Look for: Closed (yes/no) versus open (how and why) que…

1.B Ask questions that arise from careful observation of phenomena and gaps in our current models to clarify and seek additional information about how changes to the flow of matter and energy in the air above and around a location on Earth’s surface could cause short-duration precipitation events and longer-duration precipitation events (scale).

Closed (yes/no) versus open (how and why) questions.

Hail-specific questions

More broad precipitation phenomena questions

Questions with ideas about short versus long-term events or changes in precipitation

Assess how many closed (yes/no) vs. open (how and why) questions are generated. If students are asking mostly closed questions, you can provide a copy of the questions on the DQB, and ask them to work on refining three or more of these questions so they become how and why questions that can also address parts of the original yes/no question. This could be either an in-class or home learning assignment. You will also be assessing if students generated questions that were only hail-specific or also considered precipitation-related phenomena of different durations (long and short). If students only asked questions about the hail events and not other longer-duration precipitation events, plan to revisit question generation and take additional time to have students add new questions to the DQB about other types of precipitation events they’ve experienced. These other precipitation event related questions help motivate the third and fourth lesson sets of the unit. One element of asking questions in the middle school grade band is to help students develop some questions that can be investigated within the scope of the classroom. Therefore, you may want to include opportunities for students to practice asking questions and thinking about how they might investigate them, perhaps as a recurring home learning assignment or exit or entrance ticket. For example, the following two questions could be posed at the end or start of any class period in any future lesson:

What questions were raised for us (now or at the end of the last lesson)?

How might we investigate (one or more of) those questions using equipment in our classroom or using data that other people have collected in other ways and places?

Additional Lesson 1 Teacher Guidance

SUPPORTING STUDENTS IN MAKING CONNECTIONS IN ELA

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1.c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

While the class is building the Driving Question Board, if a student forgets to explain why or how their question is linked to someone else’s, press that student to talk through their own thinking. This is a key way to emphasize the importance of listening to and building off one another’s ideas, and to help scaffold student thinking. If students can’t figure out which question to connect theirs to, encourage them to ask the class for help. After an idea is shared, ask the original presenter if there is agreement and why, and then post the question.

This lesson’s activities rely on students communicating and articulating their thinking. One tool that supports classroom discussion is the Communicating in Scientific Ways poster. Reference the sentence starters and encourage students to use them. The sentence starters can be especially useful for helping students engage in scientific talk, particularly students who may feel reluctant to contribute.