RUNNING HEAD: STUDENT EXPRESSION

Student Expression Dianne J.E.Kraus Wilkes University

STUDENT EXPRESSION Abstract The mini-study is focused on strategies for student expression that deepen new knowledge

including summarizing, elaborative interrogation and reflection. The students in the classroom are twenty-seven biology students of diverse backgrounds who have just completed a unit on genetic diseases. The students were given an article to read and summarize from the newspaper that made a link to childhood obesity with genes for sweet cravings. This was a connection to our previous unit on macromolecules, obesity and childhood diseases. During the discussion the teacher led the students to make inferences about what was not specifically taught about the evolution of human disease.

STUDENT EXPRESSION Student Expression The focus of the mini-study was on student expression using the strategies for

elaborating, writing and self reflection. The students were an advanced classroom of freshmen AVID Biology who are completing a unit of study on genetic diseases. The unit was built on prior knowledge from diseases that are a result of poor eating habits in American society. The final reading for the unit was an article about the genes that cause people to crave sweets and the students read this article as a previewing activity the day before the mini-study as homework. During the day of the mini-study each group of students was assigned a paragraph of the article to read in a jig saw summarizing activity. After reading the paragraph the students explain what they had read to each other and then wrote a summarizing statement that they shared out with the class. This activity helped the students to remember what they read the night before in preparation for the class discussion and explaining the information to each other then summarizing forces them to process the information. After the summarizing activity, the students moved into discussion circle and the teacher asked the students questions that would connect the content from both units and to give the students the opportunity to make inferences about degenerative diseases versus genetic diseases and predict how they might affect their lives based on evolution and natural selection. The teacher led the discussion by asking the students probing questions and asked the students to elaborate on their answers. The students eventually made the generalization that human populations could eventually evolve out of the sweet cravings if the younger generation continues to develop obesity related diseases because the young will not live to reproduce.

STUDENT EXPRESSION This is a basic concept in evolution which is natural selection and will be a starting place for the next unit.

One student made an inference about the change in environment and for natural selection of people without the sweet-craving gene being similar to the genetic disease sickle cell being found in African Americans due to malaria. The teacher should have asked the student to elaborate or to explain the comparison further. This could have been handled better and after time to reflect there are many ways that the student could have elaborated on the inference made and this may have lead to a deeper learning experience for the class. The students were then asked questions to reflect on their learning experience and a few students offered personal experiences that were relevant to their lives. Such as how diabetes runs in families and can be passed on to children and how they will watch their diets to prevent disease in the future. The learning goal for this lesson was that students will make a generalization about how genes and diseases can be removed from a population by natural selection due to evolution. (see Appendix). The goal for this lesson was met by using the strategy of elaborative interrogation following a summarizing strategy. The students wrote an individual reflection in a learning log after the mini-study video was stopped. The learning log gave the students the opportunity to communicate any further questions that they had about the content, they were asked reflect on how hard they tried and what they might have done differently to enhance their learning during collaboration activities. The learning log was used as a formative assessment and instructional feedback so that any misconceptions from their learning could be clarified and used for future planning to make changes to the unit to improve instruction.

STUDENT EXPRESSION These strategies help the students to think about the content more deeply and to make connections from previous knowledge to current learning and to upcoming critical input experiences. The students were also required to think about the relevance to personal experiences which helps students internalize and assimilate knowledge. The students responses to class activities indicated that they recalled previous content and could make inferences about what was not specifically taught. This was a mini study with the focus on the teacher and I found it challenging to be asking all of the questions. I prefer to hold Socratic style discussions because I find that these

are more student-centered. In a Socratic discussion I have more time to evaluate each students understanding based on the types of questions they ask and how they build upon prior knowledge during the discussion. When the students write higher order questions to ask of each other the discussion is more engaging for the students as they take ownership of the discussion. As the facilitator I can still give direction to the discussion but I find that the students build on what the others have said and wait time pushes them to respond to one another. At the end of Socratic discussions I will have the students write a summary of their Cornell notes that they take during the seminar. I did not like the format of this lesson and would prefer to use a more student-centered approach. I also need to practice the strategy of interrogative elaboration so that I do not miss opportunities to have students explain their thoughts and to elaborate on their ideas and inferences in the future.

STUDENT EXPRESSION Appendix

Score 4.0 Score 3.5

The students will research and investigate how populations evolve due to environmental pressures and natural selection In addition to score 3.0 performance partial success at score 4.0 content The students will make a generalization about how genes and diseases can be removed from a population by natural selection due to evolution. No major errors or omissions regarding score 2.0 content and partial success at score 3.0 content. The students will show how species change due to mutations during protein synthesis. Partial success at score 2.0 content, but major errors or omissions regarding score 3.0 content With help, partial success of score 2.0 content, but not at score 3.0 content Even with help, no success

Score 3.0

Score 2.5

Score 2.0

Score 1.5

Score 1.0

Score 0.0

STUDENT EXPRESSION References Marzano, R. (2007). The Art and Science of Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.