Happy Halloween To Me

A former student met me in the hallway today. She heard we had just learned the quadratic formula in algebra 2, and she took it upon herself to choreograph a dance to go with the song I teach. With illustrations.

She offered to come to class and perform it for my current students . . .

. . . but only if I joined in, which I did. Except for the slap the butt part.

Sometimes, high school students are just adorable.

Today's Million Dollar Question

I have been struggling a bit this year with getting a student or two to show steps/process/work/setups (or whatever you call it when you say that it isn't okay to give a lonely answer with no justification). The silver lining is that this struggle forces me to think about WHY students should show work.  Here are a few reasons I have:

Showing steps . . .
Puts the focus on the process, rather than the solution.
Communicates your solution to others.
Makes it possible for you (or someone helping you) to locate your mistakes.
Slows you down, so fewer careless mistakes happen.
Gives evidence your answer is right.
Demonstrates your understanding.
Helps reduce cheating. (Some might still copy, but at least they must copy the work too.)
Finally, in my class an answer bank is given. Showing steps keeps practice from becoming nothing more than a matching game.

I am also asking myself some questions like . . . WHY do some students struggle with showing work?

Maybe because . . .
It takes too much time.
They can do it mentally.
They don't know how to show work.
They are bored.
They don't believe in its value.
They are cheating.

Writing this, I realized that when a student is repeatedly refusing to show their process, I tend to go straight to negative assumptions. I assume they are being stubborn and uncooperative, or that they must be cheating.

I am going to try to put the whole issue in a more positive light and see where the students are coming from. Maybe these students think that showing steps is just for the teacher's sake, and has no benefit to them personally.

Or, maybe they genuinely don't know how to express how they got the answer.

It also has me thinking about the types of questions I am asking. If someone can calculate the answer mentally, maybe the question wasn't challenging enough?

How do you motivate students to show their thoughts?

Bell Work Bliss Gone Bad

I am testing out a new bell work procedure this year, like so:

1.  Student picks up the bell work when she walks in the room. It's right by the door.
2.  Student works out bell work and raises a hand to check.
3.  I check the bell work and give out a green star. Student receives a green pen of her own.
4.  Student checks in with partner to assist as needed and gives the partner a green star.
5.  Student checks in with people sitting nearby to see if green stars/assistance are needed.
6.  I continue passing out green stars and green pens until pretty soon, the green pens and green stars have branched out through the whole room and bell work is done.

The first three or four weeks of this method were completely blissful. Students were self-starting.  Students who understood the problem were coaching the struggling students. I was super proud of myself for putting the responsibility of bell work completion into the hands of the students. Yay for me doing less while students do more!

Weeks 4-6 started going downhill a bit. There is a little lag time between the first and the last students who finish. Students started finishing and chatting. Loudly. Then they started chatting before they got started.

Now, at the 8th week I am frustrated and wondering where it all went wrong. What was different about the first few weeks compared to now? Is the honeymoon over? Or did something else change?

I realized that during the first few weeks I had an extra step at the end of the bell work . . . I directed students toward the few problems I'd put on that day's practice assignment that were review. These were problems they could work on right away without any instruction. So they were doing the bell work, coaching and starring their neighbors, and then moving on to those extra problems. Since it was part of the day's assignment, they were motivated to keep moving along and get that done.

The moral of the story is that if I want to continue to do bell work this way, I need to supply my students with something to do after they finish all the steps. Not busy work. Something worth the time. Something productive that will fill the short gap.

I am thinking I might start using some type of guided questions where they could go ahead and start thinking about the day's lesson, or some ACT practice questions, or maybe just continue with review like before. Maybe some extension or challenge problems for them to think about?

I am not sure which way I will go, but writing this post helped me identify the problem so that now I can figure out a solution.

Yay for blogging!

8 weeks, 8 pencils . . .

I've tried a variety of responses to students who show up to class pencil-less:

1.  Refusing to give them a pencil, so they can learn to be responsible.
(Doesn't work, and I feel like a jerk.)
2.  Providing them with a pencil.
(Pencil is usually gone for good.)
3.  Trading them for something valuable.
(Works, but it is inconvenient.)

This year, I just put out a cup of pencils for students to use as needed.

8 weeks later, I still have all the pencils I put out at the beginning of the year.

It turns out, a plastic spoon is a very affective anti-theft device.

Then I came up with a use for the forks.

(Green pens for checking bell work.)

We figured out right away that the spoon-pencil has a major design flaw:

You can't use the eraser.

So, then I really got carried away . . .

I would recommend attaching the eraser to the handle part instead . . . 

My Favorite Partner Practice

I am a fan of anything cooperative, as long as it is structured in such a way that everyone participates. I spent a lot of time last year seeking out new cooperative practice ideas and trying them out.

I am an even bigger fan of partner cooperation. There is something about a group of three or four that makes me feel like someone is probably getting lost in the interaction. When you are working with a partner, you are directly accountable to one other person. I even have my students seated as partners.

I learned my favorite partner practice from another teacher in my grad program a few years ago. I found out later that it is a Kagan cooperative learning structure called boss/secretary.

Student 1, Boss:  This student's job is to watch and tell. Student tells how to solve the problem, and describes each step with enough detail that the partner can get it written down. This student should be talking and watching, but not writing.

Student 2, Secretary:  This student's job is to listen and write. Student writes down the solution as the partner describes it. This student should be writing but not talking. The exception is if the partner gets stuck or makes a mistake. Then the student can coach and assist with the solving.

What I like about boss/secretary:  It can be done at any time at the drop of the hat. It can also last for any length of time. I will often stop in the middle of a lesson and check for understanding this way. I will just throw out two problems and tell the person sitting on the right (or wearing the most green, or the biggest feet, or the oldest . . .) to be solver of the first problem and then switch roles. I also just used it for a unit review that lasted a whole class period. We used white boards and I signed off on each section as it was completed.

What I don't like:  Students have to stick to their roles in order for it to be a meaningful interaction. I have seen students who are responsible for listening take charge of the problem, or students who are in charge of talking to take a passive role. It is helpful to have students switch roles with every problem.

I Need Adventure (also my trial run of Solve, Crumple, Toss)

Yesterday I tried another goodie from f(t) . . . Solve, Crumple, Toss. Just in case you've never read that post, make sure you read the part about how you should use "6-8 problems with somewhat lengthy solutions". I either skipped or disregarded that part of the description, and it was the downfall of the day.

My students are working on writing linear equations in standard form, given different types of information. I just printed up twelve problems, six per page. Students cut them apart, worked them out (one at a time) and brought them to me to check. If all was dandy, then they got to take a shot for points.  If not, I sent them on their way to keep trying and encouraged partners to check each other's wrong answers and help find the errors. I had no time to coach and help find errors myself, because I had a line of students waiting for me to check their answers. I expected them to finish all twelve problems and make twelve shots. Fine as long as I have a student shooting, like, every eleven seconds. Note to self: Fewer, more complex problems next time!!!

The student response ranged from a few who acted totally tortured because they had to get up out of their seat twelve times, all the way to enthusiastic participation by many. This was fun and productive, and there will definitely be a next time.

In related news, I realized how much more I enjoy my job when I am trying something new. I have been teaching the same classes in the same school for 6 years now, so it is super easy to just pull out what I did last year and do it again. I don't want to take that approach to teaching, so I am always looking for ways to improve on what I have already done. Still, I think my best lessons are the ones that I create from scratch with a fresh perspective.

So today I am just thinking about the payoff for extra time spent trying something new. Sometimes these things work, and sometimes they don't. Still, I am happiest when I am being adventurous.

I Stopped Answering Questions

Not really . . . but I did stop using 10-15 minutes at the beginning of class to discuss and answer questions on the previous day's assignment.

Initially, it was an experiment. I felt like students weren't really invested in this time, and that most of them were falling into one of four categories:

1.  The procrastinators:  These students were using this time to finish the assignment.
2.  The ones who lacked perseverance:  These students would encounter a challenging problem and then stop working on it (or not even attempt it in the first place) because they could just "ask about it in class".
3.  The ones who were really engaged:  Most days, it felt like maybe 2 kids.
4.  The ones who were bored:  These students had the assignment finished and were ready to move on to  a new lesson.

So I stopped spending time on questions. (My students have answers, so they can check for correctness as they practice). And this is what happened:

1.  Most of the procrastinators found a time to finish the assignment before class.
2.  Many more students persevered through challenging problems because they didn't have the crutch of asking about it later.
3.  Many with legitimate questions would drop by before school to ask. Most of our students arrive 30 minutes before first bell, so this works well at our school.
4.  Most everyone started finishing the assignment outside of class.

These outcomes alone were enough for me to turn my experiment into a permanent routine, but there was another benefit that I wasn't expecting . . . I suddenly had an extra 10 - 15 minutes in every class period. What can you do with an extra 10 - 15 minutes?! Here's how I use the extra time:

I use a few bell work problems every day (I am testing out a new bell work strategy, more on that later) to review and check for understanding. If there are any major misconceptions, I can usually identify and address them during this time.

While teaching a new lesson, I have a lot more time for practice and checking for understanding. I still do a lot of talking, but I also do a lot of pausing while students try this or that and check with me (or a partner). I have time to work in several mini-formative checks, and address common misconceptions. The result is fewer issues on the practice/assignment, which in turn further reduces the need for the question/discussion time at the beginning of class the next day.

Sometimes I still wonder if I should bring back the question time, structured differently to eliminate the problems I was having. I haven't done this because I don't miss it. And neither do my students. I realized today that in 2 or 3 years, I haven't had a single student complain about why I don't answer questions at the beginning of class.