Grades this Semester

I finalized grades today for the semester.

I only had one failing grade.

One.

This has never happened.

So, this has me wondering,

Is it the No Grades on classwork policy that I've adopted this year????

Is there actually more learning happening because I've removed the need just to get it done?

Or is this just a more accurate reflection of the learning and not so much of homework completion, responsibility, and work ethic???

Something to ponder?

Moving to the Floor

It's not a vertical white board,

But students actively participated in finding all the angle relationships on the floor.

Moving and thinking provides even greater learning!  

Plus, misconceptions and mistakes can be used to launch much needed discussion.

Marzano's strategy of similarities and differences was used

As we compared the various angles.

Student Reasons for Their Choice in Learning Activity

Vertical White Boards (Marzano's Practice, BTC Ch. 3)

• Helps me work with others

• It helps me

• We can visually show how we learn

• Talking with someone and adding me and the person’s brain to see what we understand 

• Helps me see it in front of me

• Get to talk to other people and see what they are doing

• It helps me like the notetaking that follows

• We have partners to work with and show us our mistakes

• I can use my partner’s knowledge to understand it better

Note-Taking (Marzano's Practice, BTC Ch. 11)

• Video note-taking helps me remember

• I can go back to it and study

• I can go back and look at it

• Helps me study whenever

• It keeps me focused and when I forget something I can look at them.

• Writing it down helps me learn it

• Helps me remember better

• Writing things down helps me remember better & easier to study

• If I forget something i can look back into my notes

• You can look at it at home and study for the quiz

• So I can go over it whenever!

Whole Group Discussions (BTC Ch. 10)

• I can see what others have to say, plus what they are questioning

• Everyone gets a chance to say what they think.

• Everyone gets to answer and you can hear other people’s thoughts

Check Your Understanding (Marzano's Practice)

• If I get it wrong and look at the answer key I can see where and how I messed up and retry to understand it and get better

• Helps me with studying

• So I can see how much I know

• You can do your work, check your answer and see your mistake

• When I check it on my own, I get a better understanding

No Grades (BTC Ch. 14)

• A lot less stress and if you get it you don’t have to do the rest

• If I don’t finish it, it won’t bring my grade down

• I don’t have to worry about making mistakes

• It keeps my grade up

• I don’t stress as much

• It lets us make mistakes without having a consequence

Making Mistakes

• Helps me learn and not to do it wrong again

• Helps me see what I did so I can learn from it

• So I can go back and learn better

• When I make mistakes I feel like I learn it and figure it out more easier because a teacher or someone else will explain it to me better and I will understand it. 

• You learn from your mistakes

From the Students' Perspective

I was curious.

What learning activity from BTC did the students find most beneficial?

At the end of their quiz today, 

I posted the following six strategies for them to choose one.

1) Working at the vertical white boards

2) Whole Group Discussions (Consolidating)

3) No Grades on Classwork

4) Note Taking for my Future Forgetful Self

5) Check Your Understanding

6) Making Mistakes

I had thought the boards would be in the majority.

Last time I asked, 67% of the students viewed working at the boards as the most beneficial. 

Discussions came in second when I asked the first time.

I was surprised to see that Note Taking had such high marks.

Are students really seeing the value of note taking?

Are they using these notes to study from?

What are their reasons for rating this one so high?

I guess I have more investigating to do!  :)

Taking Notes

We started our angle unit.

Sooooo much vocabulary.

We have interacted with the angles before the vocabulary was even introduced,

But "supplementary" and "complementary" are just hard to remember.

So....

Today we had to switch things up,

And go back to old school.

Students are watching an instructional video to review and learn angle vocabulary.

They are taking notes as they go through the video.

My hope is that taking notes this way is still better than just copying what the teacher writes.

My hope is that thinking is still present as they decipher what to include for their learning.

My hope is that they summarize things in their own words.

My hope is that they have seen the value of visualizing these concepts and draw pictures. 

To aid in this endeavor, I provided a template for column notes.

We will use these notes in our next class period

As we continue to learn and use the angle vocabulary.

Have a great weekend! 

When Students Realize That They Just Think Better At the Boards.

Today's task...creating a plan for security cameras in an art gallery.

Today's goal...to practice using protractors to draw angles.

So when these two asked to go to the board so they could talk out their plan,

I knew there was my evidence that thinking increases when standing and using a white board.

Every Day...The Amount of Thinking Just Amazes Me

Marzano's Nine Instructional Strategies Meets BTC

Marzano's Nine Instructional Strategies have always been a staple in my room.

Today I got curious to see how they fit in with Building Thinking Classrooms.

Here's what I found to be true in my room.

Similarities & Differences

With students working on vertical white boards (Ch. 3),

It is much more time efficient to compare various solving methods

When bringing the class to a whole group discussion for consolidation (Ch. 10)

We can easily discuss the similarities and differences between these methods,

Thus creating a broader understanding of how the math works.

Summarizing and Notetaking

Enter "Notes for my Future Forgetful Self" (Ch. 11) 

And you have this one covered!

Best thing ever since sliced bread.

My students are getting better as time goes on with filling out their own notes.

We still bring their ideas together as a whole class,

With me sometimes having to ask clarifying questions to make the notes as complete as possible.

But even when that happens, the information is coming from the students.

Reinforcing Effort

Creating competency charts (Ch. 12) is a great way for students to see the value in their efforts.

We did this with our Struggle chart...

Charting what we can do when we start to struggle with a problem 

And what doesn't seem to work so well.

Also, when reflecting on practice or quizzes,

Using the six symbols (Ch. 13) allows for student reflection on their efforts in their learning.

Homework & Practice

Taking away the grading

And allowing homework and practice to be just that...

Practice in their math learning,

Checking for understanding (Ch. 7)

Has been the Best. Thing. Ever.

Nonlinguistic Representation

The vertical white boards (Ch. 3) allow for better nonlinguistic representation

As students draw and model math problems.

Cooperative Learning

Collaborative random groups are created at least twice a week in my classroom.

Students are encouraged to work cooperatively,

Sharing the pen,

Asking questions, 

Explaining/justifying answers and methods,

Are just a few ways my students work together in the learning process.

Generating Hypothesis

This is kind of a by product of learning at the vertical white boards,

But it seems like the discussions that follow 

Have initiated more questions that fall into the category,

"I wonder what would happen if".

These questions allow for a deeper discussion

And students leave with a broader understanding of the content taught that day.

Questions, Cues, Advance Organizers

The vertical white boards themselves are great for cueing other boards when struggle hits.

Many conversation has been had about using the work of others 

To help get "unstuck".

This is not cheating.

It's using their cues to get moving again with solving the problem.

Objectives & Feedback

Giving the objectives/directions of a lesson while standing at the beginning of class

Is a great way for students to understand the objective of the day's lesson (Ch. 6)

Providing answer keys for any practice 

Gives students the immediate feedback they need for finding mistakes.

I used to give homework one day and then check it the next.

Reviewing homework was my least favorite thing about teaching.

Now, students are doing the reviewing.

Questions are relevant to the mistakes they are making, 

And we are addressing them most importantly when it's important to the student.

Which is right then.

Not the next day. 

Students also gain feedback from the work on the other boards. 

As mentioned in the Cues Strategy,

When students compare their answers,

Thinking increases especially if the answers differ.

Notes for My Future Forgetful Self Meet the Vertical White Boards

Today, the students took notes. (Ch. 11)

I supplied the headings.

They wrote down what they had learned

And didn't want to forget.

Since the first time we tried this,

I could see an improvement for many of my students.

There weren't as many blank spots.

Students were thinking...and writing.

Before transitioning into the next part of the activity,

We discussed what changes could be made to help them with the note taking.

1) Students have been seen taking out their notebooks during new learning

And taking NOTES ON THEIR OWN!

Seriously, I haven't said a word.

They are taking notes as notes were intended to be took!

2) Staying dialed in during class learning activities.

Some of my students are still having a hard time staying focused 100% of the time.

This is telling when they go to write down notes from their learning.

There just isn't much there,

If anything at all.

3) Not being afraid to write something down that might be wrong.

Writing on paper can be scary.

It's more permanent than the white boards.

Even if it's in your very own notebook.

I encouraged students to write down their thoughts,

Even if they were wrong.

It is better to iron out the misconceptions now in a whole group discussion,

Then wait to see the mistakes on the quiz next week.

After students got down their individual thoughts,

Each vertical white board had the same headings as their notes.

Students were to travel from board to board, 

Adding any new content from their notes.

I intended this to be an eye opening experience for my students.

BUT BOY WAS IT AN EYE OPENER FOR ME!!!!

Gaps in learning were quickly made apparent.

Mistakes jumped off the boards.

Misconceptions were brought to light.

Levels of learning (basic to advanced) were highlighted.

Once students finished contributing to the boards,

They were to go back to their seats to add to their notes.

As a whole group, we went over each board.

Correcting mistakes.

Highlighting main ideas.

And adding additional material that was initially forgotten.

While I didn't have much hope for notes for my future forgetful self at first,

Our perseverance at working on this skill is definitely paying off.

When We Must Focus On Things OTHER Than Math

We had started a new unit.

The discovery problem had them stumped. 

Student literally could not even find themselves into the problem. 

We pulled out hands-on resources.

I encouraged them to draw pictures.

They were still stumped...

And more concerning, started to shut down.

So the next day, we had a little conversation.

A conversation on what we could do to help ourselves when we got stuck.

I created the anchor chart,

And students told me what to fill in.

Interestingly, all my classes except one listed "Ask for Help" as the very first thing to do.

In that one lone class, asking for help was second from the bottom.

It was almost like an after thought,

Oh!  We could ask for help!

In the days and weeks that followed,

I found myself referring to this chart a bunch.

As students checked out,

I would have them pick something from the left side of the list to try instead.

As students struggled through and eventually became successful,

We looked at the strategies they had implemented to get them to move their thinking.

Today, as I pondered our lesson at the vertical white boards,

I knew there could be points where students jumped back on the struggle bus.

And then I remembered reading in BTC about how to promote this in the classroom. 

Chapter 12.

What We Choose to Evaluate in the Thinking Classroom.

While I didn't give a grade on their performance,

We used these ideas to guide us again through the daily process of learning new material.

I created this chart that I will have ready to use

So students can visually assess where they were when struggling through the problem solving process.

No Grades and Answer Keys (Ch. 7)

Remember back in the day, the answers in the back of the text book?

Only the odds, but it felt like such a gift to be given the answers to half of the problems!

Now, I post the answer keys most of the time.

Especially for individual practice.

Students have the answer sheet right in front of them.

At first, many just copied or said they were going to copy.

I gave them permission to do so

After reminding them that our goal was for them to learn the material.

If copying was how they were going to do it,

They could show me how much they learned on the upcoming quiz.

Now, two months into the school year,

Students are busy working out problems,

And THEN checking their work.

No more copying.  

If they are stuck, I see them consult the answer key.

I literally see them thinking through what they are reading.

And then they get back to work.

I'm telling you, 

This "no grades" thing has been the best thing I've ever implemented.

Students are working problems FOR THE RIGHT REASONS.

To learn the material.

Not to just get the assignment done!

Scratch Paper Lotto

Our curriculum, MidSchool Math,

Has a Test Trainer component that students complete daily.

This little jewel measures their growth,

So students can see how their effort in class is paying off.

The only drawback.

It's online.

And it's multiple choice.

So there is a lot of just clicking of answers.

To help combat this issue,

We started Scratch Paper Lotto.

At every table, napkin holders hold pieces of scratch paper.

Students can grab a sheet,

Work a problem out

And then place it in their respective class bucket.  

At the end of the week, 

We draw for candy.

I have been seeing so much more effort with solving problems,

And the amount of "just clicking" has decreased.  

Can't wait to see how it has affected their growth!

Vertical White Boards for the Win!

I thought the fascination would die down.

Over time, I thought I would start to hear growns instead of cheers.

But here we are, 44 days into the school year,

And students seem just as excited to go to the vertical white boards

As they did that first day...

When we weren't even working with content.

Those 3-5 days of setting up the scene

With non-curricular tasks has totally paid off.

Today my students spent 40+ minutes working on solving inequalities.

They were given a handout of 32 problems,

Including one-step, two-step, multi-step and writing algebraic representations,

And ranging in complexity from basic to advanced to choose from.

I told them I didn't care how many they solved in each section.

I just wanted them to give their brain a workout.

Just like in strength and conditioning,

If only the easy problems are completed,

Their brain muscle won't grow and get stronger.

Many tried the fraction problems.

One class started with the grand-daddy of them all,

Anxious to prove to themselves they could solve it.

Most made a mistake.

They accepted this gracefully and persevered through it to eventually solve it correctly.

40 minutes.

Standing.

Collaborating.

Showing work.

Solving.

Perseverance.

Work ethic.

Mistakes.

Grit.

I cannot think of a better way to teach,

Then to just be there for my students who are asking the questions,

Who are inquiring how to do something.

Not because they just want to get it done.

Out of the way.

But because they really want to know.

Versatile Vertical White Boards

The vertical white boards have become part of our routine.

Students look forward to their time thinking and doing math.

Not only are they vertical, but how we use them is also versatile.

One Problem at a Time

During some lessons, it's best that students only focus on one problem at a time.

I hand out a new problem, after visiting a group that has finished.

This way, I can assure that each group is solving different problems.

The downside is that they cannot use the other boards for specific help.

As the problems vary in complexity,

Using the other boards as support works only for the structure of the problem.

Handout of Problems - Go In Specific Order

At times, a handout of all the problems is the best way to go.

Students can work at their own speed.

Groups can use other groups' board for feedback.

And I can increase the complexity of the problems as they work through them.

Handout of Problems - Go in Any Order

If the lesson contains problems all around the same complexity level,

Students can solve these in any order.  

This gives the student choice.

Data/Computation Problem

Within our math curriculum, the first problem after the intro video is always a discovery problem.

This is where students can make mistakes.

Misconceptions are made apparent.

Whole group discussion is always needed after this one problem 

To move thinking in the right direction.  

Clicker Quiz review

At the end of the unit, the clicker quiz questions make a great review.

Students work at the boards to solve the questions before placing their vote. 

The only downfall is that we are back to "group think" at the end of the learning.

Retrieval Lists

For students to learn new material, it takes six inputs...Or six exposures.

It also takes six retrievals...

Or six times the students goes back into their brain to get the material and work with it.

Individually, students write down everything they remembered about our current content.

Then in random groups, students pass the pen, and write down something from their notes,

Until everyone's notes are all up on the vertical white board. 

A gallery walk can then be used as an "input" activity 

for groups to see other boards and gain more information.

This activity works great if students have been absent or are struggling with the material.

Four BTC Strategies Earn their Respectful Place in the Top Six Learning Modes for RVMS Students

In our longer than anticipated solving equations unit,

We used the following learning activities.

⚝ Vertical white boards with random groups (BTC)      ⚝ EdPuzzle Video

⚝ Check Your Understanding Worksheet with answer keys for feedback (BTC)

⚝ Visualizing the problems with Algebra Blocks         ⚝ Whole Class Discussions (BTC)

⚝ Anchor Chart (poster) for solving equations                 ⚝ Notes for My Forgetful Self (BTC)

⚝ Clicker Quiz Review at the Vertical White Boards (MSM) ⚝ Finding the Mistake lesson

⚝ Analyzing the first quiz         ⚝ Escape Room practice problems

⚝ Fraction lessons with solving equations                                    ⚝ Simulation Trainer (MSM)

MSM - MidSchool Math Curriculum        BTC - Building Thinking Classroom Strategy

Students were to pick their top three learning activities

that best helped them understand how to solve equations.

OVERWHELMINGLY, the #1 learning activity

was VERTICAL WHITE BOARDS (Ch. 3) with 44 out of my 65 students choosing this learning activity.

Tieing for second was Whole Class Discussions/Consolidate Thinking (Ch. 10)

and the Escape Room.

Whole class discussions did not surprise me,

As these are year after year one of my students' favorite learning modes.

The Escape Room was ranked this high,

According to my students,

Because it was just plain fun.

They literally were doing about 20 problems,

But the challenge of moving levels made it fun and engaging.

Rounding out the top six was

Clicker Quiz Reviews,

Notes for my Future Forgetful Self (Ch. 11)

And Analyzing the quiz (Ch. 13).

In summary, out of the top six learning activities,

Four were from BTC strategies!

Students were also to pick the least helpful learning activity. And this came as no surprise either.

The online EdPuzzle Lesson ran away with the least helpful title.

Students don't want passive learning experiences.

They want to talk about the math.

They want to see the math.

They was guidance and feedback.

While an EdPuzzle does contain 3 of the 4,

It's the interactive conversation piece that's missing.

And that's an important piece in learning...

Being able to share and talk about it.

Overall observations from Quiz 1 to Quiz 2.

--> Confidence rose. Students were completing the quiz in a shorter amount of time.

--> Work shown was more organized, more complete, more accurate.

--> Students handed in the second quiz with a sense of pride.

--> Growth occurred. Some increased their grades by 50-60 points.

--> Quiz 2 was easier to grade. More correct answers. Algebraic rules were followed making it easier to find their mistakes.

Questions resulting from these very positive observations.

--> Did these changes happen from the activities used in reteaching?

--> Was quiz 1 a wake-up call and students paid more attention to reteaching?

Concern

We won't have time to always allow a week of additional teaching. I chose to do so with this concept of solving equations as this is a skill that will follow them their entire mathematical education.

What happened today...the day after the quiz.

A student asked, "Are we at the boards today?"

With a total begging look in his eyes.

When I answered yes,

The entire class cheered.

They cheered.

Let that sink in.

They were excited about doing math together.

Using Self Reflection on Assessments (Ch. 13)

After several weeks of solving equations,

We took a quiz to show off what was learned.

In some cases, the results were dramatic.

Students walked away proud of how their hard work paid off.

For others, my hope is that it was a wake up call.

A call to pay attention,

To take our learning activities seriously,

And to stay engaged.

To help with the self reflection,

We used a navigation tool mentioned in Chapter 13

To chart where our work needed to be for future reteaching lessons,

Students analyzed and reworked the problems on the quiz,

And made notes using the notations outlined in the picture.

By charting their progress on paper,

My hope was that they would gain a better picture of their learning.

To be able to see where their strengths were,

And the struggles that still needing ironing out.

I provided answer keys so they could check their work.

I also had them rework the problems on a piece of typing paper folded into 1/8s.

Definitely something we will continue to do.

I collected their charts, quizzes, and work (stapled together),

So we could do a comparison after our second quiz next week. 

My hope is that if they can start to see some progress,

It will continue to encourage a stronger work ethic in the classroom.

Observations:

Unlike some learning activities that I implement,

This was went better than I had even expected.

By "priming the pump" with my favorite mistakes,

Students were ready to analyze their own quizzes to figure out where they went wrong.

The conversations I heard in their groups,

Made my heart bubble over.

They truly wanted to know their mistakes.

They were taking ownership in their learning!

No Grades When Learning = More Thinking

I've never taken grades on practice problems. 

It didn't seem right to take a grade when one is learning something new.

BUT...

I did take a completion grade.

And now I see where that wasn't working.

When learning new material now in class,

There is no grade.

Not even a completion grade.

Students are working on problems for the way they were intended...

To practice.

Not to just get done with them.

When students complete problems just to get them done,

They hurry,

Thinking is decreased,

More mistakes are made,

And there seems to be less care in the final product...or overall understanding.

When students complete problems for learning,

Where grades aren't even factored in,

They slow down to talk about the process,

Thinking improves,

Mistakes are still made,

But are now corrected to help them make sense of the problem.

And above all,

There is pride in learning something new.

Now, is this happening for all students?

The research from BTC showed that 15%-25% of students 

still weren't doing the problems even with no grade attached.

But that means that 75%-85% were.

I haven't crunched numbers in my classes,

But if I had to estimate, I would say that is about right...

25% of my students are not engaged in learning the problems 

for the "right reason and the right person." 

"When completion is the goal, it encourages behaviors such as cheating, mimicking, and getting unhelpful help." (BTC, pg. 125)

My principal asked me a question.

A valid question.

If a struggling student is paired up at a vertical white board with a student that seems to be catching on,

How do I handle that?

Here's what I have observed.

I have seen students sharing the marker to allow the other student to give it a try.

I have heard explanations to questions on how or why the math works.

I have seen students request the marker so they could see how they do.

These are all examples of students completing the problems for the "right reason and the right person".

They are realizing the importance of understanding it themselves.

No longer can they scoot by with not doing and allowing others to do it for them.

Accountability has been added to the equation once again.

Becoming Habit

Today was the first day that I introduced what we were doing...

...catching up on unfinished business...

and when I set everyone free to get working,

it moved like a well oiled machine.

I didn't have to say anything. 

Students regrouped in their groups from yesterday.

They went to the vertical white boards.

As I took attendance and deleted assignment emails,

I sat and listened to the wonderful sounds coming from the students in my classroom.

I heard conversations about the steps of solving an algebraic equation.

I heard explanations.

I heard questions.

Yesterday when I announced when I announced we would be working at the boards,

One class actually cheered.

And then they got to work.

While both of these stories make it sound like its all sunshine and roses in here,

I will assure you that we have our exceptions.

Some students still have a hard time staying focused.

Some students still try to have other students do all the work.

But on the flip side,

I see students trading the marker so other students can give it a try.

I see encouragement.

I. See. Thinking.

Making It Our Own

Now that we are six weeks into the new year,

With implementing the strategies for Building Thinking Classrooms,

I can see how it is slowly evolving into something that fits us.

At this point we have implemented the following...with our style added to some of them as we find our way for what's best for us. 

• Give thinking tasks
• The tasks from the curriculum are usually the Data/Computation problem from the intro lesson
• Sometimes the tasks have been practice problems that vary in complexity
• Frequently form visibly random groups
• Most of the time, we have formed random groups.  Sometimes due to time constraints, they move to a board in their table groups
• Use vertical non-permanent surfaces
• We have varied this approach.  Sometimes using horizontal large group boards or even individual boards so everyone can work on the problem 
• Defront the classroom
• This was easy.  I already had two "fronts"...my large whiteboard and the TV.  Now I just added all the vertical boards into my teaching focal points.
• Answer only keep thinking questions
• Give thinking task early, standing and verbally
• We don't always stand anymore, but the thinking task is always given at the beginning of the hour. 
• Give check-your-understanding questions
• The Practice Printable from our curriculum has worked great for checking for understanding.  I do not take grades on these, but instead encourage students to check where they are at.  Would they be able to take a quiz the next day based on how they know the content we have been working on?  After getting feedback from the answer key, students code their work with a checkmark to show the correct answer, an X if it's incorrect, an H if the answer key helped them, a G if their group helped them.
• Mobilize learning
• Students are learning that they can use what they see on other boards to help them move their thinking instead of remaining stuck.
• Have students writing meaningful notes
• This is an area that needs a lot more practice!  We will continue to work on these skills of getting meaningful notes down in writing.