Recently I recorded a podcast alongside 3 other future teachers reviewing a book called See You in The Cosmos by Jack Cheng.
This essay by Stephanie King is a phenomenal source for those looking to challenge and test their students learning without adhering to traditional means, i.e. pencil and paper tests that often bore students and leave them uninterested in the topic at hand. The article articulates how we can determine what we want our assessments to tell us about our students and ourselves and what questions we need to answer in order to determine the best type of assessment for the material currently being covered. The article goes on to detail an assessment model created by the author, specifically for a social studies classroom, with moving parts you can customize to your own class. Each of the “ moving parts ” are suggestions for types of assessments like tasks you have to do (reading, writing, art, verbal and nonverbal), as well as vocational tasks (pretend to be a museum curator, criminologist, etc.). Then the author dives into one of her favorite assessments: having students create ninetee...
To start out the podcast, the group members listed out things that were going to be introduced. It started out with an overview of "See You in The Cosmos" by Jack Cheng. The book is about a boy named Alex wants to launch his golden iPod into space to tell other life forms how life on earth is like. Alex the main character is 11 who loves space and rocket science. His journey throughout the book is about self-awareness and maturing. Another character is Carl, Alex’s dog and best friend, named after astronomer Carl Sagan. The next character is Tara, alex’s half sister. She is very intelligent, but has no focus until Alex is introduced to her. She struggles with her relationship with her mom. Then, Alex meets Zed, former motivational speaker, and Steve, money hungry roommate of Zed’s, on the way to rocket festival. They help guide Alex on his journey. Ronnie, from LA, is a sports agent and supports Alex and his family financially. But, then he leaves Alex alone to take care of their family alone which is not easy. Then they discuss a short blurb of Alex's mom who suffers schizophrenia. After the character analysis, Brittany starts with the literary devices they used. The first is illustrator which is someone who draws pictures and conclusions about the book. Then she discusses researchers, This person is looking further into the book by examining important topics or unknown topics in the book. The last is questioner. This person creates various questions in the book within the book or by connecting it to things outside of the book. Brittany's job was to connect the book to math. She connected it to math by having the students calculate the distance between the places discussed. She also connected it to science with physics, by including the rocket launches. Callie's job was the researcher. She connected the book to science and social studies. She said the topics you could discuss were geography, study his movement and places he visited across the southwest. You could also have the students look up Carl Sagan in a social studies connection. Then Gabie took on a math and social studies point of view. Students could look at distance and geography. Or, instead of working straight from the book, you could build off of topics introduced and make a new set of problems and use the book as a "launching point". Georgianna was the connector, which is a person who relate the book to real life. She stated to be careful with the book because there are a few sensitive topics, for example mental illness and bad family life. They recommended the book as a summer reading, because it is not beneficial in the classroom. The group said it is a good read, but not recommended for a learning environment.
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