AP CSA
Today we did the "birthday lab" where students had to program a computer using modular arithmetic to find out someone's birthday after they enter the "magic number".
I had students extend it by stating the actual month and date (like, "November the 12th" vs "11/12"). Again, this ran short - students needed more extension overall. Next we start graphics.
AP CSP
I used Question Formulation Technique to have students generate questions based on the "Internet Is For Everyone" article. I rushed through it a bit because I wanted students to do their interactive notebooks as well. Esesntially the protocol went like this:
- (5 min) students skimmed the full article
- (7 min) students generated questions about the internet based on what they read. They were to ask as many questions as they can following these rules:
- Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any questions
- Write down every question exactly as it is stated
- Change any statement into a question
- (2 mins) Students categorize their questions as "Open-ended" or "Close-ended"
- (3 mins) Students prioritized their questions by highlighting the three the team was most interested in.
Here were the top questions students had:
- How do the companies that make up the internet make money? O
- How much can internet infrastructure be improved? O
- Why is it slow in some places and fast in others?
- Who created the deep web? O
- Does North Korea use the internet or an alternative? O
- How do they make it so that the government doesn’t interfere with the internet? O
- Is the net neutrality from the document still around, and to what extent? O
Here is the complete list we generated.
With a class of this size, it was difficult for me to reinforce the "rules" of QFT - students should only be asking questions - there was a lot of other "chatter" out there. Next time, I think I need to have clearer "roles" for each person. Maybe each person is tasked with enforcing a different rule. Maybe we just have two roles: we have a recorder and someone who held the team accountable for sticking only to questions. I did this before with smaller classes and it went really well - here students didn't generate the volume of questions I expected and I heard a lot of off-task/"non-question" talk.
Last time I spent 12 minutes on questions, but shortened it due to a time crunch here. I am also thinking that it would have been wasted time due to off-task behavior.
Finally, I wonder what would happen if EVERYONE was required to record their questions or if we did this in a "chalk talk" format.
From there we started our interactive notebooks - I am so glad I am doing those again this year, it is so nice to have them!
Concepts of Advanced Algebra
We took our first quiz today after a week of harkness style discussions. Students struggled with slope so we will go back and re-visit that. I think a lot of students don't know what a "slope" is - I had coordinates, equations, mixed up numbers, it was a mess. But, the bulk of the quiz was on functions and that went well.I am hoping that students continue to collaborate like they have been - it is really encouraging to see them work together now.
One good thing
I have 2 students (currently) who are BREEZING through CSA. I talked to both of them about making it an "independent study" course where they design their own projects/tasks and then make a timeline for themselves. They seemed open to it. I am hoping doing that will keep them engaged, help them learn more, and take some of the pressure off me at the same time. Win-win.
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