May
26

Toward a New Classroom Paradigm

Filed Under (21st Century Skills, Mathematics) by on 26-05-2010 and tagged , , ,

Note: This is a repost of mine  from the 20inthe21st Ning, a Ning created for D20 teachers who want to improve use of 21st century skills in the classroom.

We are all searching for those “magic bullets” that will somehow create a better learning environment and encourage intrinsically motivated children. That’s a terrible analogy (magic bullet) in this case isn’t it?! I wish I could think of a different way to put it. Hmmm… anyway.

There Ain’t No Magic Bullet

Here’s what I have been doing lately (which I have to say, is quite different from what I was doing only a month or so ago) and it seems to make for a happier classroom and a lot more on-task behavior. This is how I run my 7th grade prealgebra classes. I hope to start using it in Algebra soon as well.

(1) I stopped giving detentions for being off task, talking, pulling others off task, or not completing work. Detentions don’t work and make schools into minimum-security prisons. Prison is not a happy motivating place.

(2) I stopped “going over the homework” and stopped asking things like “what questions do you have? Do you need to see anything done or have it explained?”

(3) The kids work in groups (which they did before, but not like this). They call me over when everyone in the group has the task/problems done. I read off the answers to the group and they circle the ones they got wrong. Then I leave and tell them to call me back when they are ready to try again on those.

(4) I usually answer questions with questions, but I will occasionally explain some thinking, give some ideas, or offer up a clue or an example on the board.

(4) The group does not move on to the next thing until they have ALL solved/answered/completed EVERY part of the assignment correctly.

(5) Not all groups are working on the same investigation. They go at their own pace. The fact that they don’t get to go on to the next investigation until the current one is done has proven to be huge. Much more cooperation, more more effort.

(6) There is no more homework (almost)! It’s not needed because much more gets done in class. The kids are so much happier and they are so much more motivated by this! It’s a 180-turn from what I thought was “the best way to educate.”

(7) The only time there is an outside class assignment is at the end of a unit or section when I assign practice/review problems. This now happens about once every 2-3 weeks. Even so, some of the kids get the majority of them done in class

(8) I don’t have to spend any time grading this work, although I do have to go over the answers about 10 times for each lesson, instead of just once. I don’t mind. It’s way better, since when am going over the problems with the group I sit right there with them and interact with them on a much more personal level. With this system, I can be assured everyone gets the answers right so there is nothing to grade. I still enter the assignment in IC, but only have to check them off as they are done.

(8) I randomly ask learners in the group to explain how they got their answer. If they can’t do it, I leave and come back when there are ready to explain it.

(9) If any group or person gets way ahead or completes the learning objective far in advance of the others, I turn them loose on a small packet of assorted interesting and challenging problems.

(10) One thing I still do is make a lot of noise, tell stupid jokes, alternate between talking excessively loud and extremely quiet, switch between acting deadly serious and being a complete idiot, playing air guitar, and shouting out encouragement.

I’m still fine tuning it, but right now I am having more fun, and making more progress than ever before. And, if feedback from from the kids is any indication, so are they.

The biggest challenges are:

(1) Getting the composition of the groups right.

(2) What to do when a kid is absent and rejoins a group that has moved on.

(3) What to do with a brilliant kid who is frustrated with his peers who can’t keep up or “get it” as fast.

I implemented this scheme too late to have any affect on CSAP performance this year. Even though I think CSAP is an incredible waste of time and resources, I am curious to see what the effect will be next year after a full year of this way of learning.

If I could sum this whole process up it would be like this: We are no longer covering the material, the students are learning the material.

Exactly how relevant this material is to their lives and futures is, of course, a topic for another discussion.

ADDENDUM of April 10, 2010: Based on one classes quiz scores on the material being studied (it’s just one class out of three mind you) it has made no difference at all. How can that be?

Although I have to say, many of the wrong answers and apparent failure to have learned much at during the past three weeks of work seems to mostly stem from a solid lack of understanding of, or facility with, the previous six years worth of material and not necessarily what this quiz was on (order of operations, distributive property, division of integers). Very discouraging.

Which leads me to consider the possibility that the whole idea behind what me and my school are trying to accomplish with math education is hopelessly broken and needs wholesale change.

Addendum of May 26, 2010: Another quiz. This comes after 3-4 weeks of self-paced study of similarity. I have not analyzed the results yet but they are more encouraging than they were last time. The students who usually do well, did well, and those that don’t… well.



4 Responses to “Toward a New Classroom Paradigm”

  1.   Annette Says:
      May 31st, 2010 at 9:07 AM

    Hello! I like your ideas. My teaching partner and I have implemented a self-paced, mastery system for most of this last year in our 7th grade Pre-Algebra classes. We are still tweaking and fine-tuning and really working on how we will do it next year.

    When you have time, maybe you could answer some questions for me…I know how crazy the end of the year is, so whenever is fine.

    Our kids all work at individual paces, then take a short quiz at the end of every 1-2 sections (depending on the content). Then can’t move on until they have finished the work assigned and passed the quiz at 80% or better.

    I am intrigued at the group idea you are implementing. I have tried putting kids in or about the same sections of the book in to small groups, but that doesn’t seem to make things any better. But the individual pacing means that the sloths continue to be sloths…we need more incentive to get those kids working!

    How much better do your “problem” kids do in the groups?

    I had a tough class 6th period where a dozen kids were pulling everyone off task constantly. Over the course of the year 7 of them got expelled…yes expelled. How do you handle the kid who’s trying to disrupt everything? (I agree, detentions don’t work)

    Do they hold everyone back?

    Do the “good” kids in the groups get frustrated?

    How much “copying” is going on, where students don’t really learn it?

    Does the peer pressure work well for both behavior and progress?

    How do your parents take it when a group is held back by only 1 or 2 kids?

    Do you do any whole-class instruction at all? We do notes on each sections and occasional reviews, games, etc. Need to break up the monotony from time to time.

    Do you find you go through the material more slowly? We did, we were miles behind the “regular” classes, but we felt our kids really KNOW the stuff they do know, rather than just being EXPOSED to it.

    We find the same problems with not knowing the material from the last 6 years too…something has to change! So we try!

    Would love your input, and I’d be glad to share more about what we do as well. Keep the faith!

  2.   Mister McIntosh Says:
      July 10th, 2010 at 3:19 PM

    Thanks so much for your detailed comments. It’s a work in progress and I feel pretty isolated since I know of no other middle school math teachers (except now for you!) who are doing this. I would love to keep in touch and help each other develop these methods further during the coming school year.

    I use 1-on-1 formative assessment (Q & A) at the end of each task to check understanding, so copying will not do a learner any good. If they can’t demonstrate understanding of the concepts, they have to do it again or come back to me when they can.

    No it does not seem more slow. Some actually go faster. Others do go slower (because they goof off too much). But, the goof-off students don’t learn much going at the regular pace anyway, so no loss as far as I can figure.

    I try to put troublesome kids with high performing groups. If that doesn’t work I isolate them and they have to work by themselves. If that fails I send them out to the hall. I’m open to suggestions!

    The high performers tend to find each other and form a group, or voluntarily work separately so as not to be held back.

    Let’s keep in touch!

    Phil…

  3.   Marisa Says:
      November 11th, 2010 at 7:42 AM

    Hello!
    I am another middle school math teacher, looking to change my classroom to a mastery-based system.

    I have not tried this yet, but am trying to find information on getting this system set up in my classroom.

    I am curious about the logistics: How do you teach the concepts they are working on (videos/podcasts? Printed paper packets? Instruction in person?)? Are the group assignments what you would normally assign as classwork or homework, or something modified (or even completely different)? Does your district require standardized “benchmark” exams to be given at specific intervals, and if so, how do you deal with this conflicting system?

    Thanks so much for putting some info up on the beginnings of a mastery classroom. I look forward to hearing more! :)

  4.   Mister McIntosh Says:
      November 14th, 2010 at 1:47 PM

    Thanks for reading Marisa.

    This is my first year of trying it so I am still making adjustments. I find that middle schoolers are not as ready or prepared for mastery learning as older kids would probably be. None-the less, it seems to be working for the majority of them. The ones it is not working for are likely the same ones that no method works for because they are determined to not learn, no matter what. Or, they have just been passed from one grade to the next, without regard for how much they have actually learned.

    Our district does not require periodic benchmark tests. That is an insane old-school (and outdated) concept since it is quite clear that kids do not all learn at the same rate.

    My basic structure is for the learners to watch video lectures, demonstrations, and example problems at home and come to class knowing what to do. My entire course is set up sequentially using the classroom course management system Moodle. I make some of my own videos (vodcasts) and get others from TeacherTube, YouTube, and the Khan Academy. YouTube and Khan Academy (because their videos are served from YouTube) are blocked at school, which sort of helps actually to enforce the “watch the videos at home” plan. I find that the kids who are not doing well are the ones who don’t watch the videos.

    Pre- and Post-Tests are done on paper in class and include both selected and constructed response questions. Quizzes throughout the a unit are done on-line within Moodle and are mostly selected response with some write-in numerical responses. A minimum score of 75% is required on each exam and there is no limit to how many times an exam can be taken. The only grades are earned from Post-Tests and quizzes and I give no credit for completing assignments or warm-ups.

    The assignments are the ones I would use whether using mastery learning or not. Often they are investigations from the Connected Mathematics series of books. Sometimes they are just problem sets I create in ExamView if the books do not properly cover a topic. I realigned my curriculum with newly adopted state standards this year and the books do not always get the job done.

    I invite you to join the Vodcasting Ning to connect with many other teachers who are committed to this way of implementing personalized learning for all students. Lots of good discussion and problem solving goes on there.

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