Hi, I teach chemistry in Moray and am starting to add to this superb blog. I think it’s a wonderful, first class way for teachers to exchange ideas and resources. If you would like to comment on any of the posts on this page or would like to share anything critical skills related, then please make a posting so that we can all learn from your creative ideas. Look forward to hearing from you.
I would like to open a discussion and exchanging of ideas on critical skills as I would very much like to incorporate more of this area into my everyday teaching. To date, I have completed the first half of level one with the second part going to be completed early next year. In our secondary school, critical skills is aiming to become a bigger part of lessons e.g. circle time, full value contract, group collaboration.
Recently in some of my classes, first year science pupils drew up a full value contract which is now on display in the classroom. This states five of the most important areas which pupils generated through group discussion as to what constituted a happy, productive learning environment. All pupils signed and dated their contracts before being displayed on the classroom wall.
Ross
Another critical skills idea to build the classroom learning community is to get pupils to trace around their hand on coloured paper then add their name. Pupils sit in circle time formation and pass their paper hands to each pupil around the circle. Each pupil needs to write a word on a particular person’s hand which describes how that person works in class. The paper hand eventually rotates around the circle back to its owner who reads it to increase confidence and self-eteem and then the hands can be displayed on the classroom wall. This could be a light hearted, Friday period 6 exercise.
Ross
Using Crictical Skills in the science
A Critical Skills approach to dissolving
S1 science pupils recently brainstormed on four pieces of poster paper and carouselled around the classroom looking at the words of solvent, solution, soluble and insoluble. Pupils scribbled their thoughts down freely on the poster paper with any ideas they would associate with the particular word. All pupils had a yellow postit and had to write down a question and stick it to the poster paper at the final fourth station. Some pupil questions included “ Do some solvents smell as strongly when the liquid is freezed?” and ”Would sugar dissolve in alcohol?” and “Why can some solvents be bad for your health?”
The class then rotated around the four corners of the room and we looked and discussed the posters which were pinned onto the wall. Certain pupils were then asked to choose a couple of Q’s on the yellow postits and asked other pupils their thoughts; with the teacher being on hand to assist.
The lesson was concluded with a circle time approach where pupils were asked to name a solid which they would like to be and why. Pupils were given a small ball which the they threw gently to another nominated person in the circle (teachers participated also). The S1 Particles topic was being covered at the time, hence the question about solids. This task allowed pupils use their imaginations and they came up with wonderful responsesw which included “Sand, so that all my troubles could be washed away by the sea “and “A rock as this is hard and nobody could ever damage me.”
If you would like to comment on any of the above or would like to share anything critical skills related, then please make a posting so that we can all learn from your creative ideas. Look forward to hearing from you.
Ross
Learning structural formulae
Pupils huddle in a cirlcle and a plastic container put in the centre with small pieces of scrap paper in it. Each pupil ot off their seat and collected a piece of scrap paper in the middle of the circle and drew a structural formula (shape) of a molecule and wrote the answer on the back (small). The pieces of paper are then passed three places clockwise (to the left) around the circle and each person has to show the rest of the circle their structure and name it – then check if they are correct. If wrong, they say wrong. Then the person immediately to their left gets offered the the opportunity to answer the question and if get it correct – they get double points, rather than one mark if the person is answering their own Q. A league table can be easily drawn up on Excel for pupils and shown on the overhead if this is being down regularly. A Small prize for top pupil at the end of term can be used as an incentive and pupils hugely enjoy this.
Ross
Group work and collaboration ideas
It helps pupils to become confident individuals through group work and role allocation. A quick 3 column template can be made up with the title “Who is Doing What?” The first column has the heading “Role/job.” This allows each member of the group to have a clearly defined role or direction e.g. time keeper, recorder, materials manager (responsible for collection and distribution of paper and pens), manager etc. The second column of the table has the heading “Assigned to” and the pupil’s name in an individual group written here. The 3rd column of the table has the heading “job description” and this can be gone over by the teacher with the pupils at the start of the class or pupils write down what they consider their role is within a particular role/job assigned to in the group. The standrad of the worksheet can be jazzed up with pictures in the headings in the table from clipart etc. Thanks and hope this might be a useful slot to a lesson.
Ross
Hi there,
Dave Binnie was saying that there has been interest in the critical skills as far away as Aberdeenshire and that is brilliant! Below are a couple of ideas which I have been using for chemistry recently in Elgin Academy. Please post any of your methods also so that we can all learn from each other new critical skills ways to use in the classroom.
1. Circle time variation:
Pupils huddle in a circle and a plastic container put in the centre with small pieces of scrap paper in it. Each pupil got off their seat and collected a piece of scrap paper in the middle of the circle and drew a structural formula (shape) of a molecule and wrote the answer on the back (small). The pieces of paper are then passed three places clockwise (to the left) around the circle and each person has to show the rest of the circle their structure and name it – then check if they are correct. If wrong, they say wrong.
Then the person immediately to their left gets offered the the opportunity to answer the question and if get it correct – they get double points, rather than one mark if the person is answering their own Q. A league table can be easily drawn up on Excel for pupils and shown on the overhead if this is being down regularly. A Small prize for top pupil at the end of term can be used as an incentive and pupils higely enjoy this.
By: Rossd on November 28, 2008
at 2:25 pm
Group work and collaboration ideas:
It helps pupils to become confident individuals through group work and role allocation. A quick 3 column template can be made up with the title “Who is Doing What?” The first column has the heading “Role/job.” This allows each member of the group to have a clearly defined role or direction e.g. time keeper, recorder, materials manager (responsible for collection and distribution of paper and pens), manager etc. The second column of the table has the heading “Assigned to” and the pupil’s name in an individual group written here. The 3rd column of the table has the heading “job description” and this can be gone over by the teacher with the pupils at the start of the class or pupils write down what they consider their role is within a particular role/job assigned to in the group. The standrad of the worksheet can be jazzed up with pictures in the headings in the table from clipart etc. Thanks and hope this might be a useful slot to a lesson.
Ross
Ross
By: Ross Gray on November 28, 2008
at 3:11 pm
This is Ross Gray, logged in as Dave due to some password problems being recently experienced.
Recently an S1 Science class had a critical skills lesson on the Periodic table. The lesson started with floor jigsaw where pupils had to collect a sample of an element and then sit in the sweep circle. Pupils had to write down the name of the element on the piece of paper they were holding and then place one piece on the floor. The other piece of paper with the element’s name was held up along with the element sample by pupils. One pupil was asked in the circle if they could split the pieces of element pieces of paper on the floor into groups depending on some property. A pupil asked if they could split them into three groups and proceeded to group the elements into solid, liquid and gases. All the time, this pupil could look at the all the element samples which the other pupils were holding.
A second pupil was then nominated by the first pupil and then split the elements up into two groups, rather than four, of solids, liquids and gases. I then related this to the red staircase on the periodic table for metals and non-metals split. Usually as more and more pupils are nominated the elements are split into more and more individual groups.
It was then explained to pupils the roles of facilitator, resource manager, timekeeper etc which they knew from Case lessons (similar set-up, slightly different task labels). The class was split into three groups and given a critical skills style challenge sheet where it was the 19th century and they were the great Russian Scientist Mendeleev and had to give a report on his findings of the elements discovered to date in order to secure future funding. The challenge was written in the usual critical skills format involving form, process and product. Pupils were given 15 minutes to complete the task and had to give a group presentation at the end of class of one to two minutes duration with all group members contributing.
Most groups did poster displays, rather than role-play, and two groups hit on the idea of allocating abbreviated symbols to elements which was impressive. The PT who was observing the lesson was incorporated by acting as the judge of the presentations with a feedback sheet on which to record observations. At the end of class, the judge provided oral feedback to the all three groups and announced the winning group along with confirmation that funding had been secured. The whole class clapped at the end of the lesson which seemed to be enjoyed by all participants.
* The teacher circulated during the 15 minutes which the group challenge was being completed and placed coloured postit notes on the table in front of pupils praising them on some aspect that they were showing strength in.
By: Ross Gray on March 1, 2009
at 8:59 pm
April 21st 2009
Cells and Inheritance topic (pregnancy and development) – S1 Science
Pupils form five groups of 5/6 pupils. Each pupil is a different part of the reproductive system i.e uterus, placenta, amniotic sac, umbilical cord, embryo/foetus, cervix etc. Numbered heads 1 to 6 gets pupils into their groups.
Pupils are given 10 minutes to research the function of their specific part, then go with their identical numbers in other groups to discuss their findings. Pupils then return to their own groups and collaborate in order to produce a working model presentation to the class as to what happens over the three trimseters.
Materials available can be rope, water/viscous gel solution, large cardboard boxes, small boxies, foam, dolls of various sizes, scrap paper etc
The usual instruction challenge sheet involving criteria, process, product, role allocation can be used as normal. With consent, presenations might be recorded/photographed and stored in the staff workgroup on the computer as a teaching aid for future years.
R Gray
By: Ross Gray on April 21, 2009
at 9:18 am
Int 1 Critical Skills Lesson (3rd year Int 1 Chemistry)
1. The lesson looks at comparing the salt content of three types of nut (chilli, salt and vinegar and roasted)
2. Lesson starts off by asking pupils where do peanuts come from? They scribble their ideas down or dran on large poster paper – 3 groups. Results put up on classroom wall for other groups to view at three corners of the room – pupils have 2 minutes to circulate and observe.
Most suggest tree, but they grow more underground.
3. Pupils given the challenge and have to design an experiment on how to collect the salt from each nut type. A variety of relevant apparatus and non-relevant spread out on central table. Most hit on ideas of filtration to remove nut material followed by evaporation to remove water from salty water.
4. Pupils shown how to use mortar and pestle to grind up the nuts. Variables to be kept constant including mass then brought out. Pupils shown how to tare electronic balance and measure approximately 5g of each nut type.
5. Pupils do experiment – remainder of water allowed to evaporate naturally overnigfht then salt mass found next day. Evaoprating basins weighed prior to experiemnt.
6. Pupils then compare their results with nutritional information including salt content on nut packets – do results correlate/don’t correlate – can data be misleading/ is it an average?
Discussions made between pupils and pupils and teacher. Football passed and held to any class member who wants to contribute.
7. Pupils become a little excited and talkative in last 20 mins of lesson. The late ladder reintroduced – one minute added on which is the time which disruptive pupils will be kept back in the next lesson which comes before lunch.
8. Dietary suitability of peanuts discussed – salt content helathy or unhealthy – pupils research using ICT.
9. Lesson concluded over two periods by the possibility of three pupil groups giving a one minute presentation/role-play advertising the dangers of eating too many nuts and highlighting the reasons why not to doso. Hypertension and high fat content (obesity) brought out here.
Please leave any feedback, thoughts or improvements for next time atound. Thanks
Ross Gray (June 2009)
By: Ross Gray on June 25, 2009
at 2:26 pm