New BPS
Middle School
Common Writing
Assessments
Kris Grymonpré
Dever-McCormack Middle School
kgrymonpre@bostonpublicschools.org
Thanks!
• Museum of Science
– Teacher in Residence Program
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Lesley Kennedy
Jeff Mehigan
Maggie Rabidou
Sharon Horrigan
• Pam Pelletier
• Kate McNeill
Agenda
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Honey Bees—Learner Hat!
Rubrics & Writing Process
Looking at Student Work
Connect with Your Work
Agenda
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Honey Bees—Learner Hat!
Rubrics & Writing Process
Looking at Student Work
Connect with Your Work
What do you know about Honey Bees?
3 Castes of Bees
• Queen
• Workers
• Drones
Observation Time!!
• Over the long term, why do the bees engage
in all of the different behaviors in the hive?
• Field Trip
– Observation Hive (Hall of Human Life)
• Find the queen
• Focus on half of a panel for 5 minutes
• Fill in first three columns only!
Share Out
• Over the long term, why do the bees engage
in all of the different behaviors in the hive?
• What behaviors did you observe?
Learning More About Bees
• Bee Informational Video
Learning More About Bees
• Natural History of Bees Video
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsCmSWo
F8PY (4:24)
• Short Reading
– http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/380/380-070/380070_pdf.pdf (pg. 20 only)
• Now fill out the last column of your data
table.
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Queen
checking the cells
Queen
laying eggs
Worker
feeding the queen
Worker
feeding the larvae
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Queen
checking the cells
Queen
laying eggs
Worker
feeding the queen
Worker
feeding the larvae
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
cells must be empty and clean to
make sure the egg will
successfully grow into a bee
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Queen
checking the cells
Queen
laying eggs
Worker
feeding the queen
Worker
feeding the larvae
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
cells must be empty and clean to
make sure the egg will
successfully grow into a bee
lays eggs which will develop into
larvae, pupae, and eventually
adults
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Queen
checking the cells
Queen
laying eggs
Worker
feeding the queen
Worker
feeding the larvae
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
cells must be empty and clean to
make sure the egg will
successfully grow into a bee
lays eggs which will develop into
larvae, pupae, and eventually
adults
saves the queen’s energy so she
can focus only on laying eggs
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Queen
checking the cells
Queen
laying eggs
Worker
feeding the queen
Worker
feeding the larvae
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
cells must be empty and clean to
make sure the egg will
successfully grow into a bee
lays eggs which will develop into
larvae, pupae, and eventually
adults
saves the queen’s energy so she
can focus only on laying eggs
so they can gain energy to
develop into pupae and
eventually adults
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
gathering pollen & nectar
Worker
waggle dance
Worker
fanning the hive
Worker
removing dead bees from
the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
gathering pollen & nectar
Worker
waggle dance
Worker
fanning the hive
Worker
removing dead bees from
the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
used for food for larvae, helping
them develop into adults
Notes
Type of Bee
Worker
Worker
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
used for food for larvae, helping
gathering pollen & nectar
them develop into adults
communicating where more food
waggle dance
can be found for the larvae
Description of Behavior
Worker
fanning the hive
Worker
removing dead bees from
the hive
Notes
Type of Bee
Worker
Worker
Worker
Worker
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
used for food for larvae, helping
gathering pollen & nectar
them develop into adults
communicating where more food
waggle dance
can be found for the larvae
keeps the hive the right
fanning the hive
temperature for larvae to
develop into pupae and adults
Description of Behavior
removing dead bees from
the hive
Notes
Type of Bee
Worker
Worker
Worker
Worker
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
used for food for larvae, helping
gathering pollen & nectar
them develop into adults
communicating where more food
waggle dance
can be found for the larvae
keeps the hive the right
fanning the hive
temperature for larvae to
develop into pupae and adults
prevents disease, and avoids
removing dead bees from
pests that might be attracted by
the hive
dead bees
Description of Behavior
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
guarding the entrance
Worker
building the honeycomb
Drone
mating with the queen
outside the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
guarding the entrance
Worker
building the honeycomb
Drone
mating with the queen
outside the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
keeps out intruders who might
eat honey or larvae
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
guarding the entrance
Worker
building the honeycomb
Drone
mating with the queen
outside the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
keeps out intruders who might
eat honey or larvae
makes cells for eggs, larvae,
pupae, and food
Notes
Type of Bee
Description of Behavior
Worker
guarding the entrance
Worker
building the honeycomb
Drone
mating with the queen
outside the hive
How the Behavior Helps the
Colony Successfully Reproduce
keeps out intruders who might
eat honey or larvae
makes cells for eggs, larvae,
pupae, and food
fertilizes the eggs so they can
develop into workers and queens
Over the long term, why do the bees engage
in all of the different behaviors in the hive?
• CLAIM: Answer the question in a
complete sentence.
• EVIDENCE: Use specific observations
from your data table that support your
claim.
• REASONING: Use information from
readings, videos, and notes that explain
why your evidence supports your claim.
Agenda
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•
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Honey Bees—Learner Hat!
Rubrics & Writing Process
Looking at Student Work
Connect with Your Work
Two Rubrics—Two Purposes
• Rubric for Assessment
– For Teachers
– Clear statements for expected claim,
evidence, & reasoning
– Specific to one prompt
• Student Rubric
– For Students
– Broader statements generalized for all
Science argumentative writing prompts
Assess Your Writing
• Which component (Claim, Evidence,
Reasoning) was strongest?
• Which part(s) do you think will
challenge students most?
Today’s Writing Process
• Spark (background knowledge)
– Often times prompts end a unit
• Hands-On Experience Guided by the Question
– Experiment, field trip, etc.
• Optional Check-In with Additional Information
• Writing
– I always offer graphic organizers.
– Ideally, students have opportunities for
feedback and revision.
Reflecting on Today’s Process
• How did the process feel for you?
• What worked well to help you through
the process?
• Which steps are most important for
our students?
• What are some challenges you have
faced with CER?
Agenda
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Honey Bees—Learner Hat!
Rubrics & Writing Process
Looking at Student Work
Connect with Your Work
Flower Dissection
• 7th Grade:
Diversity of Life
– Flower
Dissection
• What is the
primary function
of a flower?
Flower Dissection
• Use the rubric for
assessment to
find the levels for
students A-C.
Reflecting on Student Work
• What strengths did the students
demonstrate?
• What do they seem to struggle
with?
• What would some possible next
steps be?
Agenda
•
•
•
•
Honey Bees—Learner Hat!
Rubrics & Writing Process
Looking at Student Work
Connect with Your Work
Massachusetts State Standards
• Draft Standards—December 2013
– Plenty of new content
– But linked to our curriculum and valuable
• Over summer 2014, I wrote several
prompts linked to our curriculum.
– Beehive prompt is only one that needs an
additional resource.
Science & Engineering
Practices (Mass Draft, Dec. 2013)
• Practice 6: Constructing Explanations and
Designing Solutions
– “The goal of science is the construction of
theories that provide explanatory accounts of
the world. A theory becomes accepted when it
has multiple lines of empirical evidence and
greater explanatory power of phenomena
than previous theories.”(NRC, 2012, p. 52)
Literacy Connections:
Common Core
• ELA CCR Writing Anchor #1: Write
arguments to support claims in an analysis
of substantive topics or texts using valid
reasoning and relevant and sufficient
evidence.
• MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE #3:
Construct viable arguments and critique
the reasoning of others.
Planning
• Please sit by grade level
– Take a look at available prompts that connect
to your curriculum
• Be prepared to share out:
– Which prompt(s) did you focus on?
– What FOSS unit can you connect it with?
– Specifically how will you use it?
Our Hopes
• You will use these prompts to connect to the
upcoming standards and enrich your classroom.
• You will share these resources with your
colleagues.
• You may even connect with ELA teachers to
help build students’ literacy skills.
• You will connect with other teachers from today’s
workshop with ideas and examples of classroom
success.
Contact Info
• Kris Grymonpré
– Science Team Leader
– Science Teacher, Grades 7-8
– Dever-McCormack Middle School
• In Dorchester, at Harbor Point
– kgrymonpre@bostonpublicschools.org