This is a resource that I have found that provides Pedagogical Content Knowledge on Science and the Solar System. This resource contains activity packs that provides various Pedagogical knowledge of content specific learning areas of areas of science and the Solar System.
I found three articles useful in my quest for PCK-knowledge, not all specific to English learning, but mentioning aspects of literacy. In this blog post I briefly discuss them but you should read the original journal articles for yourself, they may come in handy for your 500 word rationale!
Why does the physical design of classrooms matter? Mark Phillips discusses this question in " A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms" and offers examples of and resources for turning impersonal spaces into student-friendly havens of learning.
Advantages
There is a reason that many people are attracted to wikis for learning.
Wikis can be private or public.
You can get wiki software at no cost or at a very low cost.
They only require basic programming skills for installation, setup and maintenance.
Contributors create content independently of each other, so that multiple people can be working on the site at the same time.
Wikis can be applied to just about any content area.
Users find them easy to search and navigate.
I'm planning on integrating the use of a wiki into my unit plan for assignment 2. I remember teaching myself and creating one a few years back and loved it! I think it's a great tool.
This source unpacks 5 components of pedagogical content knowledge for science teaching which includes:
(a) orientations toward science teaching
(b) knowledge and beliefs about science curriculum
(c) knowledge and beliefs about students' understanding of specific science topics
(d) knowledge and beliefs about assessment in science, and
(e) knowledge and beliefs about instructional strategies for teaching science
So holidays are finished and I am not on the computer as much and actually feel better for it. I think I need that breathing space of work and study so I stop reading so much into everything.
This article goes over actual geography lessons. It shows how to incorporate unplanned geographic events that are happening around the world into lessons and outlines the benefits to students in doing so.