Flashback to Middle School: Observing a Middle School Science Class

My favorite part of my middle school experience was my science class. Mr.Grant always made this fun by engaging us in content that was interesting to me. Out of all the content I remember from middle school or projects I did in middle school I mainly remember the ones from his class.

Today I had the opportunity to see a little inside Mr.Grant's life as a science teacher when I observed a science teacher at Conrad Weiser Area Middle School. Mr. Moraski teaches middle school science at the middle school and today I got an inside look at what his students are doing.

Students working in independent

The rotation system in his class:

• Direct: This station is when students sit with Mr. Moraski and get instruction on the material. Today he was reading about Mendel with his students. During this he projected his copy of the book on the board and had them read the text in their books. I really liked being able to see his notes and highlights in his book to see what was important. He also used this time to make sure each student knew the material and the delivery of instruction worked for that group (6-8 students).
• Independent: This was students independently watching videos that backed up the reading from direct. This allowed students time to think on their own and explore the material.
• Collaborative:This rotation was students working on an assignment related to the content being taught as a group. This allowed students to expand their thoughts around the topics.

Connection to the middle school agriculture department

Mr. Moraski Working with student in Direct

•  Content Connection: Currently in the middle school we are looking at careers in agriculture and many students picked plant science careers. Next week I am starting a soils unit with them. In their current science class they are learning about genetics and parts of the plant. They also have planted plants in their agriculture class and now understand some science behind the plants before they talk about the plants genetics in class.
• Teacher Network: Mr. Moraski is always over in the high school. He works with the agriculture department for research projects with his students. He has helped with the Science Research Institute as well which is paired with the agriculture department

Questions:

1.  How do you establish routines in your class? What are some tips for establishing a routine such as stations that might change/not be done daily?
2. When students are designing rotation group tasks, how do you reach every student in their zone of proximal development when they may not have reached the station to obtain the chunk of the information? Ex/ He some students to not reach direct until last but, they have 2 rotations before that where they are doing assignments.

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