Week 3: Homework - 4 Parts

A.  To answer these questions, think about whether the performance expectations are clear and specific enough for a classroom teacher to understand the outcome expected and assess whether a student has met the outcomes specified. Base your answer on all of the information provided, including the stem, performance expectations, and foundation boxes.  

MS-PS2-3.	Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.

• Do you have clear idea of what students must know and be able to do? Support your answer.  

I would expect my students to craft questions that relate to how and why magnets works.  They should be able to run an investigation to answer how magnets work.  Working with different material would enable to students to see what causes the strength of a magnet to change.    
• How open to interpretation are the performance expectations? Explain 

I feel like this performance expectation leaves a lot of room for teachers to interpret how they want their students to go about asking questions.  It's broad enough for teachers to allow the students to choose how they want to investigate the affect of the strength of magnets.  

B. Each performance expectation contains a scientific or engineering practice, a core idea, and a crosscutting concept. Successful completion of a given performance expectation indicates that a student has achieved the practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts that it is based on. 

• In what ways can the inclusion of all three components in a single expectation lead to improved learning of the core idea? Be as specific as you can.  

By utilizing all three components, the student can better understand the perform the performance expectation.  The cross cutting concepts link what students already know to what the performance expectation.  For example, cause and effect.  Students likely already know the relationship between cause and effect, but NGSS presses students to apply cause and effect relationship toward magnets. The SEP prompts the student with how they are going to understand the performance expectations.  Asking questions and running an investigation in how magnets work.   The DCI are what the student should focus on within the performance expectation.  They utilize CC and SEP along with the DCI to achieve the performance expectation.  

• Is there a clear connection between the performance expectations and the practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts in the foundation box? Explain 

Yes, NGSS does a very good job of demonstrating how each of the components are utilized in the performance expectation.  You can highlight right over part of the sentence and see what component it is.    

• Is it reasonable to assume that a student who has successfully completed the performance expectations has achieved mastery of the core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts? Why?

Ideally, yes I would like to think that the student has mastered each component.  But I think that some students will cut corners and achieve the performance expectation by any means necessary.   

C. To answer these questions, think about what students need to know and be able to do to be successful in life and also consider the time and effort needed to help all students achieve the stated expectations.
•Would students who achieve the task described in the performance expectations be prepared for success at college and/or in their careers? Why or Why not? 

I think that the way the student achieves the performance expectation is almost more important than the content of the performance expectation.  They use methods of achievement they will use later in life rather than the content to magnets.  It prepares them with tools they can use in the real world,  
•Are the tasks described in the performance expectations reasonable expectations for all students? Defend your answer 

Yes - I think the performance expectations leave a lot of room for students to do what they want.  They are not super cookie cutter-y.  The students and do their best with theses performance expectations.  
•Are the practices described in the foundation box reasonable expectations for all students? Defend your answer 

Yes - I think that the are natural practices that that student would come  up with on their own if it wasn't written in the standard.  

•Are the disciplinary core ideas described in the foundation box reasonable expectations for all students? 

Yes - they are simple ideas that are being investigated. 
•Are the crosscutting concepts described in the foundation box reasonable expectations for all students? 

Yes - the crosscutting concepts easily link ideas the student knows to the performance expectation.   

D. The intent of the performance expectations is to describe what students should be able to do at the end of instruction. They are not meant to specify what students should do as part of instruction. However, some readers have interpreted them that way.

•Do the performance expectations seem to prescribe specific instructional sequences and instructional strategies? Why or why not? 

I dont think so.  They are called performace expectations.  I think the term perfromces implies at the end of instructions. In theater, the performance is what is done at the end, once rehearsal are done.  I think that logical applies here.  The DCI, CC, and SEPs help the students "rehearse" for the performance.  

•Do you think that performance expectations should prescribe specific instructional sequences and instructional strategies? Why or why not? 

I dont think so.  I am a fan of leaving this open for the teachers and students to interpret.  I don't think they need to hold my hand through teaching.  I would like to think I can use the performance expectations as a tool to better prepare my students for the future.