Second Thoughts on Assessment

First off, I do want to apologize for the lack of posts. I have to be honest, I am still very overwhelmed, although I am now at least planning 2 to 3 days ahead rather than just for tomorrow. I still don't feel like I am in my groove yet.

In Algebra 2, I am getting ready to give my second assessment. Like last year, I am assessing each learning target twice. However, I am counting the first assessment and if the student has earned their 5 on the first time, they do not have to do the second assessment. I have been having second thoughts about this after I gave their first assessment two weeks ago. I know why I had decided to do this. I wanted students to give a better first effort on the assessment and when I didn't give a score on the first time, students tended to skip the problems. Also, this gives students their first chance at a reassessment. But, there are a couple of things causing me to have second thoughts.

First off, after the first assessment, I had several students already asking for a reassessment. I put them off, telling them they would have another chance at it in a couple of weeks. At that point, and now, still, I am thinking that I should have let them reassess right away if they were ready. Now that it's been about two weeks, I'm not sure they will do as well. Secondly, some students are now facing 6 skills to assess on this time around. I am starting to think that I may have set them up to not do as well because of that. Thirdly, we had professional development today and one of the speakers talked about Standards Based Grading. Well, she didn't call it SBG, but it's SBG. She was talking about using exit cards to assess where students where on a particular skill. Normally, you would use this for formative assessment, however, if all students showed they understood the skill, she suggested that you could go ahead and record that as mastery of the skills. The teacher would only do this if all students showed mastery. That got me thinking about giving assessments that only worked with a few skills. I asked her about how a teacher would justify assessing in this manner when at the college level, almost every class gives assessments at a much larger interval. Her response was to inform students that your concern was that they showed they learned and understood the material and that if they have done that successfully at high school, they would be able to adjust once they reached college.

Now, I don't think I am willing to assess formally that often, however, it is really getting me thinking about putting 6 learning targets on an assessment. I am seriously considering after this assessment to go ahead and go back to assessing 3-4 skills at a time and just assessing once. Thoughts from the peanut gallery? Leave them in the comments. Thanks.

A Plan

Saturday, I blogged about my latest dilemma with my Algebra 2 classes. I am so appreciative to everyone who commented either here or on Twitter. Not only did I not feel alone in what I'm dealing with and going through with these classes, I got some good ideas to ponder. Teaching in a school with (only) 2 other math teachers can make it difficult to bounce ideas during the school day, let alone on a Saturday during a three day weekend. Y'all helped me when I needed it and that just goes to show the power of Twitter and the wonderful math Twitterblogosphere we have. Thanks.

So, after some pondering and checking out what everyone had to say, I decided to work with what @cheesemonkeysf suggested. Thanks too to @druinok who helped me hash out my plan.

On Tuesday when we return, I will hand back their quizzes. Since I had 2 of the 3 classes with me at home, I have already gone through those classes. When I get to school Tuesday, I'll go through the third class (which is, of course, my first period class). I have decided on "My Favorite No" for each of the problems on both versions of the test with the exception of the factoring problems. On Tuesday, we'll do the favorite no's for Properties of Exponents and Adding and Subtracting Polynomials problems (the graded learning targets). Now that I'm typing that, I may just do Properties of Exponents on Tuesday and Adding and Subtracting Polynomials Wednesday. After doing the "Favorite No's", I think I will have problems on the SMART Board for them to work out in class and then go over before the end of the period. Finally, I'll have them do an exit card with one more exponent problem and start Wednesday with that problem using the Favorite No strategy. Repeat on Wednesday with Adding and Subtracting Polynomials. Thursday I will given them a quiz on just those two learning targets. Students who have mastered both of these learning targets may take that time to re-assess a different learning target which they will have to tell me on Wednesday so I can I have it prepared. I think I may allow students who have mastered 1 of the 2 to re-assess one other learning target as well so that everyone is working on two learning targets in class. After their quiz, we'll start with the favorite no's from the multiplying polynomials section. I think on Friday I'll either put together a row activity for multiplying polynomials (I did find this one that I may use which also has them practicing adding polynomials again) or come up with something else for them to work on in class so they are practicing multiplying polynomials.

Next week on Monday then, we'll start over on factoring polynomials. First, we'll do GCF factoring again. Tuesday, I think we'll do some diamond puzzles before doing x^2 + bx + c factoring Wednesday and go from there. If anyone has some suggestions for practicing factoring in class, I'd sure appreciate them. I have some thoughts, but nothing fully concrete yet.

Thanks again for everyone's commiserating, well-wishes, and most importantly, suggestions. Hopefully there will be a time when I can help you all out.

Now What?

Yesterday I gave a quiz on properties of exponents and adding and subtracting polynomials (the graded learning targets on this quiz) as well as multiplying polynomials and factoring (GCF and x^2 + bx + c) for feedback. Although I am not done grading yet, let's just say the results I have seen from the graded learning targets so far is less than spectacular. I have done the graded portion for 2 of my 3 classes and I think (without actually calculating them) the average on my 5 point scale was around 2.5. They still don't have it. After teaching it before Christmas Break, quizzing for feedback before Christmas Break, doing 2 additional days of activities after Christmas Break, and giving them review problems before the quiz, they still don't have it.

I just don't get it. Adding and subtracting polynomials is basically adding like terms. How can they get to this point in Algebra 2 and not be able to combine like terms correctly? I have several students who tell me that 3x^2 + 6x^2 is 9x^4. I still have students, in spite of having calculators available, who cannot add or subtract integers properly. I have students who will take an expression in parentheses such as (6x^2 + 10x - 3) and try to combine it into one term such as 13x^3.

I understand there can be confusion keeping straight what to do with the properties of exponents. I'm multiplying (4x^3y)(2x^2y^4) and you want me to add exponents but multiply the numbers? When I divide you want me to subtract the exponents? When I raise something to a power I'm supposed to multiply exponents? It can be a little confusing. But when I explained it one on one to some students the day before and gave them as many hints as I could to help them keep it straight - remember, you are not doing the same operation to the exponents as you do to the numbers; notice that the operation you are doing is one step lower on the order of operations list - they still don't remember it the next day.

And those are just the graded learning targets. On the feedback learning targets, multiplying wasn't horrendous, but there are still some errors that I'm not happy about seeing them. On the factoring problems, most students didn't even attempt them and of those who did, about half (that I've seen) didn't have much of a clue. It's like what we've done for the previous 2 days totally was a waste of time.

This week is the end of the grading period. I can pretty much tell what's going to happen. The students who care about their grades will want to re-assess the learning targets to bring up their grades. From the surveys I gave them after their test (same one as the Advanced Algebra 2 students with many surprisingly similar results as far as the comments went - but that's another post), I can see that they do care - about their grades. That, of course, means between Wednesday and Thursday there will be a bunch of students who want to come in to re-assess so they can get ___ grade. The problem is, they don't have the skill. Some of them do, but for the most part, my students don't have it. The students who really don't have it most likely won't re-assess. They will continue to not get it. Since math builds its knowledge on previously known things, as the year continues, those students will continue to struggle and this issue will compound.

So, I am sitting here on Saturday morning pondering the same question I was yesterday as I drove home from school - now what? I know that if the students don't have the skills I tested them on Friday, there are going to be places they struggle the rest of the year. If they don't understand the properties of exponents and adding and subtracting polynomials, trying to do multiplication of polynomials is difficult. If they don't understand how multiplication of polynomials works, how are they going to factor them? And let's not even get into the implications for later topics (solving quadratics by factoring, other polynomial skills, exponentials, etc.). I thought by doing the stations activities that it would help their understanding but obviously if it did, it didn't stick in their brains.

I have a four day week when we return. Do I go back over these skills and provide the opportunity to re-assess in class for the whole class? How do I go back over these skills? I have already taught, provided in-class activities, put together 2 screencasts (exponent rules and +/- polynomials) for them to be able to view outside of class, plus helped them in class as they asked for it. I'm kind of at my wits end - I'm frustrated that they aren't doing preparation they should be. I'm sure part of it is my fault - I don't check their homework and I don't go around and mark whether they've done it. I had good intentions at the beginning of the year, but it takes time to do that at the beginning of the period and in spite of my best intentions, many students spend the time talking instead of working through the warm ups like they should. I suppose I ought to collect those too.

Add on top of that a fairly busy week this week outside of school. It's not like I have hours and hours of time to prepare a whole lot of things for them. Probably one of the more frustrating things right now is that I spent 6-7 hours putting together those stations activities I blogged about earlier and now that they've had the assessment on it, I feel like it was somewhat wasted time. They still don't have the skill. I'm not really feeling like putting in a ton of effort on something they a) aren't going to "care" about and b) won't really put forth the effort they should to do. But I know as a veteran teacher that I will always put in way more effort than they will. I also know that it doesn't change that I need to do something.

So, I guess I'm doing two things here. First, I'm venting. I'm frustrated and I need to vent (not that any of you have ever been there before....). Second, I'm looking for suggestions. What would you do? Would you give re-assessments in class this week? What would you do to make sure students understood these two concepts? I probably only have 1 or 2 days tops to review with them (again) before the end of the grading period if I'm going to do anything as far as re-assessments. I'm just stumped at the moment. Please comment and help. Thanks in advance!

Assessment Survey

In response to my blog post yesterday about why I think students aren't attempting feedback questions, misscalul8 asked, "Have you tried asking the students why they don't try the feedback problems or ask them how they study?" To be honest, I've never been a fan of asking my students survey questions, especially not ones that may give them the chance to criticize me. I suppose that goes back to the little gnawing fear that they'll all say I suck as a teacher as well as that I'm afraid that they won't take it seriously. However, during my half hour drive into work, I thought to myself that maybe it would be a good idea to ask them. I suppose that I am getting more comfortable in my own skin as a person and as a teacher.


I only surveyed my Advanced Algebra 2 students (17 students there today) - I figured they would take it the most seriously and thought that it would give me a good idea whether it's worth asking my regular Algebra 2 students the same questions. I have included all responses but I obviously didn't edit their grammar. So, without further ado, here is the survey and their responses, followed by my comments in blue:

Please answer the following questions honestly. Your answers will help me assist you in your learning of mathematics and will not affect your grade in any manner.


1) How do you normally prepare for a test or quiz in math?

• I try to learn what it is we're being tested on, since I usually don't understand when we learn it in class.
• I look over questions that I'm not sure about, until I understand them.
• Student doesn't do anything (2 students)
• I just pay attention in class and write things down.
• Good amounts of sleep.
• Do practice questions.
• The review sheet. (3 students)
• Study like crazy when it comes closer to the time of the test.
• I do the review sheet and sometimes take notes.
• Go over what the test is on.
• Listen in class.
• Practice.
• Do math problems / review sheet.
• All of the homework. extra problems worked through, and the review sheet.

With this being my Advanced class, I expected them to have some sort of plan for preparing for the test. Also at this level, I am not surprised to see that 2 of them do nothing. I remember being in high school math classes and not really doing anything to prepare for the test because I felt I knew the material well. It wasn't until I got to college (and Calculus) that I really had to study and it took me a bit to figure that out. I'm not hugely concerned with what I see here.


2) When you are given a review sheet for an upcoming test or quiz, do you work through the problems?

none 1

less than half 4

about half 3

more than half but not all 7

all 2

I am glad to see that more than half do at least half of the review sheet. At least it's not a waste of my time. I would like to see more in the "more than half but not all" and "all" categories though.

3) What do you think would help you better prepare for tests or quizzes in math? Why?

• (main point) More explanation of how to do the things, because in class we go too fast and I get confused.
• Pay more attention to what I'm confused about.
• Sleeping more. I would be more alert in class.
• If I could remember how to do the feedback problems I would be better prepared because I don't ever remember how to do the feedback whether I look over them again or not.
• Review games
• Review every question I do not know.
• Nothing really.
• If I did my homework it would help.
• Do one problem from each section on the test, like the problems on the test, not exact ones, the day before the test. (**I think she meant for the class or me to do these problems.)
• Practice the problems over and over.
• Nothing. I catch on or I don't, how I work doesn't matter.
• More review sheets or fun worksheets. Do homework problems on the board.
• Do more work.
• To do more problems to practice.
• More study guides.
• Coming up with a fun idea to help us understand better and pay attention more.
• Student didn't answer.

I want to start with the first response. This response bugs me. It is the only one I have in this class. If I slow down much more, I am going to lose about the top third of students in my class because I will be going too slow. I already have issues with my 2 brightest students as far as attention issues in class (and some of those times they really should be paying attention). Maybe this student shouldn't be in the "advanced" class if this student isn't keeping up. The only other response that bothered me was the one about doing one problem from each section on the test the day before. Both of these students are freshmen (our Algebra 2 comes after Algebra 1) and they do need to be aware that an "Advanced" class doesn't mean I hold your hand the whole way.

I was pleased to see that most of the responses pointed out things that the particular student should be doing. I was a little nervous to see these responses as the question could be taken as what more I could do to help them prepare. I have the feeling that when I have my Algebra 2 students do this, there will be more suggestions as to what I can do instead of things they could do.

This year, I have tried something different with testing. Instead of giving a "unit test," I have given quizzes with some problems that are for a grade and some where you get feedback only.

4) Do you like this method better than unit tests? Why or why not?

• Yes and no because we are moving too fast and I sometimes forget the stuff we are being graded on and yes because if I do understand then I can possibly get an exempt on it the next test.
• I really like this method, it makes me feel more comfortable knowing that if I don't understand the feedback questions then I will get help.
• Yes, so we know how we're doing.
• I like the fact you give us quizzes with the graded problems but I don't like that you put feedback on there because I feel I need more practice.
• Yes. You get breaks in between quizzes instead of one big test.
• Yes because that is less you have to study for.
• I'd rather have a unit test because if we learn too much at once then I get confused.
• Yes, because I see problems like that more than once. It helps me understand what I did wrong on the test.
• Yes I like this better, especially when you exempt it from the next. It gives me a heads-up.
• Yes, but I HATE how we learn 6 learning targets, then take a quiz on the first three. I forget some stuff learning new things between.
• I don't really care either way.
• For sure!
• Yes, I do. It doesn't make it as big of a test.
• Yes, I like having only some problems graded.
• Yes, because only the first few problems are graded.
• Yes, because it helps you prepare for the next quiz.
• Yes, I like this method because it's easier to see what I do wrong.

I am somewhat glad to see they like this method better. At least the length and amount of tests seems to be enough. However, with testing every 5-7 class days, I'm not sure that's the best way to prepare them for what's coming in the future. I think the student who wants the unit test really doesn't want the unit test, because then it will be a larger amount of material.

On the other hand, I'm not real thrilled about continuing to have to make up reviews and quizzes for every 5-7 class days. 

5) Do you attempt the feedback problems? Why or why not?

• Sometimes, if I actually understand it.
• Yes, because I usually get 5's.
• Yes I do because if I get them right I don't have to do them on that test.
• Yes because I want the feedback
• Yes most of the time because I want to see if I know it.
• Sometimes I do but sometimes I forget about it.
• Most of the time. I only don't if I don't understand it.
• If I know them.
• Yeah because you tell us to, and it gives me a good understanding of where I am.
• Yes, because it's on the test.
• Sometimes I don't.
• Yes, sometimes, when I know how.
• Yes, to at least attempt them.
• Yeah, because you tell us to.
• Yes, that way I know what parts of the problem I have to work on for the next test.
• Yes, so I can see how I need to study for the next week.

This was somewhat telling, but not as much as I had hoped. I was a little surprised to see that some students weren't attempting feedback problems because they didn't know how to do them. I guess I had hoped they would go as far as they could so I could offer feedback on what they did know.

6) Have you come in and re-assessed a learning target?

yes 13

no 4

No surprises here. Most of these students want to do well.

7) If you answered yes to question 6, why did you decide to re-assess?

• Because I failed it on the normal test, and needed time to learn it so I can get a better grade.
• I re-assessed because I understood what I missed, and I wanted to correct it.
• Because I like getting 100%s
• I decided to re-assess to try and get extra points and keep my grade up.
• It wasn't a four or above.
• Usually the stuff I missed was stuff I knew how to do.
• I decided to because I knew I know the problems and I knew I could get the answer right a second time.
• To get my grade better.
• I didn't get a five when I knew I could have.
• I did bad.
• I didn't do good.
• To get a better grade.
• I learned what I did wrong and wanted to fix it.

A mixed bag here. I am glad to see some students wanted to show they knew the materials. I am seeing more "improve my grade" type comments here. Guess I need to work on how I present SBG better.

If you answered no, why did you decide not to re-assess?

• 2 students didn't answer.
• I stick with my original grade.
• I haven't yet because I have a 100%, but will re-assess because I screwed up one of the learning targets.

The one student who answered "I stick with my original grade" is kind of an odd bird. Very bright student who gets many things very quickly, but not always in the same way everyone else does. This student is an Emotionally Disturbed student who is mainstreamed for my class. I guess I'm not really surprised by that response from this student. I think the 2 no answers bother me more than anything here. I was hoping for some insight.

I think I'm going to give the same survey to my Algebra 2 students. They have a quiz tomorrow and at this point I'm thinking I'm going to give it to them after they are finished. I am expecting some different responses and even some different tones in their responses. Should be interesting...

Frustrated

Last year with my Algebra 2's and SBG didn't seem this frustrating to me. We are in our last week of the grading period right now and of course kids seem to now care because they are in that lovely point chasing mentality. We had a quiz yesterday - same format I have been doing all year - grade 3 learning targets and feedback on 3 (although I only did two because if I waited for the third one it would have been so long since we did the earlier 3 that I don't think they would have done well). The 3 graded were graphing linear equations (slope-intercept form), write equations given 2 points or 1 point and slope of the line, and write equations given a point and a line either parallel or perpendicular to it. The 2 feedback were solve a system of equations by graphing and solve a system of equations by substitution (both 2 equations 2 variables systems). As I have been doing since the second quiz, I did give them a review page with answers over the three to-be-graded learning targets before the quiz.

The students did okay on the graded learning targets. They didn't knock it out of the park, but my real sense about this group is they are not going to be knock-it-out-of-the-park students unless they do more preparation on their own. When I got to grading the feedback portion, most them had no clue on how to graph the two equations together. Same kids who did pretty well on the graphing one equation on a coordinate plane. Same kids who were able to solve for y to get the equation in slope-intercept form couldn't do it on the back. Directions said to graph and students were trying to do substitution (most unsuccessfully). Or in several cases (way too many to count and way too many for my comfort), students didn't even attempt the feedback only problems.

It's like they don't even see the connections between material we have done previously to what we are doing now. And they certainly aren't retaining things well. Today we worked on more substitution problems, which we did Thursday and Friday (and I gave them a notes page to try to guide them to either take notes or fill in what was important) and I would say from what I saw about half still had no clue what they were doing and most of the other half was struggling to remember where to start.

I am frustrated at this point on many fronts. I am frustrated that I am teaching Algebra 1 stuff to my Algebra 2 students. I am frustrated at how long it takes them to get concepts. I know I can't change that one, but I need to find a way to deal with this better and quick or I am going to be one really frustrated teacher all year. I am frustrated at how dependent my students are. I am frustrated that I haven't done or felt like I can do my goals of incorporating reasoning and sense making materials or being less helpful (see this post for details). There is a part of me that thinks that if I tried to bring in reasoning/sense making activities that it would help my students. Then there's the other part of me who looks back at days like today where I see my students so dependent and not willing to think or try something on their own and I wonder if it's really worth trying.

Getting back to the SBG bit - with getting back their quizzes today and the end of the grading period being Friday, I had several students wanting to reassess. Most of the ones that came up knew what they had done wrong. Those who didn't, we worked through their problems and I think they better understand it. But part of my concern at the moment is that my students are working to just learn the three learning targets they are getting graded on and not working on the big picture. I don't know if that's because of the system I'm using (grade 3 - give feedback on 3). I'm not sure if I'm helping by giving them review problems on just the three learning targets being graded. Well, I guess I'm helping some because they are preparing, but I cannot continue to spend lots of time reviewing if I am quizzing every 5-8 class days. I'm not sure what the answer is to this one.

At this point I just have a bunch of questions and no answers. My thoughts are still pretty jumbled on all of this. I'm hoping that just getting some of it out here will help straighten my thoughts eventually. @cheesemonkeysf probably said it best - my subconscious has to be working through this somehow even though I don't feel like I have any answers. Hopefully it comes to me soon.

A win - maybe

One of my Algebra 2 students gave me absolutely no work on his quiz yesterday writing equations given two points on the line, a point and a slope of the line, or given a point and a line that is parallel or perpendicular to it. As I was walking around checking how students were doing with the problems they were to be working on, he had his head down and was visibly frustrated.

I asked him what was going on and he said that he had the right answers but got no credit for them.

I responded that I had no idea where his answers came from - if he figured them out in his head, or guessed, or looked off someone else's paper.

He replied that he's not a cheater.

"I'm pretty sure of that. So how did you come up with the answer?" was my response.

He started to explain that he used the graph and figured it out from there. He didn't have any work because he kept the grid clean so he could work out the four problems. I shared with him what I was looking for work wise and why it was important to understand how to work the problem that way (especially since problems won't always work out so neat and clean).

I told him to wait a minute and went to get some graph paper. When I came back I told him to use the graph paper and show me how he got his answers on the four problems. I left him to work through it and he came back up towards the end of the period.

He began by saying he explained it to another student and she followed so he thought he had it for me. He proceeded to explain very articulately how he arrived at the equations for the problems with 2 points and 1 point and slope given - and I should add, very accurately. He demonstrated he understood what it meant to be a point on the line and how to write the equation in slope-intercept form (which is what I had asked for). I revised his score from 0 to 5 on the spot - he demonstrated he understood it. At that point, the period was ending and we left it that he would come back tomorrow with explanations for the other two problems.

I am hopeful the student will come back with the explanations tomorrow. I am also hopeful that he will make a better effort in the future to demonstrate how he is arriving at his answers so that I can see he truly understands the concepts.

Winning here with one student, at least, I hope....

Surprises abound

A surprising thing happened today as I had my students working on correcting their quizzes today. (See here for the original plan.) As my first period students were working on correcting my quizzes (and wanting me to answer questions as opposed to asking peers), several students asked to reassess. I had forgotten to say anything about wanting to re-quiz them on Wednesday and after seeing that several students were motivated to reassess on their own, I opted to not give a re-quiz to my Algebra 2 classes. For two of my three classes, my students were rather motivated and worked hard on correcting their quizzes. I think I have between 10 and 15 students coming in for reassessments between my three Algebra 2 classes (that's out of about 70 students). I am pleased to see them taking initiative.

I chatted with my principal during my planning period today. As I continue to reflect on my students' quizzes, I am really disturbed with the errors they made. These are things that should have been corrected/caught and fixed in Algebra 1. I had a brief discussion with my fellow math teacher with many years experience before talking to the principal and he is seeing the same things from his students (the ones I had last year in Algebra 2). It's as if the students aren't retaining what they have learned. As I talked with my principal, she made the point that they may have learned it wrong and continue to make the same mistakes because that's how they practiced it. This, for me, reaffirmed the importance of giving the students the answers when I give the practice problems so they can confirm that they are doing the problems correctly.

My principal is also about incorporating the real world where possible. As we discussed the situation, I expressed that I am almost afraid to put a real world situation in front of them, especially given what happened last week. It's almost as if my students don't know how to think. Put something even a little challenging in front of them and they freeze. But I also know that the real life situations can help motivate them. I started to look through the Math Forum Problems of the Week to see if I could find anything that caught my attention, but I didn't find anything right off the bat. I also looked at YummyMath but I didn't have a whole lot of time to dig through to see if I could find something that specifically had one variable equations. So, I'm still looking with a short time frame (for Wednesday!) to find something real world to help motivate solving equations.

I also have to figure out how to teach them to think - how to work with these types of problems. But I suppose that's a post for another day. For now, I'm off to bed. As always, comments are welcome and appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read my ruminations. They help me sort through it all.

And the saga continues...

I have been in a posting flurry the last week (check here and here for the ones that will relate to this post). Here is the quick update....

I gave quizzes Friday in my Algebra 2 class - I graded the learning targets on solving and graphing inequalities, solving and graphing compound inequalities, and solving absolute value equations. I have not finished grading the quizzes - I still have feedback only to give on solving absolute value inequalities, determining if a pattern is linear, and finding slope. On the portions that I graded, the solving equations and inequalities was not looking good. I still have students trying to subtract the same quantity from the same side of an equation or inequality. There are other errors (not distributing well, computation errors, and dividing both sides by different numbers to name a few), but that one is the one that bothers me the most. I did some quick analysis and I found once I took the time to look that it wasn't as bad as I thought, but it's still not where it should be.

Here's my plan for the start of the week -
Tomorrow (Monday), I am handing back their quizzes. I will give them the answers as I have been doing, but before I do so, I am going to direct them to take 3-5 minutes and really read the feedback that I have given them. After giving them the answers, I have marked 6 students in each class as "experts" - there were 3 concepts, 2 quizzes so 1 student for each quiz on each concept (that means 2 experts per learning target). The remaining students I am going to direct to work on correcting their quizzes and if they are struggling, they need to see the "expert" for their trouble. I am hoping that this will get them really looking at their quizzes to see what they're doing and that the peer help will help get them in a better place with the material.

On Tuesday I am going to pair them up and set up a "scavenger hunt" type activity - answer at the top of the page, new problem to work on the bottom of it. Students will work on the problem and go find their answer to find their next problem. I am going to pair them deliberately - a student who has a stronger understanding of solving equations with a student who does not have as strong of an understanding. Each student will need to work out the problem. Hopefully this will help strengthen the weaker students while putting the stronger students in a mentoring role. I am going to mix equations and inequalities.

On Wednesday, I am going to give another quiz on the same learning targets (those students who have already mastered the learning target obviously will not need to redo) - my goal is two-fold: I want students to see what reassessing will do for them and I want them to feel some success (which I am hoping will happen!).

I really don't want to spend the extra time at the moment, but I feel that if I don't have 95% of my students with solid linear equation solving skills, I am going to have an incredibly difficult hill to climb with them. I'm really not sure what else to do - I have about 50%+ of my classes who don't have (in my opinion) a solid enough grasp of the skill, so we need to make sure they've got it. There are other issues I'm concerned with (mainly their lack of willingness to "think" and work at stuff), but this is the most pressing thing at the moment.  I hope this is the right decision....

Grading Policies Revision

On my #summerlist, one of the things I want to do is revise SBG in my classroom. (see this post and this post for past discussions). Here is my revised Grading Policies page for the upcoming school year:



Changes I made:

• I am going to quiz students twice. First time I am going to give feedback only, as I had intended to do but didn't stick with. Second time will have the feedback-only concepts tested and (up to) three new concepts for feedback only. From what I read from others during the SBG Gala, it seemed that more people felt that a feedback only option made sense for the first time students saw a concept on a test, and then grade the second one.
• The one I am having the debate on at the moment is whether or not to require students to show me their original practice problems before allowing a reassessment. At the moment, I have it in there but there is a part of me that doesn't want to deal with the hassle of it. I am a little afraid that it will discourage students from reassessing because they have to do the problems and if they didn't do them originally, that will be more work for them to do before reassessing. However, I think it is also a good idea because it will force students to have done the original assignment (at some point) if they want to reassess and maybe it will instill in them that they should be doing the problems in the first place. **I revised this to give students an option of what work to submit with the reassessment request. 
• I am limiting students to three concepts a reassessment.
• Students will have to apply for reassessment (a la Sam Shah). Since not all my students have easy access to email (or so I think), they can either email me or hand me the written information. Last year I had a tutor form they could get and fill in. I think by having written out at the beginning of the year what needs to be done to reassess, it will encourage students to refer back to this sheet throughout the year.
• When applying for reassessment, students will have to explain what they have done to prepare for the reassessment. They will also have to correct the problem(s) they were not successful on earlier and explain what they did wrong. I really think this will be the key for students to be more successful in reassessment.

Please, please, please, take a few minutes and look at what I have put together for the next school year and offer your feedback in the comments. This is not necessarily final, but it is as close as I am going to get it at the moment. Thanks so much!

What to do, what to do...

My Math 1 kids had a test today over solving equations.  I had thought that we did enough practice and I was hopeful that they would at least earn 3's (out of 5) but most kids had 0s-1s-2s.  I thought I had done a better job than years past of communicating the importance of showing work and I had too many kids just give answers.  After working through many problems and stressing the importance of showing proper steps (adding 6 to both sides of the equation for example), I had several kids "pick" an answer and show that it works by substitution.  Their overall scores "look" better because of SBG, but I don't feel their understanding is better.

I know I got through to some kids - some of them did well and some were close in their understanding and I feel they will earn those 5s with a little more practice.  As I am sitting here tonight reflecting and trying to figure out my next move with them, I have at least come to the conclusion that I want to do a whole class reassessment.  Truly, there are only 1 or 2 kids (out of 20ish) who earned mostly 5s and 1 or 2 4s, so this is as good of an opportunity as any to show them what reassessment (normally on their own) can do for them.  As much as I want them to do the reassessments because they didn't get it and want to truly learn it, if the grade motivates them to do the reassess, I guess I'll take that.

So I am sitting here tonight with these questions floating around my head.  If my dear readers would indulge me with their thoughts, I would be very appreciative.
**Obviously I am going to hand back their tests first and spend some time going back over it.  Suggestions on how to best handle this?  I don't want to be doing all the work - they need to do some practice and corrections on their own, but I don't feel I have enough kids to serve as "experts" on the 6 concepts to send small groups to other students to get help.
**They still need to do some practice - their understanding isn't close.  How do you gauge how much more practice to give before reassessing?  At this point, I am thinking they'll have some practice between tomorrow and Thursday (although my 3rd period is going to be cut short on Thursday) and reassess Friday. 
**In the past, I would probably give another review sheet for them to practice.  With these classes, although games can be a good diversion and fun for them, it can end up being a discipline problem and some still don't participate.  I tried the Sweeney equation dance with them Friday on the first day of review to help reinforce the skills.  My 3rd period didn't participate as well as they could have (although part of that could have been me in learning the whole thing) and my 5th period mostly participated (except for a couple of freshmen boys...) and I thought had learned it.  At least they had fun... What other kinds of review that engage the students can I use?

And now the final thought...
**@kaminskiterry replied to my initial query on Twitter and shared how he does reassessments in class rather than outside of class.    He designates a day to students and they have to let him know what skills they are reassessing.  They do the reassessments in class during a work period in class when other students are working on a worksheet or homework or the like (at least that's how I understood it).  I really don't want to take up class time, however, if it will get kids to do the reassessments when they wouldn't do it otherwise, it may be worth doing.  Thoughts?

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts - I so appreciate it!