Reading Closely | i run read teach

As some of you know already, this year a co-worker and I decided to try something different in science this year.

Instead of the traditional method of textbook reading, lecture, vocabulary, study guides, followed by a test- we have left it more open ended and formed research teams.

Our students are grouped into teams of 3-4. We have them create outline, research topics, take notes in outline, write it out. Markus, my co-worker, has done the traditional essay format while I’ve changed it up some with reflections, mini-books, recipes.

Sometimes there’s a topic that I feel should just be considered like a mini topic. Constellations was one of these.

So instead of the entire research process, we read a short informational text to figure out why we see different constellations at different times of the year. We had different opinions in why after reading. SO- I told them to use their textbook to see if they could clarify and then sketch their opinion on the board. This is what that looked like.