EDTE 316

Science Methods
Fall 2007

Module 3 (Weeks 5, 6 & 7)

To properly navigate through this
PowerPoint, go to “View” and click on
“Slide Show”

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Week 5: Oct. 1 to Oct. 7
 Assessment

What to Do What to Submit/Post

 View Week 5 PowerPoint By Tuesday, participate in

 Read Chapter 4 your first small group
(Assessment) discussion (see “Content
 Read Chapter 5 section on Group Assessment
Stage 3 Discussion” slide)
By Thursday participate in
 Rough out Stage 3 &
submit (as a group) your Content Group
discussion
 Participate in online small
By Sunday submit a draft of
& large group activities
Stage 3 to me via email
attachment
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 Stop here and read Chapter
4 and Chapter 5 (Stage 3).

Click on the Teaching the Science Class You Never Had

textbook link on the course website. You can either read
Chapters 4 & 5 online or print them.
When you are finished reading (no later than Tuesday) go to the
next slide for small group online discussion instructions.

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Small Group Assessment
Discussions
By Tuesday: With your “Content Group”, each of you
should share one enduring outcome from each outcome
category (Memory, Analytical, Creative, Practical).
By Thursday: Discuss appropriate evidence and applicable
tasks for each of these outcomes.
By Friday: Help each other complete the assessment table.
This is the table found in chapter 4, page 11 and in prompt 1
of Stage 3.

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Complete Stage 3
 After you have all worked with your small group to
devise an assessment table, complete Stage 3 as a
group. (A WORD version of the Unit Plan Template is
on the course website)

 Submit a group draft of Stage 3 as a TaskStream

email attachment to me by 11:59 P.M. Sunday
evening, Oct. 7th.

 Name your document “Stage 3 (your Content Group)

(date). Example: “Stage3Chemistry(7Oct07)”

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 Weeks 6 & 7

When you are ready, click on the arrow to

move onto Weeks 6 & 7.

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Week 6: Oct. 8 to Oct. 14
Week 7: Oct. 15 to Oct. 21
 Designing Your Instructional Blueprint
What to Do
 View Weeks 6 & 7
PowerPoint
 Read Chapter 5 (Stage 4 &
Summary)
 Complete Your Unit Plan
What to Submit/Post
Online discussion postings --
a general Q & A forum to
address questions about your
unit plan
Submit complete unit plan to
instructor by Saturday, Oct.
20th
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 Time to read …

Read Chapter 5 , Stage 4 & Summary.

Originally this was going to be a 1-week assignment but it was

expanded to 2 weeks because there is a lot to accomplish. So
get started early on the reading, then you can devote the rest of
your time to completing the unit plan.

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Instructional Blueprint– Stage 4
 Recall from Module 1 that you will be teaching a mini-unit
of 6 activities/lessons -- first to the rest of your
classmates, then to the Jed Smith students on Science
Day
 In this stage you will design a unit that consists of at least
15 lessons, then select a subset of those lessons to teach
 Stage 4 may be completed in a few different ways, which
will be summarized on the next page. The end product
must consist of every blank in the Stage 4 template filled in
for every lesson (at least 15 lessons)
 Now go onto the next page for a summary of ways to go
about completing Stage 4

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Completing Stage 4
1. Download the WORD unit plan template from the course
website, or click here -- the cells will expand to whatever size
you need to get your information in.
2. Type in what you think would be a logical sequence of lessons
to meet the enduring outcomes identified for this unit. Don’t
settle for your first draft. Rearrange as necessary until you
have something that you think will really work.
3. Then work through one lesson at a time, sketching out the
student learning objectives, essential questions, strategies,
and formative assessments. Do a reality check and again
rearrange as necessary.
4. Be sure to read through the details of each prompt for Stage 4
(Chapter 5).

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 What about Lesson
Plans?
The beauty of this kind of unit plan is that you do not need to
write out every single lesson in great detail. Just certain key
lessons will need more elaboration.
The key lessons for this unit will be just the 5 or 6 actual
activites/lessons you are going to teach, plus a discrepant
event.
Relax, each of you will only be required to write one detailed
lesson plan, so read on . . .

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Choose 5 or 6 activities to teach in
learning stations
 The unit you will actually be teaching to your colleagues,
then to the Jed Smith students on Science Day, will
consist of 5 or 6 hands-on activities selected from your unit
plan.
 These hands-on activities will be set up as stations,
complete with instructions & materials.
 Students should be divided into small groups – Group 1
starts at Station 1, Group 2 at Station 2, and so on.
 The groups will rotate from 1 station to another until they
have participated at every station.
 Each of you will facilitate a particular station, or in some
cases 2 stations.
 More on this later, but for now, decide with your group
which 5 or 6 lessons/activities you will use for the learning
stations
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Guidelines for choosing the Learning
Station activities
 The 5 or 6 hands-on activities that you select
should focus on closely-related concepts/big
ideas.
 For example, if you were teaching a unit on the
human body, you might focus on a single
concept/big idea like the digestive system. Then,
your 5 stations might be: 1) Mouth; 2)
Esophagus; 3) Stomach; 4) Intestines; 5) Liver.
 Notice in the above example that although the
students will be learning something different at
each station, all the stations help reinforce the big
idea or concept of the digestive system.
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Choose a Discrepant Event
Remember the discrepant event you did a few
weeks ago (egg in the bottle)?
You should introduce your unit plan with a
discrepant event.
Decide as a group on a discrepant event that
you will use to introduce the students to the
unit.

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Write Your Lesson Plans
(individually)
 Now that you have decided on a discrepant event and
5 or 6 activities, divide up the work so one of you is
responsible for the discrepant event and each of the
others is responsible for one of the activities.
 Use the Lesson Plan Template found on the last page
of the Unit Plan Template.
 Each of you should write one lesson plan. This is an
individual (not a group) activity, although it obviously
should be related to the group unit plan.
 In other words, one person will write a lesson plan for
the discrepant event, one person for the Station 1
activity, one person for the Station 2 activity, and so on.

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Submit Your Entire Unit Plan
 Revise Stages 1,2,and 3 according to feedback received
from me. Then combine these with Stage 4.
 Attach the individual lesson plans to Stage 4.
 Submit the entire unit plan (cover page + all 4 stages &
lesson plans) to me as an attachment in TaskStream.
Name it: “UnitPlan(Content Group)(date). Example:
“UnitPlanChemistry(20oct07)”
 This unit plan (less lesson plans) will be graded (group
grade) based on how effectively you have addressed each
prompt of each stage.
 The lesson plans will be graded individually.
 Due 11:59 P.M., Saturday, October 20th.

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 Unit Planning Q & A
Discussion Forum
There is no specific prompt. Rather, this is
the place to post your questions or insights
about your unit plans.
Log onto the course website at
www.taskstream.com
Under the 6th & 7th weeks, you will see the
Forum title, “Stage 4 Q & A”.
Posting is optional.

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