Kindergarten Instructional Guide

● How do you help students integrate evidence and scientifc principles into their explanations and solutions? ● Can you share an example of how students have applied this practice to address real-world problems? ● What criteria or rubrics do you use to assess and provide feedback on the quality of student explanations? ● What strategies or scaffolds do you use to help students construct well-organized and evidence-based arguments? ● Can you share examples of how students have developed and refned their arguments based on evidence in your classroom? How do you connect engaging in argument from evidence back to your phenomena/inquiry question? ● Can you describe a recent lesson where you incorporated this practice? ● How do you encourage students to use discipline-specifc vocabulary and terminology in their communication of science ideas? ● What role does writing, speaking and presentation play in your approach to teaching students science? ● Have you noticed any improvement in your students ability to critically evaluate information and effectively communicate their arguments and evidence to their peers? ● How do you incorporate authentic assessment into your science classroom? ● What does authentic assessment look like to you? ● Can you provide examples of authentic assessment tasks or projects that you fnd particularly effective in assessing students' science knowledge and science skills? ● What role does self-assessment and peer assessment play in your approach to assessment?

solutions

justify the claim. Teachers will also model for students that explanations may change based on new evidence.

standard explanations they learn about from explicit instruction and informational text.

Teachers will facilitate discussions between students where they are encouraged to

Students should argue for the explanations they construct, defend their interpretations of the associated data, and advocate for the designs they propose by citing evidence from text or experiments. Students will read, interpret, and produce scientifc and technical text. Communicating information, evidence, and ideas can be done in multiple ways: using tables, diagrams, graphs, models, interactive displays, and equations as well as orally, in wiring, and through extended discussion. Students will practice academic vocabulary by reading, writing and talking. Students will use academic language, evidence from labs and informational text, demonstrations, etc. to explain scientifc phenomena in writing.

Explain/ Elaborate/ Evaluate

Engage in argument from evidence

state a claim and use evidence to support it.

Teachers will provide students with age appropriate informational text (textbook, journals, newspapers, or other credible sources). Teachers will facilitate discussions using scientifc language and provide students opportunities to support or reject other’s conclusions. Teachers will explicitly teach content related vocabulary to students. Teachers should develop and use assessments which make students' thinking visible. Examples include performance assessments, exit tickets, lab reports, conclusions, etc.

Obtain, evaluate and communicate information using academic language

Explain/ Elaborate/ Evaluate

Use Authentic Assessment

Evaluate