Week 3- Let's do this!

     This week was my first week of slowly taking over by teaching one subject each day. We decided to start with science so from this point forward, I will be teaching science every day. I like it, but it's still pretty intimidating. They are currently studying ecosystems and biomes, and food webs. Students seemed confused about the concept of an ecosystem, but after three days of questioning, having students fill out graphic organizers on main ideas, and drawing pictures, they seem more comfortable with the concept of an ecosystem.
     While moving to the idea of biomes, we read about each of the type of biome then did the "Explore" activity in their book, which incorporates math. There were two data tables, one with temperature and the other with precipitation averages, for two cities with different biomes. Students were to create a line graph and a bar graph, then answer the questions about the data. However, what was intended on being a short exercise turned into a full-blown lesson on graph making and we did not even get to the questions. Most of the students did not even finish making the first graph, even after providing a template. I was baffled and caught off guard. I definitely did not anticipate that about 80% of the class could not plot points on a graph.
     I was faced with the dilemma of reteaching the concept of graphing or forgetting the entire exercise. I conferenced with my mentor teacher about how to proceed. She suggested that I did try to explain the graphs, only to have students watch using a document cam and answer questions rather than to continue on trying to make their own. As I explained, students correctly answered and understood that those with the taller bars were the ones with higher precipitation averages where as the lines higher on the y-axis is the city that holds the higher temperature. Students could read the graph, just not make one themselves.
     I again am faced with a dilemma. Do I make it a point to teaching graph-making skills even though the students are all separated by ability level for math, or do I leave it to the responsibility of their math teachers? Currently, I made the decision to hold off on directly teaching more graphing skills, but if they opportunity arises to integrate it with another subject, I will refer back to it.
     I feel like I over-plan when making lessons. It's hard to fit both the content they need to read and the activity to practice the skills. The activity is typically the "fun" part that students enjoy, but often times it is to practice rather than initially learn the content. No wonder teachers just stick to the getting the content as fast as possible. They are constantly on a schedule and feel a push to keep moving through the content. I also am bored, so I'm sure my students are, of reading to them, having them read alone, and reading in partners/groupings. How can I get my students to learn the science content without reading directly from the book? Will my PDS classroom even let that happen? I'm a little too timid to try to suggest any other way other than what they're used to, and I'm even still unsure about implementing learning in a new way when I'm not exactly sure how I would implement it. I just don't believe reading it in a textbook is working.