Reflections on 2016, Part I: Teaching

Sorry I have been gone - about a month ago I decided to take a break from blogging. There were so many things coming up - our school was moving, holidays were coming up, and then when I was going to get back into it we had a death in my family. Blogging became the item that fell off my plate as I just didn’t feel up to the task.

Since then I’ve done quite a bit of reflecting. I have a two-part blog coming up: one for teaching and one on my running. Today we focus on the teaching!

I had two goals for the first half of my 2016-17 school year: Integrate cross-curricular lessons into as many of my own lessons as I could and gamify my seventh grade math classroom.

I’m really happy how well I’ve done with that first goal. Working with my co-teacher I have managed to put both language arts and social studies into my science lessons. During math we have talked about how math has evolved through time, how Romans used math, and how Rome fell because they didn’t have the number zero in their system. More directly, I tied my rates and ratios unit to maps for scaling and we were able to integrate lots of the social studies standards into the math curriculum.

Riots erupt when plebeians use exact change and see a balance due.

I also got to focus on argumentative writing in math to help language arts. Shelby introduced me to Which One Doesn't Belong at AMLE 2016. This became a focus in my class as it hit MANY of the Standards of Mathematical Practices. Students had to choose an item and write to defend why their answer was correct. From there they had to write counter-arguments as well.

Of course we also went to the math art gallery!

My second goal took on a life of its own. Students fell in love with the gamification process. They were in guilds which competed to help save Mathemagicland. Classes had individual and group awards, followed the leader board, and were rewarded with spells and items which gave advantages to their group. What I really loved is that some students found pretty wicked combinations with the game cards - ones that I didn’t see until they put them into play!

You never know if you are light or dark side until you play a game.

My gamification took a break the same time my blogging did, but the students are excited to return to Mathemagicland in January.

I had a number of other highlights throughout the first half of the school year, but my biggest was going to and presenting at the AMLE 2016 National conference in Austin, Texas. While there I met so many amazing educators. These people are not only passionate about education, but also about middle grades. It was wonderful putting a face and having a meal with people I have interacted with over twitter for the past year or more. I got to watch these people present their knowledge, and many of the ideas I saw I am using in my classrooms now! I’m proud to say that a number of them came to see me present as well (despite the fact I was in the same time slot as educational gurus such as Dru Tomlin, Dave Burgess, and Rick Wormeli.)

Apparently Rick was nervous about me. 

I’m excited to get back to school in January. For those that don’t know, we’re moving into a new building (as in newly built) in January. We have taken a few tours of the building, but have yet to see the space with amenities such as furniture, paint, or in some cases, walls.

I also promise to be back blogging and sharing some of my great and not-so-great ideas in 2017. I hope everyone is having a relaxing and recharging holiday break. Look for my running recap blog on Thursday!

Maureen shouldn't deal with this - and neither should students!

Maureen is a 24 year old recent college graduate with a degree in Business Administration and Commerce.  She gets an entry level position at a local company an is put in the accounting department.  After her first day she is feeling pretty good - she has lots to learn but feels the skills are ones she can acquire.  After a month she has really learned the ropes and gets introduced to the data base and other higher level skills.  She's still unsure about how some systems work, but has a supervisor that helps her figure her mistakes.  After two months she has mastered most of the skills of the entry level position and is thinking about a raise, and possibly even a promotion.  She has a meeting with her supervisor:

Maureen: "I clearly have become proficient in the skills necessary to go to the next level.  I've learned how to use the database, and compile account information for dozens of clients, and have a 90% verification on my previous two evaluations. Clearly I have mastery of the skills needed."

Supervisor: "Yes, I see all of that.  However, your 90% verification score isn't accurate.  That is your most recent score.  As I look at your performance evaluations, you scored only a 25% on your first evaluation, a 65% on your second, and a 90% on your two most recent evaluations, meaning your overall score is only a 67.5%.  On our scale that ranks you as 'inefficient'.  Come back when your score is above 85%."

You seem to have a problem with your TPS reports

How would you react if you were Maureen?  Clearly she is now proficient at the skills needed to advance, but the system has her rated as inefficient.  It will take Maureen another 14 evaluations of 90% (Or 5 perfect evaluations) to hit the manager's 85% expectation.

When put into the real world, the averaging of evaluations becomes ludicrous.   If a company has an employee that is consistently scoring 90%, they call that employee a top performer.  The fact that the employee didn't do well when the skills were first introduced is expected.

So why do teachers use a system that clearly has no real world application?  What makes one assignment worth 30 points and another one 50?  Why does a quiz in September affect a student's grade in October? Averaging grades is one of the most atrocious acts in education. It promotes laziness in teachers, destroys communication, and turns grades into a negotiation. 

The idea of percentages is meaningless for communication.  Two students have a quarterly average of 78%.  What does this mean? Do they have the same skill set?  Another student has an average of 77%. Try to explain why he scored 1% lower.  What does that 1% look like?  Could the student raise her grade to an 80% with extra credit?  Those few percentage points turn a C+ into a B-, which means she'll get $30 from her grandma!

What if the learning target is using four major operations to compute fractions?  One student gets 75% on all four sections.  Another student gets 100% on three sections, but doesn't know how to divide fractions at all and scores a 0% there.  They both score a 75% on their report card, but again, do they have the same skill set?  What are we telling students, families, and other teachers with this system?  Who is more prepared to move on to the new skills?

Averaging of grades is fantastically easy.  Teachers use a scantron (or now a days quickkey or other similar apps), get a score, put it in the gradebook, and move on.  If they are particularly 'kind' teacher, they might allow students to 'fix' their mistakes and give extra points for corrections.  Sometimes after corrections they'll just add points to the original score.  Other times they will average the two scores and use that new average as the student's score (but of course they will put a cap of 89%, because clearly you can't get an 'A' on something if it wasn't done correctly the first time!) 

A percentage based system is the easy thing to do, but is it the correct thing to do?  Is it sound pedagogy?  Does it tell the student how to improve?

Ask a student what grade they got in a class.  They'll probably give you a letter or a number.  Ask them what it means.  They'll probably say something like, "I got some things right and some things wrong." or "I did pretty well."   They will not have an idea on HOW to improve or what skills they need to focus upon.  This is not the way to build 21st century skills.  Maureen needed to know what she was doing well and what she needed to learn.  She needed a mentor to help her learn the skills.  She gained new knowledge and reflected on mistakes as to not make them again.   It is how advancement and learning happens. 

I'll clean your board every day after school if you move my grade from a 79.4% to a 80.1%

One of todays gurus on grading (and teaching pedagogy in general) is a gentleman named Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2.)  I've had the privilege of meeting him twice and highly recommend every teacher attend one of his presentations.  He's an amazing speaker with incredible ideas and energy, and is an all around nice guy.  If you haven't read many of his works, I'd recommend starting with  this response to grading systems. He has a number of books I'd recommend as well.

The goal of any classroom or educational setting is helping students achieve mastery of skills.  When mastery occurs, students should be allowed to celebrate.  If mastery doesn't occur, teachers need to focus on the 'why' and adjust from there.

It doesn't matter - they all scored a 60 average!

I have a child in 8th grade.  This is a 100% true conversation I had with him recently.

Me: "You're getting a 75% in (class).  What does that mean?"

Child: "I'm getting a C"

Me: "What does that mean?"

Child: (stood there confused...) "ummm...."  (more confused) "I have to do better?"

After some coaching, I asked him to approach the teacher the next day and ask what skills he needs to work on to improve his grade.

Me: "What did your teacher say today?"
Child: "She said there wasn't anything I can do to improve my grade.  We have a test next week though."
Me: "I know you can't increase your grade by extra credit or anything, but what skills do you need to practice?"
Child: "I dunno.  She said there'd be a study guide and to know the stuff on that."

As a father, this conversation left me somewhat confused.  As an educator it left me frustrated.  If students - in this case a middle school student - is not sure what skills they lack, how can they possible improve?  As a parent how can I help him?  

My current school does a skill based report card with narratives.  Each quarter we have to write a detailed narrative with specific feedback for each student.  It is way more work than a traditional percent system (even those that have the pre-generated scantron comments), but I also know it is far more valuable information and far better teaching.  I mean after all, Maureen deserves that promotion!