Setting the Stage - Option 3

Overview

Setting the Stage: Overview (Horton)
When you walk into a model based reasoning (MBR) classroom it looks and feels different. Student work cover the walls, and the student’s themselves are actively participating in their own learning. They may be collaborating in groups or with a partner, collecting and analyzing data, or individually writing an explanation to answer a driving question. Whatever activity they are involved in, they appear purposeful in their actions because they know what to do, because the first few weeks of school were invested in setting the stage; preparing students for all the challenging work of the school year. Model Based Reasoning is not school as usual and quite often students do not know what a scientific model is, how to talk to each other in an academic setting, or collaborate in a meaningful, efficient way. In order for students to comfortably work with each other they must first feel safe and trust one another. 

My students are on an 8 period modified block / intervention schedule, and thus have significantly less hours for each of their subjects compared to a traditional 6 period schedule. I thought that an easy place to save time was at the beginning of the year and skipped over this introductory, team building, conversation skill making work. I was wrong. I survived the year, but was frustrated with my students for not talking with each other and for letting the “smart,” vocal student do all the group work, while the rest just followed. When I finally made the investment, and dedicated the first few weeks of school to team building, the art of conversation, and making sense of scientific models, my students and I had an exciting and fulfilling year. We all approach the first few weeks of school differently and we know what works best for our students. The lessons provided are an example of one way to help get started with an MBR classroom.