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Teaching less is the popular method now.
Group work, group learning and you are just the facilitator.
The guide on the side not the sage on the stage. Emphasis, rightly so, is on problem solving. Students can't solve problems with the teacher pontificating! There is a very small " sweet spot."
The guide on the side not the sage on the stage. Emphasis, rightly so, is on problem solving. Students can't solve problems with the teacher pontificating! There is a very small " sweet spot."
Great teachers find it. Yeoman can't!
The problem is they have to know a lot of chemistry before I can stand aside. It's much easier to stand aside in a class like physics where kids can see what is happening. Much of chemistry has to be visualized from theory. I don't find that something kids do naturally. I love the physics portion of physical science precisely because I can set up experiments and let them discover what I want them to learn. That's not so easy in chemistry. It's hard to connect the dots when you have to imagine them.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 11-17-2013 at 04:45 PM..
Teaching less is the popular method now.
Group work, group learning and you are just the facilitator.
Yup. That's why they want content removed. So we have more time for group work. There are times when group work makes sense and times when it just doesn't. I'm not sure it's worth deleting content to achieve. I don't see my students learning more when we do group work. I end up having to explain what I intended for them to learn after the fact whether I'm doing my own activities or ones like the Pogil discovery activities which are marketed. You have kids who will work to learn either way and kids who will treat group work time as a social hour.
Yes but I'm being told to trim it back to only the important stuff. For some reason teaching what was taught before isn't good enough anymore. So I'm asking what content in chemistry would you cut?
The following list is what the state recommends. I try to stick close to this as it's a pretty good list. Unfortunately, there isn't enough time to teach all 12 units given we have to add unit 0 which is a review of metric conversions, significant figures and lab safety because my kids have completely forgotten metric conversions and significant figures and they have not been taught lab safety before. Using this list, what would you cut and why?
Chemical compounds always have the same formula and the same composition.
The formal charge on ions determines the ratio of the ions in an ionic compound, just as the apparent charge on atoms determines the ratio of the atoms in a covalent compound.
Particles in all matter are in constant motion until the temperature reaches absolute zero.
The order and organization in the universe is illustrated in the pressure, volume and temperature relationships which can be predicted by models, mathematical equations and graphs.
Heat released or absorbed in chemical reactions is proportional to the amounts of reactants consumed.
When a reversible process occurs, the same amount of energy is involved no matter which way the reaction proceeds. The difference will be if the energy is released or absorbed.
I'd dump thermo, including your beloved Hess's law. it isn't that it isn't good stuff to learn, it's just that it is the most expendable.
I'd have to agree. Hess's law is dropped in the common core. I will miss seeing the lights go on. The looks on their faces when they figure out the short way are priceless. They're like "AND you couldn't teach us this first because????". That would be because you wouldn't understand it if I'd taught you the short cut first, lol. It's one of my favorite concepts to teach because they get it. It takes some work but they get it.
I'm not seeing depth of knowledge in the common core. Just a lot less material taught.
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So I'm asking what content in chemistry would you cut?
That would be because you wouldn't understand it if I'd taught you the short cut first, lol. It's one of my favorite concepts to teach because they get it. It takes some work but they get it. 
