Gamifying Our SBAC Test Preparation

Today students worked with https://quizizz.com/ to assist with our preparation for Nevada’s state test. Quizzizz unlocks gamification and opportunities to increase engagement with traditionally dry material.

With Quizizz, students answer questions and receive points for correct and quickly entered responses. Students can see the top performers but not the scores or names of anyone who might have struggled. (Admittedly, we did sneak in a quiz on Disney after some rigorous work with our 5th grade standards.)

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Using the Discussion Strategy, Fishbowl

Today we used the discussion strategy “Fishbowl” to debate whether using bottled water was more positive or negative. The students read two articles (here) and annotated the pieces looking for evidence to support one position or the other. Then they discussed both articles free of any valued added statements; instead, attention was pointed to finding evidence.

The students positioned themselves around a fishbowl with four students in the middle. Students would share a point, debate the point, and if they couldn’t find evidence or didn’t have a good argument, they would tap someone from outside the fishbowl to take over for them.

The annotating, discussion and debate will help us with our writing in which students have to support a super claim.

Exploration: How much water is in the world?

Today we we used estimations, graphing and calculations to determine how much salt water versus fresh water there is in the world. Based on the student predictions and the results, there was a lot of academic growth!

Room360 Visits Donner Memorial State Park

A few photos from our visit to the Donner Memorial State Park. Admittedly, all the recent snow made touring the park of touch more adventurous than we expected but the kids were good natured about it. Moreover, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun while learning a lot simultaneously.

Working with Parent Data

Today we started working with the data that we collected from parents. Students are turning the information gathered in the Google Form into line plots.