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Expert Corner: Lesson Materials give teachers choices Educator of the Month: Desiree Hurtado
Expert Corner: Lesson Materials give teachers choices Dan Moriarty is a curriculum writer and editor for ExploreLearning, and our chief "demo movie" maker for Gizmos and Reflex. He holds a Master's degree from the University of Virginia in secondary math education, and he taught high school math before joining ExploreLearning. Our curriculum department is extremely busy creating comprehensive Lesson Materials for our math Gizmos this year, after finishing a similar project for the entire science library. The new Lesson Materials consist of four documents (Student Exploration Sheet, Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary Sheet), each available as either a Word document (for easy editing) or a .pdf (for smaller file size and consistent formatting). The full lesson materials provide teachers with a convenient, ready-to-use lesson plan. The Student Exploration Sheet is ExploreLearning's version of a student worksheet, with an emphasis on inquiry. Every Student Exploration Sheet begins with Prior Knowledge Questions and a short Gizmo Warm-up on page 1. After that, there are usually 2-3 activities from which teachers can choose. Occasionally, we hear from teachers that the Student Exploration Sheets (SE) are longer than they expect — quite a bit longer than a traditional worksheet, for example. They are often 4-6 pages in total length. But we certainly do not expect teachers to assign an entire Student Exploration Sheet to their students — at least, not all at once. Typically, we recommend that teachers assign page 1 of the SE plus one activity at a time for students. Depending on the length of the activity, that’s just 2-3 pages total. We include multiple activities in most SE’s to give teachers options. It’s built-in differentiated instruction! Generally, you should find that Activity A includes “the basics” of the lesson, while later activities address more advanced topics or provide further practice. So, you could assign part of your class page 1 of the SE (prior knowledge questions and the warm-up exercise) plus Activity A, while assigning other students who are ready for more page 1 plus Activity B. We hope that our Student Exploration Sheets make your job of teaching effectively with Gizmos easier, giving you choices in appropriate material for students. And, don’t forget that if you use the Word versions of the Student Exploration Sheets, you can further customize them for use in your classroom. Take a free Gizmos trial and see how Gizmos can help continue your students’ passion for mathematics and science.
Using Reflex in Summer School Reflex is a great program for teachers to use during the school year to improve their students’ math fact fluency, but Reflex can also be used in summer school to help kids catch up with their peers and get a head start on the fall. Last summer, schools across the country used Reflex in their summer school programs. In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, over 700 students used the program last summer. The teachers and administrators were very pleased with the results. Often kids are not thrilled to spend their summer in a classroom, but one of the teachers commented that his students were very enthusiastic about using Reflex. “They go in and try to do as much as they can and compete against each other. As soon as I tell them it's time for math, they jump on it fast and you can see how engaged they are.” Another teacher wrote to us, “I'm so pleased with this program, words can't describe it.” The students assured us that they did indeed have a good time using Reflex, and learned a lot as well. One student said that “sometimes I get them wrong at first, but then I see it again and again and I remember it. Math is fun now!” And another student said “what I feel when I go onto Reflex is happy to be in school.” All that enthusiasm translated into some very good results. In Miami-Dade, 58 students surpassed 90% fluency in less than 30 days, while 21 students achieved 100% fluency. And kids liked Reflex so much, they logged in over 2,500 times outside of school, increasing their practice time by 9.2%. Special Reflex pricing is now available for summer school programs. Please contact your account rep for details on this limited time offer.
Educator of the Month: Desiree Hurtado Ms. Desiree Hurtado teaches Biology, Biology Honors and Physical Science (9th and 10th grade) in a high school in Miami-Dade. She has been teaching for two years. Ms. Hurtado uses Gizmos to both reinforce lab experiments and to increase understanding with alternative activities in class. With the Plants and Snails Gizmo, she first had students do a hands-on experiment in class. Students prepared four beakers with water and bromothymol blue indicator. Students added Elodea plants to the first, Elodea and snails to the second, snails to the third, and nothing to the fourth. Students collected data from the experiment, and then discussed the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration. Ms. Hurtado then led them through the Plants and Snails Gizmo, and students were able to immediately understand how to manipulate the variables in the simulation. The Gizmo helped students see how carbon is essential to the function of organisms, and why organic compounds are required by organisms to live. Then students completed the quick, 5-question assessment online for practice with individual reading and comprehension. The Gizmo helped students see that oxygen produced by plants is essential for animals, and how carbon dioxide produced by animals is essential for plants. Ms. Hurtado finds it both fun and easy to get creative with Gizmos. With the Dichotomous Keys Gizmo, she first used the Gizmo in class as a technology-based lab. She provided the students with the student worksheet, and introduced dichotomous keys. After Ms. Hurtado modeled the first organism, she had students come up one-by-one to identify the next organism, as the other students annotated the genus and species of each. Then she asked her students to create their own dichotomous keys using the images from the Gizmo. Students took "screen shots" of the organisms with the Gizmo camera tool and created their own dichotomous keys on colored paper. Students presented them in class, and then Ms. Hurtado displayed them on the walls. Students from other classes became interested in the dichotomous keys made by their friends, and they played around with identifying the organisms from other classes. Ms. Hurtado feels that Gizmos are excellent for engaging students, especially since students today are so comfortable learning with technology. She finds that students retain more information after seeing the images and manipulating the variables on the screen. Gizmos allow students “to see things and open up their eyes to ‘that which is invisible.’”
Stay in Touch If you want to comment on any of the information in this newsletter, be sociable and post your insights on the Facebook pages for Gizmos and Reflex. And as always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos or Reflex, don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team using the support form for either Gizmos or Reflex. We would love to hear from you. For information on bringing Gizmos and Reflex to schools in your area, contact your ExploreLearning Account Representative:
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