Final Letter to Students

Dear Students,

            I look forward to having you in my science class this year! I am so very excited to teach and help you learn the wonderful information that we will cover this year. One thing that can be very scary about science is the vernacular or vocabulary. However I have devised many fun strategies to help you learn the vocabulary. Once you have mastered the vocabulary you will be able to understand and make connections throughout the text.

            Another scary thing about science is the amount of new information that we will be reading in the text. If you able to understand what I am writing to you in this letter, then congratulations – you are literate! If you are having problems understanding what I am talking about, then never fear. I have devised many strategies to help you understand what you are reading. There will not be a test on this letter – which I think everyone can understand. 

            Even though science can be a daunting subject, I am here to make sure that we have fun through learning. Learning, yes I know that that does not sound fun, but if you keep a positive attitude, I can show you how fun science can be. I do not believe in a boring lecture and reading straight from the book. I will use many tools in my classroom to make this year your most memorable. We will be listening to songs, watching videos, looking at many interactive websites, and participating in many hands on science labs. And yes, there will be projects to complete both in a group and own your own.

            Projects? Did I just say projects? Yes, there will be a few projects to complete that deal with writing and research. I too am groaning along with you. However, I have many strategies to make these projects fun, and before you know that you have even started the project, you will be done. How can that be you ask? Well, I guess you will just have to wait and see and take my word for it. One quote that I want all of you to know by heart and to use with all your subjects is a quote by Rudyard Kipling, “I keep six honest serving-men, (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.”

Kipling, Rudyard. (1902). "The Elephant's Child." In The Kipling Society.

Retrieved June 24, 2012, from http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_serving.htm

Top Ten Texts, 8, 9 and 10

 Element Rap – Video

N.A.C.L, M. C. (Director). (n.d.). Elments Rap [Motion Picture].

 This three minute video is about the first 20 elements and their arrangement on the periodic table. This would be a great audio visual tool to show to the class as an introduction to the periodic table and how the families are related. The video could also serve as a great tool for my ESL and ELL students. I would also like to hand out the lyrics on a sheet of paper so they can follow along.

The Planets Son

Jenkins, A. (Director). (2011). The Planets Song [Motion Picture].

 This one and a half minute video is about the planets in our solar system. This would be a great audio visual tool to show to the class as an aid to help them memorize the planets.  The video could also serve as a great tool for my ESL and ELL students. I think handing the students a sheet of paper and having them label the planets as the song plays would help them memorize the planets.  I would share with the students the mnemonic sentence to help remember the order of the planets: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. If cannot get through to them through song and video, maybe language will work. 

Nine Planets Website

The Nine Planets Solar System Tour. (2012). Retrieved June 23, 2012, from Nine Planets: http://nineplanets.org/

For my classes that will study the planets, the Nine Planets website displays an interactive picture of the planets. Students are able to click on a planet and learn additional related information about each one and their resident moons.  I feel that this would be a great tool to project on the wall during class time and to use for research assignments for those students that have access to a computer. Those students that don’t have access to a computer I will provide handouts on the planets or they can use the school library.

Top Ten Strategies 9 and 10

Outlining and Summarizing

Outlining and summarizing are great tools to use for understanding the content of the text. Outlining reveals the basic structure of the text; summarizing helps the students understand the main idea in the text. The key to both outlining and summarizing is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples. Outlining the main ideas would help the students discover the meaning of the content. I think this will be a helpful tool in the classroom when dealing with complex ideas. After outlining and summarizing the material, the students can then use the information as a study guide. I would like to have the students work on the outline as a whole class and then individually on the summary. I would then like the students to share their summaries and guide them as necessary.

Rereading

            Rereading is an important tool to use in any classroom. This critical reading strategy is also useful for all scopes of readers, not just the ELP students. Rereading is the number one strategy used by independent readers and the last strategy used by dependent readers. Independent readers will reread the text until they understand the material, while dependent readers will simple skip over the text they don’t understand.

I see rereading as helping the students understand what they didn’t the first time around. This is also a great tool to use as a review to refresh the mind before a test. I plan on using the rereading strategy for my students that are having a hard time comprehending the text. I would also like my strong readers to reread and see if they can find something new in the text they hadn’t picked up on before.

Both of these strategies are great to use with critical reading/ literacy.