Students are back in school, and teachers are trying out new strategies they hope will engage their students. I remember those days very well myself.
During my second year teaching fourth grade, I attended a CRISS Strategies in-service training at my school. CRISS Strategies is a teaching technique utilizing graphic organizers, story plans, and power notes to help students connect to the material being taught.
The moment the instructor started explaining the strategy labeled "power notes", I knew I could use it in my classroom for science lessons. It seemed like the perfect way to show the connection between concepts and possibly make the amount of material taught per unit more manageable. Power notes were going to be my salvation, or so I thought...
Power notes resemble the style of note taking where the topic is a roman numeral; the first main idea is the letter A, and so on... CRISS strategies, however, uses only numbers as a way of simplifying the strategy.
I left the training session full of enthusiasm. The next few evenings were spent disecting the science material to be taught in the next unit. Then, PowerPoint presentations in the form of power notes were created for students to copy as I discussed them. Finally, I devised mini-hands-on activities to be used during the power point presentations to make the concepts more concrete.
I decided to introduce the new science unit and accompanying power notes strategy on a Monday. I gave each student a new three-prong folder labeled Power Notes with paper already attached inside. We were ready to begin.
I told the students we weren't using the science textbook for this unit. Instead I had taken the information they needed to learn and created PowerPoint presentations to use to teach it to them. They would be expected to copy down the notes after we discussed them and use them as a study aid.
Even my most uninspired students seemed to momentarily perk up. Everything was going just as planned. The first slide appeared on the Smart Board screen,... and that is when things started going downhill fast. This is an example of what it looked like:
1. rocks
2. igneous
3. (scientific definition)
4. examples
2. sedimentary
The room became very quiet as 27 students stared at me like I had lost my mind. They had no clue how to connect 1 to 2 or 2 to 3, etc....
It was time to regroup. I hadn't planned on them not catching onto the concept of power notes as quickly as I did. To me, it just seemed so logical. To them, it seemed like I had forgotten how to count.
I had to find a way to make them understand the concept of power notes first before using it to teach actual science lessons. Whatever concept or idea I used had to be something every student could relate to. My mind began frantically searching for that one concept.
That is when inspiration struck. As I glanced around the room, I happened to notice a student trying to slyly pick his nose without anyone noticing. Boogers - everyone has them, and everyone knows at least one thing about them. Boogers were the answer.
I changed my Smart Board back to the main writing screen and asked the following question. What do you know about snot? Just about every hand shot straight up into the air.
As they told me their responses, I began to separate them into three categories on the Smart Board: color, texture, and usage. Once every student had a chance to respond, I started transferring the information from the categories into a power note format with their help.
1. boogers
2. color
3. olive green
3. translucient
3. reddish brown
2. texture
3. rough
It did not take long for them to catch on that #1 was the topic. #2's were main ideas related to the topic. And, #3's were details about the main idea they were directly under. By the time we finished creating our Boogers power notes, every single student could explain how power notes worked to the other 3 members of their table [4 desks facing each other].
I actually did a happy dance in the front of the room to celebrate. Power notes became an official part of my science curriculum after that. The results were amazing.
I know some of you are saying "Gross" or "Disgusting". But if something works, don't knock it. If you want to reach students today, you have to get their attention any way you can and find something every student has in common. Sometimes, that one thing turns out to be boogers.
Until another thought blooms...
The mind is like a parachute, it works best when it is open.
- Anonymous
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