Ch. 7 Homework Reflection

Aside from the white boards propped all around my room,

The change in how homework was handled was probably the biggest change.

Pre-covid I would take completion grades on practice.

Students were to "complete" the practice before we moved on.

After reading this book, it became crystal clear how this completion was happening.

Students were completing it JUST TO HAVE IT DONE.

The purpose of practicing and becoming more efficient in the new skills

Was not even on their radar.  

Simply getting it done, whether by copying another's work or just putting reasonable answers,

Was acceptable in their eyes

And MILES away from the purpose I had in mind.

During hybrid and remote learning,

I quickly realized that I had to take a grade on every little thing mentioned in Google Classroom.

It didn't take long to realize that the math grade was reflecting work ethic and responsibility

Instead of any true understanding of the concepts.

And then along comes BTC!

No more grades for any learning that occurs in the classroom.

Whether at the boards or in Check Your Understanding situations,

Students did as many problems as they wanted,

Knowing that any problems not completed would be good practice for learning the concepts.

But it was not required.

The focus quickly shifted to understanding the material 

And away from having to complete all the problems.

We talked a lot about how many problems were needed to learn and apply a new skill,

And how this number could fluctuate from person to person,

And from concept to concept.

Another change was the availability of the answer sheets.

For every Check Your Understanding, answer keys were posted around the room.

Students could check their work as often as they liked.

The questions prompted from this approach were much more specific

And the amount of thinking during this activity was increased immensely.

It was interesting when new students would join our class.

When these students realized the answers were there for their taking,

They became very excited...anticipating the ease of completing the assignment.

When they eagerly asked if they could copy the answers,

And when I answered, "Sure!  Go ahead!"

My students were quick to clarify that copying would not help them understand the math.

And then when it came time for the quiz where they could show off what they learned,

The person copying the answers would have a hard time!

Oh how I loved this shift in thinking!!!

My only conundrum with all this centers around the Simulation Trainer in my math curriculum.

The simulation trainer is totally a mimicking activity.

And as the book points out, "mimicking has limitations and is antithetical to the kind of thinking behaviors that thinking classrooms are trying to foster".

To incorporate both ideas, we use the Data/Computation problem at the boards.

And then the simulation trainer is done individually as a Check Your Understanding of sorts.

After every problem, is a video of how to solve it.

Repetition.

But I will be honest,

I do see thinking decrease during this time.

I will have to keep thinking how I can best use this component in a BTC classroom.

By the end of the year, students were reporting that they liked this "new" way of grading.

66% of the students liked it.

28% of the students had no opinion either way.

Only 7% did not like it, stating that they would like other opportunities to improve their grade.

Some of their comments to explain why they liked (or didn't like) about grades not being taken for class learning.

"It made me more relaxed and confident about this class and made me feel better about making mistakes."

"It allows me to make mistakes and learn from them and not get a bad grade because I didn't understand it."

"I loved how I could just learn so much and write it down and not have to get graded on it till the test. I believe it really helped me succeed in your class."

"It's learning. It shouldn't be graded."

"Because then people were working slow and not fast."

"It made my grades stay high and it made it seemed easier and less stressful."

"It makes the class seem like less of a thing we have to attend and something we WANT to attend."

When asked how they used the answer keys...

88% used them to check their work

76% corrected any mistakes they made

66% used the answer to help them figure out the problem

I loved it as well as the grade finally reflected true math understanding.

The number of semester F's fell considerably this year with only 1 semester F in the fall.

Last year we had a total of 9 F's for the entire year

And during that crazy hybrid/remote year??? 15 F's!  

Ch. 6 Giving Tasks in a Thinking Classroom

Our math curriculum has a 7-10 minute review called Test Trainer.

It is to be done at the beginning of each class period.

However, this year, I changed it to the last 10 minutes

So we could best utilize that first five minutes to get the task up and going.

Before this new curriculum and implementing Test Trainer,

I had always just jumped in to the lesson,

Somehow sensing before reading about the research that backs it up,

That engagement early on in the class period is optimal.

Just ask my principal...it's because of this mindset that I forget to take attendance!  

Oops!

Anyway, by pushing Test Trainer to the end of the day,

We noticed some positives and negatives.

The students liked it at the end, 

As they reported that their minds were already primed for math

And they thought it was reflected in how they did.

However, there were MANY times when Test Trainer just did not happen.

The problem or the whole group discussion took priority

As learning would reach its peak at about the time we should have been shutting down for TT.

At the beginning of the year, 

I did give the tasks outloud with the students standing around me.  

However, with this group,

Having them all in such close proximity,

The talking increased!

I tried various other ways...

Giving the instructions verbally while they sat in their table groups,

and giving verbal instructions after moving them to their boards.

Both had their downfalls.

At their table groups, they were still seated

And not as plugged in had they been standing.

At the boards, they were standing,

But much more interested in visiting with those in their group.  

Maybe it was just this group.

Maybe it was a call to revisit expectations.

Whatever the case, this is something easy that I can work on next year.  

Ch 5 Reflection - How We Answer Questions

I will be honest,

Some days my answering student questions is better than other days.

And it may depend on how much time was allotted for the problem.

The more time allotted for struggle, the better my questions.

I did see more keep-thinking questions as we went through the year.

Especially when it came to thin-slicing.

They always wanted another problem to try.

I also heard questions such as, "would this work with negative numbers?"

To try to keep students thinking my go-to questions centered around the following list.

"What do you think of this answer?"

"Why do you believe it is correct?"

"Will this always be true?"

I also did the walk away method quite often.

Or I would position myself in the middle of the room,

Simply watching and listening,

Before starting my rounds.

Things to remember for next year.

Respond to Is-It-Right-Questions with 

"Me telling you that it is right is worth almost nothing. 

If you can tell me that it is right, however, that is worth everything."

This is such an important piece of all the strategies,

That this short reflection is a surprise to me. 

However, with having a discovery classroom prior to this,

This type of questioning students was already in place. 

By having six whiteboards going, 

The questions I asked were more specific to each small group,

Essentially moving thinking even farther.