Two weeks ago I was able to attend the Fall CUE conference. It was a great experience where I presented, met twitter friends face to face, and learned about new resources. I also received an email letting me know I was selected to the next Google Teacher Academy in Stockholm!!!!
I plan to write about these two days in more detail soon, but today, I am going to share a tool that I learned about from Robert Fishtrom, my district's Director of Instructional Technology, who was at CUE as well. (I'm not sure which workshop he was at when he learned about it.)
Background - Writing Objectives
For the past few years, our district has been working on writing and using measurable objectives daily with our students. We have to post them on the board or on the SMART Board for students to see, and refer back to them throughout the class period. The objectives must include the what, why, and how.
- What: what we are learning based on the language of the standards
- Why: why we are learning it - basically, how it relates to other concepts or the world
- How: how the objective will be measured, what outcome will be be working towards
The format of the objectives have changed through the last few years. We can now write them in one sentence, and don't have to add in the why. I have found that by having the objectives, it really helps me plan out my lessons to ensure that students are engaged and practicing higher order thinking skills. It also provides the students with some guides about what they are expected to learn and accomplish. However, sometimes it is hard to really word the objectives the way I want.
The Tech Tool
That's where the Differentiator tool, by Ian Byrd, comes into play. The Differentiator allows me to write detailed objectives, and it helps me include higher level's of Bloom's in my objectives. And, it's really fun to use. :)
Here is an example of an objective I am using tomorrow:
Students will illustrate how the circulatory and respiratory system work together to pick up and deliver materials to all cells in the body using Cornell Notes and create a screencast in groups of two.
I was able to put this together using the Differentiator. There are 5 tabs for the 5 different parts of the objective:
- thinking skill - Bloom's
- content
- resources - where the information or content knowledge comes from
- products - what you want your students to create
- groups - will students work individually or in groups
You go through each tab and choose what you want to include in your objective. You can edit the objective as well. For example, there was not the choice of making a screencast in the products page, but I changed that to fit my lesson.
I think that this tool will help teachers write good, detailed objectives. The Differentiator tool also allows you to really think about what level of Bloom's you want students to be at that day. And, if you want to create differentiated lessons for your students, this will help you write objectives at differing levels.
This summer, I purchased the NSTA book Scientific Argumentation in Biology. This book is written using the NGSS Frameworks and CCSS. It contains 30 activities to practice writing arguments. It teaches students how to write claims, back them up with evidence, and provide justification that relates to the data and topics in science. Some of the activities are based on articles, pictures, graphs, and data tables, and others have students conducting labs and analyzing the results. It also goes over counterclaims, and using evidence from multiple sources. Students work in groups and make a chart containing the parts of their argument on a whiteboard. Students then present their arguments to other groups to get feedback and develop a stronger argument. I plan on using many of the activities from this book in my class this year.
I led a professional development for teachers in my district in August and shared an activity from this book. One of the teachers from my school later shared that he used this whiteboarding argumentation process with students to analyze the data that they collected from their labs. I hadn't thought of using this argumentation strategy with lab conclusions and I was just about to finish my first inquiry lab with my students, so I decided to try it out. 
First, I taught my students how to write an argument which included a claim, backed up with evidence, and then provide justification. Next, students practiced by creating a whiteboard with their argument using the "Mystery Footprints" activity. The next day, they completed the same activity on their whiteboards using their lab data. They wrote out their arguments and then visited other group's whiteboards to provide feedback and ask questions about other groups arguments. Students really were able to analyze the data they collected from their lab and came up with much better lab conclusions than in the past. 
I am very excited about using this strategy in my class for the rest of the year. It allows students to collaborate, critically think, and clearly communicate their ideas. It is making my students better observers and they are starting to make many more connections between what we are learning and real life examples of the content. I highly recommend the Scientific Argumentation book. I have even used this process with my AVID students as they analyzed a reading from a history text. I think this whiteboarding strategy would work for any subject area.
You can also choose to never actually have your phone ring and have no messages or texts go to your phone either. Instead, you can install the google voice extension to your chrome browser, and you will get notifications of any calls or messages when you open up chrome. (If you don't want any of the calls to go to your phone, when setting up Google Voice, you will still need to enter in your cell phone number. Then change the settings by unclicking the boxes to have calls, texts, or messages sent to your phone.)
For years I lesson planned in a educational lesson planner book that I purchased at the local teacher supply store. I didn't like writing my lessons in columns, so I would add in dates to make it look more like a calendar, reading from left to right. I don't write huge formal plans, just main ideas, activities, and changes from one year to the next.
