Nearing the End of the First Beginning

Figure 1. Time keeps on
ticking, ticking into the
future.

Time has been running out as the end of the trimester creeps closer.

How have students reacted?

Most recognize the deadline looming and have been working hard on getting to mastery on that last assessment. Those arriving at proficiency did it a variety of way: test and retest, conversations, demonstrations of what they know with diagrams and words on a chunk o' whiteboard.

The journey has been a good one for the students and myself. The 'two sigma solution' has increased learning. I've got numbers that show just that.

I've been surprised by a number of things on this path.

Students fear conversing with me about topics, when assessment is involved. Students would rather face a paper pencil quiz than have conversations being judged on their learning. I hope to keep working on removing this anxiety, because it keeps them from demonstrating what has been truly learned.

The mastery has been achieved at different paces, but then again, students are all unique.

Students are very different from one another. They all want to look, act, talk, share music, technology, language the same.....but differences in how learning has occurred could not be more apparent.

How students think about material has been revealed through the time spent, in my catcher's crouch, at their desk side talking, querying as work is happening. More conversations than I've had....ever and it has been good.

Students care about grades (still, more than learning, even though the two are linked in this classroom). A student was concerned about her grade on a portion of a recent assessment. I responded with a comment, "I don't care about your grade". She was alarmed and pretty much shocked. My response to her response was, "I care about you learning the material". She got it.

Figure 2. Truth

You will notice that I've used the word most when referring to these people. The majority of the students have embraced the mastery idea. Many students have pushed themselves hard to get to a 3 and even harder to get to a 4....which has been inspiring to watch. There are a few students who have not moved to mastery by their choice, even with my prodding find school an uninhabitable place. With that thought, there is so much work to be done with these students.

The final assessment of the trimester will happen on the last day of the trimester. Students are already asking about retakes.

We'll see how that portion of the story unfolds.

Late for a Friday

The line in the sand had a few students pause on the way to "two sigma". They recognized that it was time to step up and learn some more.

Friday afternoon, in the media center, it was crowded with students working on science.

Friday afternoon.....cool.

Lines and Redos

The summative assessment on carbon chemistry was last week Wednesday. Students were informed they would be able to schedule retakes/redos/do-overs starting Monday. 

Many did.

How did most of the students prepare?

Well, I started the day on Wednesday by holding my hand on a hotplate....then screaming. Then again, I held my hand on the hotplate and screamed.

For most of the students who retook the assessment or portions of it, it was a lot like putting their hands back on the hotplate, BUT, expecting a different outcome. By their scores, it was obvious that students had 

spent too little time preparing for the redo.

I'm not sure what they thought would happen with the retake, if they didn't change their strategy....or better yet, prepare at all.

Many students on this assessment are yet to be proficient, in any of the benchmarks, let alone the whole standard.

Of course, some students have made attempts to improve their scores and have...which is good. Students at the B+ range that wanted to get to the A, you gotta love a push to excellence.

I drew a line in the sand today. Students had to speak with me or schedule the retake by Friday OR they were stuck with the original score. Their attention peaked at that statement on the board.

BTW, the hotplate was not armed, so no science teachers were harmed in the motivational speech.

Data and data.....

I used Moodle to give a summative assessment last week, then I disaggregated.

Who doesn't love to disaggregate data? I pulled the assessment apart and looked at each benchmark and how students performed. Then to sort and highlight numbers on the spreadsheet, that data was too much!

The scores seen above are a portion of that. Pink and red were proficient for that section about macromolecules. Those not highlighted have some work to do.

A student asked if it took a long time to get those numbers into the spreadsheet on the iPad.....I just laughed. Cut, copy and insert rows.

I took the iPad around the room and sat with every student, showing them the scores and where they were strong and where work was yet to be done to hit mastery.

Moodle gave them instant feedback of not only their percentage scores, but individual answers, as well as the overall score of 4, 3, 2, or 1. Students then have to figure out what needs to be done differently if not at a 3 for the test, but at least a 3 in the individual targets.

On to the retakes. Those will start in the next day or so.

Will they have studied at all, or differently? Will they utilize the resources available?

.....a student comment from a formative assessment last week

I Know It Is Hard to Learn

The formative assessment was all about carbon based molecules, the stuff that living things are composed of: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.

So, I framed the learning activities around a number of self-produced screencasts, their textbook and a 'worksheet' that gave them practice in identifying, classifying, organizing, molecularizing and a whole bunch of other -izings.

I ran around the room answering questions and asking questions and questioning the questioners, for a few days.

Then I handed them the formative assessment. So, the formative assessment is just practice. It doesn't effect their grade. Hopefully, it gives them some information....about what they know or what they don't know.

This was one of the comments.

I think it is telling for a number of reasons. They were responsible for the learning: they had the MN Science Standard in front of them daily, they had resources, I wasn't lecturing.

....and this student reports it was difficult. I think that is kind of cool. The student realized that learning can be hard. Not that he was bored, not that she was incapable, not that they were unable to learn. Read the comment again, "trying to learn this by myself was difficult". 

I addressed this comment in front of the whole class.  Heck, I took the picture and threw it out on Twitter.

"....by myself...." Yes, all learning has to come to us with our own efforts. This student jammed that home to me, but also it is apparent that he or she felt isolated. In the time students were working, they were not working alone, they formed groups to share info about the macromolecules packet, they discussed the screencasts and occasionally called on me for help to clarify thoughts.

I think that comment is the good news.

.....another take on the assessment

What tale does this comment have for the assessment or class in general? I assured little Ignatius that dumb was perhaps the wrong choice of words.

More like, you haven't yet learned enough about carbon chemistry to get a 3 on a SBG assessment. 

I've moved a lot of mountains this fall, away from grades and the A-F mentality. They rejoice if they move from a 3 to a 4 and pretty much yahoo if a score of 4 is awarded for the first effort. 

But, Ignats sat there feeling 'dumb'. He was still measuring himself against the A-F world....not the world of learning and making progress. In the note....."I'll ace the retake", there is hope. I know that little Ignatius feels that way and has made improvement of his learning against the standard of macromolecules knowledge.