Program Components: Teacher Guide
The Teacher Guide is the most important and valuable part of the FOSS program. It is here that all the wisdom and experience contributed by hundreds of educators has been assembled. Everything we know about the content of the module, how to teach the subject, and assess student progress is presented here. The Teacher Guide provides both new and experienced teachers with the tools and resources they need to teach science efficiently and effectively.
Each FOSS module has its own Teacher Guide in a 3-ring binder which consists of the following chapters:
Module Overview
- List of goals for the module
- Science background information
- Outline of investigations, including learning objectives, and additional resources
- Teaching schedule for the module
- Descriptions of instructional pedagogies in FOSS
Investigations
- Content background
- At-a-glance planning chart
- Materials and equipment preparation to get ready
- Safety procedures
- Learning objectives
- Detailed lesson plans to guide the investigation
- Questioning strategies to encourage discussion
- Vocabulary lists
- Interdisciplinary extensions for language arts, math, and social studies
- Assessment opportunities to monitor student learning
Materials Folio
- Complete inventory list
- List of materials not included in the kit
- Recommendations for how to obtain living organisms as well as care instructions
- How to prepare the kit for the classroom
- How to order any replacement parts
Duplication Masters
- Includes duplication masters for:
- Letter to Parents
- Home/School Connections
Assessment Folio
- The embedded assessment is both formative (to provide diagnostic information throughout the module) and summative (to provide end-of-module evaluative information).
- Scoring guides are included to help you effectively interpret student responses.
- There is also a section on portfolio assessment.
Assessment Duplication Masters
- Include duplication masters of benchmark assessments.
Integrated Reading and Language Arts
- The reading selections in FOSS Science Stories are an integral part of the FOSS module. As such, they integrate reading and language arts skills in the context of learning science concepts.
Additional Resouces
- Each FOSS module includes a Resources folio of annotated listings for nonfiction and fiction books for students, resource books for teachers, software, multimedia, videos, and web sites that extend the hand-on science activities in each module.
FOSS Web site - www.fossweb.com
- Explore each subject in greater depth at home or school through the resources and interactive activities on the FOSS web site. Each module has an interactive site where students, teachers, and families can find images, simulations, and links to other sites to extend content and reinforce understanding.
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