Schmoker believes that the science curriculum needs to have lots of changes. Science curriculum has gone from being taught with an emphasis on on content to now where we chose to try and engage students with hands-on activities.
He lists 5 things he believes are the essential ingredients to an effective science curriculum:
1. close reading from portions of a science textbook
2. Regular reading and discussion of current science articles
3. Interactive lecture
4. Writing-short daily pieces to more formal pieces
5. A reasonable number of carefully designed science labs and experiments
Schmoker again refers to the method of Task, Text, Talk which is an effective combination of purposeful reading, writing, and talking.
I thought it was interesting how Schmoker compared the U.S. to high-achieving countries and found that they focus only on science lesson content, where the U.S. pushes that aside in favor of "engaging students in a wide variety of activities" He then goes on to say "worse yet, the majority of these activities have little or no connection to essential science content." I translate that to hmmmm what experiment or lab am I going to do today, when it might not even fit with what I did yesterday!
("Less is more; we must keep our focus on essential science concepts, learned deeply") pg165
It was really interesting when Schmoker began talking about standards and the amount of topics a teacher must cover in a short period of time. He called it "curriculum chaos" and it is when a teacher knows that can't cover all of the standards so the pick out their favorites. I can definitely see this happening in schools.
More Literacy and fewer labs!!!! Research shows that science is learned more from close reading in science textbooks than completing labs. Labs focus more on procedures than the learning goals. You provide the mastery of the standard through language (deep rich discussions). Students love to compare their thinking with others and communicate their thoughts. I think their is less pressure on students when they are in a one-on-one discussion setting so they are more likely to tell their thoughts.
As we continue to read this book Schmoker's thoughts and ideas seem to move from one subject to another. Focus on a few standards and master them, use textbooks for deeper understanding, write and discuss what you are learning and check for understanding along the way to help you with your instruction.
I hope this will help start some discussion!!
