Archive for 2015

Sunday, April 26, 2015
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Creating Concept Quizzes

In my journey on the road to having a standards based classroom, one aspect I am really trying to improve is assessment.

Obviously, assessment is a HUGE part of SBG. My challenge comes with trying to determine the best way to assess my students in a way that accurately reflects their understanding.

When I made my mid-year switch to an SBG system, my first assessments looked an awful lot like my old assessments. I knew I wanted to start sorting the quizzes into concepts, but hadn't thought much past that point. I still had a jumble of questions and when it came time for grading, I wasn't really clear on what would earn somebody a 2 versus a 4. I was giving 4's to students who answered everything correctly, 3's for students who answered mostly everything correctly, 2's for students who answered some things correctly, and 1's for almost all wrong answers. Students got a level 0 for leaving a question blank. The problem here is that it's really still just a traditional grading system with a nice SBG mask on.

I went back to look at some of Dan Meyer's sample quizzes to see how he organized them. Dan's post was what originally sparked my interest in SBG. He seemed to have very clear cut problems that would demonstrate the students' understanding of the topic. My initial thoughts about his problems were that they were very procedural, and that I wanted my students to be able to do more complex problems. I decided to give it a go, and continued sectioning quizzes by concept and giving these straight-forward problems. My grading remained pretty much the same: 4's for correct solving, 3's for minor mistakes, 2's for major, etc. I still didn't feel like I was doing justice to a true SBG system.



So, I turned back to the levels themselves. Marzano talks about these 4 levels of understanding as the basis for labeling understanding of a concept so why wasn't I using these?

After talking about this a lot with some colleagues, I thought why not make the levels as obvious as possible within the assessment? I decided to try having questions separated by level. Based on Marzano's 4 levels, I wanted the Level 3 question to demonstrate the concept itself. I started there, and then simplified this for Level 2, and made it more complex for Level 4. Here's an example of a quiz on the number of solutions to an equation.


This was actually a reassessment that I gave for this topic. Here enters my next challenge. The previous Level 3 question for this quiz was the following: 

"Adele opens an account with $100 and deposits $35 a month. Kent opens an account with $50 and also deposits $35 a month. Will they have the same amount in their accounts at any point? IF so, in how many months and how much will be in each account? Explain. "

While I prefer this problem over the purely procedural problems in the example, I found that many students did not solve this question correctly simply because they did not understand how to change the word problem into an equation (side note: this is something I plan to work on for the first couple weeks of school in the future). This system also streamlined my grading process. If a student can do Level 2 and 3, but not 4, then they get a 3. If they can do 2 and 3 and a bit of 4 correctly, they might earn a 3.5. Occasionally a student will not correctly do Level 2, but will get Level 3. This is usually a misunderstanding of the L2 question, in which case I will ask them in person and clear it up. It could also be that the questions themselves are not leveled properly, in which case I make a note to change in the future. Here is a concept quiz I gave a few weeks ago to 7th grade. It has 2 concepts: Cross Sections and Angle Relationships (I would also like to be more on top of giving 1 concept quizzes more frequently). 



So, as of right now, here are my steps for developing questions for level 2,3, and 4. It's kind of a blend of Marzano's levels of understanding and Webb's Depth of Knowledge.  For the past couple assessments, I have created the leveled questions based on the ideas below. Moving forward, I would like to look more into Webb's DOK and maybe try to make them more aligned.

LEVEL 2
Simple content. Demonstrates some understanding of the concept. I usually put forced answer questions here (multiple choice, true or false, matching, etc.).

LEVEL 3
What do I want them to be able to do? The problem then becomes the answer to this question. 

LEVEL 4
Level 4 needs to have the students understand the concept and extend it. I usually go for a error analysis, create a problem, or conceptual thinking question here. 

I definitely intend to continue tweaking these quizzes to find out what works best, but I would love to hear from you! 

How do you make assessments? Any ideas on how to better make assessment more clearly SBG-linked? 
Monday, April 20, 2015
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Class Passes: My Take on a Behavioral Incentive System in Middle School

Behavioral incentive systems are nothing new. It's well known fact that Socrates invented little shiny gold star stickers.


Alright, alright, that is most likely not true. However, as much as I would love to encourage my students' positive behavior spurred only by their own intrinsic desires to "do good," I find (and actually like) to use some tangible behavior incentive. It adds an element of fun to my classroom!

This year, after my SBG Epiphany, I realized that my whole behavior incentive system was rendered useless by my new outlook on grades. Students could not simply play the points game anymore... and that's exactly what my old system was set up to support! It was yet another light bulb moment for me of how I was perpetuating my students' obsession with points.

So! Half way through this year I scrapped my old system, and introduced some new incentives.

But first, a quick word on my system. 

 I feel like this is yet another instance of us Middle School teachers being left in educational limbo. MS kiddos are too old for elementary tactics, and too young for high school tactics. While researching ideas for a reward system, I couldn't help but laugh at some of the suggestions from elementary teachers.

You come across rewards like, "Lunch with the Teacher!" or "Board Eraser!"


These would without a doubt fall more into the category of punishment to a middle schooler. You know, now that I think about it, it's ironic how things we considered rewards as wee ones suddenly become forms of torture to teenagers. Oh, sweet puberty.

As you may or may not know, I am a complete Disney fanatic. My boyfriend and I frequent the parks, watch and rewatch Aladdin and Hercules, and I have a "Lion King Soundtrack" station on my Pandora. It's bad, I am the first to admit it. (P.S. Boyfriend is the best free Disney travel agent around! Email him! bret.miller@keytotheworldtravel.com).


Anywho, if you have ever been to a Disney park, you are no doubt familiar with the Fast Pass. It's a magical little piece of paper that lets you skip ahead of the megalines. They are happiness and fun all in one. So I wanted to play off of this idea for my behavior system. 

Pay no attention to the horribly chipped nail polish. 

So I had to think, "What do Middle Schoolers actually like?!" As I mentioned earlier, my original system revolved mostly around points. For the sake of example, I am going to show you the old system. DISCLAIMER: You are more than welcome to take these ideas if you would like, but I encourage you to fight the points game!


The passes were great! I would give students one on their birthday, anytime they did something extraordinarily wonderful, won a review game in class, etc. Once I realized that most of the passes were point-related, I needed to rethink how I rewarded students. I wanted to remove grades and points from the equation entirely. I was able to keep a few of the old passes like "Invisibility Cloak" and the all-time favorite, "Globe Trotter," but I needed to rework the rest!

Here is the newest version of my "Class Passes."


What behavior incentive systems have you successfully used with your students? What has failed miserably for you? How have you approached this classroom aspect without focusing on points? 


Monday, March 30, 2015
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A Penny for your Thoughts on Curriculum

I'm interested in what Math curriculum you guys use.

I dream of a day where there exists a completely inquiry-based-social-justice curriculum (and honestly, could see myself working as a curriculum developer in the future). Not because I'm an amazingly creative curriculum creator (I'm lucky if I make enough copies for the day), but because it's just something that I would love to focus on and put all of my energy into.



I have used 2 curriculums thus far in my career: Connected Mathematics Project 2 (CMP2) and Go Math!

Here are my thoughts on these two:

Connected Mathematics Project (CMP2) 
To be honest, I really loved this curriculum. Perfect? No. But the best that I have come into contact with. We used this curriculum at my old school, and I miss it dearly.

PROS: 
  • Inquiry-based and student driven
  • Units make sense and flow. They are broken up into "Investigations" that guide students through concepts while increasing in difficulty. 
  • Rich problems rooted in real-life (easily adaptable to social justice) 
  • Each unit has it's own paper back instead of one giant text books for kids to drag around
  • Backed by the NSF
CONS:
  • Little procedural practice (seems crazy to list this as a con, hah. But in my opinion, this is very easily supplemented if you miss it)
  • ....Sometimes the 

Go Math! Common Core Edition
We have been "piloting" Go Math this year at my current school. I have gone back and forth with this curriculum all year. I initially didn't like it and decided not to use it at all. I then saw that Edward Burger was an author, and decided to give it another go. I tried to really understand it's approach and embrace it in our daily lessons. I quickly became bored with this curriculum and decided to abandon it again, with the exception of using pages for homework. 

PROS:
  • Lessons are aligned to CCSS.
  • Great differentiated resources. Quizzes come in 3 levels of differentiation, as well as practice sheets for each lesson in 3 levels. I also love that each chapter has a "Challenge" page to go along with it to really push your higher students into more complex math. 
  • Textbook is also a workbook, so students can write in it and rip pages out. 
  • Real world videos with each Module (read: chapter)
  • "Math in Careers" section with each unit so students get more exposure to how math is used in careers
CONS:
  • Focus is very much on procedural learning. Gives students exact methods for solving problems, step-by-step.
  • Assessments are very long and procedural; lower-level thinking. 
  • Lessons are segregated and not very engaging


Clearly, my bias leans strongly towards CMP. I found myself and my students much more engaged with CMP, than I do now with Go Math. Go Math has a lot of fluff. At the surface it seems like rich curriculum, but is really a traditional curriculum in disguise. 

And so, the search continues. What do you guys think? What curriculum have you used? Which do you like/love/hate? 
Saturday, March 28, 2015
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SBG Posters

As I continue to implement Standards Based Grading in my classroom, I've been looking for my resources for students to help them understand the system.

I found these wonderful posters at "Everybody Is A Genius" blog, but they didn't really work with my own system. I am trying to stick to Marzano's philosophy of a 4-point scale, where 3 represents meeting the standard and 4 represents going beyond the standard. I like this idea because it encourages and challenges students to exceed the standard.

So, I took Sarah's posters and tweaked them to fit my system. I changed the level scale to a 4-point scale, and reworded the descriptions.


I also made a minor tweak to the process poster: adding an arrow from "Quiz on the Skill" to "Demonstrate Mastery" because after all, the ideal situation would be for students to master the skill the first time around! 


Big thanks again to Sarah at "Everybody is a Genius" for the inspiration! 




Monday, March 2, 2015
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To be or not to be a Pencil Nazi...

"Pencil only."

Two words I have said, been told, and heard others say repeatedly throughout my life as a student and a teacher. In Math class especially, you use pencil. Pen is not acceptable. Nope, no markers either. Colored pencils? You've crossed the line.


The problem is, I cannot decide where I stand on this issue. I have heard some arguments, valid ones, from either side of this debate, but I'm still a total swayer when it comes to the Pencil v. Pen debate.

This past year I have even gone through a bit of a roller coaster on this issue. I started the year off with, "No pens! Only pencils allowed!" Then, after a few months of having a significant number of students each day without pencils and having gone through my stash of 50+ pencils to give to kids it became, "You must give me collateral in order to borrow a pencil!" (Turns out collateral for a 13-year-old often involves a shoe). When I was tired of the ever growing pile of Jordan's on my desk, I switched to "Fine! You may use a pen, but your work must be neat! No scratch outs!" I thought, sure this will teach them! They'll learn on their own that a pen is not an effective tool for work which breeds mistakes and backtracking...But, of course, they continued to use pen and scratch mistakes out anyway, so now my rule is a very strict "Bleh, whatever, just turn it in."

I've questioned myself on the pencil stance: Is this a rule I'm enforcing simply because it's the norm? Do they really need to use a pencil in order to be successful?

Yes and no.

I have a few students who are a mobile Office Depot; meaning that they have with them, at all times, no less than 30 colored pens, highlighters galore, stickies of all sizes and white out. They label and color-code absolutely everything and if when they make a mistake, they white it out as if it never happened. These are the students that spit in the face of the Pencil Nazi.

Here's what I know...

  1. Neat, organized work is important. Especially when doing multi-step, complex problems.
  2. Scratching work out directly competes with neatness. 
  3. Sharpies, just, no.
So what is the solution?

I don't want to devalue the hard work a student has done by returning or not accepting the work simply because of scratches, but I want to encourage neatness and organization. 
I also don't want to continue to go through 100+ pencils in giveaways each year.
Is this just something I need to let go? 

Where do you stand on the pencil debate? What do you do if kids come to class without a pencil?

UPDATE: MARCH 28, 2015
I found a semi-solution that has definitely been working. It is so simple, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not having thought of this. The solution? Do not provide them with a pencil.

 Now when students ask me if I have a pencil for them, my response is simply, "Nope."

And guess what?! They manage to find a pencil!!

Such a simple thing, tapping into students' resourcefulness. When they know that I am not going to provide a pencil for them, they look more thoroughly through their materials, ask one of the 25 other kids in class, etc. Point is, they get their pencil.

Now to find a way to get them to bring a pencil in the first place...
Saturday, February 28, 2015
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My Educational Epiphany: Standards Based Grading

I've recently had a complete educational epiphany.

4 days ago, I was perusing the always interesting words of the great Dan Meyer when I came across this post.

Standards. Based. Grading.



Now, I know that SBG is nothing new.... but, it's new to me.

Since I stumbled across that post, I have been obsessively consuming everything I possibly can about SBG from Shawn Cornelly, Jason Buell, Rick Wormeli, Matt Townsley, Sam Shah.....

I CAN'T STOP.



Now, my current struggle is this: It's the end of February. I have essentially 3 months left. I can't just 180 my classroom right now without students and parents having complete mental breakdowns (all the while I'm yelling at them, "No! Trust me! This is better! I've been screwing it up all along!) 

So what changes can I make now to start walking down the path of enlightenment?

Here's what I've come up with so far:
  1. Make a concept checklist for the standards I have yet to cover this year.
  2. Start chunking any quizzes/tests into the concepts and record the students' progress on these specific concepts, but still record a holistic test grade in the gradebook (boo, I know.)
  3. Allow "re-dos" of missed concepts on assessments for full credit. Now, I already allow students to correct any questions they got wrong along with an explanation of why they got it wrong the first go around for half credit, so this is a minor tweak. 
  4. Assign less homework. 1 or 2 problems (once again, a la Dan Meyer). Hopefully this will encourage students to think "Hey, I can stomach one measly problem." And if they don't, so be it. They're no worse off than they were for not having done the 20 problem homework assignment. 
  5.  Change all 0's in my gradebook to 50's so that they are recoverable. In the words of Rick Wormeli, "I shall not be a rim waver!"
It kills me that I can't go full blown SBG right now. I can't believe I missed out on this whole beautiful world up until now, and I cannot wait to begin.