Convincing Reluctant Teachers

This question was posted to Twitter today:

Question: how do you convince teachers who are ADAMANT that they teach to the rigor required by CCSS that they really don’t?

(CCSS means Common Core State Standards)

This is a great question. I think it applies to a wide range of situations. You can replace “CCSS” with the Next Generation Science Standards, the new AP Physics 1 and 2 course, or any curricula du jour. It all boils down to showing these teachers that traditional teaching methods do not lead students to a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Some folks may suggest showing the reluctant teachers sample test questions from the new assessments. I say stay far away from that. These teachers will likely look for tricks to game the assessments so students can be successful without the in-depth understanding these teachers think they are teaching.

My suggestion is to have the reluctant teachers administer a basic conceptual diagnostic test to their students. The questions are so basic, so easy, the teachers will say “Of course my students can ace this!”

And then wait for the results to come in.

In all likelihood, the students (on average) will do poorly. Amazingly poorly. Even worse than if they had simply guessed randomly.

To which the reluctant teacher responds, “What happened? They should have known all this!”

Now’s your chance. I think now they’ll be more receptive to what you have to say about how students learn math and science and why interactive engagement techniques work.

***

Here’s Erik Mazur (Harvard physics professor) explaining what happened when he gave his students a conceptual diagnostic test:

(The video is an excerpt from Mazur’s longer “Confessions of a Converted Lecturer” talk.)

***

Extensive lists of concept inventories can be found at FLAG and NC State. Remember, many of these tests have been painstakingly developed and refined by researchers. Be sure to abide by the developers’ rules with administering the tests to students. You should not post them to the internet or discuss the answers with students.

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.

Physics Teaching 2.Uh-Oh

My first talk! Given at the STANYS 2011 Physics Breakfast on November 8th, 2011 in Rochester, New York

Links to resources mentioned in the talk:

• Feynman’s blackboard at his death
• Hake’s “Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses“
• Bowling Ball & Mallet exploration
• Whiteboarding
• Modeling Instruction
• Tug of war on Slip ‘N’ Slide video
• PhET Simulations
• Angry Birds in the Physics Classroom
• Instant feedback with orange pens
• Doxie scanner – educator’s price
• Worked Examples and Practice
• Standards-based Grading
• Active Grade and Blue Harvest online SBG gradebooks
• Blogs –> Check the side bar!
• Physics teachers on Twitter
• Global Physics Department

A huge thank you to Gene Gordon for inviting me to speak at the breakfast. It was great to share my passions and meet my virtual colleagues face-to-face!

I’d love any feedback you have, positive and negative. Thanks!

Grading and xkcd

Today’s xkcd comic nails the problem with averaging customer ratings. The connection to grading is pretty obvious.

Couple this with parachute packing:

And do we really need anymore reasons to convince people we need to switch to Standards-Based Grading?

Also see these two articles from ASCD (in case blog posts don’t fly with your audience):

• Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading
• Improving the Way We Grade Science

Khan vs. Karplus: Elevator Edition

Exhibit A: Sal Khan on elevators

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Exhibit B: My students on elevators
Framed around the Karplus learning cycle (Exploration, Invention, and Application) my students construct the conceptual and mathematical models themselves.

1. Exploration Phase:

2. Invention Phase: 

• Draw a motion diagram for the object attached to the scale when the scale is stationary, then being pulled up and then stops.
• Draw a force diagram for the object attached to the scale when the scale is stationary, then being pulled up and then stops. Decide whether the force diagram is consistent with the motion diagram. How is the force diagram related ot the reading of the scale?
• Use the force diagram and the idea under test to make a prediction of the relative readings of the scale.
• Observe the experiment and reconcile the outcome with your prediction.

(Video and questions for this phase taken from Eugenia Etkina’s awesome site Physics Teaching Technology Resource which has many more video experiments.)

3. Application Phase:

Instead of showing our students a better lecture, let’s get them doing something better than lecture.

UPDATE: Welcome New York Times readers! Other recommended posts:

• Modeling Instruction: Learning Science by Doing Science
• Interview on MSNBC about Modeling Instruction
• Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos
• You Khan’t Ignore How Students Learn
• Khan Academy: My Final Remarks

My Teaching Conditions Are My Students’ Learning Conditions

As a science teacher, I need my union to ensure I can do my job properly and give my students the best possible learning experiences.

My union ensures I am evaluated fairly.

I use inquiry methods with my students whenever possible. They devise their own experiments, collect and analyze their data, and share their results with the rest of the class. We problem solve on whiteboards. Students must construct their own knowledge. My students are frequently talking and moving around.

However, these methods are sometimes met with resistance from parents, students, and even some administrators. By having a fair and standard evaluation system which was negotiated by my union, I know that I am an effective teacher.

My union ensures my students are safe.

Class sizes in science are capped at 24 students. I can effectively manage the transitions from whole class discussion to small group discussion to laboratory work. Students are not overcrowded in lab. I can easily and efficiently monitor the progress of all the lab groups.

My union ensures my students are assessed in a variety of meaningful ways.

With 24 students maximum per science class, and a maximum of 5 sections, I can assess my students’ understanding in more meaningful and authentic ways. I can give my students timely feedback. I can implement standards-based grading without it becoming a bear.

My union ensures I grow professionally — and I help my colleagues grow, too.

We have options for professional development — time for self-directed PD during staff days, the ability to offer after school courses to my colleagues, the option to take graduate courses on campus or online. It is only through continuous reflection and growth that I become a better teacher.

I support my union because without it, there would be 50 students in each of my classes sitting quietly in rows, reading their textbooks (instead of doing labs) in preparation for their next multiple choice exam which will be graded by the Scantron machine.

This post was written for EDUSolidarity Day. Visit the EDUSolidarity website for the complete list of blog posts and follow #EDUSolidarity on Twitter.

SBG: Keeping Track of it All

“How do you keep track of everything in your standards-based grading system?”

Both the students and I are responsible for tracking scores. Here’s how it works.

My Google Docs Gradebook

I use Google Docs for my SBG gradebook. Since each course I teach has different standards, I have a separate file for each course. Multiple sections of the same course are in the same file. Here’s how the files are set up:

[1] Each assessment has its own sheet in the gradebook file.
[2] One column for each standard on the assessment, in order of appearance (question order). This makes transferring scores from quiz paper to gradebook much easier. Even easier if the quiz papers are alphabetized.
[3] Cells have color-coded formatting rules. I can easily see that everyone rocked standard BF.1, while CV.4 will need reteaching. Student A did well on the whole, while Student Y should come for extra help.

Once the scores for the assessment are recorded, I copy/paste them to the master sheet.

[4] The master sheet keeps track of the most recent scores for all of the standards.
[5] The standards are ordered by level. This make determining quarter grades easier. (See my grading policy sheet below.)
[6] The columns from the most recent assessment (in this case BF Quiz 2), are copied from the assessment sheet and pasted to the master sheet, one-by-one. Most recent scores replace old scores.

The master sheet allows me to see at a glance where everyone currently stands. (You cannot do this with the SnapGrades online gradebook.) I can see the date and assessment name for when each standard was last scored. And since each assessment has its own sheet, I do not lose the prior scores for the standards. The scores for students who reassess on their own time are entered directly into the master sheet and are annotated.

What I cannot do is see, at-a-glance, a student’s progress over time for each standard. This is why I also have…

Student Learning Folders

Each student has a 2- pocket folder with prongs. The prongs hold hole-punched pages. The first page explains my SBG grading policy.

View this document on Scribd

The subsequent pages in the folder are tracking sheets for the learning goals.

View this document on Scribd

When students get a quiz back, they record the name of the assessment, the date, and their scores on the corresponding standards on the tracking sheets. Students can store the quizzes in the pockets, if they wish. With their folder, students can easily see, at-a-glance, their progress on each standard over time. According to Marzano, student gains are higher when students track their progress.

At interims and end-of-quarter time, students fill out a progress report. They take the most recent score for each standard and record it under the corresponding level. This makes it easier for the student to determine their grade for the interim or quarter. Folders and progress report sheets are sent home to parents.

View this document on Scribd

I then meet with students individually to discuss their grade, making sure my Google Docs gradebook reconciles with their progress report sheet.

This system works really well for me. While there are more scores to enter for each assessment, it takes the same amount of time as it would to tally up all the points earned if the quiz was scored traditionally.

Be sure to read “Improving the Way We Grade Science” for more background on standards-based grading. (It’s where I picked up the tip to color-code the scores in the spreadsheet.) You can also check out my SBG bookmarks at http://bit.ly/SBGlinks.

(Note: Feed reader users may need to click through to view embedded documents.)

Reassessment Experiment

CV.3 (A) I can solve problems involving average speed and average velocity.

That learning goal is the thorn in the sides of many of my students right now.

They took their midterm exam last week and many missed the question associated with that goal. The (A) denotes that it is a core goal.  Which means that, based on this grading scale:

their quarter grade cannot go above 69 until all core goals are met.

I handed the exams back in class yesterday.  Naturally, many students wanted to reassess on the spot. Since I have an archive of quizzes from previous years, it was easy for me to print out a bunch and let them have at it.

And most of them missed it again on the reassessment. No surprise there, really. Without any remediation, it was just another shot in the dark.

So as an experiment, I posted the following to our class’s Edmodo page today:

Does CV.3 have you Down? If so, do the following by Monday:

(1) Explain, in detail, the difference between average speed and average velocity. Simply writing the two equations won’t be sufficient.

(2) Describe in detail a situation where an object’s average speed and its average velocity have the same value.

(3) Describe in detail a situation where an object’s average speed and its average velocity have different values.

(4) Create your own physics problem involving average speed and average velocity that is NOT a simple “plug-and-chug” type problem. (For example, “A car travels 50 miles north in 2 hours. What is its average speed and velocity?” is NOT acceptable.) Write up both the problem and a complete solution. Feel free to use pictures, graphs (even video) as part of your problem. Check out this link for non-“plug-and-chug” problem types: http://tycphysics.org/TIPERs/tipersdefn.htm

(5) Cite all resources (classmates, parents, books, web pages, videos, etc.) you used. (It doesn’t have to be in proper MLA format. A simple list is fine.)

Submit you work HERE on Edmodo. You should upload a file (word, PDF, etc.). The work must be YOUR OWN. I can tell when “collaboration” is really copying.

I hope this provides both the necessary remediation and a unique opportunity to reassess beyond simple quiz questions. I am really excited to see what kind of problems they write. I have done student problem writing in the past, but was never pleased with the results. Perhaps by requiring them to create a TIPER problem, we can push past equation memorization and towards understanding.

This scenario has also raised a few more unanswered questions: Why do I have this goal in my course in the first place? Why do my students keep missing it even though all quizzes (and the midterm) are open notebook? And if so many students are missing it, is it really a “core” goal?

SBG Gala #4

Blog Carnival standards-based grading gala archives | submit post

Welcome to the 4th edition of the Standards-Based Grading Gala! We’ve got another round of great posts — perfect for winter break reading!

But first, a little SBG Twitter humor. On Twitter, SBG-related tweets are tagged #SBAR (since #SBG is already heavily used for non-educational purposes) which stands for Standards-Based Assessment and Reporting. But that unique nomenclature occasionally raises some questions:

@russgoerend is #sbar a relative of #fubar?

— Jon Becker (@jonbecker) November 17, 2010

https://twitter.com/#!/russgoerend/status/4983983427293185

And now, the posts:

SBG Questions

John Burk presents Perfectionism and SBG posted at Quantum Progress, saying, “How do we keep SBG focused on learning and not just checking off standards?”

SBG Implementation

Chris Ludwig presents Skills-Based Grading: Trying to Avoid the Standards-Based Tag posted at Science Education on the Edge, saying, “I think names are important when I discuss what I do as a teacher to improve my instruction.”

Matt Townsley presents So, you’re interested in standards-based grading…. posted at MeTA musings, saying, “a beginning conversation about SBG implementation”

Jason Buell presents The Weekly Portfolio posted at Always Formative, saying, “A low maintenance way to help students develop self-evaluation skills.”

Riley Lark presents Natural Grade Calculation with Tags posted at ActiveGrade Blog, saying, “it’s a post about using standards-based grading to improve overall grade definitions.”

Mr. Miller presents The Day of Reckoning Has Arrived posted at Studio 201, saying, “Semester and quarter grades, SBAR style.”

@cheesemonkeysf presents The Rough Guide to the SBG Rubric cheesemonkey cooks, saying, “I’ve been wrestling with the question of whether or not to include a 3.5 in my 4-point rubric.”

SBG Miscellaneous

Geoff Schmit presents Student Feedback on SBAR posted at Pedagogue Padawan, saying, “Several students answers to the question ‘Standards-Based Grading is …’ after the first semester.”

Jill Gough presents 2nd Chance Tests, Effort, and Assessment posted at Experiments in Learning by Doing.

Russ Goerend presents Capturing the process of students learning posted at Russ Goerend, saying, “Focused on capturing learning. Not exactly an sbar nuts and bolts post.”

Jason Christiansen presents Reassessment Fridays (SBG): A Love Story posted at Mr. C’s AP Statistics Blog.

My submission is an old post: 31 Reasons Why Kids Like SBG.

That concludes the 4th edition of the Standards-Based Grading Gala. Thanks to everyone who submitted a post! John Burk has graciously agreed to host the next SBG gala! Check his blog at a future date for more information. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Accepting Submissions for SBG Gala 4

Blog Carnival standards-based grading gala archives | submit post

I am psyched to be hosting the next round of the SBG Gala! The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2010. The carnival will be posted here on my blog on December 23 — just in time for vacation so you’ll have plenty of time to read and comment on all the great posts without the stress of lesson planing and grading.

Whether you are an SBG veteran, a newcomer, or on the fence, we want to hear from you! Your post could be old or new. Your post doesn’t even have to be SBG-specific — any post about assessment (formative, summative, project-based, etc.) will do. What’s working for you? What questions do you have? What changes will you make? How have students and parents reacted? Have you gotten other teachers in your school to ride the SBG Express?

In case you’ve missed them, here are the previous editions of the gala:

• SBG Gala #1 — hosted by Matt Townsley at MeTA Musings
• SBG Gala #2 — hosted by Jason Buell at Always Formative
• SBG Gala #3 — hosted by Ellena Bethea at TEACHING|Chemistry

The gala is great way to network with other teachers looking to reform their assessment practices and to discover new blogs to feed your reader.

So what are you waiting for? Superman? Submit your post for SBG Gala #4! Toot! Toot!