Rubrics have been used for ages as a means of judgement based on certain rules. In our profession, we make judgement on a number of areas in a student’s life such as in their academics, behavior or social abilities. Often, classroom educators have shied away from giving definitive grades due to the issues associated with competition or self-esteem. However, it is important to remember as teachers we are positioned to help students understand the art and craft of their work (Laureate, 1999l). Therefore, educators should approach rubrics as tools to help student journey from a state of novice in content to the level of expert. The rules and procedures that guide our judgement should not be a piece of paper to determine deficiencies; yet,
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One of the topics covered deals with salinity and temperature. As part of the lesson, students will essentially understand how (1) temperature and salinity affect water density and (2) how those previously mentions characteristics affect how heat moves globally. This lesson comes toward the end of the oceanography unit in the class. In days prior, students have learned about waves, tides and currents. For the lesson students are required to take their knowledge from the unit to “layer” various temperatures and salinities of water. Each lab group is given four food coloring bottles, a bin, varying temperatures of water, salt, beakers, graduated cylinders, and stirring rods. They are asked to duplicate the teacher demonstration based on their knowledge of how temperature and salinity affects how ocean water moves in the water column. For example, they should know that salty water is denser than tap and that cold water is denser than warm water. That information should help them collectively work to determine how the teacher layered the water in the demo set-up. Students are not given explicit step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the lab. They must work collaborate to produce the desire …show more content…
In the last modules of the course, it became clear how to integrate habits of the mind into a lesson. How to really get students to use those attributes to comprehend the content, not using the content to understand the content. I know to make the habits just as explicit in the learning outcomes as the content objectives (Costa & Kallick, 2008). Problem-based learning activities provide cognitively demanding tasks where the answers are uncertain and students must use habits such as managing impulsivity and flexible thinking to work through it. They learn from the PBL that the first answer is not always the best, right or only answer. Also, working collectively in small groups during PBLs present the opportunity to listen to peer
One of the topics covered deals with salinity and temperature. As part of the lesson, students will essentially understand how (1) temperature and salinity affect water density and (2) how those previously mentions characteristics affect how heat moves globally. This lesson comes toward the end of the oceanography unit in the class. In days prior, students have learned about waves, tides and currents. For the lesson students are required to take their knowledge from the unit to “layer” various temperatures and salinities of water. Each lab group is given four food coloring bottles, a bin, varying temperatures of water, salt, beakers, graduated cylinders, and stirring rods. They are asked to duplicate the teacher demonstration based on their knowledge of how temperature and salinity affects how ocean water moves in the water column. For example, they should know that salty water is denser than tap and that cold water is denser than warm water. That information should help them collectively work to determine how the teacher layered the water in the demo set-up. Students are not given explicit step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the lab. They must work collaborate to produce the desire …show more content…
In the last modules of the course, it became clear how to integrate habits of the mind into a lesson. How to really get students to use those attributes to comprehend the content, not using the content to understand the content. I know to make the habits just as explicit in the learning outcomes as the content objectives (Costa & Kallick, 2008). Problem-based learning activities provide cognitively demanding tasks where the answers are uncertain and students must use habits such as managing impulsivity and flexible thinking to work through it. They learn from the PBL that the first answer is not always the best, right or only answer. Also, working collectively in small groups during PBLs present the opportunity to listen to peer