Wanna Be Writer's Reading: Robotics with older ELLs

I've just got to share the good stuff I read.

I love to read. I read every chance I get. If I read something really good, I want to share it with my friends and co-workers. I make copies of magazine articles, read aloud to my students, tell others about good books I'm reading, and keep a book with me at all times.

I love teaching and learning new things. I need a place to share some of the lessons and what my students and I learn. Since my teaching situation is different from everyone else's in my school, I would like to tell all of you in the blog-o-sphere about these great lessons.

Feel free to share what you are reading, teaching and learning with us in the comments.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Robotics with older ELLs

Every year the fourth and fifth grade students are required to submit a science fair project for a grade. I enjoy helping my ELLs with their projects. They learn so much and it helps them understand the steps in a science experiment.

This year I helped them choose from several simple robotics experiments. The kits were bought for summer school and only used once. So they were like new to this group of students.

We have two kits so I divided the students into two groups. I mixed boys and girls and English proficiency levels.

They followed assembly directions on the laptop. One group skipped a step. Fortunately I tried out the program after school and found the problem. The next day I let them discover the problem and figure out how to fix the robot so it would work.

The best part of the experiment to me was when one of the girls made a real world connection to our work. She said the belts and gears were like a bicycle's chain and gears.