Pgs. 120-162

Page 120-162

To begin with, how wonderful for the author Carol Thomlinson, to compile something so wonderful and extensive for promising, current and, and seasoned educators. As a prospective teacher it gives you something to hang onto like a security blanket, "I'm new, and not sure what I'm doing yet, but I've got this toolbox here to hlep me." For a slightly experienced teacher it would help as well. It could enhance already very prepared lessons. For a more experienced teacher, it could rejuevenate a possibly tired a outdated curriculum, it could rejuvenate the teacher as well.

I loved the graphic organizer on page 120. I thought it was really helpful to help students organize their thoughts. Science can be difficult to understand, since some of the concepts are abstract. My own daughter who is in 7th grade is really struggling with science this year. She just can't seem to get things to make sense to her, since so many of these ideas are new to her. This would help a child connect one concept to another, especially since you're connecting concepts. I guess I'm conceptual, and I like to SEE how things connect. This would be fun. Also, I think that you could use this in a differentiated way. Students could draw pictures of the items, write sentences, or tell the class what they learned and how the concepts are connected.

On page 131 & 132 there are 2 novel think tic tac toes. My favorite part of this is how it takes the place of the traditional book report, like I had to do when I was young. This is not only differentitalted in that the students get to pick which activities that they get to do, but they allow students to be more creative. Instead of, “my books was about....” Write a poem about themselves and a character in the book, so that the reader can see how they are alike and different, write a newspaper story about a character in the book, or research a city like the one in the book, and draw maps, and pictures of the city. Offering activities like this, helps children put themselves into an activity, and even make them WANT to show their “report” to their teacher, once they’re finished. As opposed to an assignment that’s a drudgery, that they have to finish, or maybe never get to because of the lack of creativity used in the lesson assignment.