed, and momentum. The class wrapped up by modeling how to complete the math problems associated with f=ma. We did examples from the homework worksheet and then the student had to finish the rest of the quesitons for homework. I offered to be available during their lunch on Friday, study hall, and flex-friday period 8 that allows students to visit teachers to make up work or ask for help. I was pleasantly suprised to have entire tables of 8 or more students coming in for help with the homework. I was able to provide one-on-one assistance and teach them multiple ways to help them answer the math problems. The feedback was great and the students were very grateful for the help. These opportunities are the most important part to teaching. Students should never be afraid to ask for help. They should not be turned away and should not receive a bad grade if all they need is help and a different path to finding understanding and answers. On
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Next, students participated in a supporting Newton's 2nd law lab with review. This lab included having students using a triple beam balance to measure 7 objects in grams, convert the grams to kg, and then use the equation f=ma to find the force of each of the 7 objects. Next, students used a spring scale to find the Newtons of the same objects. Finally, students found the percentage of error between the two methods of measuring the force of objects. The students then were taught to use Google drive spreadsheet to create graphs using the results sheet through modeling (see Standard 11 for examples). Finally, the last step was to use modeling to teach students to create conclusions using the information they had learned about Newton’s Second Law of Motion through the lab, note-taking, and videos (See Standard 11 for examples of Technology in the classroom). Technology played a key role in the wrap of this lesson and the beginning of the lesson for Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Overall, the mix of lessons and hands-on labs were a huge success with students. Students really got a thorough understanding of Newton's laws through this technique. Students need a constant mixture of concrete experiences that allow them to see the purpose behind learning new information. For many students in this class providing them with opportunities to do the science and think about how each object changes based on mass allowed them to fully understand the information they were provided on Newton's Second Law of Motion.