Choose a tentative topic
As the teachers revisited their observation journals and looked back through the childrens writing journals, their insight was that the concepts of power, force, and motion were themes the children had already been exploring for months; but because the contexts for this exploration had seemed so disconnected, they had not recognized it before. With several weeks left in the school year, they decided to focus planning on an exploration of these three interrelated concepts.
They knew from what the children had done already that there would be many opportunities to address science, math, and literacy standards. In focused discussions with the children, they created an initial KWL chart (Table 6.6) with thema graphic organizer that organizes thinking into three categories: “what we know,” “what we want to know,” and “how we can find out.” The teachers transcribed the students exact words, which helped them make specific plans about how to begin the study.
| Table 6.6: KWL Chart on Power, Force |
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