Facilitation Strategies
What facilitation and questioning strategies will you use to promote inquiry and engagement among your students?
Facilitation Strategies:
The entry event will be strategy to promote inquiry, questioning, and engagement among students. By posing a hypothetical situation (us running out of oil) to students they will want to know how likely this is and what can be done about it. They may even recognize the bias in the video and engage in discussion because they want to be contrarian.
While the debriefing sessions will certainly address specific issues from the previous days, the teacher can also use this time to pose question to guide the investigations for the day. For example, on Thursday of the first week, students will be asked to reflect and discuss the question “What ways can I improve as a team member and problem solver?” By guiding this discussion before students get to work for the day, students will be reminded of what is expected during inquiry and group work.
Socratic Dialogue if done correctly forces students to think critically. These can be open-ended questions with no specific answers over a section of an article that the students have read. This could be done before, during (for homework- flipped classroom idea) or after the unit.
Using the article: Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass from AAAS. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/314/5805/1598.short
(Permission to reprint this article for classroom use is easy to obtain and costs $0.)
Using the following questions I would have students read this after the PBL or at the end of the unit.
1. After reading the first paragraph we will discuss the question: Does current biomass production compete for food production acreage?
2. After reading the data collected in the experiments we will discuss the following questions: Why do you think mixed grasses provides more bioenergy than some of the food-fuel sources? Is planting these mixed grasses beneficial both economically.
Questioning Strategies:
Questioning is a crucial component to teaching and to PBL. In order to be an effective questioner in the classroom, one must plan out the questions that you want to ask and also use tools so that you are asking higher level questions as well as the basic questions. One tool that we will use throughout our unit is that of Blooms’ Taxonomy. Below are some of the tools that will be used to help us develop our essential questions throughout our unit.
The first visual shown displays Bloom’s Taxonomy and the old and new versions of his pyramid. From this visual you can see that there are many types of questions one needs to ask and it is best to ask questions from all different levels of the pyramid. We will use this pyramid not only to develop questions for our unit but also to display for the classroom as a whole so that students also are engaged in asking good questions.
What facilitation and questioning strategies will you use to promote inquiry and engagement among your students?
Facilitation Strategies:
The entry event will be strategy to promote inquiry, questioning, and engagement among students. By posing a hypothetical situation (us running out of oil) to students they will want to know how likely this is and what can be done about it. They may even recognize the bias in the video and engage in discussion because they want to be contrarian.
While the debriefing sessions will certainly address specific issues from the previous days, the teacher can also use this time to pose question to guide the investigations for the day. For example, on Thursday of the first week, students will be asked to reflect and discuss the question “What ways can I improve as a team member and problem solver?” By guiding this discussion before students get to work for the day, students will be reminded of what is expected during inquiry and group work.
Socratic Dialogue if done correctly forces students to think critically. These can be open-ended questions with no specific answers over a section of an article that the students have read. This could be done before, during (for homework- flipped classroom idea) or after the unit.
Using the article: Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass from AAAS. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/314/5805/1598.short
(Permission to reprint this article for classroom use is easy to obtain and costs $0.)
Using the following questions I would have students read this after the PBL or at the end of the unit.
1. After reading the first paragraph we will discuss the question: Does current biomass production compete for food production acreage?
2. After reading the data collected in the experiments we will discuss the following questions: Why do you think mixed grasses provides more bioenergy than some of the food-fuel sources? Is planting these mixed grasses beneficial both economically.
Questioning Strategies:
Questioning is a crucial component to teaching and to PBL. In order to be an effective questioner in the classroom, one must plan out the questions that you want to ask and also use tools so that you are asking higher level questions as well as the basic questions. One tool that we will use throughout our unit is that of Blooms’ Taxonomy. Below are some of the tools that will be used to help us develop our essential questions throughout our unit.
The first visual shown displays Bloom’s Taxonomy and the old and new versions of his pyramid. From this visual you can see that there are many types of questions one needs to ask and it is best to ask questions from all different levels of the pyramid. We will use this pyramid not only to develop questions for our unit but also to display for the classroom as a whole so that students also are engaged in asking good questions.
Another tool that can be used to facilitate questions within the PBL Classroom is a Verb chart to help both students’ and teachers’ ask strong questions. This verb chart will be inside of the students’ binders and also posted in the classroom so that it is visible. As a teacher, it will be handy to have this verb chart accessible to use at all times while facilitating instruction throughout the PBL as well as to help pose questions when students are conducting laboratories and working on their final projects.
With these tools we were able to come up with our essential questions for our PBL unit.
First we have our driving question which is our overarching question for the unit.
Driving Question:
From here we developed our essential questions by looking at our core objectives.
The table below shows the questions that will be asked throughout the unit in conjunction with our core objectives.
First we have our driving question which is our overarching question for the unit.
Driving Question:
- How can biological methods be effectively used to convert biomass to biofuel to meet our energy needs?
From here we developed our essential questions by looking at our core objectives.
The table below shows the questions that will be asked throughout the unit in conjunction with our core objectives.
- How will you collaborate with students without giving them answers?
Also, the teacher will collaborate with students in their final product in a similar way. The teacher will observe the students working and the drafts of their product. Upon examining a draft of their project, the teacher can ask questions to the group. For example... “Does this product accomplish the goal?” or the teacher could ask the students within the group, “How could this product be improved?” to spark a conversation that moves the group forward.
- How will you facilitate student self-questioning?
Student self-questioning will be facilitated through reflections at various points in the unit. The student activities timeline outlines on day 1 and day 5 a space for students to reflect on their understanding of biofuels and biomass.
Finally student self questioning will also be facilitated by models of Bloom and the verb chart that is presented at the beginning of this document.
- How will you facilitate student collaboration?
- How will students be grouped and seated in the classroom?
In ideal situations, students will be grouped in threes and able to spread out throughout the room. The diagram below shows how a PBL classroom should be set up. The circular tables promote collaboration and three individuals can be placed at each table or pod. Unfortunately most science classrooms do not have this flexibility, but teachers should aim to have students set up in their collaborative groups. This could occur at their lab stations or desks could be put together and moved around when needed.
- How will you help students decide on group roles?
Alternatively, the teacher could assign roles to students within groups if the group needs significant structure.
- How will you help students set goals?
Second, we will help students set goals at the beginning of their product creation at the beginning of week three. We will attempt to establish a culture of healthy competition and cooperation as they try to make the most persuading piece of marketing material.
- How will you assure effective group work (using class time efficiently, ensuring equal participation among students)?
- If students need the structure, the teacher can assign roles to specific members in the group. Rubrics can be used to provide structure and clear expectation with regard to group work. Examples of roles that we might give include: Team Leader, Recorder, Lab Data Specialist, Technology Director, etc. Students might have more than one role at different times throughout the project dependent on the number in the group as well as what specific roles are available to play.
- Also, students will be told they will have less time than we think they will need for group work. Meaning that we will give them extra time, however we will have a goal of 15 minutes and we might give more time as needed. Using check points, a countdown timer, etc. gives students an idea of how much time they have and what they need to get done in the allotted amount of time.
- Finally, to ensure equal participation among students multiple strategies will be used. First, individual grades will be earned for many parts of the work completed by the group. Second, students will evaluate their group members as a means of reflection and at the end of the project. Additionally, the teacher will continually attempt to have students tie evidence to their conclusions. Requiring students to support claims and use evidence within their group help ensure effective group work. Finally, the teacher will circulate the classroom and redirect those students who are off task.
- Depending on the classroom, some other tools a teacher may use include: checklists, group task list, etc. Below are some examples of how teams can keep themselves on task and ensure equal participation among all students within the group. All of these ideas are found at www.bie.org and are available for free download.
- What kinds of non-directive strategies will you use (include specific examples)?
Open Ended Final Product-Students will be given the task of creating a piece of marketing to promote the use of enzymes in biofuels production. While this provides some direction, students will have many different creative outlets they could use.
Reflection-By asking students questions like “What did I learn about myself as a problem solver?” or “What am I thinking about today in regards to biofuels?” students are encouraged to think divergently, in a non-directive manner.
- How will you promote inquiry and engagement among your students?
Besides the enzyme experiment, students will inquire through internet research into specific biomass to biofuels reactions.
- What tools and techniques will you use to support engagement?
Another tool for engagement is the completion of the finished product. While monitoring the completion of this project, the teacher will check to ensure it is not simply the product of one student. The teacher can suggest and assign roles for the completion of the final product, as necessary.
- When will debriefing and reflection activities occur? When will students reflect on their group processes?
Please refer to Timeline for when and how reflections and debriefing should occur.
- How will students monitor their development as team players and problem-solvers? What strategies will you use to help students debrief and reflect on.
The teams may also use a variety of documents depending on the group and the teachers' needs. Some examples include: Team Management Log, Team Contracts, Reflections. Please refer to the documents above to get examples of the team management log and team contracts. Please refer to the picture below to see what a possible reflection form you can use.
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