Study+Group+3

include component="comments" page="Study Group 3" limit="10" toc

**__Introduction__**
Beginning with the end in mind, as UbD dictates, we focused our work as a study group on what impact we could have on our student outcomes. The __student__ was central to all of our topics covered in Study Group 3. We used many of Betty Garner’s concepts as the basis for our ideas, interweaving technology whenever possible. Some of the Garner ideas that we touched upon most were Conservation of Constancies, Spatial Relationships, and Classification. We also found ways to incorporate new assessment tools to measure our students’ progress in all of these areas.

**__Conservation of Constancies__**
The ability to understand that volume, amount, length, weight, number, or area can remain the same even if you rearrange items is a developmental process. Children develop this understanding gradually in varying degrees. It is crucial to assess with a variety of tools as their understanding grows even as you are assessing them. Also, it ' s important to assess kids individually so they aren ' t influenced by their peers thoughts. The 5 - 9 year olds seem to be at the cusp of this development. Many kids need a variety of exposures to develop the skills, while others seem to understand the concept intuitively. We performed several different types of assessments and brain - stormed ideas where conservation of constancy can be enhanced. While younger children may not grasp the concept, all the Montessori P ractical L ife work, such as pouring into various containers, is laying the ground work for development of conservation of constancy. We believe it is important to allow children to explore and extend their comprehension of conservation of constancy with limited guidance. It is valuable for them to come to this realization or discovery on their own.

**__Spatial Orientation__**
Spatial orientation is a cognitive structure that helps people compare where objects are in relation to eachother and oneself. To develop this structure, students need to be aware of their physical position in space. Visualization is integral in spatial development so that when out of sensory range, students can still compare relationships among persons, places and things. Also integral is the need for students to communicate these relationships using language, drawings, gestures or models.

While spatial orientation is not fully developed until after age 7, it is important to give students experiences with these concepts sooner. With preschool children, a teacher demonstrated the language/spatial connection using objects and prepositional phrases. She noted that three year olds were not able to place the objects correctly in relation to other objects when given verbal directions. The four and a half and five year olds were able to take these verbal directions and correctly place these objects relative to each other. Below are assessments of 7 year olds spatial awareness, both intact and developing.

**__Classification__**
As a group assessment tool, Melany tried using the prompts "I know..." and "I wonder..." before teaching a classification lesson on reptiles.

According to Betty Garner, //classification involves identifying, comparing, and ordering information or data to create meaning based on relationships of parts to each other and parts to the whole.// This ability to organize is crucial for understanding. Young toddlers are able to classify objects into different groups and are naturally inclined to do so. In fact, order is a strong draw for them. Older children (3-5 year olds) can be encouraged to find other ways to group objects. Working together to come up with multiple classification groups allows children the opportunity to explore many different options on grouping things. Classification can be imbedded in almost every cultural lesson.





As a group assessment tool, Melany tried using the prompts "I know..." and "I wonder..." before teaching a classification lesson on reptiles.



__Cognitive Structures and Developmental Theory__
Melany's Suggested Developmental Theory Link:

[|http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/Jean_Piaget] 's_Developmental_Stage_Theory

Development of Cognitive Structures Chart(Work in Progress-all feedback welcome!)



**__ Studygroup NOTES __**
February 8, 2011 We have chosen to delve into Classification and Conservation of Constancy. Each teacher will look at assessments in these areas and try some of them out in their classroom. We will discuss our observations at the next meeting.

February 15, 2011 Jill shared her experiences with the construct of Conservation of constancy - She realized that students have various understandings of conservation. It's important to assess with a variety of tools as their understanding grows even as your assessing them. It's important to assess kids individually so they aren't influenced by their peers thoughts. Many kids need a variety of exposures to develop the skills, while others seem to undersand the concept intuitively. Melissa did an assessment with conservation, pouring rice into differently shaped containers to measure volume. She was thankful for the groundwork that the children get in the younger classrooms with pouring to build this construct, as well as all their experiences with practical life. Melany talked about using the questions, I know and I wonder, as a group assessment tool before teaching a classification lesson on reptiles. Sara did some classification work with children matching letters. She has noticed that using playdoh is a great tool for developing conservation as they describe, using language their desire to make thier playdoh "bigger" by it out with a rolling pin. We discussed how teacher language can help them to further understand the idea of conservation.

February 22, 2011 We discussed Betty Garner's presentation.[|test] Liz gave an example of classification with a 5 year old. We discussed the UbD forms and we were wondering how to make sure that the the teachers know what cognitive structures we're expecting that chidren have while teaching the bigger concepts. We want to make sure that we're expecting things that are developmentally appropriate for the children we're teaching. One member voiced concerns about the question "what do you notice?" in terms of when you get a totally off track answer. Other members gave ideas about how to handle the situation. We need to be sure we're more process oriented when filling out the UbD forms to allow for flexibility for each student's needs.

March 1, 2011 Marybeth indicated that UBD seems to be more about setting up curriculum where Betty Garner work is more specific about assessment. We agreed that for now we would focus more on Betty Garner’s work, using some of her work with kids in our classroom and bringing back our reflections. Marybeth had 9 kids put the objects, up, down, over, under… to assess spatial awareness or language. The three year olds didn’t get it, but other kids did. Melissa shared the __Go Dog Go__ and a Tana Hoban book are great books for this language. Liz did say that spatial orientation in tact by 7 or 8. We wondered what the steps are before that (continuum of development). Would be a great idea to develop continuums for all the different constructs by age. Michael brought up how some kids may not have conservation of consequence. He explained to all the age groups that some of the flying objects were broken. Michael explained to the children that they will remain on the shelf, but they are not being used since they are broken. After that discussion, 3-4 weeks after children continued to inquire about how to turn the toys on. Why? Memory? Attention? Conservation of Consequence? Sara mentioned that in her classroom if a child spills, they clean it up. They hopefully learn the consequence. Melany also worked on prepositions with 6 year olds. Most of the children did well. Then two dimensional assessment they were asked to answer, “Where is the ball?” They had difficulty with this when it was two dimensional. They could //not// answer the question when it was just a picture. Obviously they weren’t developmentally there yet. Liz showed examples of kids asked to draw maps of their classroom. We discussed how challenges can be related. Next week we will focus on Spatial Awareness.

March 8, 2011 In attendance – Melany, Melissa, Marybeth, Jill, Sara, Michael (Liz absent) Marybeth said that her kids were interested in exploring the materials she used for spatial orientation. One child who had difficulty in the previous lesson, took an object and moved it across the room. Then she exclaimed, “Far away.” She grasped the concepts completely this time, where as last time she did not seem to grasp it as well.

Michael was still thinking about Virtual Space. Michael found a game called Interlock at armorgames.com. It is an amazing game where you manipulate three dimensional objects and take the interlocking puzzle pieces apart. It progressively gets more challenging. Michael realized that asking the children to explain how they figured it out was the way to get the kids thinking about their thought processes. Michael wondered if this could be used as an assessment. If not an assessment, it can at least be used to help a child enhance their special awareness. Another game is called Bloxorz under onemorelevel.com.

Melany had a snake game assessment to see if kids when adding two bars, would have to count the first bar or could just start counting at the second bar. Most children in her 5-7 yr classroom could not do it. Four children were all able to do it. Interestingly enough, they were all male.

Sara has noticed in her classroom that when she tells children to put things //in// the basket, or stand //behind// the line…that some of the kids don’t get it. She thinks it is just a language development understanding at this point. Sara asked some kids to look for something green and the kids had trouble with that. Do they know the color green? Or do they just not understand the language? Jill showed the figure eight walk while reading that Gretchen McDonnell (OT) had taught her. Jill will do this work with a handful of kids to see if it improves their fluency.

March 15, 2011 Attendees: Melissa, Mary Beth, Michael, Sara, Melany, Jill, Liz Liz shared spatial assessments that she had done with a few 7-9 children. We noted that it is interesting in that the children who struggled with the spatial tasks are also the ones who are having trouble in their academic learning. It appears that these children learn in discrete chunks of information and that they are not connecting new information with their prior knowledge. Jill followed up with the infinity exercise to get more info about how it can help kids develop their tracking. She has learned that you don’t need to do practice with actual reading passages, but instead use letters or arrows. The goal is to build their tracking ability, not their reading ability. This will in turn affect their reading fluency b/c it will make them better trackers. Each person identified which focus they were going to continue with and how they would follow up with the children and bring back data from their children.