Flipclass assignments

Flipping my classroom has been awesome.  I have gotten to know my students better amongst other myriad things about which I have already posted.

Lately, however, my students have been struggling getting work done.  We have a 9th grade biology class that cannot seem to get everything done.  After much deliberation and discussion with my co-teacher, we decided to change.

In the past, I just assigned "video notes" as homework with the only direction being that they take notes as if they were in class.  Last year being my first year dipping into the well of flipping, this was and has been the easiest way for me to go.  The biggest problem with that is that we could not figure out if students were actually learning anything while watching the notes.  Also, they could easily just copy down what I said without actually watching (although to me, this is a minor point).

The decision we made was to make tiered assignments based on the notes.  The first one I made was on energy passage through an ecosystem.  Rather than my discussing ad nauseum here how it is done, it is easier to see one linked here.  You see that they now have a choice.   They can choose a 3/5, 4/5 or 5/5 on this assignment.  Here is another much like it.

The key is that the required ones are ones they MUST know to pass any test over our objectives for the unit.  The ones for a higher grade require a little more critical thinking and some original research.  This is to hopefully motivate the upper level student to go above and beyond the "normal" assignment while giving the very busy or struggling student an "out" where they can still get it done but without the angst of having to "get it all done".  This also introduces a little bit of educational choice.  Students feel like they can choose how much to do.  As Daniel Pink shows in DRIVE, feeling as if you have some control over your life can be motivating. 

I realize that this is not a new concept but I have found it very easy to use and the students are now starting to get used to it after 3 assignments like it.  I will be surveying them regarding the class soon and am excited to hear how they feel about it.  One other key thing is that they have more than 1 night to get it done.  I usually give them 1 or 2 every week.

On the due date,  I use @crystalkirch WSQ idea and put one of the student's work (randomly) on the document camera. The class evaluates it and proposes changes in order to make it an "A" paper.  We then go over the changes and discuss them.  This is valuable on so many levels.  The student whose paper it is gets evaluated by peers rather than me (they do not know whose it is unless the student blurts it out), they get quick feedback and can make adjustments to their own work painlessly.

I do not grade them on correctness of their work but merely that they tried it and have some kind of answer that makes it obvious that they tried.  I do not worry about "cheating" because it is only worth a small portion of 20% of their grade and they will still have to take a summative over the material to prove that they do indeed understand and did not just copy their way to a grade. 

So far, this has been a very good trial.  Students can always work on this if they get done with our class work (lab etc.) and they know exactly what to do while watching the notes.  They do NOT like the fact that the answers are not obvious but they have to actually think to get them correct (or close to it).  I also like the fact that the work is non-googleable (is that a word?).  There are no pat answers that can be found with a simple search.  Too many assignments I used to give in the past were.

Please feel free to comment!

Study guide or research?

So, I have always considered myself a good teacher.  I teach all ages of high school and kids like to take my biology classes.   I get along with all kinds of student.  I have been doing this for 20 years and it wasn't until THIS year that I realize that I could have been doing SO much better.  You see, I now have my son in my classroom taking AP biology.  I now see how students view and do the work I assign.  I now see that I have been doing it wrong for 20 years (well, if not wrong, then poorly).

I usually assign a study guide and reading from the text as homework.  Well, last week I read @ichrislehman post on research in education.  I thought about it and realized that I was guilty of telling kids what to research.  So with my AP class, I tried a bit of a simple experiment, one that I could not do without my son in the class to observe his at-home work actions.

I assigned my normal 2 page study guide on fermentation (alcoholic and lactate) for them to do.  This study guide is as comprehensive as I could make it with all of the information they needed to know.  I also assigned them to summarize this question:  How are muscle contraction, beer and bread making related?

I then was able to observe my son as he worked.  It took him approximately 15 minutes to complete the study guide.  He had his book in front of him but, rather than reading it, he merely looked through the text for the answers or copied down the diagrams as necessary.  He then attacked the question.  5 minutes in, he says "this question is dumb."  "I can't find the answer anywhere."  Being a pretty good student, he spent another 20 minutes poring over the text before slamming it shut.  I asked him what the problem was and he said "I have no idea how to answer that question."  I then asked him why not?  "I can't find the answer in the book."  What he meant was:  "I am so used to just looking for the correct answer, I have no idea how to RESEARCH and CONNECT to come up with an answer that works."  After thinking for a while, he logged on to a computer and managed to come up with a response but then said , "But I have no idea if it is right or not."

All I could think is...why have I not done this all the time?  He spent far more time and learned WAY more by trying to answer one simple question than he did on the whole 2 page "study guide".  AND his answer is not really copyable.  In other words, anyone can do the study guide and give it to everyone else...not everyone can come up with an original response to a research question.

I think we have been shortchanging kids in education for a long time now.  We have been teaching our kids to "use the glossary" and "look it up in the dictionary" and " fill out this study guide (which to students means test review guide)  and memorize it and you will get a good grade" when we should be getting them to see connections and answer simple questions with deep meaning.  If I can get my students to spend 20 minutes researching a simple question, they will learn more than if they fill out a rote form.  I think I taught that way because that is how I was taught.  Now I dont have to teach that way anymore.  It is freeing.  The trick will be to come up with interesting questions that make the topic researchable.  But that is fun!  And way less work for me than making a 4 page study guide on anything