Giving the Students Freedom - Saving Your Sanity and Getting Results!

Today, I decided to really try out giving my student's a complete list of what I am looking for in an assignment before they begin the assignment. Here's a copy of the page I gave them:

 

As was mentioned, true, this might not be a true rubric, but that is what I called it here (it is more of a checklist only). The concept was that, if the student's knew what they needed to do without marks involved in the discussion as the reward for the work, they would simply do it. Here's how I did it in total: I placed this on their desk. I explained to them that today they were going to create a drawing of the bottom of the ocean and that the drawing had to have these parts in it. I also explained that they needed to define each term (they could do that on a separate piece of paper) and then attach that to the drawing, along with this rubric. I didn't explain any of these terms beforehand to them either, but simply told them they had to find the definitions on their own (textbook, internet, etc.).

 

The concept is that the drawing would show me that they understood what each thing was as they had to draw it correctly (placement wise).

 

I have to admit that it was one of the classes where the majority of the students were consistently on task! I was also very amazed at the work they were able to do on this assignment; everyone that handed the assignment in nailed it! Therefore, everyone got perfect marks on this assignment (how could I give anything else?).  They knew what they needed to show and could keep track of it themselves.

 

As I said before, the rubric concept is front heavy, but sure makes the marking easier at the end.

Teaching for Mastery - A Look at David Langford's Philosophy

Masters Academy and College (http://www.masters.ab.ca/) in Alberta is a fascinating school with a very interesting philosophy. One of the strategic partners in the school is David Langford. His view of assessment and education is one of the key cornerstones to how Masters teaches their students, from what I have been able to glean. I have included his article below. I have personally enjoyed trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my classroom teaching, though there are some challenges. As I look deeper into this, I'll post more on the pros and challenges to incorporating this into the classroom setting here in BC.

BACKGROUND:
Teaching for Mastery in the classroom is a concept based on the business-world work of W.Edward Deming. This concept took shape when junior high school teacher David Langford joined with Deming to develop principles of educational reform that could raise the quality of school and classroom practice to a higher level. What they came up with was a system that adapts quality practices used in the industrial and technological world to the public schools. Their aim was to develop a system in which students could learn to develop quality products in the classroom, in the same sense that businesses create quality products in the competitive free market.

RATIONALE:
Teaching for Mastery is based upon the following assumptions:
• Grading is not a motivator
• Grading and ranking people only serves to defeat the majority
• Students can take responsibility for their own learning
• Students can and should help plan their learning process
• Students can and will track their own progress if given the chance.
• Students are colleagues

THE APPROACH:
The Mastery approach to evaluation and assessment allows each student to develop skills and knowledge to his/her maximum potential. Student work is considered Mastery when the product submitted exhibits the highest quality of which the student is capable. It is important to remember that students work at differing speeds, and achieve at different levels of quality. When a student masters an assignment, he/she is rewarded with an A on the report card and, more importantly, the knowledge that achieving Mastery exceeds any letter grade. This achievement instills an intrinsic realization of self-worth and a higher sense of self-esteem.
Mastery can replace traditional grading systems that cater to high-achieving students who set the scale. A rigid traditional scale fails to motivate the greater number of students in the classroom, leaving them with a sense of futility and failure. In short, it defeats the majority. Mastery reflects the real world practice of quality production whereas traditional practice emphasizes rote memory and testing based on rigid scales. Mastery provides for individual excellence while traditional systems emphasize a “herd mentality.”

MASTERY TEACHING PRACTICE:
• Eliminate worksheets, quizzes, and tests – work with students towards the creation of quality documents and products.
• Eliminate the letter grades B, C, D - Offer As or Incompletes only.
• Emphasize critical thinking - eliminate rote memory or ‘mindless transfer of information’ assignments.
• Allow students to work in teams to create products, share ideas, and stimulate each other’s thinking - alternate between team products, and individual work that results from team analysis. Allow students to work in teams on difficult units of study.• Allow students unlimited opportunity to bring work to a Mastery level.
• Replace due dates with target dates - do not hold to a rigid schedule - producing a quality product is more important than on-time behavior.
• Teach students to graph all academic and conduct behaviors that are important to success
- this practice creates a “graphic reflection” that stimulates intrinsic motivation.
• Constantly circulate and engage students during work periods – be a colleague.
• Supplement student research with mini lectures (five to ten minutes), whole-class discussions, film spots, and guest speakers.
• Use rubrics to guide and evaluate all student work.
• Democratize the classroom as much as possible - seek student input about assignments, evaluation, and rubrics. Later in the year, you will enjoy working with them to create new units of study.
• Understand that you cannot be the teacher in the traditional sense - become a coach or facilitator.
• The teacher’s role is to make quality possible - the student’s job is to create quality - learning is the student’s responsibility.
• Write a large, circled M at the top of the student’s or team’s product when Mastery has been achieved - this will become a coveted symbol of achievement.

RUBRICS:
Provide rubrics for all student work, work with students to create rubrics for each assignment, or allow students to create their own rubrics. At the beginning of each unit of study, provide for two rubrics. A guideline rubric should lay down specific instructions and steps for what students or teams are expected to know or do. The second rubric is for assessment - it should list every quality upon which the project or product will be evaluated. At times, the guidelines rubric will be the same as the evaluation rubric. If students are working together in teams, provide a process or participation rubric. Go over the rubrics with all students at the beginning of the unit - provide them a copy that they can reference from time to time during the work period.

GRAPHIC REFLECTION:
Maintaining a graph of their academic or conduct behavior provides students with a graphic “look in the mirror.” When we look in a mirror, we want to see something that pleases our eye. When it is not pleasing, we fix it. It is the same with graphs that reflect something about us. When we look at the graph and see something that is not pleasing, we naturally want to improve it or, again, fix it. Graphing also facilitates the Mastery principle of turning the responsibility for learning over to students. Academic or conduct behaviors that can be graphed include:
• On-time behavior - the tardy bell becomes an on-time bell - line graph
• On-time assignment behavior - remember, it is a target date! - bar graph
• Number of errors in first submission of product - line graph
• Learning behavior - self-evaluation weekly or monthly - bar graph with space for comment
• Enthusiasm - self-evaluation - bar graph with space for comment
• Mastery record - record of submission on which Mastery was achieved - line graph (or included in On-Time Assignment Graph)

A COMPARISON:

Mastery:

1. All students can make an A

2. Students are intrinsically motivated

3. Students create products and documents

4. All students can achieve excellence

5. Students have multiple chances to create a quality product

6. Reflects the real world

7. In depth examination of important issues

8. Provides for profound knowledge and enduring understanding

9. The student is responsible for learning

10. Focus on primary sources

Traditional:

1. A small number of students can make an A

2. Students are extrinsically motivated

3. Students fill out worksheets - take quizzes and tests

4. Most students are relegated to mediocrity

5. Students have one chance to make the grade

6. Only in schools are students held to a fixed scale with no recourse

7. Skims the surface of a wide range of topics

8. Up to 99% of information is forgotten within six months

9. The teacher is responsible for learning

10. Focus on secondary (textbook) sources (according to one of my students, “textbooks are

vague and shamefully boring”)

IMPLEMENTATION:

In getting started, it might do well to consider having students master one thing only. Since writing lends itself so well to the principles of Mastery, anything from paragraphs to essays could be a logical place to begin. Start with simple assignments, conduct whole-class examinations of their work, and build levels of difficulty throughout the year as student performance improves.

 

Progress to team projects rising to higher levels of quality throughout the school year. Before you begin to Teach for Mastery, consult with your principal and let him/her know what you  intend to do. He/she may want you to ask for a waiver from your school board allowing you to  depart from the county grading scale. A waiver, however, would not be necessary if you allow students to choose between the Mastery and traditional scales. Either way, your principal will be knowledgeable and prepared to deal with questions from the public.

Assessment In The New Age of Education

As many schools have done, the school I work at has recently adopted the following protocol for reporting marks:

• K-3 are given anecdotal comments only
• 4-9 are letter grades only
• 10-12 are letter grades and percentages

The biggest change comes in the 8 and 9 grade levels where percentages were historically a part of our reporting marks. The change came for various reasons, but the staff are divided on the subject. Many argued that we are being less specific and thus sharing less information with parents about how their child is doing: why give "less" information than is needed? Would it not be better to give more? Does a percentage not, in fact, make our reporting more specific than other schools? Is this not something that would make our school better, perhaps, than other schools?

I personally wondered about this as well. I do understand some of the pedagogical concepts behind the move. I too agree that, at times, looking at assignments and assigning a number to either an assignment or a term on the whole can actually be, dare I say, inaccurate. For example, is an essay really worth exactly 73%? Does that mean that 27 words were incorrect in some fashion? Is it not easier and perhaps clearer to grade as the provincial exams do for papers and mark with a rubric for what constitutes an "A" or "B" paper? True, there is some subjective marking of any essay (what each teacher might consider clear thoughts or good transitions will change from teacher to teacher), but is this any worse than assigning a number? As well, looking across a marking spreadsheet and seeing a jumble of numbers could mathematically tie a teacher's hand with respect to giving useful feedback or insight on how to improve. For example, mathematically, imagine a student does three assignments and gets the following marks: 90, 90, and 88. However, he then gets a  73 on the fourth one, he could be assigned a "B" (85%) as a final mark. However, 3 of the 4 assignments were "A" work. In my opinion, this shows how we as teachers can succumb to the hard line of numerical assessment strategies. In fact, why don't we take this one step further as the Summerland school district has done and go so far as to get rid of letter grades altogether for grades 4-9. As Darcy Mullins, a teacher in that school district, writes the following in his blog:

"Letter grades force students to focus on the product as opposed to the process.  It is the process where the learning occurs.  It is during the learning where students can get the feedback they need to grow.  Using letter grades sends the message that once something is complete the learning is done.  Not using letter grades, but instead using descriptive feedback sends the message that learning is continuous." (http://darcymullin.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/rethinking-letter-grades/)

My personal experiences with our transition to only letter grades for the middle grades have been positive so far. First, during our most recent parent-teacher interviews, no parent asked about the change, or asked specifically about their percentages. As well, I decided to mark two assignments specifically with only letter grades (these being reports and an experiment paper). What I found was that I had to be very "front heavy" with the assignment: in other words, I had to really think about and write down what constituted an "A" work for that assignment, and what changes from that work would make that assignment a "B", and so on, and make sure that the students knew what I was looking for. My rubric, therefore, was quite large. However, once I had the rubric completed, looking at the assignments and marking them accordingly was much easier and faster on a whole.

One book on the topic that has been recommended to me (and consequently is mentioned in Darcy Mullin's blog) is Tom Schimmer's book Ten Things That Matter From Assessment to Grading.

I do feel that our job as teachers is to assess and grade as accurately as we can. However, I also feel that the assessment and grading should be part of the learning. Why stop students from learning more because they have reached a number when they should instead be taught to strive to be lifelong learners?

Conference Presentation on Collaboration, Technology, and Education

For any who are interested, I am presenting at a conference in Vancouver on Friday. My talk is Thursday morning at 10:30am. I am planning to video the presentation and upload it to YouTube, but for those who are viewing the presentation and want a copy of it, I have uploaded it here as well.

First Week of Classes

The first week and a bit is over. How has it gone? Not badly! Here are a few updates class-wise. First, Science 8 is going well. The class is great and very easy to work with. Coursework wise, I have changed a few things, but for the most part I am keeping the timing the same (it seems to work). However, I have made sure that I repeat a lot of the concepts every day; making sure that they understand the main ideas of the course. I am at this point doing it verbally, but I will also do some more worksheet and test questions in class. Tomorrow will be Microscope work and then (my favorite) CELL CITY on Friday (a cell representation on a plate made with candy!). They can eat only the part of the cell that they can name and explain its purpose. Last year, most got all of it - this year they are having to memorize the cell parts beforehand and then blindly create the cell (no textbook) on Friday - I will mark what they know. Should be fun! The question I have is how well the students will be able to do on the city (will this assignment and the short review we have done in class be enough to know the parts of the cell and what they do?). I already know that they did this in Grade 7, so I am hoping this is review-ish for them.

One thing I will take out next year is the ICKTHOSS assignment in the Science 8 textbook. I like the idea (gets students to think outside the box a bit and solve problems) but I don't think it fits with the plan (or the objectives), which tells me that, with respect to the UBD concept, it is not a needed assignment. This is a good thing because I have a lot to cover and taking out this assignment would be good. Here is my only concern: I use that assignment to teach about working in a group as well, so I will have to find another assignment that I can use to teach about how to work in a group.

I will post some pictures and a more complete lessons plan for that assignment next posting, for those interested.

Finally, on a curriculum note, I found a worksheet in the student workbook (of which I do not use on class in its entirety) that was very interesting - very basic, but interesting with respect to what it suggested was important. Here is the assignment: it was a basic drawing of a microscope with some blanks beside the parts. The assignment was to label the parts of the microscope. However, simply knowing the names of the parts of a microscope is somewhat useless. Instead, I would rather they didn't know the names of the parts, but what the parts did. Thus, I took the blank picture and changed the assignment: write down what it does and, if you remember, what it's called. To help them, I gave them a microscope to use to see what the parts did. This I think was a better assignment and fit more with what the students needed to know about the microscope.

Getting Ready for 2013!

This year will, I believe, be very exciting! I have two to three points to focus on:

1. New course (Electronics Level 2 for Grades 10-12)
2. Second Shot at Science 8 (focus on UDB)
3. Extra-curricular educational development (personal writings, study, and journey)

New Course

One of the most interesting things I have on my plate is the new Electronics course. I began electronics Level 1 a few years back and I have found it very successful. However, we have recently moved it to the grade 8 and 9 level, and for the students the content became way too hard. Therefore, the first thing I am doing is working towards lowering the scope of knowledge the level 1 group will work towards learning. This is especially true for the math focus, where the math involved in the Electronics course was over their heads (they did not learn any of the algebraic manipulation needed until grade 9 math, so they found it very difficult to see it used in this course). As well, more focus will be placed on repetition of concepts and smaller lab work where measuring and mastering of basic electronic knowledge will be the focus. I have also lowered the projects to two of them (though I will try to get a third one in before the end of the year - perhaps another smaller project...).

Level 2 will focus on the math, complex circuitry, robotics, and alternative power (solar, wind, etc.). I am super excited about it, especially since I have some new toys to play with (Parallax SMART boards, numerous chips, etc.). Should be good!

Science 8

For this second time around, I think I will focus on refining the projects and making sure that I repeat much of the information, working towards having the students master the concepts. However, I want to still be careful that they don't focus on memorizing terms, but actually showing that they understand the main larger concepts. To this end, I will work towards finding ways to assess their knowledge of the main ideas of the units in numerous other ways beyond the large projects only. Perhaps smaller experiments that will ask students to answer the "why" without me discussing with them first what that might be and then doing the experiments to "show" it in action? I will keep posting on how this goes and what I implement.

Personal

I have recently finished working on publishing the findings from my thesis in an online journal. I am hoping to get the OK on it soon and will post the link to that here. As well, I am planning to keep up on my reading and learning in some way, working on continuing to do some reading on topics, and perhaps even continue to do some research in some way (if at all possible), under the supervision of someone if I need to.

Understanding By Design and Science 8

Below is the text from my Science 8 implementation of the Understanding By Design concept. I am not sure that I did it in the way that I would be taught to do by the UBD guys, but it did make a difference, especially when it came to assessment, something that I will post next time. For now, if any teachers are thinking about implementing UBD into their classes, here is what happened to me!
 
Hint for reading: start reading at the bottom (the topmost post is the last post).
 

Past half way and...

Well, here are a few things I have found:

1) The test for unit one was not at the 70% level overall, so it didn't do what I thought it would. However, mark-wise for the term, many students have brought their mark up overall, especially those who have struggled in the past in courses. Yes, some are incomplete, but they are incomplete in other classes as well, so I think there are other issues there. Those who do well in other classes have still done well here, but doing more project based assessment seems to have brought up the ones who hover at around the 50% mark up a bit, thus closing the gap a bit.
2) I do find that the vocabulary for this course (as portrayed in the book and on tests) is difficult, however. In fact, many of the questions from the textbook question bank are vocab based and not knowledge based. If I take those types of questions out of tests, the students seem to do better (and they still know the concepts!).
3) I am doing a bit of a mix of UDB and other stuff now - so I have a project at the end of each unit that is a summative evaluation, along with a paper or verbal test of some kind. I wonder if this is true UDB? I think it is, and I admit the students have enjoyed the projects and I think have learned a lot from doing them. I wonder, however, if UDB is really just project-based learning when it actually is implemented into the classroom?
Anyway, if I do teach this course again, I will definitely continue using this concept - it is working for this class and for me as a teacher.​

 

February 20

2.5 Weeks in and...   All is good! I am planning to do a bit of a summative evaluation in the next few weeks outside of the animal building project; however, I will do it without giving the students a chance to study (WHAT!!!!); yup, a pop test Unit Exam! I am curious to know how much they have learned simply from doing the projects and assignments themselves. I will feel very good if the average mark is at around 70% - this will constitute a success in this. Benefits of UDB: Well, to be honest, it has been a lot of fun and it has been very easy to come up with daily activities for the most part so far. I love that I look at the objectives only and create around them more than follow the textbook. This has given me freedom to do cool things that I think the students enjoy. The students have also been involved and I have not had a lot of classroom issues with the 8's - surprising, but true! Problems: If anything, the biggest issue has been myself knowing the stuff and filling in the class time correctly. Also, since all lessons are new (never done them before), there have been two that I know of that could have worked better (planning was off a bit). For example, one day to come up with a skit and portray them was way too quick - should have planned skits on one day and done them the next. Also, I am not doing a lot of summative tests yet (early), but my plan is to not do too many anyway (not short quizzes etc.). However, I think I need more than one. So far, it has been a lot of fun and I have felt very energized - I am scared and actually excited about teaching the class all at the same time! The stretch has been great for me and I think this makes a difference to the quality of the teaching.

February 06

Three days and how is it going you ask? Well...   I think this are going excellently! The best part of this whole thing has been telling the students the second day of class what their final project for the unit will be (how backwards!). This has done something for us as a class, however: it has focused everything we do on learning the stuff needed to complete the task (which is to create an animal). The funniest part to this whole thing is that everything they need to know is actually everything in the first unit of the textbook - but the students brainstormed the topics themselves. This has given them ownership of the course. I think this helps the students a lot. Personally, I feel quite happy about the whole thing right now; though I am tired after a class. My teaching style seems to fit nicely with this approach - lots of discussion time and brainstorming, hands on work, coming at things differently, looking up the answers, etc. Yes, it is a little messier than it could be (it's not like we do page 10, and then questions on the next page, and then...), but the learning has been fun, inviting, and students seem to be into the course material. Of course, the biggest problem is my own knowledge of the material: I am not a science teacher by trade so there are things I do not know. My strategy for this, however, fits with the UBD concept: I am not to be the wealth of information, but a supporter, a coach, standing beside them as they learn. Here's a great example of this that happened today: the students were given a hands-on observational project where they had to observe what happened inside of two cups of warm sugary water: one had yeast in it and the other had sand. They had to write down what happened every 20 seconds. The observation worked great and the students understood the concept. However, I personally did not know enough about yeast to conclusively say if it was alive or not - my thought was that it didn't really reproduce. However, some quick Google search showed me that I was in fact wrong. So how do I turn such a thing around? Well, I tasked a student to look it up and give a quick blurb about it tomorrow in class, as well as getting a Biology 11 student to come in and explain it to us. So, I was wrong. I know that we as teachers like to think that this is OK, because it shows us as not being perfect, but I would go beyond this: in today's day and age, we should not be perfect because we know everything - thus when we don't get something right it just proves we are not perfect. Instead, we should be co-workers with the student, guiding and leading them onto their own knowledge. This is the stance I will take with them tomorrow: we can all learn and we should all be lifelong learners. Also, there is always so much to learn! If I can get students to think this way, it will make this class even better - the students will begin to ask what they want to know and go find out; I will guide and direct them and (what a concept) learn as well!

January 25

Next Stage: A Look at Daily Activities   So, I have tried experiments, tested a few larger projects, and I have been studying and reading the textbook. I feel like I am ready enough with the big things to begin teaching. In the past years, this would be all the planning I do and I would then go at it with the textbook under my arm ready to tackle the day to day assignments, which would consist of: 1) reading of chapter, 2) note taking, 3) textbook questions, 4) quizzes, 5) larger tests, 6) some bigger group assignments, 7) larger reports of some kind. However, as I look at the UBD concept further, I realize that I might not be doing the course any service at all, and that doing my assessment based on this classic model of marking students is quite narrow. For example, five out of the seven things I do are based around reading ​would have done revolve around the textbook itself (1,2,3,4,5), while 7 is simply a report of some kind (so research) that I would have them write. 6 would probably be a textbook assignment done in a group. The UBD concept says this about assessment and tasks: assessment should varied, using authentic tasks and projects, academic exam questions, prompts, and problems, quizzes and tests, informal checks for understanding, and student self-assessment. However, the tasks need to be effective and engaging. I love the quote "The art of holding interest lies in raising questions and delaying answers". OK, so I will take a look at my first two units and see if I have planned So, I started off well, but I want the students to create their own experiments right off the bat. this will teach them that procedures are important to science. This will put off the second unit a bit, but I think getting the students to build experiments right off the bat is important and will be done throughout the course, so I plan to start there. I think I should have some starters for them, however: perhaps some questions that they can start off with. I have downloaded a booklet called "SmarteScience" (www.smarterscience.org) and it deals specifically with this concept of having students do their own eexperiments. I like the idea a lot and perhaps I will start the year off with it (why not - another new thing: go big or go home eh?). I printed off a few things to look at. I love how they begin to get students to look at inferrences and observations and the difference between them. this might get students started on creating experiments.

January 22

Building a 3d Cell is a good one!   I like this assignment, and I have seen it done so many times. Its on page 35 of the textbook and they can build it in a box. Looks good and definitely teaches them the parts of the cell. It is not necessarily UBD, but it will work as another hands-on approach. I realized as well that I have to also teach them how to work in groups, or collaboratively, so I have incorporated that into one of the early lessons. this will be something I have to review often in class. OK, I am working through assignments for the first few weeks now. I think I am ready. Oh, yeah, the exploding person thing is harder than it looks! It won't work with Alka-Seltzer and chip containers: the top is not sealed enough. I am going to try it with pill bottle (or film canister) and water and Alka-Seltzer this week and see if that blows nicely. Another option that Steve gave me (he is so helpful in this) is a balloon overtop of a water bottle filled with Vinegar and Baking soda. The gas will blow up the balloon and no water is thrown around the room.  I like that too - cleaner - but is it as much fun :)?​

January 21

Uh Oh, Waves are not easy to work with...   So, I have been trying to work on the "converting waves into energy" lab and it is not easy to do, mostly because the fish tank I have is too small: the waves bounce back and the propeller I created in the water will not move. So the classic spinning turbines will not work. Looking online, designs like Salter's Ducks are used in real life, but these are hard to create on a small scale. If I did it from a running water source, it would be very easy (like a river dam concept), but that would not show any knowledge at all. OK, so this looks like it will be some kind of report. On pages 468 and 469 of the textbook are two things, either a research investigation or a project.  I think that this, along with the WIKI unit, should be good as the ending result for the water unit. I see many little experiments in the book, so supplementing these large projects with smaller experiments should work out well. OK, time to clean up the classroom!​

January 18

Boat done-ish!   I hope I am alright with this, but I did the clay boat thing (did a little research on the best way to float a clay boat) and I did it -minus the straws, but oh well! So, the best layout is a flat bottomed boat and you have to make sure that the sides are straight up and not cracked at all so water does not go through it into the boat). One thing I found out was that clay becomes very messy when it's wet, so I will have to make sure that I have lots of paper towel and rags to clean off with. Other than that, it works great! So, all I need for this is washers and straws and away I go! Next one: let's stay on the water topic and see about getting energy from waves! First, I will need to figure out how to change movement into energy. to do that, I need magnets and copper wire (which I have a lot of). Let's try that first - i think Blake had some stuff to do that with, so I will check there... (5 min. later...) Yes, he had something that will work perfectly! It has two magnets on the end of a spinning axis. Using my multimeter, I can very quickly measure the electrical output form the spinning of the magnets. OK, now onto creating a turbine of some sort. the other thing to think about is whether or not I should use a step-up transformer to up the electrical output? For now, I won't but I will think about it. OK, next step is to see how I will create waves in the aquarium (is it too small to make waves in?, how will I set up a turbine in it so that it doesn't move?) I need some plastic on a stick!​

January 09

A change in Tasks   the fog light assignment is actually just an experiment (in the book page 234). It looks real easy to do so I am putting the call out for cellophane to do it. It will work great with the experiment forms I already have. thus, the only assignment for the Visible light unit is the eyeball. Also, I love the idea of cutting a cow eye, but it sounds like that was already done in grade 7 by PJ (though I will ask him about that). If he hasn't, then that would be perfect! At this stage, I am going to move on to Float Your Boat project. Here's the write-up for that one: Boat Creation Goal: Students will design a boat given a set amount of material that maximizes buoyancy and safety. Role: The students will assume the role of a boat/ship designer. Audience: The audience is a rich teacher who has commissioned a safe and strong yacht to show off all the money he is earning. Situation: The teacher has sent a package of information to a wide variety of boat/ship builders with the intent of creating a safe and strong yacht. Given the same amount of materials, (100 g of clay and three straws) the boat builders are to create a boat that at a minimum will float on water. Better designs will be capable of holding more materials, in the form of washers. The more washers the boat can hold while still floating, the better the design. Product/Performance: The end product will be a boat design that will be tested against the other designs. The winning design will float and hold the most weight. In addition, each boat building team will submit a written report of the process of creating the boat and the considerations undertaken to create the boat. Both the boat’s ability to float and hold weight and the written report will be evaluated. I am going to get clay and straws right now to play with this! Love it!​

January 09

The eyeball was easy and fun!   Well that was not a problem at all! I created a tube version of an eyeball in around 1 hour total time. I decided to record it with my laptop video camera and I will upload it on to my YouTube site so students can see it anytime they want to (I will just post a link on the Moodle site for them to see). Materials I used were very minimal (the lens that I will give them, saran wrap, paper, masking tape, some construction paper, scissors, glue, and a paper tube (like the one that Christmas paper comes in). the only thing I want to do with it to finish it off is put it into a round ball of some kind so that it looks like an eyeball. Other than that, it works great! I can move the lens a little off so that you can see how the change in the shape or length of the eyeball will affect vision. Today, I was thinking of tackling the fog lights or one of the water ones. I will go see what supplies I have to tackle each one and go from there. as well, I will try to get a table up in room N101 and something that can have water in it (like a big fish tank). I will need that for the water unit.​

January 08

Lessons and Classroom Setup   So now that I have the core ideas, I think I should begin my part in the learning process and do the following: 1) Try out the experiments myself! : One of the worst things is to give a student an assignment that you yourself have not tried. I believe this: heck, I have lived this! So, that is my job for this week. I have already tried the building of the eye thing (or at least 50% of it) and I am confident that I could do that one without an issue. I will try to do them all in the next while and make sure that they are doable. 2) Set up the classroom. I have begun to put up posters that deal with what we will be covering in class, as well as putting up forms that students will use to do their own experiments. This comes from a website called "Smarter Science" and it was recommended to me by Dr. Carol Rees at TRU. She taught Science for many years at the High School level and said that this is a great resource (www.smarterscience.org). I have decided to implement their ideas a bit - it fits in with my vision for Science. In essence, it gets students to think through creating, trying, and recording experiments that they themselves design. I am not sure exactly how I am going to implement it yet (students have to do 1-2 in the year perhaps? Will I have a bank of some ideas? Will they have to present?), but I know I love the idea. Fear: I am a bit fearful of how students will find the materials needed for the experiments. I think that I would love to have some of the materials at the school, but encourage students to use whatever they want from home. The ones that worry me the most are the eye, fog lights (so the visible science part), the elevator (for Physical Science part) and the water one (I will need water, waves, and the students will need materials to make their models). I guess I will tackle one at a time and see what happens. Today, the eyeball! As well, I should read and be familiar with the information in the textbook and the teacher manual about the knowledge I will need (yes, stay ahead of the students).​   December 10 Assessment Evidence   Review: So in my limited knowledge, this is what it seems like we do: 1) Create the Big Idea and Core Tasks to go along with it (Equivalence ["Students will understand that..." - these have lasting value, can be transferred to other classes, require "uncoverage" of knowledge] and being able to solve real-life problems that requires in-depth knowledge of the unit) 2) Create "Essential Questions" that will point students to the Big Idea. This is where my Christian worldview can come into play as well, I think. OK, so here is the final list of what I think will work for each unit for Science 8. To help with the concept of the "Core Tasks", here is another way to define it: "The most important complex performances, in realistic contexts, in each field." So basically, this is a task that is complex enough that, without knowledge of the unit the student will not be able to complete correctly. It is a different way of assessing the knowledge of the student: if they can do this, they know the main concepts of the unit. Process of Science Big Idea: Students will understand that there are procedures that must be followed if they are to understand how something works Essential Question: How important is a plan in learning about something - can't we just explore and figure it out as we go? Task: students have been hired to find out what best works to get rid of ticks in pets. Students need to come up with a step by step process that takes into account what is needed, how to measure success and failure, and what issues will have to be addressed. Living Things Big Idea: Though life is a mystery in itself (created from God) we can learn about it since every living thing on Earth is similar in its makeup Essential Question: Is there a better way to make a person than how we are made now? Task: Create a New Animal! What would your animal look like and act like and why? It needs to incorporate everything that any living creature needs to survive on this world. Visible Light Big Ideas: Light is one small component of the larger light spectrum; each of the areas on the light spectrum has a purpose for us. Essential Question: How can we manipulate light to better our lives? Task: The students are being hired by the Optomotrist Association of Canada to create a model of an eye that works! They will use glass, paper to put the image on, etc. The model should be able to show how defects (changing the focal point etc..) will affect someone's vision. or Creating Fog lights (pg. 254 in textbook) - Your company makes automobile lights and supplies them to a major auto firm. You must design the best possible fog light using mirror placement, material used, and color to use. Physical Sciences Big Idea: Everything is matter in different forms; we can manipulate matter using force to do what we need it to do. Essential Question: How can I use the world around me to better my life? Task: Float your Boat (create a boat out of materials given - which one works best and why?) and Elevator (create an elevator or rock picker using Pneumatic or Hydraulic designs Water Big Idea: Water is important to life's survival Essential Question: If the Earth is mostly water, why did God make us to live on land? Task: Wrestling Energy from Waves (page 469 in textbook). Students are being asked to change wave energy into electricity. Students will work in groups to create a model that will actually work in a tank of water (electricity can actually be measured!). Interestingly, at the end of each chapter in our Science textbooks are what they call "Research Investigations" that work for this (Water example is one). Ok, these are all good in my opinion. Anyone think otherwise? OK, the first two stages of the planning process are done: Stage one was the big ideas and essential questions are set out, stage two was the core assessment tasks, focusing on evidence of mastery of the bit ideas, and that mastery of key performances requires understanding of the big ideas. On To Stage Three: The Learning Plan!     December 03 Step 2: Assessment Evidence   Well, here is where I need to come up with performance tasks that will show me that the students can apply what they have learned and demonstrate their understanding. I'll do this per unit so far. Process of Science Big Idea: Students will understand that there are procedures that must be followed if they are to understand how something works Task: students have been hired to find out what best works to get rid of ticks in pets. Students need to come up with a step by step process that takes into account what is needed, how to measure success and failure, and what issues will have to be addressed. Living Things Big Idea: Though life is a mystery in itself (created from God) we can learn about it since every living thing on Earth is similar in its makeup Task: Create a New Animal! What would your animal look like and act like and why? It needs to incorporate everything that any living creature needs to survive on this world. Visible Light Big Ideas: Light is one small component of the larger light spectrum; each of the areas on the light spectrum has a purpose for us. Task: Physical Sciences Big Idea: Everything is matter in different forms; we can manipulate matter using force to do what we need it to do. Task: Float your Boat (create a boat out of materials given - which one works best and why?) and Elevator (create an elevator or rock picker using Pneumatic or Hydraulic designs Water Big Idea: Water is important to life's survival Task: As you can see, I don't have any for visible light or water as of yet. However, I like the other three so far. As well, I have found some online resources that I think I will use to help. Will tackle this later in the week. Once I am happy with these first evidence bits, I can continue to look closer into other forms of evidence that might fulfill my big ideas.​ December 03 Step 1: What the heck are the "Big Ideas" in Science 8?   OK, so snag #1 - our IRP objectives are not "big idea" oriented, but seem more content based. Thus, I have to look at the units themselves and come up with the "Big Ideas" for them. Here's what I have done: 1) I have taken the PLO's for each section and created big ideas for each of the five units. I like these. They seem to make sense to me and seem to be big, transferrable, and are not content based.​ December 03 The beginnings   First, let me share a little about UBD (Understanding By Design). The concept behind UBD is to help teachers (like us) to create lesson plans that does not revolve around a specific resource, but that instead revolves around the objectives to be taught. This opens up the classroom teacher to use whatever resource they find and want to use, as long as it fulfills the objective to be taught. Here is the WIKIpedia page on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design In essence, you start "backwards" by looking only at the objectives and what we want students to know or be able to do. This part is easy because it is prescribed in our IRP's as the PLO's. The second part is simply looking at the PLO's only and deciding on the evidence that will fulfill that objective. This is the stage I am at right now. Only after that will I then begin to create assignments that lead to fulfilling the objectives. The "bible" of this the book by Wiggins and McTighe called "Understanding by Design". I have a shorter PDF file of the highlights that was done by Wiggins as a workshop and I am using that to start with. The course I am implementing this in is Science 8. The reason is that I am both curious to see if it will effect the class' engagement and learning into the concepts as well as what it will be like to do this as a teacher. So far, I am excited but I still have a long way to go.

Implications of UTAUT and High School Students

Last post, I had mentioned that I used a TAM instrument (specifically something called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) with high school students to measure their acceptance of a technology, namely a WIKI page.  My findings were interesting (see above); I do also want to mention that I have done the same research this year again (without a publication hanging over it - just some simple in-class research done by the classroom teacher - and so far, my findings are replicating themselves (this is very exciting!).  What I have found this year is that it is the ease-of-use that is driving the actual usage of the technology, not the usefulness.  Also, there is again a gender bias (girls used the WIKI a bit more than boys). 

So, what does this suggest and how do I use this information in a classroom?  Well, firstly using a WIKI should not be a one shot deal, as experience with it will definitely change their usage (true, in this study the people who were more apprehensive actually used it more, but it was not clear if that was gender or GPA as it was the girls who were more apprehensive, used the WIKI more, and had the higher GPA overall); this should put the students at ease a bit more.  Also, because of the  difference in confidence levels for each gender, “This may indicate that different forms of intervention are necessary to encourage the interests of male and females with respect to IT” (Forssen et. al., 2011, p. 55).  Secondly, group work is an issue with high school students that needs to be addressed; they need to be taught how to work in groups and it needs to be practiced.  In my study, fear of group work came out loud and clear in  the focus group discussions after the WIKI unit was implemented, with many students mentioning how worried they were about working with other people that they had not worked with before. It is possible that nervousness about group work could be playing a role in how effectively students will use a WIKI for collaborative work.  Strategies for this might include keeping groupings of students together for more than one project, thus allowing students to get used to the partners they have in the groups.  As well, previous research suggests that having students assessed both individually and as a group can decrease “any resentment among members that can be created when an individual or small number of people completes a large amount of the work” (Vaca, Lapp, & Fisher, 2011, 273); assessment should therefore include these two views, something that the inherent user tracking system in a WIKI easily allows for.

My next blog post will deal with something that I implemented last year during my Science 8 class, called Understanding By Design.  To be honest, this was one of the most exciting things I have done in my educational experience and allowed me to change my assessment strategies to better fit students needs. Stay tuned!

On a different but connected note...
Tomorrow I will be talking about this study at Thompson Rivers University during their Language, Culture and Community Research Symposium. The website for this event is www.tru.ca/lcc and the Twitter hashtag is #lcctru for those who are interested.  As well, one of the projects I have for this summer is to get my thesis converted into a journal paper for publication, which I will be doing with my supervisor Dr. Carol Rees.  I will give you more information on this as I go.