I came into school today with a plan to go over the practice create and then do pair programming.
Then, I was thinking, it seemed rushed. I want students to understand the feedback they just got on the practice Create. I spent a lot of time grading them and without time to process that feedback, it doesn't matter.
I was intentionally vague when I graded them. Students got a small x on each column they got credit for and they got a lot of comments. I summed up all the Xs and put them on my grade sheet and DID NOT put them in the gradebook. This way there was no "I got a B" reaction - they were FORCED to look at the feedback.
Then I put together this document with student examples. After I handed it back, I asked them to read through the examples and see what they had in common.
I also put together a set of "tips" that I saw common throughout many pieces of student work.
Finally, and this is the important part, we had 35 mintutes left. I told them that 7/7 meant that they got an A, 7 is a B, 6 is a C, and so on... I emphasized that this is because I am looking for perfection here. During the "real Create" I cannot answer any questions, so NOW is the time to get this right. I gave them the next 35 minutes to fix things in a different color to make it easier for me to re-grade. I think signaling to them that I was giving them time showed them that it was important and I had almost everyone doing re-learning.
The last step was that they had to fill out a half sheet that asked them to summarize what needed to be fixed. I wanted them to internalize the feedback and I think asking them to summarize that feedback will hopefully help.
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| This is an example of what the grade sheet looked like. I tried to focus on feedback... it took some time. |
I have to say after doing all of this, I felt good about where they were as a group! Now I need to grade that practice explore...
AP CSA
Alright, so today I processed feedback with students.
5th hour, I asked them to clarify what they meant by some of the comments and honestly, it wasn't very helpful. Students disagreed as to what they meant, and the same "usual suspects" felt comfortable sharing their thoughts when the other 28 just watched and listened.
One student did mention that they felt I run around a lot during work time and they felt like it might be more efficient if I let people come to me for help. I immediately resisted because I know there will be 2-3 students who just want to sit and work with me one-on-one but then there are other students who will not get up for any reason. From a student perspective, I think they see the "disengaged students" at being at fault for their own "sit and stare" behavior, but as a teacher, I know that is partially my responsibility too. That being said, I could maybe do a little more balance.
I also shared this chart from an informal facebook poll of AP CSA teachers. It shows that I am not off base at all with my instructional strategy. That was re-affirming.
After talking about feedback, we did a "multiplication grid" to help students get in the mind-frame of think about programming again. We did it "live lecture" style which is my new name for "code along" since students say they want "lecture" - I figure calling it that might appease them a bit more. For the most part it was good. Students seemed OK with nested loops.
My 6th hour went a lot faster so I had them try some code that I was going to try to create tonight. I think that will be a win because they will make authentic mistakes. I have to look at it tonight.
Geometry
I handed student tests back on parallel lines and transversals. I talked with the other teachers and we decided that too many students are still misusing the vocabulary words and after a 5 day break, we needed to go back and re-emphasize things.
I have to say, students were a little down at the beginning of class. We reviewed the difference between "Definition of XX", "The XX Theorem" and "The converse of XX theorem". I think it helped students contextualize things a bit.
I should have gone over the whole test - students didn't do well overall, but they also didn't ask questions when I passed it back which is a disconnect. I also had students who are majorly struggling who just kinda sit and stared of during re-learning. I could think about how to make this process more engaging, but at some point they just need to wrestle with these ideas to process them.
I know tomorrow I need to up the engagement factor a lot.
One Good Thing
I talked to one of my geometry students who is always engaged and (surprise!) is really doing well with proofs. I asked them what helped them understand it and they said that after doing a few they saw a pattern in how they worked. We usually use definitions and then use theorems that use the definitions. I don't know how to get other students to this same point, but it was good to get "meta" with a student.
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