Teacher Monitoring Guide
Grade 7 · Cycle 7 · Week 3 — Synthesis & Assessment

Learning Goal

Students will integrate concepts from rocks, geologic time, and fossil evidence to construct a multi-scale explanation of how Earth's surface has changed over geologic time, citing evidence from multiple sources.

Station Checkpoints

Station 1 — Hook & Phenomenon
Look for: Students connecting the phenomenon to prior knowledge and generating testable questions
Common misconception: Geology is just memorizing rock names — emphasize pattern recognition and causal reasoning; rock types are evidence for past processes, not ends in themselves
Station 2 — Investigation / Data Collection
Look for: Accurate data recording and identification of emerging patterns in the evidence
Common misconception: The geologic record is complete — discuss preservation bias: hard parts over soft parts, marine over terrestrial environments, recent over ancient
Station 3 — Sense-Making
Look for: Students revising their model based on evidence collected during investigation
Common misconception: One piece of evidence determines Earth's age — model consilience: how stratigraphy, radiometric dating, and astronomical models all converge on the same age estimate

Exit Ticket Monitoring

Score Range Interpretation Next Step
18–23 pts Meeting target Extend with synthesis question
10–17 pts Developing Small group re-teach at day start
0–9 pts Needs support 1:1 intervention before next station

MTSS Tier 2 Supports

For students scoring below 10 pts on the exit ticket: use the sentence frames below during the next class's hook.