How Homework has Evolved in My Class

Russavia // wikipedia

 After offloading direct instruction to flipped videos, the idea of homework has changed greatly. In my earlier teaching years, I would save the most difficult thinking for homework because there wasn't enough time to do it in class.

When I first started to flip, the videos and associated Google form and guided notes became homework. The Google form grew from accountability understanding-level questions to having students submit questions and evaluate the videos. 

As my class became asynchronous, homework almost faded into obscurity. Homework and class work blends into each other. Basically, students map out their week on Monday and decide what they need to get done in class and out of class each day. Perhaps they have a long night away from home on Tuesday and need to make up for it Wednesday night. Perhaps they slacked off in class on Friday and need to add some work for the weekend. Maybe they failed a quiz and need to complete the remediation activities only required after a poor showing on a quiz, as well as study for the retake. As Spider-Man warns, with great power comes great responsibility. 

Along with this change, came the philosophy that not all students need the same amount of work or practice. For problem sets, students complete the handful of mandatory problems that I have denoted as important. They won't ever have to complete the additional problems, unless they feel the need or fail a quiz. The idea is not all sizes fit but "poor" decisions are not rewarded. Once interventions become necessary, then students loose some of that delicious freedom! 

Metacognition

Flickr // mrsdkreb

 One of my goals this year has been to focus on metacognition. Overall, I see a positive change; my students show more awareness of their learning and progress in the course. I still have more work to do; specifically, my students haven't demonstrated that they know how to maximize their own learning and they haven't expressed the importance of Metacognition.

What I've done so far:

The bulk of Metacognition has taken place through electronic journal entries and feedback forms. Students keep a journal in the Notability app on the iPads. I appreciate that Notability offers students the chance to organize their documents into folders. In addition to typing, students can draw or insert images, and even record their voices. PDF versions can be emailed to me. Typically, I ask students to reflect in their journal during the first and last few minutes of class, respectively called warm ups & exit tickets. While these tasks also include content based activities like Peer Instruction and review games, the majority of the time, students set goals, reflect about what they know and don't know, as well as evaluate their effort and group dynamics. An example of the first prompt of each week is below. 

Notice the first warm up of each week starts with students continuing their work before mapping out their week's goals. I made this shift after reading some research. Primacy & recency theory tells us that people remember the first and last things they witness; therefore, the first and last few minutes of each class are crucial. Rather than spending the first few minutes of Monday's class doing housekeeping, they should engage in the material. Whenever a warm up is not directly related to content, I instruct students to work on content then complete the warm up.

The exit tickets are almost always reflections on content or their progress in the course. I want students to remember if they need to work a little harder or work in a different group. For this reason, I want to provide choices in reflection because each prompt might be more relevant after a different lesson. 

What I still need to do:
There is still much work to be done and many unanswered questions to tackle. For example, I'm unsure if it's better to reflect for just a few minutes each period or for a more substantial amount of time just once per week. Currently, the reflections are only a couple of sentences long but I wonder if students will benefit more from blogging once per week. Student blogs could cover more ground. In addition, I've heard from teachers that students tend to write more effectively for an authentic audience when publishing their work on blogs. 

The second issue I'm wrestling with is how do I get students to buy into reflection. What can I do to show students the value of exit tickets or blogging? I can, of course, ask them to reglect about reflecting. The other thing is I can do is work on more effective prompts. 

Finally, I need to improve the accountability system. In my current "email me your journal" system, it's possible for students to fall through the cracks. Next year, I'll add a standard about Metacognition. This will not only help with forcing students to demonstrate skills of reflection but also force me to hold students accountable. 

Formative assessment

A few weeks ago, I led a professional development workshop on formative assessment. As we move to extended periods next year, there will be more opportunities for formative assessment. In addition to the presentation below, notes from the workshop are also published.

Ideally, the results of formative assessment are not calculated into a final grade.  Rather, formative assessment helps the teacher design intervention for struggling students and enrichment for excelling students. In addition, I hope the feedback informs my students what they know and don't know; armed with this information, students can decide how to spend class and homework time. 

What ideas do you have regarding formative assessment? 

Google Add-ons and Formulas

During this year's Teaching with Technology conference , I presented about some nifty Add-ons and other enhancements to Google forms and sheets. Even though I no longer use these tools because our school shifted to a new LMS that can do many of the functions, I wanted to spread the word. These scripts saved me so much time last year, below is a copy of the presentation.

Flipclass Resolutions in 2015

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I usually avoid making resolutions in my personal life because they rarely come to fruition. However, I followed my professional resolutions last year. They really catapulted my course and held me accountable. For that reason, I offer professional resolutions for 2015 below:

1. Continue to explore differentiated learning. In particular, offer alternative ways for students to acquire and process content.

2. Investigate project based learning in an asynchronous course.

3. Similar to number 2, enhance the role of data analysis and inquiry throughout the course. Even though all labs are student-designed and data-rich, I wish to incorporate these principles during non-lab opportunities. Some ways to accomplish this task is to increase the role of inquiry through case studies, assignments, POGILs, problem sets and projects. 

Baby Steps to Standards Based Grading & Differentiation

Flickr : radhika_bhagwat

Susan Reslewic, a colleague of mine, and I recently discussed making a transition to standards based grading in her course. Susan agreed that I could share the contents of her email:

Getting the feeling that standards-based-grading goes hand in hand with differentiation...I think it [standards based grading] could really support my efforts to better differentiate.  When I looked at the physics tests today (all over the map: some failing grades, some perfect scores plus), I just felt like I wish the kids who "did poorly" could say "oh, I know a and b, but not x, y and z".  It frustrates me that some kids are going to get their test back and see a score in the 70s and then go to the place of "I did poorly. I don't understand physics. I hate physics. I hate science!" I wish instead...the grade communication focused on what the kid can and cannot do (yet).  As I write this I think maybe a first step is for me to provide detailed comments on the test next to the grade.... Basically saying here's where you are excelling and here are things you need to work on."

Susan makes some of the most compelling arguments for Standards Based grading (SBG): helps teachers differentiate and lets students know what they know and don't know. 

As I read Susan's email, I was reminded how overwhelmed and excited I felt about the idea of SBG. I responded with some thoughts included below about taking baby steps to SBG. 

Transitioning to Standards Based Grading: 

If you want to try baby steps to standards based grading, the easy way is to start reorganizing your tests, quizzes and other assessments. Label each test question with the idea being tested - maybe even grouping those questions together. For example, perhaps questions 1-5 are about calculating velocity and 6-15 are about applying Newton's Three Laws. Don't report a final total percentage on the test, instead report percentages on each group of questions: 80% or 4/5 on balancing equations, 70% or 7/10 on calculating K. Then, make students retake only portions of tests and quizzes that fall below a certain percentage. For example, you may tell student "X", you "mastered" balancing equations but have to retake a quiz on calculating K. 

In addition, make the benchmark quizzes about only one idea; if they pass the quiz, then they mastered the idea. Just like the tests, students only retake failing quizzes. Of course, you will need multiple versions of comparable tests and quizzes. It may take years to build a robust question bank but perhaps start with 2 or 3 versions of each test or quiz.

Another quick thing is to label the problem set and homework questions with the specific idea being practiced. You could even identify the basic and challenge questions within each subset of questions. Certain questions can be mandatory for all and excelling students can attempt the challenge questions. Over time, you can build a library of remedial activities and other resources to help students with particular skills or topics. If they fail a part of a test or a quiz, then you can point students to specific activities and resources that target their deficiency.

These are some baby steps that will not take much tweaking to course structure. These steps should help gain some of the benefits of a SBG course but keep in mind that these are temporary fixes. Not only does it take major structural changes to implement SBG but a comparable shift in mindset must also occur. 

Related articles

• The Urgent Need for Standards Based Grading
• Standards Based Quiz Spotlight: the Anatomy of Mastery Learning Cycles

Flipping the Chips are Down Lab

The following article was featured in Carolina Tips in the fall of 2014, the online newsletter by Carolina Biological - a vendor that sells lab supplies and equipment to science teachers. 

For science teachers considering flipping their class, a great way to test the waters is by flipping the lab. Instead of using class time to lecture about and demonstrate steps in a lab procedure, consider creating short videos known as labcasts. Students can view these labcasts prior to the experiment. Watching the steps and seeing the equipment can help minimize confusion and provide clarification. Additionally, the use of labcasts can save precious class time for the actual experimentation and post-experimental analysis.

Teaching natural selection with the Chips Are Down lab

In the evolution unit, the Chips Are Down lab (which is a student favorite) does a wonderful job simulating natural selection. In this lab, students experience how populations change and generate a wealth of data to analyze (Fig. 1.).

Students play the role of predators and exert a selection pressure on a population of butterflies made of differently colored construction paper. The prey are placed on a multi-colored cloth background (Fig. 2); some of these butterflies naturally camouflage on the background, while others are easily spotted. The student predators take turns eating the prey by picking up the first butterfly they see. The predators eat a certain number of prey, then the game is paused to allow the prey to reproduce. Rounds of predation are followed by recovery of prey. After a few rounds, you see certain colored prey going extinct, while others increase in frequency (Fig. 1). The students witness natural selection in action and frequently cite this lab as the activity that helped them to understand this abstract concept.

The problem is the written instructions are somewhat confusing, no matter how many times they have been revised. Merely reading the steps does not clarify the procedure; students actually need to see it in action to fully understand it. In the past, I've typically done a round of predation and recovery with the entire class in order to help students visualize the steps. While this demonstration has been helpful, it is time consuming and limits the amount of class time available for repeating trials, troubleshooting, and data analysis. In addition, the post-lab discussion typically must wait until the next lesson.

 
Figure 1   Frequency of different colored prey after generations of predation. 




Figure 2   Image of a multi-colored background. 

I've solved these problems by creating a labcast demonstrating the Chips Are Down lab. In this short video, I explain and demonstrate the procedure and address the commonly asked questions. Students are required to watch the labcast prior to the lesson. I set aside only a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson to answer questions; this time is much shorter than the demonstration and Q&A sessions of previous years. After the change, students were able to execute several rounds of predation, perform calculations, and discuss the conclusions, all within the same lesson. With the saved class time, students were even able to test and compare data generated from different backgrounds. All of these changes, made available through the labcast, only helped to improve student understanding of natural selection.

The relative ease and low cost of making videos, coupled with the potential gains of leveraging this technology, make a compelling case for flipped learning. Labcasts allow you to smoothly transition to flipped learning in your science classes. These videos can clarify lab procedures, save precious class time, and improve student learning.