We have done a TON of FRQ prep. I think I like the scaffolds I have in place. We started with doing group FRQs which allowed students to talk about it as they went. Now we have been doing 10-minute silent work time on a question and then 5 minutes with their group and then talking about the solutions.
I am still not sure how to utilize the resources given in the best way possible. Do I have students grade their own before showing them the solution, do I show them the solution and have them fix theirs? Do we use the student-created solutions and compare/contrast? It seems like there are a lot of ways to do this. I am also wondering if I should assign more of it as homework - although, then I feel like I might just get students who copy down the answers.
Interestingly enough, students did quite well on the practice multiple choice test, so I focused more on FRQs. I have realized there are some things I didn't emphasize (or even teach) in class. Checking for the null reference is one of them. Reference variables, and the idea you can "re-tie" memory addresses to a different reference, is another. Regardless, in a poll I took yesterday, students said they wanted to focus more on multiple choice prep which seems a little surprising since they did so well on the practice. I have continued to move forward with FRQs, but will be working in more MC prep soon too.
For a while, I did a mini-lecture and then gave them FRQs associated with that mini-lecture. In some ways I really liked that because students saw how ArrayList questions might look on a FRQ - they saw the connections immediately. However, I know that spaced practice is good for long-term memory, so now we are doing more practice in sequential order.
AP CSP
Student tasks were due yesterday. I am going to try to avoid a rant here, but in a series of disconnected thoughts... here we go:
- Templates. Students for the most part used the template I gave them from our practice Create. For the most part, this means they used their resources wisely, for the bad part, a lot of what they submitted was a MESS. I even returned some things to students because they had boxes on there that they shouldn't have had. Next year, I think I will take a 13th day and have students copy and paste their responses into a template that has only "2a" "2b" and "2c" "2d" with empty boxes. That will at least clean up what is turned in to the College Board.
- Doing all the create practice was worth it. We did a ton sprinkled across the year but it was all worth it. 2a has a tricky part where students need to describe the OVERALL development of the app (not just 2 points). A lot of students took this to mean "how does your app work" not "how did you develop it". Algorithms - we drove home the "1 parent, 2 child, use math/logic in each" definition. Some students still did not show a screen shot of their child functions, it took a lot of practice, but most students got it. Abstraction - the managing complexity was hard for students to articulate. The most important part is that it is used more than once or it has a parameter - I need to focus on that more in unit 3 next year.
- Bring in the big guns. Next year I think I am going to bring in our rather passionate testing coordinator to talk to students about starting the tasks. Too many students were too nonchalant about it this year. I made the task due Friday (the deadline was Monday). About 15 students didn't have it done. I was an unhappy camper. WORSE, come Monday, I still had 10 students not done. 4 of them weren't CLOSE to done. I think having our testing coordinator drive home what I can and cannot do as well as stress the importance of the task, might help students take it more seriously.
- Parents are your friends. I ended up sending e-mails to the 15 families on Friday and then calling the 4 families on Monday. Next year, I think I am going to have students e-mail update their families (and me) on their progress. I think a simple "this is what I accomplished in the last 3 days... here is what I hope to accomplish in the next 3 days..." might help me and my students track their progress.
Now we move on to multiple choice prep. I am trying to find a way to engage the 38 students in the class with that... we will see how it goes.
Concepts
We are talking about "is college worth it" and doing some cost analysis with that. We have used spreadsheets to help us with computations and now we are looking at salaries for each different educational level.
One Good Thing
I will say our field trip went pretty well with concepts - the students were on good behavior and the information was good.
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