Tag Archives: think.pair.share

W.I.C.O.R

Anatomy & Physiology, AVID, Biology, Classroom Management, Day to Day, Science, students, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Any educator in a high school should recognize the acronym WICOR as an AVID instructional strategy.  Specifically, WICOR stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading/Real-World Connections.  AVID is an acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination.  Most schools in  Southern California actively support AVID and the use of the WICOR strategies.  In fact, Heritage High School is a demo school for AVID.  All teachers are requested to use WICOR strategies in their teaching because it is active, engaging, and is academically beneficial to the students.

 

Writing strategies                                                                           

  • Cornell Notes/Learning Logs
  • Quickwrites and Reflections
  • Process Writing
  • Peer Evaluation
  • Authentic Writing

Inquiry strategies

  • Skilled Questioning Techniques
  • Costa’s Levels of Thinking
  • Socratic Seminars
  • Investigations
  • Questions that Guide Research

Collaboration strategies

  • Socratic seminars
  • Philosophical Chairs
  • Group Activities
  • Peer Editing Groups
  • Service Learning

Organization strategies

  • Binders and organizational tools
  • Calendar,s Planners, and Agendas
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Focused note-taking system
  • Study groups
  • Project planning and SMART goals

Reading strategies

  • Deep Reading Strategies
  • Note-taking
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Vocabulary Building
  • Summarizing
  • Reciprocal Teaching

WICOR in my classes. 

Writing: All of my classes, Biology and Anatomy and Physiology use many of these strategies on a daily basis.  For instance, my students are required to take Cornell Notes from readings in the textbook.  If a Crash Course video is assigned, the students complete a GIST Summary, which is far more rigorous than simply writing down notes.  My students have completed Quickwrites and Reflections (along with SMART) goals.  We also use a Science Interactive Notebook, which truly helps with writing, organization and reading.

Inquiry: ‘To date, the classes have taught about Costa’s Levels of Thinking.  In addition, the classes have participated in Socratic Seminars and Investigations (Labs).  I am currently working on having them create questions to guide research.  At this date and time, I am responsible for creating guided questions and asking open-ended questions of the students.

Collaboration: All classes participate in group activities, including Socratic Seminars, Philosophical Chairs, and projects.  I have recently developed a real appreciation for think.pair.share.  I have been using it a lot lately.  Today, the students observed a peer “grading” their notebook.  Then the two students switched notebooks and they graded the other persons.  This is not for a grade.  It is an easy way to have them create peer editing groups and evaluate what they each need to complete before turning it in in a week.

Organization: Although began the year with digital notebooks, I was unable to achieve buy-in from a large number of students.  When it began to impact my pacing, it was time to stop and switch back to a traditional ISN.  I also strive to keep my students on track with being organized.  I put an outline on the board every Monday that includes information for in-class activities, and homework information and due dates.  Some students take photos of the whiteboard.  The students were also given an agenda record keeping planner to use to stay on top of assignments.  The students fill these in on Monday and receive a stamp.  Last, but not least, the students have access to their Haiku (Power School Learning), where the assignments are also posted under Weekly Overview.

Reading:  There are lots of reading assignments in Science.  I also either create graphic organizers or have the students replicate one in their notebook to use for assignments.  I began using Desmos a while back, which helps with vocabulary building.  The students are also very familiar with the concept of organizing because their classes have been AVID centered for many years.

 

My classes have participated in Philosophical Chairs discussion, and more recently have begun reading up for their next Socratic Seminar on Cancer.  The students also regularly work together on group activities, such as creating a poster of Mitosis with labels and definitions.  They also recently completed a five-day project for Photosynthesis, culminating in a slides presentation.  I could go on-and-on, but for the most part, my instructional style lends itself most easily to this type of instruction.

I tend to be pretty reflective about my instruction and am always self-evaluating, to do that requires deep analysis.  I create a checklist based on the items and/or information I can find about the strategy.  After that, it is simply comparing what I already do to what I have not explored yet.  At least with regards to WICOR, it would appear I am on top of it.

Student engagement shines on

Anatomy & Physiology, AVID, Biology, Day to Day, Science, , , , , , , , , ,

My biology students surprised me today.  I mean really surprised me.  Shame on me.

My students just started a chapter on Mitosis (cell growth and division).  As we were discussing the cell cycle, I asked them to examine the picture of the cell cycle and infer information from the picture.  They were asked to determine which phase was longest.  During the direct instruction, I explained to the students that Gap 1 and Gap 2 are like red/green checkpoints.  I gave them two questions to review for the next day: (1) What has to occur for Gap 1 to turn green and allow the cell to move to Synthesis; and, (2) What has to occur for Gap 2 to turn green and allow the cell to move into Mitosis.

Then I asked the students, “what would happen if the cell keeps replicating and doesn’t stop”?  Some students in my four classes went right to cell overgrowth and Cancer.  However, some of the students did not make the connection right away.  So, I followed up asking, “What if you have brain cancer and it is benign, should you be concerned? and Why”?  I had the think.pair.share symbol up.  So they thought about it, shared with their neighbor, and then we shared out.  The students were right on the money, telling me it is something to worry about because even if benign, a constantly growing mass in your skull will quickly damage the brain as it encroaching on its real estate.

A little background: I teach two different courses.  I have four Biology classes full of Freshmen and Sophomores.  I also have two Anatomy & Physiology courses full of Juniors and Seniors.   I have already created both classes’ finals.  Both groups have a one hour written final.  Both also have a one hour AVID Socratic seminar.  The topic for Biology is Human Genome Sequencing.  The topic for Anatomy is two articles about Cancer.  I made this assessment choice because the Lexile reading score for one of the Cancer articles is in the 1200-1300 range, and would likely be difficult reading for my Freshmen, Sophomores, IEP, and/or EL learners.

As I recognized how “into” the topic my Biology students were during the discussion, I decided to give them a choice.  I like to do this because they are teens, growing into adults and should be making responsible academic decisions.  I explained to them my rationale behind choosing the articles for the two different classes.  I even told them I had to look up a few words.  The students knew this meant it was not an easy read.  Despite this, all four classes really impressed me by voting for the more interesting, if difficult articles.  There were some students who voted for the assignment they “perceived” to be easier, but the majority won out.

So often, as teachers we strive to get “true” student engagement.  Not compliance, not I just want a good grade, but the real deal.  When it happens, it is like a bright light clearing out all of the darkness in the world.  Hope reigns supreme.  It is not just the faith I have in my students, which is unending.  These students shine on and on and I see real evidence and potential for them to continue shining, hopefully becoming life-long learners.

I am so incredibly proud of my Biology classes.  Of course, I will be scaffolding and reviewing the articles with each of the classes.  This is the first time I walk them through critiquing an article and preparing a claim, and text evidence to support their position.

The students often ask me why I became a teacher.  Sometimes, I get comments like, “I could never be a teacher, how you are so patient?”  The truth is, I will never give up on my students; every day is a brand new day; a fresh start; a new beginning.  I just have to figure out what turns my students’ lights on and how to keep them on.

 

Using Quizizz in Class . . . a Review

Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Day to Day, Gamifying Learning, Science, , , , , , ,

Today was the first day I had ever used Quizizz in class.  I made up several of these to engage the students in review for the next two weeks.  But, today was a trial run so I made a Quizizz based on class expectations and consequences.  Then, I piggybacked another practice Think . Pair . Share with the classes about the game site.

Pros: The game is easy to set up, copy questions and answers and finish.  It also has several positive features such as timer on/off, memes on/off, randomizing questions and answers, providing feedback, review for answers, and my favorite, a leader board.  The leader board helped the students see how they were doing.  We were able to review the questions an answers at the end.

Cons:  Students are much less familiar with Quizizz than Kahoot.  Although selected to work, the music would not play.  The print is very tiny (even on a projector) for the information on how to join the game, and the code number.

To be able to compare it to Kahoot, I will experiment with Kahoot tomorrow.  I have a Biology Quizizz I had previously created, but I will convert it into Kahoot and provide a comparison for final review.