Year 1 to Year 2
Significant Shifts from Year 1 to Year 2
Shift 1: Writing
In our planning for Year 2, we wanted to focus both on participants' writing and their teaching of writing in science classrooms. We included two writing tasks during the four-week institute: 1) science writing during the first two weeks and 2) advocacy writing during the second two weeks. We decided to frame teachers' science writing around genre study to expand the ways we conceived of what science writing could be. The professional piece of writing became an advocacy piece to reflect the National Writing Project's social practices.
Shift 2: Reading
To build our focus on writing instruction in science classrooms, we chose to read Composing Science: A Facilitator's Guide to Writing in the Science Classroom by Leslie Atkins Elliott, Kim Jaxon, and Irene Salter. During the institute, we discussed our shared reading and engaged in some of the science-related writing tasks from the book. We had the privilege of Leslie Atkins Elliot visiting the summer institute for an afternoon to model some of the approaches to writing instruction.
Shift 1: Structure
The work of the fellowship year included teachers creating an inquiry-based science unit. We focused on one aspect of the unit during each day of the fellowship year; for example, on our September day, we drafted essential questions, in October, we considered culminating projects, in November, front-loading and scaffolding, and in January, assessment. This breakdown of the unit plan into smaller sections allowed us to think together about each piece of the unit without becoming overwhelmed. We were able to talk about how each section of the unit plan built on the work we had accomplished during the previous fellowship day.
Shift 2: Teacher Leadership
During year 2 we had the benefit of learning from teacher-consultants. Year 1 Fellows led each day of the second fellowship year, sharing pieces of the unit plans they had created during their fellowship year. For example, in September, Tiffiny Coffey facilitated a morning conversation about framing a science unit around inquiry, and in the afternoon, Wendy Snyder led the group through a process of creating essential questions for an inquiry unit. In October, Ali Ward organized a morning session of aligning student-led culminating projects with science standards, and in the afternoon, Ben Miller and Sarah Speck led two break-out groups, one for elementary teachers and one for secondary teachers to collaboratively work through ideas for culminating projects.
