Numbers

The Google form mentioned

After a week of self-pacing, I had the general feeling that my students were working at about the speed that they should be. I wanted numbers. I gave my students a quick Google form to complete to try to figure out where they were in the unit based on my calculations of where they should be. The results are at the bottom of this post.



What I see:

• I’m excited that 54% of my students are on track or ahead of pace. A lot of people - including my former students who did not have a self-paced class - say that self-pacing wouldn’t work with students so young. I’m happy that so many have managed the responsibility and control of their learning so well thus far.
• The 41% that are a day behind are a bit of a concern. However, most classes lost about half a class period that was supposed to be worktime as we finished up the Flip section of the Explore-Flip-Apply framework I am using for this unit. Do I wish that number were smaller? Certainly. For the first unit of self-pacing these students have ever dealt with, I am happy that there aren’t more people further behind.
• I’m curious about the 9 students that didn’t complete the survey. Three were absent today. Who were the other six? I haven’t cross-checked against names on my rosters yet, but these six people aren’t a statistically insignificant group. If all of these students are two or more days behind, I would be less optimistic.
• And obviously, the elephant in the room, the 7 two or more days behind. I saw one at office hours today - this student is back on track and seems motivated and ready for class tomorrow. I see a place in the future with an un-self-paced requirement for some students: success contracts for students to make sure that they demonstrate mastery on the following pieces of a unit on any given day. We’re not there yet, but the writing may be on the wall for some students.

Where my students are at

Thoughts on Week 1 of Flipped Mastery

Having finished off the first week of self-paced, mastery-based world history, I think it is useful to get some thoughts out there. These have been percolating all week, as events unfolded in class.

There were actually a lot of positives that came out of this week. A lot of people I really respect, people I interact with on Twitter, people I look to for intellectual inspiration, have had some issues moving their classes into a flipped-mastery model. They have gotten students who have not used classtime well. I was ready for a really bad week this past week. I was excited that that didn’t really happen. Getting to speak to every student every day was a good thing. More importantly, out of these conversations, I was able to really see what my students were thinking throughout last week. Occasionally, a check-in would be brief, as student were on the right track or just needed a brief redirect about what to do next.

Other times, conversations lasted closer to five minutes: what did the student see? What was I looking for? This ability to see what kids really knew - not ‘I swung by your group and your answer looks good’ but more along the lines of ‘I can have an individual conversation with you about what you know’ - was really neat. Another positive was that the vast majority of my students used their classtime well. I had a couple students have bad days come back and recognize their mistake and apologize for wasting time - that hadn’t happened before in my class. More importantly, both students who did this showed up the next day and were productive.

Those students off task also were a negative. Though I was ready in my head for more students being off task and not owning their learning in a productive way, I am hopeful that next week is more productive for all of my students. Also, I need to make a couple changes moving forward. I need to be clearer on an ideal order for task completion, a way through the work of a unit that makes the most sense. That will happen next unit (I’ve already done damage control for this unit). I also need to remind students that screencasts are only one option for getting the content of the course - textbooks work fine too, as do internet sources. This mistake is correctable next week.

The less-than-ideal use of time one? That might be a longer process. I am hopeful that it can be corrected, and I am glad that it is a student or two in each class, not entire classes that have lost their ability to manage their own learning.

Finally, an anecdote: I was sitting out in the hall helping a couple students - my classroom is tiny and students often escape to the hall - when my principal came by. She asked me what my students were working on. It was kind of neat to say, “Well, I’m not really sure. Ask them.” Flipping the responsibility for and ownership of learning over to students - I like it.

Who Are We Serving?

To what end does our educational model exist? What are we trying to prepare students for? There are plenty of intelligent people who have written things the factory model of education, the crushing weight of state standards, the exorbitant amount of time (and money) that is spent on preparation for high-stakes testing. So who are we serving?

The statistics about high school dropout rates are staggering. This is a sizable population that is clearly not being served with our current educational model. (Yes, I acknowledge there are a myriad of other factors behind student dropout rates.)

But what about the other end of the spectrum? The high fliers, the students taking 5 AP classes so they can go to a good college to get a good job to have a good life? A former student, currently a junior, stopped by today and we chatted about how junior year was going. My former student said the following things:

• “I don’t have time to read anymore. I love to read and I can’t anymore.”
• “I had to quit playing tennis because I was too tired to go from school to school to play and then do homework.”
• “Well, then I have four hours of SAT classes every weekend.”
• “I wanted to run track, but my mom said do you have time to do that with all your AP tests?”
• “I’m going to bed at 11:30 or 12. Most of my friends are up until 1, so I’m doing okay.”
• “Might as well take the SAT this semester – I’ve got AP tests and SAT IIs second semester. Don’t want to be overloaded, right?”

I’d argue, vehemently, that we aren’t serving these students either. Not sleeping? Dropping extracurriculars? When do kids get to be kids? When they are 30?

So as educators who among our students are we serving? Who are we preparing adequately for life outside of a classroom? What are we preparing our students for? What choices can individual teachers make in their classrooms that will help prepare students for life? Because this system isn’t going to just up and disappear over night.