Week 9: Science and Media Literacy

With science articles claiming becoming increasingly common in popular media sources and outlets, as well as the rise of “fake news,” I feel that it is my duty as a science educator to provide students with tools to be informed critical thinkers, especially when it comes to science in the media. Rather than reflecting on the highs and lows of the week, I wanted to reflect on the highs and lows of my attempt to develop my students media literacy, with a background of why this is so important to me.

In my final year of my undergrad, I was introduced to the idea of incorporating science articles into the classroom. The professor had an assignment called “Science in Society” in which students were to find a current article in a popular media source and present one slide to the class on the science behind the article. For example, a student could bring in an article on the methane leak occurring in California and would explain the effects of the leak using scientific principles. Initially I was inspired to bring this into my future classroom as I wanted students to be able to find an article and then do research to explain the science to their peers. This evolved after we discussed media literacy in one of my courses at UBC prior to the practicum. I became inspired to incorporate media literacy with respect to science articles into my classroom and began planning all of the ways that I could!

My initial idea was to have a Science in Society presentation project. Students would choose a science based article and would present the content of the article as well as the reliability of the source to the class. After realizing that I only had 10 weeks and 30 students, I couldn’t determine how I could incorporate all of the presentations into my schedule. This resulted in me creating a research report for the students, which I will explain in more detail later!

The process of scientific research reaching the public – what I wanted my students to understand! [Click to see details!]

To begin our journey with science media literacy, I had a class called Communicating Science. The purpose of the lesson was to introduce students to what they should look for in a reliable source as well as why readers should be skeptical of articles. I began the lesson by polling students on their beliefs of climate change and then showed the students two videos – one for climate change, the other claiming that climate change is not impacted by humans. I polled students after each video to determine if their views could be swayed by a single video (specifically the “climate change is not real” which they were shown first). After the students were thoroughly confused by conflicting data, we analyzed the two videos and their sources, in terms of accurate data representation, citations, logical graphs and images, etc. The students came to the conclusion that one video was more reputable than the other thus more convincing. We then discussed reasons why readers must be skeptical, such as the loss of scientific meaning from journal research to front page media, conflicting evidence but only showing one side, or even falsely reporting what scientific research has found. I walked students through examples of each and allowed students to discuss the implications of falsely reporting science. After, students were to write a reflection on the importance of communicating science and their views on media now. Students seemed to be more skeptical and willing to have a more open mind about personal research into a topic before believing everything they read.

As scientific articles would appear on my social media or if a student brought one in, we would discuss the reliability of the source and the content, just as a Socials Studies class may frequently incorporate current events. I wish I had done this more frequently and made it part of the routine, but I found that I was limited for time and this is something I strive to incorporate more into my future classrooms.

After Spring Break, I assigned my students my own version of Science in Society. They were asked to find an article in a popular media source that was based on science and technology, and to critic the article as a reliable source of information. They were also going to discuss their findings in small groups on the reliability of different sources and then write a short reflection on the different sources discussed, but we were really running short on time before I left and I had to cut out the discussion and reflection. My students also seemed really stressed at the time so removing this alleviated some of their stress and helped them focus on the report rather than the additional work.

I just finished marking the reports and I have to say, I think this has been the most important lesson I have taught my students. The reports were very well done. They analyzed the text well including figures, graphs, in text citations, and some even played detective to learn more about the author and if they were credible. I also got the chance to see what students were interested in, which made me wish I had done this project earlier in the semester. Almost a quarter the class had articles on space exploration or astronomy. Had I known this earlier, I would have allotted more time for this unit as they are very interested in it.

In my future classes, I will always include this at the beginning of the year, just as I would teach safety. I would also extend the Science in Society report. First, I would have students analyze an two articles of my choosing and then discuss it together to ensure that students understood the difference between a “good” and “bad” article. Then I would have students write the report on the topic of their choice and would include the discussion and reflection. I think that it is important for students always reflect on the learning process as well as the importance of communication, not only between each other but also on a large scale in the media. In senior courses, I would love to try the presentations out, with one or two a week. I would still incorporate reflections and would encourage discussion as much as possible. Teaching science and media literacy has become a new passion of mine and I look forward to continuing this practice in future years as well as learning more about being an effective literacy educator!

Week 7: It’s going to get better…right?

During my first week of practicum, a teacher told me that my practicum truly isn’t real until I’ve cried. I was overwhelmed with my practicum in the first few days and I thought to myself lucky me, I got that over and done with really quickly. Once I had let out those feelings of anxiety and accepted that these few months were going to test me in ways I had never been tested before, I felt more confident in the classroom and I was better at accepting my limits. Turns out I was wrong – my practicum truly hit me this past week, and it hit me really hard.

I started teaching full load and even though I only have two preps, I still feel incredibly overwhelmed. I feel that I have too many things to do and not enough time to do them. My mind is running a thousand miles a minute constantly but I am unable to keep up with it. Even when I sit and try to plan what I have to do, I can’t think straight. Instead of accepting the work, I dreaded it. I woke up each morning more exhausted than the previous day. I no longer feel like I can do this, that I can be a teacher. I feel defeated.

It is moments like these that I recognize one of my weaknesses: my poor ability to manage stress. I tend to bring stress upon myself; I want my lessons to be “perfect” with engaging and meaningful activities, or I want all of my students to have a deep understanding of the material while feeling confident and supported. And when I cannot reach my often unattainable goals, I feel that I can and should do more and more until I burn out to make them a reality. Once I remember that this is something I can work on, I can accept that this too shall pass. I lose confidence in my abilities as a teacher when I become overwhelmed, yet I am frequently reminded that I am doing a good job and even if I put in less effort to be perfect, I would still be exceeding expectations.

Highlight of the week: Even though it has been a rough week, the power of positive thinking really makes a difference. I started teaching my IB course this week and while the content is overwhelming, the students are a joy to teach. They are so kind and accepted me without hesitation as their teacher. I was worried as I am inexperienced and having a good teacher is crucial to success in IB. But I had many students tell me that I was explaining well, they enjoyed my activities (jigsaw and plates) and were eager to come to class each day. It seems my planning, preparation and hard work is appreciated and only drives me to continue to provide the best possible lessons for my students.

Spring Break: Marking & Plagiarism Extranvaganza

Is it really a break if you spend two weeks marking projects, labs, quizzes and journals? As well as unit planning, lesson planning, activity creating and making 7 weeks of note packages? I’d still say so, I got a lot of sleep!

My biggest challenge of the break was marking the Gallery Walk projects. I had a rubric set out so marking the content was not hard. The difficulty was dealing with the ample plagiarism that was rampant in one of the classes.

The students are in grade 10. I figured that plagiarism was understood at this level. Apparently not. I had to go through projects and highlight paragraph after paragraph that were clearly plagiarized, even if a word or two had been changed. I had told the class that they had to write things in their own words, and that they had to include in text citations for information that clearly was not their own. Some students tried in text citations and I gave them credit for trying. Other students copied and pasted full paragraphs and didn’t give any credit at all. It was difficult to mark. I knew that the topics were difficult, but I could clearly tell which groups took the time to understand the material and write in their own words and which did not. I also found it difficult to give marks to groups when one person committed all the plagiarism and the other did not. I had stressed this was a group project and if they had worked together, this would not have happened. It was difficult to come to terms with and I am not looking forward to the conversations I will be having with students tomorrow about their grades. I hope that these students reflect on their actions and will change their future habits. I will encourage students to discuss their actions with me, but academic dishonesty is academic dishonesty and I will not be offering “second chances” for them to redeem themselves. I am still undecided about students who had their projects “sabotaged” by their partners, but I am eager to collaborate with other teachers on what I can do. I’ll keep you updated on how this unfolds!

I have thought of ways to reduce plagiarism in this project in the future. Instead of having written portions, students will only present posters with pictures and key words and will have to learn their topic and present it. This would eliminate plagiarism and would ensure that students are learning their topic rather than copying and memorizing. A large part of their mark would be answering my questions which is something that they cannot rehearse. In any other project or assignment, I will always strongly stress academic dishonesty now and will indicate the consequences of not receiving a passing mark. I will also let them know that I am the teacher that will search sentences that I do not think belongs to them and will find their plagiarism. I hope that this will deter students from such dishonesty in the future.

Week 6: Time for a break!

After a long six weeks, Spring Break has finally arrived. This past week has been a great, albeit exhausting, and I’m ready for some catch up sleep and ample prep time! Lots happened this week: another TC and I switched classes for the day to gain experience as a TOC, my Science 10 classes presented their Application of Genetics projects over two days, Parent-Teacher Interviews were on Wednesday, and I had my mid-point meeting! It was very busy but there were so many incredible moments, it will be hard to summarize them all in this one post.

Highs:

Even though we were informed 30 minutes prior to switching, my day as a TOC was a lot of fun. My SA seemed surprised at my lack of stress over having to give up my class for the day and not know what I would be doing during the day, but I felt that my classes for the day would be easy enough to follow along. My organization and depth in lesson plans made me feel confident that the TC could teach the material with little issue. In the classes I went to, I found that I had a great time with the students. My goal was to learn as many names as possible right away so I could make those connections quickly. One of the blocks was a Science 8 which at first made me feel uneasy as everyone had always said that grade 8s are difficult to teach, but I found that if I could channel their energy and talkative nature, we would have very productive and meaningful conversations. When we debriefed at the end of the day, I received a lot of really good feedback about how I handled some situations and how I presented myself to the class.
The Application of Genetics Gallery Walks occurred on Wednesday and Thursday, with a lot of success. One my classes was far more engaged in the activity and were actively listening and interested in the projects being presented. I had one of the Vice Principals come to visit the Gallery Walk to see the work that students had put together, and he seemed to be impressed with their work. The students seemed to really like this project as they were very well versed in their topics and genuinely excited to talk about them.
Parent-Teacher interviews, while exhausting, were a lot of fun. I received a lot of amazing feedback from parents! So many parents came in just because they had heard a lot about me being a great teacher and wanted to put a face to the name. They said that their children were really enjoying my classes and were coming home and talking a lot about what they had done in science class that day. I have been told that I am doing a good job by other teachers and even students, but hearing this confirmation from parents really solidified my confidence.

Lows:

During my TOC switch, I ran into a few difficult situations were some of the students were complaining about their teacher, who happens to be a good friend of mine. I know that they (the teacher) had expressed a lot of frustration and stress over this class as they had been working very hard but couldn’t get their students to understand the material. I could not empathize with them as I saw how the students felt, but I also saw many of them unwilling to work slightly harder to be able to understand. I wanted to help out, but because I was so unfamiliar with the content (plant biology was never been my strong suit), I felt useless other than as a frequent enforcer or work who offered a lot of encouragement.
My only concern with the TOC switch was “what if the students don’t understand what they were taught?” When we had our debrief, we discussed how many teachers have TOCs act as “babysitters” of worksheets, because they don’t want to have to reteach the material and would rather just teach it when they have returned. I could understand this, but as I could be a potential TOC, I didn’t like the idea of other teachers seeing me as a “babysitter.” It was slightly discouraging, but I do understand that a lot of effort is required to create thorough lesson plans to ensure that anyone could teach it.
One of my Science 10 classes did not take the Gallery Walks as seriously, which was very disappointing. Three groups came in with empty poster boards, trying to scramble to put them together at the beginning of class, while two other groups did not to the project at all. The students also spent more time socializing during the Gallery Walk rather than presenting their information. It was disheartening, but I thought that this may occur. This class is far more independent and needs to be actively engaged or else they find importance elsewhere. This was the case and I found I spent too much time trying to keep students engaged in presentations than I could listen.
During the Parent-Teacher Interviews, I noticed that a few of the parents were extremely confused to see me, as their child had not told them that they had a student teacher as their teacher. No parent complained, but some seemed worried that their child was not being taught by a proper teacher. My SA was always there to back me up and indicated that I was an excellent teacher. I found it discouraging that the students had not said anything to their parents, and that the lack of communication between parent and child was concerning.
After the projects, I realized my Spring Break was going to be full of marking – 30+ poster projects, 50+ labs, 50+ quizzes… I may have piled too many assignments into one week!

Most important thing I have learned this week: Communication is key to any working relationship. Whether that be between myself and a student or parent, or between parents and children, if communication is lacking, the relationship cannot be strong. I hope that I can continue to work on my communication skills, and I that I can find ways in the future to encourage more communication at home.

Science Reflection Journals: The Good, The Bad, and The Future

One of the main parts of my inquiry has been over the use of reflection journals. I introduced the journals in the Biology Unit. Over the past four weeks, the students have written seven journal responses. Five of these responses were reflections on the material we had covered in class, while the other two were reflections on their unit projects. For each of the entries, I have given students questions to reflect on and given the students in class time to write. If the students dislike writing, I give them the option of coming after school and having a conversation about the questions with me. Here are a few of my main reflections with regards to journals so far!

The Good:

The informal assessment on student understanding and confidence is invaluable. I know what students understand well and what they struggle with, so I can adjust my teaching accordingly. One of the entries asked students what in the material did they struggle with. We were learning about non-Mendelian inheritance at the time, and around 75% of the class indicated that they struggled with sex-linked inheritance. Not a single student told me that they were confused during class or even after class. They told me in their journal. After reading their journals, I changed my lesson so we could spend more time on sex-linked inheritance. The students were extremely appreciative for the extra time, their confidence in the topic increased, and their results on their quiz indicate that the vast majority of the class understood the concepts now. Without those journals, I would not have known that they students were struggling unit the quiz.
The goal of these journals was to help students reflect on their understanding so that they will be more accountable for their learning. One of my initial entries asked students “How is the unit going so far?” to see how students felt with the new material. One student, after writing a full page, summarized his entry with the following quote. Reading this lifted my spirits. Some of the students found these journals useful, something I was worried that they wouldn’t.

“So far this unit has been a new experience for me. I’ve never had a science class that didn’t use a textbook and the reflections are an interesting addition. It gives me an opportunity to review and constantly look over my progress in the class”

The Bad:

I have more journal responses planned in my unit than I seem capable of completing in class. More often than not, students value the learning activities that we engage in during class, which often doesn’t allow for time for critical reflection. For example, I a few of the journal responses have asked students to reflect on how they feel about the material and how they plan on studying for their upcoming quiz. My goal was to have them write a journal after the quiz to reflect on the process of studied, how they felt going into the quiz and leaving, as well as what they would do next time. This journal did not happen due to time constraints.
The level of feedback I receive varies from student to student. Some journal entries are so thorough and allows me to know exactly where the student is at. These often come from students who do not need the extra help though. I’ve found that many students put in the bare minimum and answer the questions, but it is evident that reflection is not present. I feel like it is a waste of their time, as well as my time to read them, when they don’t help anyone.
The process of reading journals is extremely tedious. I collect at least 50 journals, then read them and then write comments. I want to use these as another form of communication, especially with students who are quieter, as I feel like we often have some really great dialogue. Yet reading and writing can take a few hours, which is valuable time. I’ve found myself writing less comments and skimming more, to get a general feeling of where the class is at. I hope that I can make more time to write comments again.

The future of journals?

In my upcoming chemistry unit, I will continue with the journals but make a few changes:

Some days, I hope that students will come to class with their journals and will share their responses with a partner instead of me reading 50+ entries! I hope that this can foster social-emotion learning and build stronger relationships between students as students will be sharing their learning experiences and opening up about how they need help. I hope that students can hear each other’s struggles and will be able to work together to enhance each other’s understandings.
I will be giving students more flexibility when it comes to what they can write about. In all of our entries so far, I have provided students with fixed questions that needed to be answered. This allowed me to receive the feedback that I found to be most useful. It does mean though that students can write a total of 15 words and have their journal be “complete.” My goal is to guide students in their entries, but on journals that I collect and read, I will give them completion marks based on depth of reflection. I hope that this will encourage all students to critically reflect, and will encourage those who do the bare minimum to meet a higher minimum.
Have a minimum of 2 journal entries a week, one due Wednesday and one due Friday. My hope is that I can see where students are midweek to plan for the rest of the week, and on Friday’s to see how I can plan the upcoming week.
Encourage students to reflect on the process of studying, writing quizzes/tests, and receiving their marks. I want to see how students feel going into tests and coming out of them, and if there is any growth in their metacognition.

I have really enjoyed these journals and I look forward to incorporating them into my own classrooms in the future!