Metacognition Curriculum (Lesson 1 of ?)

This year, I’m trying to formally introduce my students to various research relating to mindset, how people learn, and metacognition. Today’s lesson was the first. My goal for today was to introduce students to the scientific evidence that our brains can grow new neurons as adults, and that intellectually stimulating environments and exercise can grow our brains and make learning new things easier. I also worked in some of Dweck’s Mindset research, though in hindsight I think I should have made that a separate lesson. Here’s how today’s lesson unfolded…

Do Now: Complete this survey

(You can download a MS Word version here: MindsetSurvey2013. I stole this survey from this post by chemistry teacher Mr. Kilbane, which he stole from Bowman Dickson in this post. Thanks, guys!)

Lesson:

After completing the survey, we watched this short video segment called “Grow Your Brain” from the episode Changing Your Mind in the Scientific American Frontiers series from PBS.

After the video, I asked groups to get a whiteboard and write down as a group:

• One thing they learned
• One thing they found surprising
• One question they still had

Grouped reported out and I collected responses on an overhead. Here’s the results from one class:

Next, students received a packet which contained:

• “You Can Grow Your Intelligence” (which I believe is the article Dweck had students read in her studies).
• “Flummoxed by Failure–Or Focused?” article from the Wall Street Journal which gives a brief summary of Dweck’s work.
• Infographic about Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets (although now I think I like the 2 page version here better).
• How I Became and Expert questionnaire (which in hindsight perhaps would go better in a lesson about the 10,000 hour rule?)

In a (sadly) mostly teacher-centered fashion, we read a few excerpts from the articles, pointed out the differences between the growth and fixed mindsets, and filled out the expert questionnaire.

As I said previously, I think next year I’ll cut out the Mindset research stuff (which is separate from brain research shown in the Scientific American video we watched), and turn it into a lesson of its own. Now I just need to find a short video about Dweck’s research that I can share with students for that separate lesson.

Possible Upcoming Metacognition Lessons…

• #2: Mindset (next year, I guess. Though wouldn’t hurt to go in more detail and/or show a video this year.)
• #3: Grit – See “Angela Duckworth and the research on Grit” and also “Are You Gritty Enough for College” and “Failure Equals Success”
• #4: The 10,000 Hour Rule/Being an Expert?
• #5: Derek Muller’s research
• #6: Intelligence of group > intelligence of smartest person in group (see Group Learning podcast)
• #7: Novice vs. Expert problem solving
• #8: Math Anxiety?

Also, I need to give a shout out to John Burk, who inspired me when he started building a metacognition curriculum two years ago!

What principles/concepts/ideas/research would you include in a Metacognition Curriculum?

Keep It Simple Standards-Based Grading

Keep It Simple Standards-Based Grading (K.I.S.SBG.)

This post will probably raise the ire of SBG purists. If you are considering switching to SBG, I say go for it. Even if it means you keep it simple the first year, as you and your students figure it all out for the first time. Here’s my K.I.S.SBG. story…

Last spring, I taught a section of conceptual chemisty. Brand new subject for me. To make my life easier, I initially told the students that I would be using the same points-based grading system as their teacher from the fall semester.

And then I sat down to grade their first quiz.

How many points was each question worth? Should some questions be worth more than others? How many points in total? How should I give partial credit? And how is any of this providing helpful feedback to students?

All those questions made it clear: I couldn’t go back to a points-system. It just didn’t make sense to me anymore. So I decided to go SBG, but with a few caveats to keep everyone sane. This is how it ended up looking:

A set of ~5 standards per unit. WHY: This seems to get at the right scope–not too granular, not too broad. Of course, some units had a few more standards, others a few less. Keep it simple.

Each standard was graded binary YES/NO. WHY: Prevents point-grubbing from students. No need to deal with questions like, “Why did she get a 3 on that standard while I only got 2?” Either the student met the standard or they didn’t. Keep it simple.

Standards that are YES cannot go back down. WHY: Prevents students from perceiving this new grading system as unfair. This can save you many headaches, frantic emails from students, and phone calls from parents. Keep it simple.

Term grade = 50 + 50*(#YES/#TOTAL). WHY: No need to worry about conjunctive grading systems, decaying averages, or tiered standards. Kids can quickly and easily calculate their grade. Keep it simple.

No student-initiated reassessments. WHY: This actually wasn’t my rule, but I was lucky if these students showed up to class in the first place. No one came to extra help or during a free period to reassess. So I just put the most missed standards on subsequent quizzes. It worked out fine and I didn’t have kids hounding me for reassessments when the term ended. Keep it simple.

I didn’t write the standards on each quiz, but put them on a separate scoring sheet (see below). As I looked over the quiz, I marked “✔” or “X” for each standard.

When I finished marking all the quizzes, I used the score sheets to transfer the grades into ActiveGrade.

After all the scores were entered, I printed a current grade report for each student. I stapled together the quiz, the score sheet, and the grade report so each student would know where they stood when I returned the quizzes. That way, if the score sheet showed that student “went down” in a standard they previously had correct, they were reassured by the grade report that the YES grade from a previous quiz remained on record. No worrying about logging into ActiveGrade after school or during class. Keep it simple for the student.

At the end of each term was one final quiz to show understanding any unattained standards.

One final bit of advice: If you still want to grade HW, binder organization, class participation, etc, go right ahead. The best part of SBG, in my opinion, is that it gives multiple chances to be successful, gives better feedback about what students can/cannot do, and forces the teacher to spiral the curriculum to enable reassessment. I don’t want you to forgo all those SBG benefits because you still feel uneasy about giving up grading HW completion. Baby steps, baby steps.

Could my system have been better? Sure. But don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. You can tweak and modify next year. Keep it simple, and just do it.

Experienced Teaching Looks a Lot like Jazz

Recently, Michael Pershan (@mpershan) and I had a great conversation on Twitter about lessons and planning. I’ve copied it below. And if you aren’t already following Michael or reading his blog, you’re missing out.

FN: In the beginning, my planning took a content focus — WHAT do I want students to know. Now my planning is task focused — the HOW.

MP: Interesting. Do you rewrite everything each year? What’s your prep like?

FN: While lessons are similar each year, I don’t think I’ve done the exact same lesson twice. Probably not good for my sanity.

MP: But what keeps you from reusing old tasks? I mean, you do, so what’s the new planning? Selecting from set of tasks for kids?

FN: For example, Hooke’s Law task. Do we: uses scales or probes or hanging weights? Do we use 1, 2, or 3 springs? Do we do multiple measurements per trial? Do I force kids to make stretch the independent variable, or do they choose? Do we graph by hand or on the computer? Do we use LoggerPro or Excel? Do we use ideal springs or ones that have a preload? Does each group use identical springs or does each group get different ones? Students in groups of 2, 3, or 4? Do I give them a worksheet or does it go in their lab notebooks? So many little decisions and permutations. All are important decisions that non-teachers don’t even realize we make.

MP: Are these decisions that, you feel, there’s an optimum solution to, or is it different with each batch of kids?

FN: Kids, time, what I want to emphasize, equipment … Lots of factors.

MP: I really appreciate everything you just tweeted. Thank you.

FN: You’re welcome. Not sure that was much help.

MP: Sorry to pry, just trying to get a look at what experienced teaching looks like.

FN: I’d say experienced teaching looks a lot like jazz.

My #mtt2k Submissions Graveyard

Yesterday was the deadline for the #mtt2k contest and I don’t have an entry. All summer, I waffled back and forth about doing an entry. I’d have a great idea one evening, start working on it, but by morning I was second guessing myself and the whole idea of the contest in general. Then a conversation on Twitter would spark another idea, only to be discarded the next day. Wash, rinse, repeat.

So before I come to my senses and decide to axe this post, here’s a brief description of my #mtt2k ideas that never came to complete fruition:

1. Khan Academy Classroom Mashup

There’s a playlist of unlisted videos produced by KA’s President and COO Shantanu Sinha that (I assume) is used in training teachers at KA pilot schools. One of the videos is about how to use class time effectively. In it, Mr. Sinha discusses how there’s a misconception that KA is about kids sitting in front of computers, but that the real power of KA is that it frees up class time for activities and projects.

However, KA recently had a series of 6 promotional videos produced, each featuring a different pilot school. And in all of those videos, we see kids in front of computers, watching videos and working through exercises. Student-student and student-teacher interaction only happen when a kid has a question about a problem. The only project/activity work that is shown is just one small portion of one video with kids working on some kind of geometry activity with string and drinking straws.

My entry would be a mashup juxtaposing clips from the “effective use of class time” video and the KA promotional videos of kids with laptops.  I understand that when the mainstream media does a piece about KA, they tend to focus on the videos and exercises, and that is out of the KA team’s control. But if KA says they are really about freeing up the classroom, why do their own promotional videos show kids working through modules on laptops in class?

2. Khan Academy Exercise Module / Student Tweet Mashup

Khan has a video where he gives a tour of the KA exercise modules and discusses its “motivating” point/badge system. However, as the summer winds down, there have been a lot of students tweeting about their dissatisfaction about doing KA work. My entry would be a mashup juxtaposing video clips of Khan’s exhalations with frustrated student tweets. I think this speaks volumes about our country’s approach to math education and that some computer exercises aren’t really helping. I’ve been collecting the student tweets in a Storify, which you can see here (warning: teenagers using very NSFW language).

3. How I Used To Teach

Before #mtt2k, I was toying with doing a video series aimed at teachers called “How I Used To Teach.” The purpose was to help teachers incorporate specific mulitiple representation approaches in physics, like motion graphs, energy bar charts, momentum bar charts, system schema, and color-coded circuit diagrams. For example, for a video about teaching kinematics, I would present a typical textbook problem and how I used to teach it — making a table of knowns and unknowns and then choosing the Big 5 equation that would solve the problem. Then I’d follow up with how I teach it now — drawing a velocity-time graph for the scenario and using slope and area relations to find the answer.

The #mtt2k connection here is that many of Khan’s video are perfect examples of how I used to teach, particularly in my first 3 years. So my #mtt2k entry would start with Khan solving a problem the traditional way, and then I would follow-up with solving it the multiple representational way.

4. Limitations of Blackboard-style Videos Mashup

Another mashup of Khan explaining concepts like Hooke’s Law and Newton’s Third Law with clips of physics demos that beautifully illustrate them. These would also double as a criticism of Khan deferring to authority in his explanations, rather then deferring to experiment.

5. Dr. Seuss Parody

A story about kids struggling to eat gross school food (rotting vegetables, mystery meat, etc.) for lunch. In a Cat-in-the-Hat-like fashion, a man named Al magically appears to coach kids on how to eat, working through different disgusting entrees one at a time. Al also brings over 3,000 different sauces to put on the gross food. He even rewards kids who eat it with energy points and badges. Soon, schools across America are using Al’s sauces and badges to transform cafeterias into serving “world-class lunches.” In the end, it’s a silly approach — the real solution is to serve better food. Swap Al for Sal and swap food for math and you see the crux of my argument.

6. Khan Academy Exercises vs. Wolfram|Alpha

A video showing how many of the exercises can be gamed using Wolfram Alpha. I’m surprised students haven’t crowdsourced these tricks and created a Cramster for Khan Academy. (Digitial natives, huh?)

My #mtt2k Picks

A masterlist of all #mtt2k entries are listed here. These are my two favorites:

“Khan Academy Does Angry Birds” by Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer)

“What if Khan Academy Was Make in Japan” by Michael Pershan (@mpershan)

And if you haven’t heard, Khan Academy just released a series of interactive computer science modules. They look pretty cool (like this bouncing ball one) and I’m wondering if the platform could be used in my college-prep level physics course. So there’s that.

UPDATE Aug 18, 2012: At the request of a friend, I’ve decided to post the video I created for the first idea above (Khan Academy Classroom Mashup). I don’t narrate any commentary, but rather let the words and actions of KA speak for themselves.

My TEDxNYED Session: Learning Science by Doing Science

Many thanks to the TEDxNYED 2012 crew, especially True Life Media, Basil Kolani, Karen Blumberg, and Matthew Moran for an awesome event. Be sure to check out the rest of the TEDxNYED 2012 talks.

Learn more about Modeling Instruction in Science.

Great News: Tuition Scholarships for Modeling Instruction Workshops

On the heels of the TEDxNYED talk I gave yesterday about modeling instruction, I have some incredible news to share. Someone has taken note of my promotion of modeling, and as a result, is now offering 35 scholarships for physics teachers to attend! Here’s the details:

NEW, AS OF APRIL 28: TUITION SCHOLARSHIPS for physics teachers nationwide who might not otherwise be able to attend a Modeling Workshop at Arizona State University.

Up to 30 (thirty) scholarships of $1,500 each to non-Arizona teachers, and up to 5 (five) scholarships of $3,000 each to non-Arizona teachers from Title 1 schools. These scholarships cannot be combined with other scholarships.

Applications must be submitted by May 11, 2012. Reply to jane.jackson@asu.edu for an application form. Feel free to call her if you have any questions: 480-314-1522

Scholarship recipients must:

• be U.S. citizens
• expect to be assigned at least one section of high school physics in the next school year
• apply to ASU as non-degree graduate student (May 12 deadline to avoid $50 late fee)
• take the ASU Modeling Workshop in mechanics, physical science with math, or electricity & magnetism for credit.

All 3 workshop courses are offered June 11-29 at the ASU – Tempe campus. Low-cost housing can be arranged.

Details: http://modeling.asu.edu/MNS/MNS.html

Scholarships are provided by an individual who desires to expand Modeling Instruction in physics, which will increase the competitiveness of American workers in the long run.

It would be awesome if all 35 scholarships were awarded. Please help spread the word!

Who can you forward the announcement to, ASAP?

* Your colleagues at school?
* Your district science coordinator or staff developer? (to forward to physics teachers in your district)
* Your student teacher?
* Supportive faculty at the college where you graduated? (for student teachers)
* A physics teacher listserv? A chemistry teacher listserv?
* An officer of your AAPT section? (ask them to forward to members)
* An officer of your state science teachers association? (ask to forward to members)
* Your local physics alliance? or science alliance?

9th grade physics teachers are eligible, even if your school is just starting that course. They might like to take the physical science with math Modeling Workshop, which has 9 days on force and motion, and then 6 days on intro to chem.

Make a phone call to someone who might be interested; that is the most effective action.

You Are What You Assess

I found this near the copy machine yesterday while I was running off end-of-quarter reassessments. It was a wakeup call to the disconnect going on between what I value and what/how I assess in my own classroom.