1. A Tool for Thinking
Student Notebooks:
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

2. Outcomes
• Identify and Analyze Evidence of Student Thinking • Reflect: Who is Doing the Thinking? • Increasing Independence in Student Thinking
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

3. Taking Science To School
“All major aspects of inquiry, including managing the process, making sense of data, and discussion and reflection on the results, may require guidance.”
“In the absence of instruction or prompts, students may not routinely ask questions of themselves, such as, ‘What are you going to do next? What outcome do you predict? What did you Learn? How do you know’.” NRC 2007
The prompts scaffold integration of new knowledge and existing knowledge.
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

4. Flag Your Notebook Select a notebook from what you brought.
Turn to the beginning of any student entry
Flag areas where you see signs of student thinking
Share what you discovered at your table
Share with the whole group
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

5. Essence/Evidence of Student Thinking
• Prior Knowledge • Gathering Data • Making Sense of Data • Metacognition
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

6. Look at Samples: What Do You Notice?
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

7. Re-Flag Student Thinking
• (Blue) Prior Knowledge
• (Purple) Gathering Data
• (Pink) Making Sense of Data
• (Orange) Metacognition
One of the reasons for incorporating 5E and ELD
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

8. Transition from Teacher-Directed to Student-Directed
• With a partner, discuss H2 prompts and discuss who is doing the thinking
•Share at your table
First point is that false positive that students understand academic language because they understand everyday language.
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

9. Moving On the Transition Chart
Pick a row; read across. What do you notice? Discuss
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

10. Creating Better Prompts for Student Thinking
Relook at a notebook entry. Who did the thinking?
What might you change in the prompt to maximize student independence and thinking?
Do you need a scaffold? If so, what is it? How would you remove it over time?
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012

11. On a scale of 1-10 of prompts (teacher- directed to student- directed), where am I?
Where do I want to be?
What is one thing I can do to help get me there?
Quick Write
K-12 Alliance/WestEd 2012