Session+3

**3.1 Monitoring Understanding**
I currently monitor student understanding in my classroom in a variety of ways: checking students' work while circling the room during do nows, guided practice, and group work; using periodic open-notebook quizzes and exit-tickets as formative assessments; collecting and grading homework assignments, notebooks, and projects, etc.

In the 21st century classroom, I anticipate I would use technology in a variety of ways to monitor student understanding. First and foremost, the chemistry department plans to create Moodle courses for all of its sections next year. We will use Moodle collaboratively and individually for nightly homework, quizzes, projects, etc. I anticipate that Moodle will be particularly helpful for allowing students to practice chemistry problems and providing immediate feedback. I also plan to use the forum functions for students to write their summaries, comments, thoughts, questions, etc. on class concepts and real-world application articles. Forum discussions are a great way of monitoring the conceptual understanding of students, particularly those who hesitate to speak up in class. Moodle will also allow us to create lessons for students to complete at home, so that more time can be spent in class on problem-solving, labs, etc. (We attempted to "flip" a unit this past year, and it seemed to be effective.) If we can spend less time leading the instruction in class, we will be able to spend more class time monitoring student progress.

Cell phones are another means to monitoring student progress. I have heard about software that converts cell phones into clickers using texting, so that teachers can pose questions to the class and get immediate feedback. This is a tool I would really like to use next year, but am concerned about all students possessing a cell phone and having free texting. I also expect that opening the student and parent portals on X2 will allow students to be more proactive in monitoring their own progress.

3.2 Before, During, and After Reading
__Summary__: It is important to provide students with reading strategies for them to use before, during, and after reading to assist students in building understanding. Before assigning the reading, teachers should thoughtfully choose associated reading strategies based on the purpose of the reading and content to be learned.

__Discussion__: I do often provide reading strategies for students to use before, during, and after reading, though I do not always conscientiously provide a strategy for each stage in the reading process for every reading. I attempt to use the purpose and content of the reading as a guide when choosing appropriate strategies. Below are some of the strategies I have used in the past. //Before Reading// //During Reading// //After Reading//
 * Activating prior knowledge by having students brainstorm about the topic (usually in a do now activity)
 * Create a graphic organizer to guide student note-taking while reading
 * Making predictions about new information before reading (sometimes accompanied by a demonstration)
 * Making questions, connections, and conclusions
 * Highlighting or identifying the most important ideas and details
 * Creating visuals to clarify concepts
 * Pair with a partner to evaluate the most important ideas and details
 * Respond to questions about the reading
 * Summarize the main points of the reading and share with a partner or the class (time dependent)

**3.3 Wordle as a Before Reading Strategy**
What does it seem that Wordle can do for the user? How useful does Wordle seem to be as a before reading strategy for students? What type of learners would benefit from using a Wordle?
 * Wordle presents a visual representation of the most commonly used words in the reading. The size of the font is able to give readers a value for the importance of each word. Therefore, wordle is quick way of identifying the main idea of the text before even reading the first sentence.
 * My first impression of Wordle is that is is very effective at allowing students to gain an overview of the content before reading. It is similar to the pre-reading approach using headings to create questions or an outline, but is much less linear in its design. If students are able to quickly identify the main idea of the reading, they will be able to read with a better sense of purpose, and thus better comprehension.
 * Visual learners, learners with reading comprehension difficulties, and English Language Learners are the first that come to mind as students who would gain the most from a Wordle because the approach is much more visual and less reliant on reading ability, as long as the major vocabulary words are known. Most readers, not just these specific groups, would benefit. The one group I can see having difficulty with this approach is dyslexic learners or learners who are easily visually over-stimulated. These learners may have trouble gathering useful information from the visual, and may instead feel more overwhelmed or confused.

[|Water-air interface barely there]
 * My article of choice for Session 3:**

media type="custom" key="9850655" width="160" height="160" What observations and predictions about your article can you make based on this Wordle? What connections to your background knowledge can you make?
 * Based on the Wordle, I predict that the article is about the interactions between hydrogen and oxygen near the surface of water. Based on my background knowledge, I know that this article likely relates to the surface tension of water due to the hydrogen bonding that occurs between water molecules. Water is a highly polar molecule (meaning it has a positive and and a negative end) because it is asymmetric and oxygen is much more electronegative than hydrogen. The negative end of one water molecule is attracted to the positive end of another water molecule. This attraction (known as hydrogen bonding) is what causes many of water's unique properties, including surface tension. The Wordle also includes the words "air" and "gas," so the article may also relate to the partial pressure of water vapor.

3.4 Annotated Article as a During Reading Strategy
media type="custom" key="9873875"

__ Comments on Wordle Prediction: __ My predictions based on my Wordle of the article were fairly accurate. I was surprised how the article suggested that this new data refuted old scientific theories about water. None of the findings in the article seemed very ground-breaking to me. However, it would be interesting to read the actual primary literature and see how much of it I could actually understand. The article was less scientific than I expected it to be.

__ Thoughts on Annotating as a Reading Strategy: __ Going into the strategy, I was reluctant to annotate using technology. As a teacher, and especially this year, I frequently provide students with a text to "mark-up" while reading and then summarize. However, I have always had them complete this process on paper. As a student myself for the past few summers, I have enjoyed bringing my reading materials with me and annotating during my commute to school or work. I anticipated not liking the process of reading scientific text on the computer, but I actually didn't mind it so much. I was not able to use as many symbols/colors/codes as I normally would if marking-up on paper, but I assume that I would create my own shortcuts after using Crocodoc for a period of time. I would certainly consider using this technology with students, though it would be difficult considering we do not currently have laptops available for regular use in the classroom.

3.5 Top Five Vocabulary as an After Reading Activity

 * **Term** || **Definition** || **Importance to Reading** ||
 * molecule || a group of atoms covalently bonded together || water is a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded together ||
 * hydrogen bonding || a type of intermolecular attraction that occurs between the hydrogen of one molecule and the nitrogen, oxygen, or fluorine on another molecule || hydrogen bonding is the main type of intermolecular force exhibited by water molecules; it accounts for many of water's unique properties ||
 * atom || the smallest unit of matter || water is made up of three atoms: one oxygen and two hydrogens ||
 * surface || the top layer of a substance || this may seem like a simple vocabulary term, but I thought that many English Language learners may not understand the term; it is critical to understanding the article since it discusses the interactions on the surface of water ||
 * interaction || the relationship between two substances or objects || again, a basic term that may not be understood by some learners; the article focuses on the behavior of two or more water molecules with each other ||