It's Time for Science Podcast Episode 27: Back to School: Student Collaboration, Academic Vocabulary, and More!

It's Time for Science, and it's time to talk about going back to school–with a first on It's Time for Science–talking to actual students! Tom talks with teacher Lisa Lacey about embedded assessment, student collaboration, academic vocabulary, and more! AFTER listening to an interview Ms. Lacey conducted with two students–talking about their experiences in the science classroom!

Lisa Lacey is currently a third-grade teacher living in England. She has spent her career living and working in military communities. She has 26 years of teaching experience in elementary schools, with a language arts reading specialization and a Masters in Education.  Ms Lacey has led several writing initiatives and enjoys transferring her passion for teaching writing into helping students develop their scientific responses. She finds it a rewarding experience to witness students' confidence grow as they begin to facilitate sense making discussions and collaborate with others.

Tom and Ms. Lacey begin by discussing what students bring to science, how they can take ownership over collaboration, and she works to empower students with the learning process. They discuss why she chose the students she did to interview, how the students prepared for the interview, and why the interview process was so valuable. Then we have the treat of listening to the students discuss their experiences during science!

After the interview, they discuss how focussing on the embedded assessment notes helped assist Ms. Lacey in helping students better answer the focus questions; they discuss the importance of sense-making at the end of the lesson; her use of hand signals to help include all students, even the more quiet students, then moving on to using academic vocabulary, then later using a student to facilitate a discussion in the classroom; how hand signals can help students feel more comfortable in establishing a safe and engaging classroom environment; the importance of student collaboration and how it applies to everything students do in the classroom; the growth Ms. Lacey sees in students from the beginning to the end of the year in working collaboratively; the critical use of claim, evidence, and reasoning, and how Ms. Lacey brings in other tools and elements from literacy lessons to help students gain the skills and confidence to successfully engage with and answer focus questions; how the word wall can help students and take pressure off of students to remember how to spell; how science notebooks help students make claims; students learn from each other as well, so when some students begin using academic language, the class takes ownership over language; the real importance of the embedded assessment notes and using student notebooks.

Past Episodes on Going Back to School:

Back to School with Science [https://www.foss-science.com/back-to-school-with-science/]

Back to School Readiness [https://www.foss-science.com/back-to-school-readiness/]

Tips and Tricks on Starting Back to School:

Set Goals and Prepare Your Science Classroom for Back to School [https://www.foss-science.com/set-goals-and-prepare-your-science-classroom-for-back-to-school/]

Getting Ready for a New School Year with Science [https://www.foss-science.com/getting-ready-for-a-new-school-year-with-science-tips-for-teachers/]

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