Unpacking MLS
With Linda Lacey
Missouri Learning Standards....what?!?
Earlier this summer the Science department attended a conference with presenter Linda Lacey. This conference focused on how educators can start to approach and use the new Missouri Learning Standards (MLS) in our upcoming units and lesson planning. Here are a few of our major focus points from the two day conference.
1- Depth
The MLS focuses on many topics and content areas that we already teach, but they encourage a deeper understanding of these topics. Many of the MLS standards focus on students completing in depth observations and experiences. It's no longer enough to have covered a topic, but now students need to have the chance to work with an issue for a longer amount of time and experiences.
2- Continuity
The MLS standards now track learning from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. These standards build off one another and knowledge students gain in previous grades will be visited in later grades. The ability to discover the base knowledge of our students is now easily determined.
3-Inquiry
The new MLS standards have a strong backbone in inquiry and problem based learning. The content is delivered by student discovery. This means less seat and get for our student and more hands-on discovery of big picture science concepts. These standards support Claim Evidence Reasoning and our students reasoning skills.
4-Teamwork
These MLS standards are wordy! You will need the help of your co-workers to unpack these and form them into something that you can use in the classroom. Not only is teamwork necessary on a secondary content but also on a district level as secondary teachers work with elementary level teachers.
The conference and materials that Linda Lacey provided were very helpful with understanding the new MLS standards and how those relate to NGSS.
-Kelsie Biebighauser, Candace Johnson, Ehren Banfield, Debbie Gatrel and Rolland Yoakum
Helpful Links:
Below are some helpful links for the MLS, NGSS and the MLS crosswalks