Student Sensemaking | Snack

This unit is part of Dig Into Science learning modules, part of the ACESSE project. Dig into Science is designed to introduce teachers, paraprofessionals, principals, or anyone else to current science education, often called “three dimensional” science education.

Snack (5-10 minute learning experience)

More on sensemaking! You can either read the document or you can watch the video.

Students come to class with prior knowledge, skills, and conceptions.

A new phenomenon activates this prior knowledge as students try and make sense of it. This might sound like:

  • “That reminds me of how…”

  • “Is that similar to…?”

  • “That looks like…”

Students connect that prior knowledge to the phenomenon.

Students share ideas with each other to find even more connections and to gather more evidence. This might sound like:

  • “I think that…”

  • “Would this still happen if…”

  • “We should try…and see what happens”

  • “Let me draw my ideas.“

Investigating and explaining the phenomenon solidifies the connections into new knowledge and/or skills. This might sounds like:

  • “Oh, now I get it!”

  • “Wait, I think this can help us answer the driving question!”

  • “This is my model.”

The whole experience leads to creating a new piece of knowledge or skill that can be used to help figure out the next phenomenon.

Credit for Images: https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/TAPS%2520Sense-making.pdf

Try this out in your classroom!

Sensemaking can occur across an entire unit as students investigate a phenomenon, but it can also happen in small lessons, which is a great place to begin. Below is an example that demonstrates sensemaking within individual lessons.

Try it out in your class with this sensemaking warm-up. (It takes time to build a sensemaking culture in your classroom, here is an activity to help students and you build up the skills.)

A puzzling phenomenon is key to sensemaking. Here is a video of everyday objects that are extremely zoomed in on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFq_KQBSz5c You will need to be quick with pausing the video so you don’t give away the answer too quickly!

  1. Show students the first part of the video, the zoomed in portion.

  2. Have students work together to see if they can figure out what the zoomed in objects are. They can use the following protocol to help them, we suggest doing this in small groups to start:

    1. Make their own observations as they watch.

    2. After everyone has 2-3 observations, discuss what was observed and how those connect to other objects in their lives.

    3. List ideas for what the object may be.

    4. Share ideas with the whole class.

  3. You can then discuss the idea and build consensus toward a class idea of what the object may be.

  4. Show the video as it zooms out.

  5. Repeat!

  6. At the end of the video students can reflection on the following:

    1. Was this interesting? What made it interest you?

    2. How would the activity have been affected if you had been told what the object were before seeing the video?

    3. How does this connect to our usual learning in this class?

Supports for Implementation - Talk Structures

Here are two great and accessible talk structures to support productive sensemaking discussion in your class as you prepare to take sensemaking to the next level:

Reflection Questions

  1. Reflect on the series of sensemaking graphics at the beginning of this section.

    1. How do you think sensemaking could support students drawing from previous learning?

    2. How do you think student talk could support sensemaking?

  2. What will you do to include more sensemaking in your classroom?

    1. What will be your anchoring phenomenon?

    2. How will you activate prior knowledge in your students?

    3. What talk structure(s) will you use to support student discussions?

    4. How will you have students synthesize their knowledge(Ex: Modeling, CER)?