Manaiakalani- Google Classon Air - Reflection

Over the last two weeks, I have filmed two lessons for Manaiakalani- Google Classon Air. The experience has been challenging and enjoyable. It is still a challenge to get the footage and the sound during the lesson and to capture those 'ahh huh' moments. It is a great learning experience to watch back the footage and episodes for myself from a teacher perspective- I often think- I should've asked it differently, I should've made a connection there etc. We also watch back the videos as a class and look at ways we can improve. My inquiry goal is looking at critical thinking and problem solving and how to enhance this through questioning. 

So what? 

After reading 'Content-Area Conversations: How to Plan Discussion-Based Lessons for Diverse Language Learners by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Carol Rothenberg. I have gathered some next steps that will help me promote more discussion based lessons. The key things that I noticed missing from my science lesson is that the discussions and questions are surface level discussions, and although I have improved with my questioning around noticing I still want to get my students thinking at a deeper level and I am wanting my students to be able to compare and contrast ideas, ask questions, and describe phenomena in science. (This will then benefit other curriculum areas). 

The reading highlighted the need for different types of talk and discussion and how to prompt students to do so. Below is a language learning poster. I am going to use this to base my questioning and the language I want to students to use. I will put it up in the class and refer to it often when modeling my own language in science. 

Figure 5.1. Language of Learning Poster Language objective	What is it?	What does it sound like?
To instruct	Giving directions	"The first step is …" "Next …" "The last part is …"
To inquire	Asking questions	Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? "What do you think?"
To test	Deciding if something makes sense	"I still have a question about …" "What I learned is …"
To describe	Telling about something	Use descriptive words and details
To compare and contrast	Showing how two things are alike and different	"Here is something they both have in common …" "These are different from each other because …"
To explain	Giving examples	"This is an example of …" "This is important because …"
To analyze	Discussing the parts of a bigger idea	"The parts of this include …" "We can make a diagram of this."
To hypothesize	Making a prediction based on what is known	"I can predict that …" "I believe that _________ will happen because …" "What might happen if …?"
To deduce	Drawing a conclusion or arriving at an answer	"The answer is because …"
To evaluate	Judging something	"I agree with this because …" "I disagree because …" "I recommend that …" "A better solution would be …" "The factors that are most important are …"