Thursday 2 February 2017

Our Thoughts Go Viral



Ring-a-ring o' roses,


A pocketful of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down



We just started our unit of inquiry on diseases.

The Video we watched was as reassuring as it was scary.

Microorganisms like bacteria and viruses have no desire whatsoever to kill us! 

They just want to live inside us and replicate.

We used the Cornell note taking strategy to gather our thoughts as we watched the video. It was a great way to assimilate all the information.

We decided to try out another visible thinking routine: chalk and talk session and see how much we knew about diseases during the "Getting Started" stage.
Notice how quietly the students have learnt to work during this activity.



Here are some close up shots of our thinking. We worked quietly and added our thoughts to that of our peers, trying to maintain a trail of information as they crisscrossed each other.


A recent conversation on twitter had got me thinking about the purpose behind working walls...


And so I asked the students how they thought the chalk talk activity helped them.
These were some of their responses:





And so this is how our thoughts went viral today.

We hope to hold on to them till Monday and maybe add to it. Do come and join us if you feel you could add to this working wall.


Our investigative stage... 

We are looking at the key concept "form" and trying to distinguish between different viruses.



We used play dough to create models of different viruses such as Ebola and influenza.


And we will end this post with a 

Caveat! 

Some viruses cause diseases, but

"All diseases run into one, old age."

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Resources:

Cornell Note taking - http://lsc.cornell.edu/study-skills/cornell-note-taking-system/

Visible thinking Routine-
http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/02_GettingStarted/02b_StartingWithRoutines.html

Why do viruses kill? http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/why-do-viruses-kill/

Ring a ring o' roses image- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_o'_Roses#/media/File:Ring-a-ring-a-roses.jpg



2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading about your learning journey this week as you began your new unit of inquiry. Your multi-media post provides an informative insight into what you're learning and how you're learning. I'm excitedly waiting to see how the unit develops and where you take your learning to next. What's the most important thing you think students should know about diseases and why? Enjoy your weekend Gr. 6!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We loved the idea so much that we tried chalk-talk in 6A also- amazing what we found out! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete