Quick Writes

This article emphasizes the importance for students to write in science. I like how she the author explains that we should not assume that the students know or have any prior knowledge abou... See More

This article emphasizes the importance for students to write in science. I like how she the author explains that we should not assume that the students know or have any prior knowledge about the topic we are teaching. She assess what they know by a quick write at the beginning of the lesson. They write down their thinking in their science journal throughout the experiment or understanding topic being taught.

Quick Writes

This article emphasizes the importance for students to write in science. I like how she the author explains that we should not assume that the students know or have any prior knowledge abou... See More

This article emphasizes the importance for students to write in science. I like how she the author explains that we should not assume that the students know or have any prior knowledge about the topic we are teaching. She assess what they know by a quick write at the beginning of the lesson. They write down their thinking in their science journal throughout the experiment or understanding topic being taught.

Great, easy ideas to build science vocabulary!

Loved the tips and especially the Quick Write. ?? Amazing how open-ended questions can push kids to go a little deeper. Circling the vocabulary words..... simply brilliant!

Accessing Prior Knowledge

This article brings up a very good point-that the more prior knowledge a student has, the better the questions they develop about that topic will be. I like how the ideas in this article eng... See More

This article brings up a very good point-that the more prior knowledge a student has, the better the questions they develop about that topic will be. I like how the ideas in this article engage students to discuss their background knowledge around a new topic in a safe and supported environment while creating a written record of these ideas. They then can be referred back to when learning new information and forming testable questions.

Composing a Quick Write

In this article the author uses a writing strategy called a “quick write”. She asks her students an open-ended question and then has them write all they know about the topic in three minute... See More

In this article the author uses a writing strategy called a “quick write”. She asks her students an open-ended question and then has them write all they know about the topic in three minutes. When students are finished writing, they discuss their thoughts with a partner or in small groups. The author explains that not only is she assessing her students’ prior knowledge, but she also can pick up on any misconceptions they may have about the subject. The article is quick to point out that the quality of the question prompt is important. The best questions require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. By asking open-ended, higher level thinking questions, students tend to focus on the personal connections they can make to the concept over being worried about whether their answers are “correct”.

Quick Writes Rock!

Writing across the curriculum is highly encouraged at my school. The author takes the reader through the steps of students writing about what they know about the subject before the lesson be... See More

Writing across the curriculum is highly encouraged at my school. The author takes the reader through the steps of students writing about what they know about the subject before the lesson begins. I would use this as my "entrance ticket" and limit students to the three minutes as suggested by the author. As she said a lot of teachers do not allow for the time involved for quick writes. I plan to try to include this in my student notebooks with the help of the tips in this article.

Quick Writes

I love the idea of using quick writes to gain insight into student thinking and preconceived ideas. Time is always the most limited resource so I like that it's limited to 3 minutes. Also, ... See More

I love the idea of using quick writes to gain insight into student thinking and preconceived ideas. Time is always the most limited resource so I like that it's limited to 3 minutes. Also, having students write brings accountability into a think, pair, share type situation. I'll be using this more often in my classroom this year.

Just confirmed my thinking !

This article was great and although not new information, just confirmed my thinking. Since I am not a classroom teacher, I encourage teachers to do a quick write before and after coming to t... See More

This article was great and although not new information, just confirmed my thinking. Since I am not a classroom teacher, I encourage teachers to do a quick write before and after coming to the Science lab.Time is usually the culprit that prevents this form happening. I know we would see results if the time is taken though . The students need that reprocessing time in their own words and vocalizing it to others after leaving the Science Lab lesson . .

Laboratory of Words

I really enjoyed the article, especially the quick write idea for the beginning of the lesson. This is so helpful to a student if and when they go back to it in the process they can re think... See More

I really enjoyed the article, especially the quick write idea for the beginning of the lesson. This is so helpful to a student if and when they go back to it in the process they can re think their thought process and see where they were correct or where the misconception might be. In the end it will show that they have gained a deeper understanding of the material.

Science Notebooks

This was a great article on the how and why of using science notebooks in the classroom. Coming up with good, thought provoking, open ended questions is the key to really making the science... See More

This was a great article on the how and why of using science notebooks in the classroom. Coming up with good, thought provoking, open ended questions is the key to really making the science notebook an extremely useful tool. I also like the quick write idea. Fast, effective, and meaningful. Quick writes offer great insight into your students' learning.

Title?

Really informative article to find out where our students are before we get into the learning. I think it would be good for students to go back after the unit and update their initial respo... See More

Really informative article to find out where our students are before we get into the learning. I think it would be good for students to go back after the unit and update their initial response...maybe even using a different color for it to stand out. That could be used as a great assessment.

Science Notebooking

I like the way this author is using open-ended questions to engage her students to write what they know about a science concept. I've used KWL charts in my classroom which is limited to sin... See More

I like the way this author is using open-ended questions to engage her students to write what they know about a science concept. I've used KWL charts in my classroom which is limited to single word or fragment comments but this technique definitely engages higher level thinking and allows students to share with their classmates to see what they have in common. I wish the article had a qr code where we could see a video of this technique being taught in a classroom full of 24-28 students! I'm glad the author included a few open ended questions...I'd like to see more examples of those. I enjoyed reading this article!

Good ideas

I really took away from this article that I should do a quick write with my students before starting a new science concept. This would incorporate more writing in my day and the students wou... See More

I really took away from this article that I should do a quick write with my students before starting a new science concept. This would incorporate more writing in my day and the students would be more engaged because I would not set restrictions on spelling or content as long as it is readable and sticks to the topic.

Quick Writes: Great teaching and assessment tool

I liked the author's use of examples to back up her advice in this short article on using quick writes in the classroom. She walks us through modeling the process of teaching, as well as ho... See More

I liked the author's use of examples to back up her advice in this short article on using quick writes in the classroom. She walks us through modeling the process of teaching, as well as how to use the quick writes as an informal assessment tool. The examples of student work are helpful to illustrate these "quick writes" and how she used them in her classroom.

Uisng Notebooks for Formative Assessment

This article discusses how students' notebooks can be used to help teachers understand children's thinking and provide opportunities to address misconceptions. The students do a 3 minute ... See More

This article discusses how students' notebooks can be used to help teachers understand children's thinking and provide opportunities to address misconceptions. The students do a 3 minute quick write before beginning each different science investigation. The quick write is preceded by an open-ended question posed by the teacher. After the students do the quick-write the students discuss their thoughts with other students. The author goes into much more details.

Words Can Do So Many Things!!

The author uses "quick writes" in the science notebooks to get a handle on the students' ideas about a particular topic. The teacher doesn't make assumptions. She teaches how to do a quick w... See More

The author uses "quick writes" in the science notebooks to get a handle on the students' ideas about a particular topic. The teacher doesn't make assumptions. She teaches how to do a quick write. After students do the writing in their notebooks they make their ideas public by discussing them with a partner or small group. The teacher and the student can look at the notebook and see how thinking has grown over the course of the lesson and/or unit.