August 29, 2011

The Homework Myth


At the recommendation of Kelly from Physics! Blog!, I am reading the book "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn.  She knew I was debating the idea of homework or no homework and how I had leaned towards the latter.  This book has really opened my eyes.  For any of you who use SBG, even though I've just started, I do recommend it.

So far from the first two chapters, I've gleaned a few important facts.

1) Homework takes the student away from their family while they are home.  I have always believed the family is essential to a child's well being growing up.
2) Homework is a continuation of "school" at home.  They need a break.  They need to be able to take care of themselves - spend time with their family, play sports, socialize, get some exercise, play games, read a book for enjoyment, or just hang.  The list can and does go on.
3) Parents are asked to become "teachers".  They need to just be parents.  Can you imagine working all day then coming home and have to teach your child what your teacher couldn't do?
4) Homework often creates family conflicts.  Nagging from parents can lead to arguments.  Can you imagine being a student coming home and the first thing out of your mom or dad's mouth is something along the lines of "So what do you have for homework tonight?"  No "how are you" or "how was your day" or any similar question that wants to connect with you.
5) Is learning really happening?  Parents have been observed high-fiving their child just for completing the homework.  Not "what did you learn about?" or "what did your studies help you understand about this subject?"  This one was a eye-opener for me.  Seems parents were more interested  and sending the message, intentionally or not, that homework was just something to be done, not something that fosters learning.
6) Homework does not help.  Kohn went through lots of research dating back to 1897 related to homework.  He did not find any research that supports the use of homework. Most research he found actually showed homework hurt student achievement.  The few positive results he did find were very minimal gains and did not present a strong case for using homework.

What the author is doing is asking people who use it to prove the benefits of homework and have the data to back it up.  He hasn't seen it yet, which is why he's against homework use.  I'm inclined to agree with him.  If you know of any research that does, I would be happy to read it and I'm sure the author would too!

One final note that struck me.  If a student has to do homework, I'm not doing my job.  They are not learning.  Comments from a couple of teachers: one said "the students are compelled to be in my class forty-eight minutes a day.  If I can't get done in forty-eight minutes what I need to get done, then I really have no business intruding on their family time."  Another said, "I am forced to create lessons that are so good that no further drilling is required when the lessons are completed."

I've only read two chapters so far, but I'm hooked already and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book. I'm going back to my classroom now to take on this challenge of becoming a better teacher with the class time I have to teach the students.


August 21, 2011

My Decision About Homework in SBG

Standards Based Grading does not do homework.  The #1 principle is that homework is practice and should not be graded.  See my other post about this.  However, the students I teach present a different challenge.  Some, if not most, are not motivated.  They just want to get a good grade and move on.  This means they put just enough effort.  That's one part of why I want to do SBG - I hope it will challenge them to learn, not just tell me what I want to hear.

Now to the homework million dollar question - to give or not to give?  More specifically, to grade or not to grade.  That was the big question.  If our students don't have to do it, they won't.  I do believe that.   After reading about how others did not give homework and talking with other teachers I work with (since we know our students best), I decided on a happy (I hope) medium.  I have taken the leap and will not grade homework.  However, I still will give them "practice" problems/questions.  This will be completely optional for them.

To encourage them to do it, I've decided to implement a positive reinforcement system.  I will track their homework using a spreadsheet.  They'll get a check for each assignment they do - completely ungraded.  I'll tie it into the incentive program I've developed and will ask them to help me finish it the first week of school.   The incentive program I think for now will be in the form of "money."   This blog post gave me some ideas and I'm going to give 1 cent (dollar?) for each check they earn regarding homework.  Other things I think I'm gonna include are organization, a Wow factor (something along the lines of "I really like what you did there"), and for acts of kindness that are not your usual polite manners.  It'll be up to them how to use the money they earn.  I usually like to have students give me input for the incentives - when its something they want, they'll work harder for it.  I just have to develop a fair system - not too easy to get something they want, but not too hard.  At the same time, they can practice money skills.

Now to be careful not to fall into the trap of "I did the practice" when they just make up stuff just to get the check.  I'll have to watch this carefully to see how effective it'll be.  Any of you have any ideas or suggestions?

August 19, 2011

It's Done!

Earlier I posted that most of my SBG skills lists were done, but not all.   Well, NOW they are all done!  I am so excited about how they look.  I'm anxious to find out how it will go over with students, with myself, and how the grading will stand up to the challenge this year.

A colleague I was working with said something I had already felt: "I feel like I know what I'm going to look for and what students are going to learn for the entire year."  (emphasis mine)   Zing!   Isn't that a great feeling?  A nice feature of SBG!  Pacing guides are great, but they are just general ideas of what topics we'll be diving into.  SBG will help assess (ready for it?)  - learning!

Of course, as usual, our human nature comes up after a good feeling --- what if this doesn't work !?!  I cannot say that I'm not worried.  I have read all about it, researched it, followed people who use it, and looked at countless examples.  So it should work.....right?  It is a big change (risk?) and that's something I'm not used to.  However, I do have confidence in the evidence that is out there.  And if I fall flat on my face, I'll shoulder all the blame.  Isn't that part of growing and learning - trying new things?   I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of student growth.  I have usually been against using students in some "research project" or something similar because I don't want to mess with their education.  But I find myself in the same shoes that I was pretty much against.  We shall see....

Now on to the assessments themselves.  That'll be the challenge.  I know I'll be doing these on the fly -- not ideal, but considering the time I have left, I'll have to do it week by week.  I'll be browsing around some of your blogs for ideas, but any suggestions from you SBG users?

August 10, 2011

Setting Up Concept Skills Lists

After weeks of reading and learning about SBG, I felt somewhat ready (confident would not be the word I would use at this point) to try to develop the skill concepts and the grading rubrics I would use for each. One of the first things we (we meaning the other high school science teachers I work with) had to figure out is the grading scale for each skill concept. Naturally, one of the best ways to figure this out was to talk to people who already use it. So I talked with several people and especially @jbrtva and another math teacher at my school who incidentally had started using SBG themselves for a year and a half prior. We thought maybe 1-10 because it would be easier to match the grading scale in PowerSchool (the grading system we use at our school). But never just take the easy way. We realized that we couldn't come up with 10 different levels for just one skill concept – it was starting to become a little toooo subjective. So we decided on 1-5 (5 being mastered or on grade level).

Incidentally, our state had just revamped the standards for science, so naturally it was a great time to revamp the curriculum at the same time as well. Our curriculum coordinator gave us some time (paid, yay!) during the summer to work on this project. One of the things we realized we needed to do was determine what skills were “grade level” and what skills should have already been known or exposed to before they came to us. We developed a vertical alignment chart for each subject area we teach and brought it to our summer project. We each had somewhat slowly started developing the skills for grading but felt unsure of ourselves.

Well, its amazing what can be done when two or three people can get together and start discussing how it works. Once we were able to verbalize (in our case, “sign”-alize) what we were looking for, this got the ball rolling. We found it easier to list all the skills the state wanted them to demonstrate (although we did do them about 10-15 at a time, depending on the units we were going to teach and how interconnected they were). Once we got those skills listed, we went back and broke down sequentially each step a student would have to learn before they could actually master the skill. In some cases, we ended up combining two skills and in others, we split up one skill into two different skills. The more we did, the more confident we felt. We were able to do the skill concept lists and curricula for 5 different subject areas (well, 4 and 3/4 -- Physics is nearly complete and we feel confident we can finish by the start of the school year).

A few things I noticed as I was working on the lists:
    • I realized some things I had been grading were not really as important as others.
    • As we worked on the different levels for each concept skill, it really forced us to think hard about what we really were looking for and what prerequisite skills were needed beforehand.
    • I love how straightforward the grading will be – I understand what is to be done. More importantly, the students know what is to be done.

A few questions also came up for me:
    • Is this grading scale going to live up to its billing?
    • Will the students understand what I'm trying to do?
    • What if I missed something that should be graded? Is it fair to add in during the middle of the year?
    • Should I use the list I/we developed for myself only or share it with the kids word for word? Should I simplify it for the students?

Now that this is nearing completion, I am getting excited to see it in action. But also nervous as well. My current mantra remains the same – “Think of the long term results.” Do any of you have suggestions, thoughts, comments? Maybe some insight to some of the questions I have, especially the last two questions?

August 5, 2011

Starting on the SBG Road - No Homework?

Ok, so now that I've got my stuff organized (see last blog post), the easy part. The hard part was figuring out how was I going to grade the students? I didn't want to grade regurgitated facts – I wanted to grade their learning. Again, Twitter came to the rescue. I believe it was @ccarmen, @gardenglen, and @Brunsell... who turned me onto the idea of SBG – Standards Based Grading. They directed me to a couple of sites and from there, the snowball effect took place.

In my early attempt to define it (since it cannot be summarized in a short way), the students are graded based on the standards. It has nothing to do with effort/participation, quizzes, bonus points, etc. The grade is based on how well you understand the standards or perform the standards. One thing that got my attention me – homework is NOT graded. Yes, you read that right.

I had always believed in giving homework --- my goal with homework was always practice, practice, practice. What struck me especially was that students should be able to practice without pressure. Why punish students for practicing? (punish in this case means a bad grade) It doesn't matter what one is doing when they are practicing – they usually won't get it right the first time, be it sports, music, or schoolwork. They should be able to practice without pressure - just be able to try and try again.  That really hit home with me – my students usually have a lot of personal issues to deal with and they don't need another pressure point with homework. I would love for them to practice. If they couldn't do it, they could come see me the next day. If they can, what would that do for their self-esteem? One of the biggest things about my students is they often get a message (intentional or not) and the message is “you can't.” I want them to believe in themselves and see that they CAN.

There is a lot about SBG that I will have to learn. But I have gleaned that 1) it will be harder for students, 2) grades should drop – fall more in line what state testing scores, but 3) it can and should reflect their actual skills. More on this in the following posts.....

If you use SBG, what is it that you like about it most?

August 4, 2011

From Info to Process

Among the many things I wanted to change, along with starting this reflective blog, was to change the info I provided to the students I teach. I had been following several blogs and other sites for good info and was gathering up quite a collection of neat stuff. I was using bookmarks and tags before I realized I was using them, via PortaPortal. This worked great for some time and I actually felt confident I was doing a good job.

However, as I stated in my last post, I started to feel like I was giving the kids the information they were to learn and just regurgitate the facts when it came time to do so. Was there any real learning happening? I felt the answer was no. Perhaps there was a little knowledge gained along the way, but nothing that would have been beneficial in the long term.

The kicker for me was that my list of websites collected, bookmarked, tagged, you name it, was growing rather long and it became cumbersome to actually find what I was looking for. Then I read someone's blog post (I can't remember who – apologies to that person) that really put an explanation point on my thinking – students need to be learners, not memorizers. Another realization of sorts – we live in an Information (or Digital) Age. Any information that is needed can just be found on the internet.

So I did something I thought I would never do – hit the “delete” key on a bunch of sites. I went through the lists I had and this took a good portion of three days. In this process, I asked myself some questions. The ones that came up the most were...

      1. Is this an informative site or a tool to use? If it was informative, it was deleted.
      2. Is this tool something my students or I could use?
      3. What kind of tool is it?
      4. Is it visually pleasing, easy to figure out how to use/understand? (I ask this cuz I teach deaf students and Garder's visual intelligence is a strength of ours)

By the time I was done, my list was practically whittled down to 15% (just a guess really) of what it was. Being the organizer I am, I wanted to categorize the sites in a way that would still be easy to find and still know what I'm looking at. A blessing fell in my lap – I was in a Twitter chat at the time and someone shared a link to LiveBinders, an online “binder” of sorts. After checking it out, I thought this was the answer I was looking for. An easy way to separate the stuff I had into different binders, yet still have different tools within each binder. Furthermore, I could preview a website right in the binder to determine if I wanted to actually use that site. Perfect for visual learners like my students (and myself too!!!)

So I went about furiously categorizing the remaining tools and now have several binders on a “shelf” that anyone can access because I made it public (A perk - you determine privacy settings). In addition to that, no password is needed to view these binders. So long, Portaportal and thanks for the memories. So you can go check out my shelf if you are interested. If you find something you want to use, then I'm glad I helped you out. I would also appreciate any sites/tools you could share with me and I'll add to my binders if I feel it would be helpful.

I do have to admit I feel very nervous that I do not have all these websites handy anymore. However, I remind myself constantly these days “It'll be worth it – think of the long term results.” It's quite a change for me, but change in most cases is good. In this case, to become a better teacher, I have to challenge my students to become better learners. What do you all think? Am I nuts for dumping all the sites I did? Should I have kept some? What do you all do?