SPEAKER REFLECTIONS

Science in Elementary School

Dr. Wall Reflection
Dr. Wall came and spoke to us about the importance of teaching
science in elementary school. He opened up by showing us a Scientific
Argumentation Template. This is a step-by-step chart to help students
and us as teachers to understand the concept a little bit better. This is
also a great way for students to understand the material by
questioning, listening and then doing. This guide to learning is more of
a problem based learning idea to help students learn on their own and
think critically. This is just another strategy of learning the why
behind the content that is being presented. This process can be used
consistently in the classroom for a variety of content areas. I have seen
this model being used in my classroom at Trace crossings. Yesterday,
my class went out on a nature walk to look at the soil and rocks on the
playground to observe erosion. My teacher would constantly be asking
questions like Why do you think the rocks look like this? Or Why is the
ground smoother here than over in this area? The students actually
knew more about this topic than I expected. They even could come up
with their own questions and observations about the rocks and soil.
Another way this model of Scientific Argumentation can be used
is in hypothesis and claiming what you think is going to happen based

on your essential question. Setting up this model can help students use
critical thinking skills when discovering the answer to their essential
question. Testing the claim would be the next step in this process.
Then students would be able to see if their claim was correct or needed
to be revised based on their observations. This is a great way to get
students to be engaged and excited about science and excited to learn
something new. My teacher at Trace loves science and loves allowing
her students to observe different experiments and things. The students
had a bulb on their desk for about two weeks and they had to draw and
write their observations everyday for the two weeks and then come up
with their conclusion based on what they saw. They would keep their
observations in their science notebook or even on an observation
worksheet they kept for the week. They made estimations at the
beginning of the experiment and then followed up with their
conclusion. They loved interacting and observing the experiment each
day and learned a lot by doing rather than Mrs. Underwood just
teaching or telling them what is going to happen to the plant or bulb.

AMSTI Training Reflection

AMSTI Training is the process of teaching teachers how to teach
math, science, and technology in the classroom. AMSTI stands for

Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative. This training group is

very hands on learning and trains teachers to be the best they can be.
They provide equipment, materials and resources for teachers to help
children learn. Teachers are supported these AMSTI specialists and
encouraged to use this way of thinking and teaching in the classroom.
AMSTI has several processes used in math that they emphasize
throughout their program in their schools. They want to challenge
students to solve problems in several different ways. Some students
feel more comfortable solving problems using math models or maybe
even number lines. They want to challenge students to find their one
way of solving problems but also teach them other ways. Cooperation
and classroom community are also very important ideas to have in the
classroom. They want to see them be comfortable learning in a group
setting and work together. I have seen this play a key role in my
placement at Trace Crossings. The students in my classroom love to
work together to grow in their learning and solve math problems in
several different ways and understand the why behind it.
When we looked at the science standards from when we were in
school it was much more fact and definition based. In the AMSTI
training it is more hands on and learning the understanding behind it.
We did an experiment where we had to create tower to display an
eagle on the top of it. We were given constrictions but we were given
free reign over how to create it. AMSTI challenges your creativity as

well as letting you learn on your own. There is no specific way to solve
a problem. We as educators need to challenge our students to think in
a way to help them expand their knowledge of learning.
I really enjoyed this Training session because it challenged me to
think in different ways of how we need to present the science and
math materials to our future students. I really enjoyed the
demonstration that we had to do as a group because it was a great
idea that we could one day use in our classrooms. It was a great way to
link the engineering side of things to something fun and creative to us
to make our own with one goal in mind.

Data and Assessment Reflection

Math Coach:
The math coach came in and talked to us about how she assesses
students to find out where they are with the basic number sense concepts
and primary numbers using Operation Assessment. When assessing the
students, she looks at not only if the student knows the concept, but also
how fast they can tell her what they know. She has been able to work with
students one on one but she said that she likes to challenge the teachers to
assess their students so they know what they can do to help them improve.
If their classroom teacher assesses them, then they will be able to know
exactly what to do to help improve their knowledge on a certain subject.
Reading Coach:
The reading coach at Trace came to speak to us about guided reading
and running records and the importance of both. Guided reading is more
focused on in the lower grades. It is small group instruction and focusing on
children who might need that extra push to get on the next level. The whole

school participates in running records. This is where the classroom teacher

will select what reading level they think a child may be at and then record
and mark on a sheet recording what words they get correct and what words
they may stumble on as they read. When they finish reading the story, they
will talk about the content that they read. I have observed my classroom
teacher administering the running records to a few of the lower level
students. She is very intentional with them communicating with them and
pushing them to try and get them to the next reading levels. I have slowly
seen them improve over the course of the last semester. One of the down
falls of running records is that they are only given one on one which can take
a very long time because of the time that teachers need to spent individually
with the students.
Istation: Title 1 Teachers
Istation is a tool that the Title 1 teachers use to see what
improvements students need to make in reading and math. When the
students use it for the first time, they will take an initial assessment. After
the initial assessment, it will meet the child where they are at on their
reading and math level. It will teach a lesson to them and then there is a
guided practice section and then an independent section. If the child does
not do well on the independent sections, then they will have to redo their
practice until they are proficient in that content area. Benefits of Istation
are that if will break down the reading into subcategories such as fluency,
vocab, and comprehension, etc. into data and graphs so that way the
teachers and specifically see what each student needs to improve on.
IStation is a tier placement tool that places student into tier 1, 2 and 3
based on their assessment. The Title 1 teachers continue to focus on pushing
those students who are right on the edge up to the next level and the
continuing that process. I have observed these teachers coming in to pull
some students that need that extra help and intervention. They use the data
from the assessments to drive instruction.
Mrs. Stone: ACT Aspire
Mrs. Stone came to talk to us about how the ACT aspire works in the
classroom. She first explains how that data that is given as feedback from
the test is given in whole class form as well as individual form. The data

shows which students are proficient and which students are falling behind.
She had us do a practice test that the students completed. On one of the
problems, the group was split in half about what the correct answer was. She
had us complete this problem to show us that the wording of the questions
can be very confusing to students. I thought it was very beneficial for us to
actually participate in taking on of these exams. This way it can help us to
show our students how we need to pay close attention to each exam question.