Right now my kids are taking a test, and I'm pondering grading. If we want future teachers to know what our students got out of our class, why don't we just give them one big test at the end of the semester, and that's their grade? I know we would have to be very careful about keeping everything fresh and constant and using it multiple times so they are prepared and remember it until then, but is that what really matters?
I want them to know how they're doing along the way. For that reason I like grading things along the way so they see if they're doing things correctly or not. Couldn't this be done just as easily in a formative way? We could even grade some things and make them track their own progress, but not actually grade or count anything until their test at the end of the year. In this way, we wouldn't be held back by keeping things consistent. Right now we test over everything multiple times. I'm not knocking out system at all, because I've seen huge advantages. We have a lot of work to do to perfect our system, but I love that since kids are graded along the way, their grade will reflect when they improve their understanding and learning. I guess what I'm saying is that I love our system given the expectations for grading that we currently have in place.
How cool would it be to not give a test over lines at all but to give the students a project where they have to make a presentation and use different types of graphs to represent different data. If we had the time to create the scenarios and perfect the expectations and guidelines we give, I think the result could be some very authentic, useful in the real world, valuable learning around lines, linear equations, intercepts, systems of equations, and why they matter. However, this keeps us from having consistency because how could you possibly grade that next to a test? Make it a group project with a presentation component and tie-in to another class, and it becomes something that cannot be compare at all to a test. We've also given about 5 tests in the last 2 weeks.
We spend so much time reviewing and trying to get kids to understand the basics, but in the end, math class is just a place where they try to memorize the rules for when they need them, but sometimes have the slightest idea why they work. There are a few students who are stuck in a situation where they do actually get it and could thrive if given problems to solve and authentic scarios to unravel and think and struggle through, but they never get the chance. Everyone around them says math is hard and is lucky to pass the test, and then we move on. The majority of the class just isn't very good at memorizing things that have absolutely no importance in their lives whatsoever. The others never had a chance to dig deeper. If we could actually discover math, what an amazing classroom that would be. But it takes time to discover things. It takes more time to process what you've discovered so you know what the implications are for you. I wish we could have every Monday or Monday and Tuesday be discovery days. We would just give the kids problems and scenarior and have them explore and try things. On Wednesday they could spend the class period researching what they tried during the first 2 days. We could give them some resources, teach them how to find good information on the internet, and then have them write about what they discovered and what others before them have already figured out. Thursday we could dig into the history, and then tie it all together on Friday with presentations or papers or sharing problems with small groups. Wow... I wonder if this would work if you split up a chapter and for one week had everyone follow this model. Or even if we did 1 day of problem-solving/discovery and 1 day of research and then had a writing/organizing information assignment that night, so we could start sharing and discussing the very next day. This could be a 3-4 day cycle and we would learn material so much better.
Questions to consider...
1. What topics would this work with?
2. Could this be done in a jigsaw way where different groups of students are working on different topics and share them at the end of the week? (Cons would be that only a few students would get to do discovery/problem solving with their individual topic.) This would still be better whan what we're getting now.
3. What are the possibilities for each group doing something different, and then using them at the very end to come together to solve some bigger problem? This might be something that could work after we learn something the old fashioned way. Each group could have a project with their topic and when put together we could use what each group has to solve some bigger problem. This really gets at the heart of problem-based lessons where you have some big overall question that you're trying to answer that isn't just content specific.
4. How/when will I come up with the ideas or create what I would need to provide to make this type of learning effective? Are materials already in existence, and if so, where can I find them? Are they free?
I want them to know how they're doing along the way. For that reason I like grading things along the way so they see if they're doing things correctly or not. Couldn't this be done just as easily in a formative way? We could even grade some things and make them track their own progress, but not actually grade or count anything until their test at the end of the year. In this way, we wouldn't be held back by keeping things consistent. Right now we test over everything multiple times. I'm not knocking out system at all, because I've seen huge advantages. We have a lot of work to do to perfect our system, but I love that since kids are graded along the way, their grade will reflect when they improve their understanding and learning. I guess what I'm saying is that I love our system given the expectations for grading that we currently have in place.
How cool would it be to not give a test over lines at all but to give the students a project where they have to make a presentation and use different types of graphs to represent different data. If we had the time to create the scenarios and perfect the expectations and guidelines we give, I think the result could be some very authentic, useful in the real world, valuable learning around lines, linear equations, intercepts, systems of equations, and why they matter. However, this keeps us from having consistency because how could you possibly grade that next to a test? Make it a group project with a presentation component and tie-in to another class, and it becomes something that cannot be compare at all to a test. We've also given about 5 tests in the last 2 weeks.
We spend so much time reviewing and trying to get kids to understand the basics, but in the end, math class is just a place where they try to memorize the rules for when they need them, but sometimes have the slightest idea why they work. There are a few students who are stuck in a situation where they do actually get it and could thrive if given problems to solve and authentic scarios to unravel and think and struggle through, but they never get the chance. Everyone around them says math is hard and is lucky to pass the test, and then we move on. The majority of the class just isn't very good at memorizing things that have absolutely no importance in their lives whatsoever. The others never had a chance to dig deeper. If we could actually discover math, what an amazing classroom that would be. But it takes time to discover things. It takes more time to process what you've discovered so you know what the implications are for you. I wish we could have every Monday or Monday and Tuesday be discovery days. We would just give the kids problems and scenarior and have them explore and try things. On Wednesday they could spend the class period researching what they tried during the first 2 days. We could give them some resources, teach them how to find good information on the internet, and then have them write about what they discovered and what others before them have already figured out. Thursday we could dig into the history, and then tie it all together on Friday with presentations or papers or sharing problems with small groups. Wow... I wonder if this would work if you split up a chapter and for one week had everyone follow this model. Or even if we did 1 day of problem-solving/discovery and 1 day of research and then had a writing/organizing information assignment that night, so we could start sharing and discussing the very next day. This could be a 3-4 day cycle and we would learn material so much better.
Questions to consider...
1. What topics would this work with?
2. Could this be done in a jigsaw way where different groups of students are working on different topics and share them at the end of the week? (Cons would be that only a few students would get to do discovery/problem solving with their individual topic.) This would still be better whan what we're getting now.
3. What are the possibilities for each group doing something different, and then using them at the very end to come together to solve some bigger problem? This might be something that could work after we learn something the old fashioned way. Each group could have a project with their topic and when put together we could use what each group has to solve some bigger problem. This really gets at the heart of problem-based lessons where you have some big overall question that you're trying to answer that isn't just content specific.
4. How/when will I come up with the ideas or create what I would need to provide to make this type of learning effective? Are materials already in existence, and if so, where can I find them? Are they free?
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