In this poster session, we highlight how two 5th-grade teachers of
linguistically diverse students strategically used the Science and Engineering
Practice of Developing and Using Models over the course of a physical science
unit to increase opportunities for sensemaking with all students. First, we show
sample models from multilingual learners across three time points in the unit:
initial, revised, and final model. At each time point, we highlight what the
teachers did to elicit and interpret student thinking. In particular, we share
how “final models” can serve as a more authentic end-of-unit task when an
iterative modeling process has been enacted. We describe how the teachers’ own
perceptions of modeling changed over the course of the unit. As a result of
heightened student sensemaking with the more iterative modeling process, the
teachers shifted away from positioning models as products and toward positioning
models as evidence of current and evolving sensemaking.
TAKEAWAYS:
By strategically allowing all students, particularly multilingual learners, to develop and use increasingly sophisticated models over time, teachers shifted away from “models as products” and toward “models as evidence of sensemaking.”
SPEAKERS:
Iovanna Williams (Science Teacher: , NY), Adriana Romanzo (Elementary Science Teacher: New York, NY), Abigail Schwenger (Research Associate)