Infusing Science in Story Workshop - More Thoughts

One of the things I am very conscious of in thinking about leveraging Story Workshop into a Science Workshop is that I don't want to change what is already happening. I am not trying to hijack Story Workshop and convert it into a science activity. But I am thinking about small changes that will allow students to include their science learning as part of their stories.

I revisited the Grade 1 class doing Story Workshop. As I debriefed with the amazing classroom teacher, Mrs. Mace, we started to talk about what Science Workshop could look like.

And then some magic happened!

Mrs. Mace is very intentional in attempting to move students' writing skills forward. We were talking about how we could help improve student writing by teaching them to add adjectives. "One day, a cat went to the sea" could become "One day, a cat went to the cold sea." The addition of the adjective adds detail and depth to the story.

But how do we weave in science? Mrs. Mace shared that they were currently studying the grade 1 Big Idea: Matter is useful because of its properties. Properties... Adjectives... It's the same thing right?

What if students revised their stories to include adjectives that were inspired by properties of matter? What if the materials used to inspire stories were the same materials being studied in science?

That rock in the story becomes a hard rock. The bark on that tree becomes rough bark. The cottonwood blowing in the wind becomes fluffy cottonwood. Student writing includes size, shape, texture and many more descriptive words. Students consciously include science thinking into their stories.

And when they share their stories, they are also sharing their science learning.


Thank you...
to Mrs. Mace and the amazing Grade 1's at Bear Creek Elementary for inviting me into their classroom.

Infusing Science in Story Workshop

In my role as Science Helping Teacher for the Surrey School District, I have the privilege of visiting classrooms and seeing some amazing teaching and student learning. Recently I was able to see a grade 1 class engaging in Story Workshop.

I won't be able to do justice to this activity, but the basic idea is to lay out some materials on tables for students to play with. The open play time is fairly unstructured except that students know their play is leading to a story. They are encouraged to play for as long as they like to develop a story using the characters and materials on the tables. When they are ready, students begin to write and illustrate the stories they invented during play.

My first thought on seeing Story Workshop was, "Why can't we do something like this for science?" Open play leading to writing about scientific concepts. So, in my typical professional manner, I am stealing this idea and adapting it. Let me introduce Science Workshop.

My intent is to change as little as possible. The routine of Story Workshop is wonderful and the students are well-versed in the process. All I really want to do is infuse science into the play time.

One problem I found immediately was that science "play" tends to be (and perhaps needs to be) more structured. We want students to be changing variables, establishing controls and collecting data. Hard to do in open play time. But, after leading some workshops last week, I think I am starting to see what this might look like.

Here's an example. One of the workshops last week was about using picture books to teach science. I shared an inquiry activity using Sheep in a Jeep to explore the grade 2 Big Idea: Forces influence the motion of an object. There was a variety of materials on the tables and teachers were asked to re-create a scene from the book. The next stage would be to ask what other adventures the sheep could get into. Participants would use the materials to create a new story for the Sheep in a Jeep.

Sound familiar?

Basically the Story Workshop framework is the same. But the materials chosen relate to the science concepts being learned in the classroom. Students would still write stories. It is certainly not going to be technical scientific writing or a lab report. But the new adventures would undoubtedly involve forces and motion. Are the sheep launched from a giant slingshot? Parachute of a cliff? Ride a roller coaster? Orbit a planet? Pulled by a giant magnet?

And as students share their stories, they can be explaining what forces are involved to influence motion. Extending their understanding to new scenarios. Science woven into story.

Sheep in a Jeep - Using Picture Books to Teach Science

Sheep in a jeep on a hill that's steep!

I read this book to my daughters about a ker-billion times and never noticed it was actually about forces and Newton's Laws. And I am a high school physics teacher.

At a workshop this weekend, I was sharing with Surrey teachers how to use picture books, like Sheep in a Jeep, to teach science. I challenged the teachers to try to re-create a scene from the book using only the materials they had on the table. Most groups re-created the scene where the sheep rolled the jeep down (gravity) a steep hill (Hot Wheels track) and got stuck (friction) in gooey mud (rolled up fabric).

But one group chose a seemingly simple scene that shows the power and depth of using picture books to teach science.

In this scene, the sheep are trying to pull the jeep out of the gooey mud. They have tied a rope to the bumper and the sheep tug. They use a force to pull the jeep. But the jeep doesn't move! Sheep shrug.

This is a deceptively powerful moment. Imagine a grade 2 student grappling with the Big Idea: Forces influence the motion of an object. But in this case, the force does NOT cause motion. What a baffling scenario! Why does this happen?

This is because of Newton's First Law. Perhaps a little advanced for Grade 2 but early exposure to the concept is good. The basic idea being that the jeep doesn't move because there are balanced forces acting on the jeep. The pulling force of the sheep is perfectly balanced by the gooey, suction, friction force of the mud.

Sheep yelp! Sheep get help!

Some brawny pigs with sailor tattoos come to help the sheep. The jeep comes out!

Why does the jeep move this time? Now the pulling force increases because, as everyone knows, pigs are stronger than sheep. When the pulling force exceeds the gooey, suction, friction force, we have unbalanced forces which cause a change in motion.

Newton's First Law is an incredibly complex and difficult concept. A picture book provides students an easy and engaging way to begin to question, explore and experiment.


NOTE:
Picture Perfect Science is an excellent series with many inquiry science lessons based on picture books. The original idea for the Sheep in a Jeep activity comes from this book.

Every Surrey elementary school received a copy of each of the 3 Picture Perfect Science books last year as a part of our Science resource workshops. You should find the books in the Teacher Resource section of your library.

Provoking Student Thinking

Provocations are new to me. As a secondary teacher, I have never used provocations in my teaching. In my new role as District Science Helping Teacher, I work with elementary teachers all the time so I have been exposed to provocations more often. And in my typical professional manner, I am stealing this idea to use it in my classroom.

I recently had an opportunity to share a workshop with my Helping Teacher colleagues. I led them through a lesson on friction using friction blocks and spring scales. I wanted to start the lesson with open play so I created some provocations.

I attempted to craft the provocations to draw out specific learning. In particular, the question: "How slowly can you move the block?" is intended to allow students to observe something specific. Using a spring scale to pull the block, students should notice that the force required to start the block moving is larger than the force required to keep it moving. Pulling slowly makes this very obvious. The spring scale reading will go up, up, up until the block starts to move. Then the reading will drop suddenly as it begins to move. In my physics classes, about half the students notice this on their own during the lab. The provocation is intended to ensure that all students observe this happening.

Of course, I underestimated the creativity of my colleagues. One person picked up the block and moved it very slowly through the air. The block wasn't sliding so no friction. No spring scale was used. There was zero chance to observe what I had intended.

And that is my fault. I thought I had crafted the provocation in a way to get at the noticing I wanted to happen. But my wording allowed for alternate methods that didn't allow for the noticing I wanted. I realized I need to change some words.

What do I really want to happen?

• I want students to pull the block so it slides across the table because there needs to be friction.
• I want students to pull the block using a spring scale to see the reading change.
• I want students to pull the block slowly so the change is obvious.

So my provocation needs to be more specific to make sure these things happen. Here is my new provocation:

What is the smallest force you can use to slide the block?

• The word slide ensures there will be friction.
• The word force ensures they will use the spring scale to measure the force.
• The word smallest ensures they will pull slowly so they can observe the change.

Intentionally crafting the provocation provokes the learning I want my students to experience.

The Question That Drives My Thinking

"What am I currently doing that the students could be doing?"

When I consider the art of teaching through scientific inquiry, this is the question that drives my thinking.

With the shift in the new curriculum towards inquiry learning, many teachers are struggling with what that looks like. Often teachers I work with have fantastic activities they have developed over the years for teaching specific science concepts. Now they are wondering if they have to throw out these great activities and start over.

But often it is just a small change that can transform the activity. Transferring ownership and responsibility of learning to the students. Here is one example about types of rocks. Here is another example about things that float. In each case, taking away something the teacher would normally do and transferring it to the students completely transforms the activity and opens up opportunities for questioning, exploration, experimental design, and student thinking.

Recently I worked with a small group of Surrey elementary teachers. We explored this question: What makes a good inquiry activity? Here are some of our ideas:

There are some wonderful ideas here. My favourites are productive confusion and thinking skills.

Sometimes, even these aspects of inquiry are not enough. One teacher shared an amazing activity she does with her students about the skeletal system using actual bones from a local butcher shop. She was excited about the activity but was unsure if it was truly inquiry. The activity met many of the criteria we generated that are shown in the picture above.

But, the teacher still did most of the explaining and demonstrating using the bones. After a quick discussion, we decided to get the students to observe the bones and explain to the teacher what they were seeing. And suddenly, all the questioning, observing, exploration and thinking belongs to the students.

"What are you currently doing that the students could be doing?"