One Year in AP: A Year of Blogging (Week thirty-seven)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

What did I learn?

What did I learn from writing my reflection on the course each week? I set out to focus myself on two questions:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know? 

 

Involve the Students

I learned that I need to involve my students more in the planning, feedback, and grading policies of the class.  After writing this blog for about fifteen weeks, I found the process so rewarding; yet, I began to wonder about its purpose.  Why didn't I have the students contribute to the blog?  If the reflection was so great for me, wouldn't it be even more valuable if the students reflected?  They would be able to give me feedback and at the same time reflect on their own learning.

Having the students write the blog served as a medium to find the answer to the second question: How do I get them to know if they know?  From their reflection, I received so much insight on what they thought and knew about their learning.  They gave me suggestions that I would not have come up with on my own.

Also, I was able to get an insight into the differences with what I say and put into practice.  I have certain mantras and sayings.  I set up the course in a way that I felt was equitable.  Even though I said I wanted certain things, sometimes their reflection told me I valued different things.  For instance, I always wanted my class to be about the learning.  However, I valued the completion of the checklists over that for most of the year. The day I wrote the post, I had students give me feedback on things they felt I should keep and get rid of.  It is humbling to read that some of the mantras concerning grades did not resonate with them.

Keep it Simple

I learned that I overcomplicate things.  Sometimes I have a convoluted way of saying things, or I teach the highest level of writing or bring in the most complicated document.  The materials or samples would confuse students with what they should/could do. This can make the process so complicated the students would try to mimic the complicated writing and lose the things they could do in their writing.  Or the document was too difficult and they had no way of accessing it.

Making small gains each day is better than trying to hit a grand slam every time.  It is hard not to speed the process up too much and lose almost everyone.  It feels so much more "academic" and "rigorous" to speed things up.  Due to the blog, I would often have students essentially translate some of the things I say back to me, and I could see that the way I laid out some of the materials were too confusing.

Even the way I present the content has been simplified.  While there are many different parts and nuances in the French Revolution, I simplify it so the students don't get stuck on the details.  They lose the forest for the trees if I didn't.  Simplifying the revolution allows students to grasp the ideas of the revolution.  Once they have the concept, they can read documents to go find the nuances and different perspectives. 

Less is More

I learned that I attempt to do too much in one class.  I use to give five or six documents at a time.  I would rush through them so quickly the students had little to no time to work through them on their own.  Often I would just tell the students how to analyze the documents just to get through it.  After switching and doing fewer documents each day, the students own more of the process and actually understand it.  At the same time, I can give students feedback on their progress and get student feedback when there is less and I am not so concerned with "covering" information.

Writing

I learned that writing is the best way to have the students work through their understandings of history and make thinking visible.  Writing is hard, takes constant practice to get better, and is a window into their mind.  It forces students to make decisions to develop an argument.  Words matter and if they don't fully understand a concept, their writing will reflect that.  I can read exactly what they are able to come up with and work through.  I have fallen in love with the writing mainly because there is not a right answer or an exact way for them to do it.  Because of that fact, I am merely there to help them reflect on the process and be clearer in their explanation.

Despite all of the great things about writing, I need to stop interrupting them.  I am so quick to give feedback or show an example, I stop them from just being and doing.  That is a goal for me for next year.  Let them be.

Feedback

I learned students need to be more reflective. While I love to be a direct part of the feedback process, if the students can't recognize what is good or needs improvement, then they will consistently need me.  That is not the goal of the school.  School should help them become independent thinkers and learners.  One of the main goals of my class was for the students to be more autonomous, especially in recognizing what they know and can be able to do.  I felt that happened this year with the majority of my students.  They knew what they needed to work on and what their strengths were.  It took a lot of practice and me getting out of the way.  I felt at the end of the year they did not need my validation as much.  They had learned and grown.

I learned how to use Google Docs for portfolios.  Students created a document and shared it with me to organize their writing and receive feedback from peers and me.  It had the rubric on the document for the students and me to reference.  It was amazing and it is something I need to continue next year.

The Process

Weekly reflecting has been an incredible process, one I was not sure where it would have taken me or if I would have been able to keep up with.  I learned more about my values and what I hope for schools and my students. I have involved my students more than I ever have in the past.  I felt my students and I were learning together, instead of the normal hierarchy.  I felt that I know my students more than I ever have before. I made their thinking visible on a daily basis.

I hope to continue the reflection process, but more on a school-wide scale. I hope to have more teachers reflect so they can reflect on their practices and make the school a better place. As a final note, a question that really hit me while I was reading Building School 2.0 was, "what happens to your students next year?"

One Year in AP: Grades Part II (Week Thirty-six)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Answer the Question:

AP is hard. There is no way around it.  Furthering the problem is assigning a grade to a student.   The AP examination stratifies students and ranks them.  Because of that reality, how does a teacher assign a fair grade?  Do I equate grades with predicted AP scores?  Should I change grades based on AP scores? How do I curve four parts of a test?  Do I value work ethic?  How do you factor in a weighted grade?

To help me understand what they thought about all of this, I asked them a few weeks ago what they thought they should have earned.  Before I handed back their last major assessment, I asked them again what grade they thought they earned.  To gather data, I posted a Google form that asked the students to state what their current grade is, what grade they felt they have earned, and explain why they earned the grade they selected. I was amazed at the honesty in their responses.  There were quite a few students who gave themselves a lower score and some of their responses really made me think about the year.

Here is what some of the students had to say.

Provide Specific Evidence: 

Hodor

I would choose to give myself a low A. I know that I’m giving my best on every test that we take in class, but I just don’t feel that my work is that exceptional. My reasoning is not as reflective as I would like it to be, and I’m always rushed on time. However, I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time at home lately going over prompts we’ve done in class and writing practice DBQs and short answers, which I send to Mr. Heintz for feedback. Just this morning, I woke up early to take a practice stimulus test to challenge my mind and see how I would do that early in the morning. Finally, I am one of the most focused people in the class, and I have finished all my checklists on time throughout the whole year.

Arya

I think that the grade I deserve would have to be a C because I have tried in this class but at the same time have lacked on the part of doing my work on time. As well in asking for help when it was needed and asking questions. Also with waiting to last min. To do things that needed to be done a long time ago.

Gregor

Although I would like an A, I believe that I deserve a B since I don’t really study, practice essays/DBQs/short answer, or do all of the checklists on time.  My actions are also the reason why I’m getting worse at everything in AP World History so I will try to study and practice for the AP exam and study and practice more next year.

Cersei

I know I have earned a B because I work really hard in this class and at certain times it can be one of my best grades. The hard work that I accomplish for this class pays off in our tests and writings that we do. I prioritize this class over all my other classes because I enjoy the workload and learning about history even though it can be infuriating and frustrating at times. This class always manages to get the best of me but I also get the best from itself by learning things that might potentially stick with me forever.

Daenerys

Because even though I don't keep up on checklists I make up for them. I still do the checklists, but then my grade doesn't increase. Some DBQ's we write and then grade with peers I do well on but scores don't go into the grade book sometimes. I do participate in class, I pay attention, and I think that should earn points itself. Also, I do know the material and what we're talking or writing about even if I'm not the best at expressing it.

Explanation

My students are very hard on themselves.  Between balancing coursework, getting up early, prioritizing other work, and being attentive in class, their reflection reveals the struggle with the course and their lives.  It is a stressful time for them. Their posts challenge me because of their self-deprivation.  School should be a place that lifts people up and gives confidence since they are gaining new skills and knowledge.  Instead, they are looking at what they haven't gained instead of what they have.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note the emphasis the students place on time in the classroom and paying attention.  The way our school system is set up, time is highly valued.  In our current system, many view time spent in the seat equates to learning.  However,  I thought I moved past that with my students.  Time in the seat help learning occur. But that is not the case.  As a teacher, I constantly converse with students, read their work, and probe with questions that help push their thinking.  In my class, it is not just the time in the seat or filling in of worksheets.  It is what they can do or apply.  In reading their reflection, I need to keep working on it.

Overall, I am not sure the place grades have in the classroom.  They often get in the way of creativity or students taking risks because it is easier to take the linear path to "earn" the A.  They change the narrative of learning.  I have to issue grades and I have really enjoyed reading the students insight.  As I stated before, I need to include them in the process more frequently next year.

Read week thirty-seven here.

One Year in AP: Student Reflection on Reviewing (Week Thirty-five)

By Kunal Patel,  John Kaczowka, and Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

This week's post is by Kunal Patel and John Kaczowka.  Here is their reflection.

As May 17th—the day many sophomores take the AP World History exam—comes nearer, students begin to “study.” But what is “studying” exactly? How can one effectively prepare for the exam? What have we done in class to help us prepare?

Class Activities and Homework Designed to Help us Prepare

Review Period Checklists: These short Schoology quizzes are designed to test our content knowledge on each time period we have covered this year. The questions are taken from previous checklists from past units. They are usually due each Thursday.

John: Instead of spending hours reading long texts and taking notes, Mr. Heintz created videos that were accompanied by quizzes to check our understanding of the material. I thought that these quizzes really helped me learn the material quickly without any difficulty. The end of each checklist consisted of a review for the week, usually made up of 20 to even 80 questions. The review period homework was a set of quizzes from the entire year divided into smaller parts to review important aspects of each time period. These quizzes saved me a lot of time during the week, and as a result, we didn’t have to learn the AP material during class but instead focus on writing, which will really help me on the AP exam.

Kunal: These weekly review checklists have provided me with a nice way to check if I have the content down. Although it can get repetitive, I believe that this repetition is necessary so that we can commit pertinent information into our memory. I tend to do each checklist twice (within a week or two) and always shoot for a perfect score. When I do get a question wrong, I read the question again, read all of the answer choices, look at the explanation for why my answer choice was incorrect, and come up with a new answer after doing all of the above. For me, I prefer the checklist system over doing a worksheet because I get instant feedback on my answers and an explanation for why an incorrect answer is incorrect as well. It also saves time in class because students will know the content prior to coming to class.

Short Stimulus Checks: These mini-stimulus quizzes are about 7 to 9 questions each. We have done three of these so far, two in the Foundations time period (8000 BCE to 600 BCE) and one in the Post-Classical time period (600 to 1450 CE). We went over the answers to each of these in class. Either Mr. Heintz gave us the answers or we worked together in small groups.

John: The stimulus-based multiple choice is one of the sections on the AP World History exam. This part is worth the most on this test (40%). Starting class off with a couple of stimulus-based questions is a great way to practice this skill. I really thought that these small practices helped me time-wise since this part is only 55 minutes. Timing was a big issue for me.  Making these little practices timed really improved my timing.  Afterward, we would go over the answers as a group, discussing which answer is correct and why the other answer choices are wrong.  Sometimes we choose the correct answer, but we don’t quite know why the answers are wrong or what they are talking about.

Kunal: I feel that this is one of the BEST ways to prepare for the stimulus exam, other than taking a full practice one! It’s a great way to start the class and doesn’t even take up that much time. By seeing more and more stimulus questions, students will get comfortable with the format and become better test takers by exam day. To work on our pacing, Mr. Heintz can have the timer set to a certain number of minutes that would equal the number of questions present. (For example, if there were 9 questions, students should only be allowed 9 minutes to answer them.) Going over the answers afterward is very effective since we can talk through each question and its corresponding answer choices. I feel the class is definitely more engaged when the class is under a time limit. What I would like to see in the near future are short, timed stimulus checks on Schoology that students can complete for practice.

Long Essay Practice: This is similar to the DBQ except the long essay does not include documents that need to support the claim nor do they need to corroborate each other. We did two practice long essays in class before we took one for our final.

John: We, as a class, really didn’t focus on Long Essays since they’re similar to the DBQs. This past week, Mr. Heintz gave us two prompts from actual AP exams to look at during class. We discussed what we can write on this particular prompt. He gave us a couple of minutes to write down whatever we thought would be useful to know about the period 600-1450 CE.  Every aspect is similar to the DBQ in terms of the thesis, contextualization, and corroborating except that there aren’t any documents that we can use. Using what we know is the entire aspect of this part. I decided to write on the 600-1450 prompt as practice for a test we had the following day. This was great practice because I sent it to Mr. Heintz and received feedback on the parts that could have been added to my essay. Writing using past AP prompts really helped me advance my writing abilities.

Kunal: Mr. Heintz didn’t give us any official practice to prepare for the long essay until the month of April. This worked out well because AP changed something about the requirements/format that would have made our preparations not as useful. At first, when we worked on one in class on the whiteboard tables, I wasn’t sure if I was using the right evidence or whether my reasoning was strong; I had very little confidence in myself. On the second long essay we did, I was only able to write the thesis in class. However, we had the long essay final the following day, so I vowed to finish the practice one and receive feedback from my teacher. After writing each paragraph, I sent them to Mr. Heintz via Remind. (You can find my long essay below.) I got GREAT feedback that improved my writing and boosted up my confidence level!! On the day of the final, however, I didn’t feel that great about what I had written. I was only able to write one body paragraph when I had planned to write two, and my reasoning was a bit repetitive. To my surprise, I got 6 points because I wrote my one body paragraph really well and my reasoning wasn’t as repetitive as I thought it was. (What is required of us in class is actually more than what’s required in the actual exam.) At this point in time, I do feel much more confident about writing long essays. The only question I have is whether I’m writing too much in terms of the evidence.

Memory Recall: Every day, Mr. Heintz tests our content knowledge. On some days, we organize historical events by time period and on others, we brainstorm all we know about a topic. Memorizing the content isn’t enough; we have to be able to access the knowledge during the AP exam under time pressure.

John: A big part of learning history is to actually remember the things we learn. The Schoology quizzes are repetitive for a reason. Mr. Heintz asked us to write any facts and important events for certain time periods for the past two weeks.  This was a great way to see which time periods we are struggling with and which ones are mastered. Sometimes, we worked alone to see what we know and other times with our table partner. Together, we could see what facts we could recall. This is a perfect warm up to start class.

Kunal: These “memory recall” times of the period are my favorite! I enjoy being tested on what I know and don’t know and the challenge it provides. These activities are very engaging and stimulate group conversations as ideas bounce around. Sometimes, Mr. Heintz requests us to work individually (which works for me), but after the independent work time, I think that group collaboration should occur as often as possible. One day, Grace (my table buddy) and I created a list of all the Chinese dynasties, the major empires/republics in Europe, and the empires who had power in India. We also created a pyramid and labeled the Caste System. It was fun, engaging, and useful at the same time!

Grace and I brainstorming:

Individual Memory Recall: Mr. Heintz started the class off with individual self-checks to practice recalling information.

Trade Routes Map Activity: We were given a map and a certain time period beginning from 600 C.E. to the present. The goal was to mark any major trade routes used, the empires who legitimized their rule during the time period, and the items traded without using the Internet or any outside sources except for classmates.

John: Drawing and labeling trade routes for a certain time period on a world map was a different approach to what we usually do. I feel that the activity could have been changed since there was some confusion as to how to approach the activity. The idea was there since it made us recall which empire dominated and which trade routes were used. Working in our table groups on a certain time period would have made the activity more interactive. I myself didn’t add all the things I would have liked on my map, and to me, it didn’t really look too appealing. As groups, we may have been able to throw more ideas out and we could have decided what was important and what wasn’t as much. Perhaps adding everything on one map may have improved the activity.

Kunal: Drawing trade routes and labeling empires on a map was fun, but I’m not sure whether that was the best activity for that Friday. On that day, Mr. Heintz was out for a meeting, so a handful of students were not doing the task and instead we're talking about other things or on their iPADs. This is usually the case when a sub is present. I was on task during that class period and I even encouraged Max for us to work together because we had the same time period, 1450 to 1750 C.E. We both got our maps done by the end of the time period, though I just realized that I forgot to include the goods that were traded/transported between Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the Triangular Trade System. However, I personally thought that this activity should have been done earlier in the year. Doing it when the sub was present didn’t turn out well, and if Mr. Heintz were here, we should’ve been working on our writing instead. I think a better idea would have been to take a practice stimulus test or short answers that would be “graded” to force everyone to take it seriously and stay focused.

DBQ Practice: Last Thursday, we got a DBQ prompt. Mr. Heintz timed us for 15 minutes, during which we had to plan out how we would go about answering the question and organizing the documents into two or more groups.

John: Writing during class is one of the best things we do. I’ve always enjoyed writing and learning how to express my thoughts in different ways. The AP exam almost consists entirely of writing. Knowing how to write an essay well will really help me now not only on the AP World History exam but also in the long run. Mr. Heintz gave us a prompt from a retired test, and on Thursday, we were given 15 minutes to analyze the documents to highlight important aspects and connect the documents so we can support our claims. The DBQ is worth the most out of the writing portion of the exam so it’s important we do well on it. What we’ve been doing in class was a great way prepare ourselves for the DBQ. At the beginning of the year, I was struggling to write a good thesis, now after writing countless essays throughout the year in class and on tests, I have really started to write quality essay thanks to these practices.

Kunal: When it comes to AP tests, standardized tests (PSAT, SAT, etc.), and even tests/quizzes in class, my greatest concern is time. When I do my homework, I take my time, read everything carefully and make sure I understand what I’m reading before moving on, and I proofread my work. However, this has been my biggest weakness. If there’s anything I’m worried the most about for this upcoming AP exam, it’s whether I’ll have enough time to answer every single question for the multiple choice and whether my writing is accurate and on topic but also detailed. Due to this, I usually briefly brainstorm and move on to my writing as quickly as I can so I can write all I want to write. This has not been the best idea because it’s led to many jumbled thoughts and not a clear plan. Being timed for 15 minutes allowed me to see what I could get done in that amount of time. I was able to read through each document and list the main points. Additionally, I began grouping the documents and was getting ready to write my thesis. Taking 10 to 15 minutes to brainstorm will allow me to write a DBQ that has effective evidence, strong reasoning, and correct corroboration/qualification between documents.

Practice Test (Final Exam Part 1): For the last two weeks, we took our first final, consisting of a full 55-question stimulus test, three short answers, and one long essay.

John: Taking actual AP exams is a great way to test our knowledge and skills. Mr. Heintz divided the test into a couple sections since there aren’t enough minutes in a class period to an entire AP exam. We took a 55-minute stimulus test and short answer for two days. A week later we took the long essay and this week we’re supposed to write a DBQ, a short answer, and another stimulus to see if we’ve improved or where we could still use some work. Afterward, we analyzed each part individually and as a class to see where we went wrong and where our focus should be. Mr. Heintz had us grade other students work to see what we would give the person and why. He would check the grade himself to see if we were on the same page. I enjoy taking these tests because they show the things I have learned and mastered. Having the will to take these test will only benefit me since this is an excruciating test, and the only way to do well and get through it is to actually want to take the test.

Kunal: Taking a practice exam was very beneficial. It creates an environment similar to the AP exam and allows students to see what they have mastered and what they need to work on. After we took a certain part of the exam, we spent about a day or two going over the answers and understanding what we have done wrong. For example, a couple of days after the stimulus exam, Mr. Heintz handed out our packets and provided us with our results. Additionally, he posted the correct answers to Schoology and explanations for each answer choice for each question. I was able to go over every question I got wrong and decide whether I had made a silly mistake or if the question really was tough. This was very helpful! I realized that many of the questions I missed were silly mistakes that I rushed on due to time. For both the short answers and the long essay, Mr. Heintz requested that we grade our own before he handed out what he graded us. This allowed for a ton of reflection and stimulated group conversations.

How will we both study, and continue to study, for the exam?

John: The AP Exam is right around the corner. Here are some of the things I intend on doing in order to be successful.

• Take three full practice exams. I found one complete exam on the College Board website and the Princeton Review has a handful of tests as well.
• Watch videos from GetAFive.com on the time periods which I could use some reviewing. There’s around 13 hours worth of content to watch. This would be a great resource to use.
• Look through objective sheets provided by Mr. Heintz and try filling out blank ones to see which time period I’m still struggling with
• Look through the Princeton Review and take notes
• Go back to prompts from the year and try rewriting some of the DBQs and short answer questions
• Quickly skim through previous tests
• Reflect on the year and acknowledge how hard I’ve worked to get to this point

Kunal: At this point in time, here is what I’m planning to do outside of class to prepare.

• Take at least two practice tests that are in the Princeton Review
• Go over the answers from these two practice tests and understand and reflect on what I’ve done wrong
• Complete all of the objective sheets with the best of my knowledge to test my memory recall and then review the ones with the answers
• Do all of the review checklists once again from the whole year
• Watch videos on GetAFive.com to review content and test format/requirements
• Finish any writing practices that we’ve started in class
• Read through the Princeton Review and take notes
• Look over all of my writing and the work I’ve done from the whole year

You can read week thirty-six here. 

One Year in AP: Retrieval Practice (Week Thirty-four)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Thirty-four: Answer the Question

This week, the content focus was reviewing. How do you get students to know what they know from the entire year?  What is the most effective way to get at that?  Also, how do I know what they know to provide resources to them other than just saying, "study?"

Provide Specific Evidence: 

I spent most of the week practicing their writing, but the focus of this posting will be on the content.  Too often have I given the students too much information to go over in the final weeks of the course.  Whenever I hand out packets or review guides, students feel good that they were given a tome to review. But, they don't do anything with it because it is too much. It is overwhelming or unapproachable. I use retrieval practice to get at the vast content they have to know and recall.  This method is useful because the students have "memorized" content, but have trouble accessing the information.  If they can't access it, then they don't own it.

To give an example,

I asked the students to recall the time periods, major events that occurred in the period, and an example of gender roles in each period.  As I walked around, I observed what facts students could recall and what they struggled with.

Additionally, the exam they are being tested with is not always what you know, but what you can access. Therefore, every day I "tested" them with prompts and asked what information they would use.  Afterward, the students talk to one another and evaluate each other's responses.

I attempted to have the students recall very specific information.  For the BINGO activity above, I had twenty different questions that would recall very specific information.

Explanation

Reviewing is tough.  If students don't know what they don't know, reviewing turns into lecture or just covering material for the sake of covering material.  Students will often go over notes without testing their ability to access it.   They keep covering the same material in the same manner.  Often, that process yields very little growth.  Furthering the problem, the students want to be told what to study or what to know.  However, the problem is I don't know the exact things that would be on the exam.  The exam is not a straight memorization or recall test.

Therein lies the beauty and problems of reviews.  Prompts are not prescriptive and worded in a difficult language.  The review needs to address students ability to make sense of the material they know and to identify a few areas they need to cover.  For me, the best way to help students is hearing their conversations and reading what they come up with.  Hazel Mason has told me numerous times, conversation and observations.  It is the cornerstone of how people learn.  As a teacher, these two things are the biggest tools in our arsenal to help our own understanding of student learning.  They help students figure out what they know and struggle with.  So much can be gained from these two things. However, they are often touted as "soft" practices.  It is hard to quantify things through conversations and observations.  But in the end, the students have so many other validations, having them work through their understandings through conversation is a natural low-stress method that is perhaps the most effective one.

In the bingo example, the students attempted to recall the information without accessing anything.  This forced great conversations and got the students to realize what they knew and didn't in the specific time period.

Impact

I need to set-up protocols that allow for more conversation through the year.   It needs to be reflective in nature and centered around recall practice.  They need to starts challenging their ability to access the material from day one.  And this needs to be more informal.  It cannot be only on a test or quiz.  If they get to the point where they can talk through their understanding and write about it, the rest of the issues will take care of themselves.

You read week thirty-five here. 

One Year in AP: Valued Student Reflections (Week Thirty-three)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Thirty-three: Answer the Question

This week's skill focus was still centered on analyzing charts, maps, and texts and pulling evidence from documents to support a claim.

1. Write one cause/effect, and one comparative short response that reflects an understanding of essential content.
2. Analyze charts, maps, graphs, and texts.
3. Write a thesis statement, contextualize a prompt, and draw evidence from two documents to support the thesis. 

Provide Specific Evidence: 

This semester, I am including, or trying to include student's perspective on the week.  We are in the final weeks of the course and I wanted to know what the students learned.  I asked a few students to send me a document that defined what they learned over the last eight months.  It was a very open question and I told them it did not have to be just content or skills.  The question was simply, what did you learn this year?  Here was the result.

Student Response

Over the course of this school year, I’ve learned a lot from taking AP World History. I walked in on day one of my sophomore year into this class just like any other class, except for the fact that I was a little intimidated by the things I’ve heard about the course. After taking it, I learned a lot about history (obviously), as well as a lot outside of history itself, such as myself, the public education system, and what it truly means to learn.

One of, if not, the largest contributing factors to success in this class for me and a lot of others have been the way the class has been taught. Up to date, I’ve really loved the checklist system. Using this system has actually kept me on track with homework while simultaneously giving me the opportunity to work at my own speed on the content of each lesson. This is something I know a lot of people have struggled with, myself included, more specifically last year in AP Human Geography.  Reading and taking notes in a given packet never worked as well as this checklist system, as it didn’t engage me, took a lot of time and patience, and just felt like a drag to accomplish. While some may say to stop complaining because ‘that’s just how school works’, I do agree. Regardless, I also think these things can be accomplished in different, possibly more effective ways. As students, we’ve been enrolled in this game where we score points for submitting things and regurgitating information. How we do may determine the course of our lives. With this, we’ve had the idea of how school ‘should’ and/or is run engraved into our minds for as long as we’ve been playing. The checklist system makes it feel like everything I’d need to know is given right in front of me, quite possibly because it is (for the most part, content-wise).

What does any of this have anything to do with what I’ve learned this year? Simple- I’ve learned what system of education works well for me, and learned what I have to do in order to be successful both without this checklist system and with this system by challenging myself at my own speed rather than faintly paying attention in class. This hands-on system further engages me with my work and material, at my own speed. I’ve grown to really like this system, which has given me the chance to actually learn how and why Islam was so powerful internationally between 600-1450 BCE, as well as why that is no longer the case. While this may sound wonderful, I’ve noticed that a lot of students, myself included, have struggled with writing. More specifically, a lot of us have struggled with how we implement given or known information and context into short essays, document-based questions, and short-answer questions. This isn’t something at fault to an educator, rather a difficult concept by nature. If there is something I’d like to see improved in this course, it would be how writing, or specifically this element of writing, is taught. Again, this isn’t something taught in a sub-par manner, rather a difficult component of this course. Improving upon this would further our knowledge while bringing students up to that next level, and very likely being more successful in the class as well as on the AP Test.

Many think that much of the information thrown at us in this course is or will be irrelevant as soon as the bell rings it is final time this school year, which in my opinion is a slightly oblivious thought to have. While, yes, a chunk of the information won’t be necessary for anything of vast importance to us in the future, a fair majority of the information gives us a better understanding of the world we live in and why it is the way it is today by giving us context to its current events. This, in an ever-changing world, is valuable to have for anyone who tries to understand what is going on within it in relation to economics, politics, and conflicts which often affect the general population. That’s kind of a far-fetched thought for some, but at the same time may be something as simple as asking “why have gas prices gone up recently?” Oh right, there’s conflict taking place, in those oil-rich nations on that side of the world. Oh right, those conflicts have been taking place for long before anyone reading this has been around. Thanks, world history.

Overall, yes, I have learned that the Persians used satraps way back when. But besides this, I’ve learned to open my eyes and actually discover what it truly means to learn and understand something, as well as open my eyes to the world around me. Truly learning the given information is what lets me utilize and apply it to our world today, what’s going on around me, and why. I’m not sure I would have retained the information from this course as well as I have if I used anything other than this unique checklist system, which I’m interested to see how this system will be used in the future, possibly in other courses, possibly in other schools. This system could be useful for a lot of different students as we continue to play the education game. While we all grew up knowing it is important to learn, have we all truly understood what it means to learn? Is this something that has been stressed enough?

My Response

Wow! There is a lot to unpack.  David stated, "After taking it, I learned a lot about history (obviously), as well as a lot outside of history itself, such as myself, the public education system, and what it truly means to learn."  I love this comment! History, education, and learning all in one.  David and I have talked about the public education system throughout the semester, so it was not a surprise to me that he referenced it in his reflections.  He continues to comment on the gamification of the education system, but I really appreciated that he highlighted the learning that took place throughout the semester.  It is a hard balance for a lot of students and how grades are set up.  Sometimes tasks are more important to the students than the learning.  It is a constant challenge for me to not have things go in the grade book but still valued.  This is especially hard in a class that is required for all students to take.  I am always tweaking things to give students more autonomy in a mandated AP course. #struggle

Another comment,  "Up to date, I’ve really loved the checklist system. Using this system has actually kept me on track with homework while simultaneously giving me the opportunity to work at my own speed on the content of each lesson."  One reason I went to the checklist system, you can read about the process here, was for the students to work at their own pace.  The class is very rigid and I have in the past been stricter about the "homework".  I appreciate that he zeroed in on the openness of the content checklists.  I feel that I am still fairly linear in my approach, but to hear students say it is working is good.

David wrote, "Reading and taking notes in a given packet never worked as well as this checklist system, as it didn’t engage me, took a lot of time and patience, and just felt like a drag to accomplish."  I am not sure this is a by-product of my class or just his reflective nature.  I wish that I could have students be this reflective of what works for them.  I need to work on reflection being a natural part of the class.

Students accessing material they know is very difficult.  "More specifically, a lot of us have struggled with how we implement given or known information and context into short essays, document-based questions, and short-answer questions." It is hard to be able to transfer information "learned" in one context to another.  Doing this through writing is especially difficult.  If there is something I’d like to see improved in this course, it would be how writing, or specifically this element of writing, is taught.  This is a constant focus and very difficult to do.  I have been focusing on it the whole year and it is still a struggle.  I have been trying to get kids to find their voice and what resonates with them in history.  However, it is a standardized course and difficult to do.

Truly learning the given information is what lets me utilize and apply it to our world today, what’s going on around me, and why.  A great takeaway and I wish I could have every student realize this or have the internal drive to understand it.

As a whole, the systems of school are what can help or inhibit learning.  I think the focus is what learning really is and have a cohesive definition of it to move forward in making changes to the "system."  I love his ideas and how open he was in his reflection.  I value his honesty and wish I had that with all of my students.  Something to hope for in the future.

You can read week thirty-four here. 

One Year in AP: What did Students learn? (Week Thirty-two)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Thirty-two: Answer the Question

This week the content focus was primarily on World War I. Here were the standards for this week:

1. Analyze the responses to the influenza pandemic of 1918.

This week's skill focus was still centered on analyzing charts, maps, and texts and pulling evidence from documents to support a claim.

1. Write one cause/effect, and one comparative short response that reflects an understanding of essential content.
2. Analyze charts, maps, graphs, and texts.
3. Write a thesis statement, contextualize a prompt, and draw evidence from two documents to support the thesis. 

Provide Specific Evidence: 

This semester, I am including, or trying to include student's perspective on the week.  We are in the final weeks of the course and I wanted to know what the students learned.  I asked a few students to send me a document that defined what they learned over the last eight months.  It was a very open question and I told them it did not have to be just content or skills.  Here was one of the responses.

Student Response

I didn't really know what to expect with this course because I'd heard so many different takes on it from the juniors and seniors I know who'd taken it - some people said it was the hardest social science, some said it was the easiest. At the end of my year in the class, I have a couple observations and general feelings.

First of all, I think the structure of the general course is really easy to understand. There were a lot of ways the grand scheme of world history was broken down into a lot of patterns which only really began to come together at the end. It's incredibly difficult to connect everything after learning it in fragmented bits, but I don't know if there's really a shortcut to putting the pieces together. I had my own method with filling out blank worksheets that helped me a ton, but I know people that do pretty well even without this.

As for the structure of the class itself, I think the checklists were more efficient than any giant textbook I'd have to carry around. Being someone who lives for routine and organization, I appreciated the consistency the Thursday checklists. As much as I didn't ever want to do them, I have to admit that it's probably tons better than annotating a 10-page packet or trying to translate a textbook into comprehensible content. I also think the way the checklists were structured well in that they threw in a lot of reviews (annoying, but effective). A lot of people complained that the excessive review was too difficult for a weekly thing, but I personally didn't mind it because it helped so much. For the first semester final, studying was so much easier than it was last year for APHG because the checklists incorporated continuous review rather than me teaching myself all the content over again.

A big component of this class was an emphasis on writing. Some of the other classes started learning how to write DBQs and short answers after the entirety of first semester, and that just seems crazy to me. Considering things can still be confusing and we've been working on them all year, I can't imagine what it'd be like learning them so late. I think the idea of adding in a component of the DBQ every unit was a great idea because before you know it, you can do the whole thing and know how it all fits together. Obviously, there were times that I was pretty confused about the format, but after doing a lot of examples in class and analyzing them, I'm comfortable with the process. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy writing with partners because it didn't exactly portray what I did or didn't know. I either felt like I was carrying the group or that I was “cheating” because I wouldn't have known the content by myself. The best progress for me came when we had to write individually and get direct feedback from the teacher because it was brutally honest in what you could and couldn't do. Overall, I think the amount of planning and thought put into this class really shows and it's been enjoyable for me despite the work required.

Another Student Response with a Differing Opinion on the Checklists

If I were to change something about the AP course I would probably change a part of the checklist. Sometimes I feel that the review for each checklist is intimidating because of the timer it has, I used to rush through it to be able to finish. If I redid this course I would hope to get more practice on stimulus tests and have more opportunities to help improve my grade. Otherwise having a good mindset about AP helped me improve in this class and gain more interest in taking the course.

My Response

I didn't know what to expect with their responses. I purposefully did not want to skew their reflection so I intentionally made the question very open-ended. Because of that openness, I have a few other student reflections that go into different directions.  As for this week's reflection, it is interesting to note that "learning" was more about school and the nature of systematizing learning instead of truly what they learned.  For example, how the checklists were orientated or the group work with writing.

Furthermore, the student addressed what "worked" for them.  I love that the students were aware enough of their workflow and how best to tackle the tasks needed to be completed.  Even the student who had a different opinion of the checklists wrote more about the structures in place rather than the learning. I think students are cued into being compliant with tasks rather than what they are learning or why.  But maybe the "doing" is how they perceive learning.  Cal Newport has this quote from his book, Deep Work, that resonates with me and what I am thinking.





I am not sure the students know what is valuable to them. I think they want to be connected and have validation.  Because of this, they resort back to industrial metrics of visibility and compliance. They want to show me that they have "done" things and put in the effort and the writing on a daily basis and checklists do that.

I am not sure how to completely remove this thought or get at the value of learning rather than compliance.  A lot of what they are commenting on is related to the way we do school.  I want to get at the point where the students are valuing the conversations, the new understandings, or how to solve problems.  I am rethinking my language, task needed to be completed, and the entire grade book.  I need to communicate more with the reasoning behind everything and allow for more student agency and inquiry-based learning.  I need to get the students to find their voice in the process.

You can read week Thirty-three here. 

A Year in AP: Teaching is Getting in the Way of Learning (Week Thirty-one)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Thirty-one: Answer the Question

This week the content focus was primarily on the development of modern-day China. Here were the standards for this week:

1. Identify one country and explain how they promoted economic development in the post-Cold War era.
2. Compare and contrast how communist states of the Soviet Union and China controlled their national economies.

This week's skill focus was still centered on analyzing charts, maps, and texts and pulling evidence from documents to support a claim.

1. Write one cause/effect, and one comparative short response that reflects an understanding of essential content.
2. Analyze charts, maps, graphs, and texts.
3. Write a thesis statement, contextualize a prompt, and draw evidence from two documents to support the thesis.  

Cite Specific Evidence

First, how do I know that the students know the content and how to do the skills?

To focus on the content objective, I used thirty, small cards with a single vocabulary word on each one from the 1950's - present.  I used them several days in a row.  One of the days, the students sorted the words by AP theme.  After they sorted the cards, they picked an AP theme and wrote how each of those terms they placed in the category could be used to define the twentieth century.

DBQ

The rest of the week was centered on the document based question. To target the DBQ, I used the 2014 document-based question.  Here is the prompt:

The writing focused the students' ability to construct a body paragraph.  I asked the students to write two different paragraphs on the relationship between Chinese peasants and the Chinese Communist Party.  The goal at this point in the school year was to have the students bring in outside information into the argument.  To help students incorporate outside evidence into the writing, I gave the students some sentence starters.

Bringing in outside evidence is incredibly difficult and very few students were able to do it. Here is an example of one of the students writing.  Despite their difficulties, they are amazing at drawing alpacas! 

In the next example, there is evidence of the students linking documents together. 

Students self and peer reflected on their writing in a google doc that contained a writing rubric.  After they wrote, they self-evaluated on the points they thought they earned.  Then, they gave it to a peer to check their work.  Finally, I checked their work.

Explain the Evidence

I love the manipulatives!  They are such a great resource to have.  Once you cut them up, they are so versatile.  It is a way to get students up and moving.  It is a quick check on what they know for them and for me.  I love them and I use them as often as I can.

On to the writing.

I struggled with this week and that is part of the problem.  I had a lot of teacher agency.  I wanted to give the students more time to work on their product and writing.  However, I kept interrupting their progress to show examples and direct their learning.  Let me give you an example.  I had set up one day of class to have the students work on a paragraph.  I gave them about thirty minutes of class to work on it.  I was walking around the room and answering student questions.  Students were giving feedback.  It was great until I got involved.

I noticed a few examples of student writing and I wanted to share them with the class.  I had the student AirPlay the sample and then the class analyzed the writing.  This was the problem.  Displaying the student sample when others were working on their writing undermined their progress and process.  It became more about me sharing a sample and then students mimicking that example rather then them working on their process.

I did this three days in a row to differing degrees.  The "teaching" got in the way of the learning.

My Reflection and Impact


I am glad I had this time to reflect.  I am not sure if I would have noticed what I was doing if I did not write this blog.  The students love examples.  I love examples.  However, that wasn't the point of the day.  I wish I would have had all the students finish their writing and then share examples.   As bad it is my sound, I need to stay out of it sometimes.  I definitely need to let the students find their process and find their voice.  They need to have the process allow for them to help craft their identity.  Furthermore, the writing process and a DBQ is a venture into inquiry learning.   A DBQ offers so many different directions to answer the question.  But to allow inquiry learning to take place I need to them the student explore.

Next steps:  I need to let learners learn.  I need to create conditions that maximize learning and then let them go.  That is going to be focus for the reminder of the year. 

Read next weeks here.

A Year in AP: What Grade Have I Earned? (Week Thirty)

By Mark Heintz


Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Thirty: Answer the Question

This week I am going to take a break from the usual format.

Provide Specific Evidence: 

The quarter just ended and I have only a few weeks left in the semester.  At this point, I wanted to get a feel for how the students felt they were progressing.

I was inspired by Jesse Stommel's post on how he has not graded in the past seventeen years.  You can read his post here.  I feel that I am in a similar mindset as Jesse in regards to grades.  I have written about how grades have hurt some of my student's mentality.  The grade changed the narrative of course for them and altered their perception of their progress.  Using grades as a baseline and to determine their perception of what went into a grade,  I wanted to know what they felt was going well for them and what they valued as a student.

To gather data, I posted a Google form that asked the students to state what their current grade is, what grade they felt they have earned, and explain why they earned the grade they selected. I was amazed at the honesty in their responses.  There were quite a few students who gave themselves a lower score and some of their responses really made me think about the year.  

Here is what some of the students had to say.

Pete

So far this semester I've been very productive with my checklists and participating during class, which I think in particular has been a strength that has helped me understand some confusing topics throughout history. Occasionally I slack off, but I don't think I'm alone in that aspect. Currently, my grade reflects my assessment scores, which I know I can improve during our next testing. Helping others with their studies also bolsters my understanding of many of the subjects, simply because I go through once more whatever topic is at hand. I believe that at times I can focus a bit better, but as long as I continue being successful with my checklists and participating in class, I will be able to earn and prove why I deserve an A in this class.

Me

I feel that Pete's assessment of his semester is what a teacher would hope for.  He has a good sense of what he needs to work on and has a few minor suggestions for himself. I love how he blends traditional metrics of success while connecting his learning to helping others.

Rabia

I feel like I have earned this grade (B) because I know my content and how to write my DBQ and short answers but I’m a bad test taker. The checklists I do complete but the reviews from last semester were very challenging and some of the videos do not help. I have completed all of the current checklists from this semester on time. I do struggle with the content but I know enough of it to be able to complete my work. It may seem as if I don’t put in the effort when it comes to those old checklists I do try very much so but it gives me a lot of anxiety with the fact they are timed and how far back some of the questions go. I try to complete all of the inside and outside work of class to the best of my ability

Me

I have been questioning how to make the checklists a lot easier.  Some of the content reviews in the checklists get long and most of it very specific.  The older checklists make it so the students can't see the forest for the trees. I need to come up with a different plan to get the students to keep going back to the older content.  I want to make changes to the process because the students feel that I don't think they put in the effort when I knew they do!  Schoology enables me to I see how long they spend on the quizzes and some of them spend an enormous amount of time on each quiz.  I want to give them successful ways of moving forward while spending less time doing it.

Also, Rabia is not the only student to highlight that they are a bad test taker.  There is a lot of pressure put on these students centered around the tests.  Some of that anxiety translates into poor performance on something they know and I know they can do.  It frustrates me and I am constantly looking for ways to de-stress them.

Brandon

(Current grade D, stated he has earned a C) Checklists were unfinished. Did not ask for help. Other classes to worry about. Not the most intelligent student. Stress. Sports. Other classes add on. Hard to stay on track after other work. Tired. Sleep schedule ruined. Sleep. Hungry. Need more time in a day. More studying.


Me

I love his honesty. I agree with him that shouldn't have a D.  He has a lot of other interests outside of AP and he does complete almost everything I ask him.  He needs sleep.  When he is not too tired, he is great in class. His writing has improved tremendously this year and he is able to make connections to material across time.  I need to find a way to increase student agency in a course that is very rigid.

Joanna

I think I deserve a C because I don't try as hard as I should in and out of class. I feel like I'm behind on a lot of information that my classmates know and I don't know how to catch myself back up. I go into tests thinking I'll do poorly which leads me to not try very hard in the first place. I basically set myself up for failure because I've given up on my grade in the class. I got a two on the AP test last year so I'm not that worried about this year which also isn't a good mindset.

Me

I am disappointed in myself for her feelings.  She is a great person and has had a few bumps in the road, which this course is very unforgiving in.  I hate how a score on a test makes someone feel inferior.  Currently, most people validate themselves with external metrics of success.  I wish the pressure wasn't so intense and that grades were not that important.  Furthermore, I wish that it could be more about learning and helping students to find their passion or interest.  I know she has a lot to offer and does amazing work, yet the curent way of me doing things does not always reward that.

Elle

I think I deserve a B because I contribute a lot of thoughts to class and although I'm not always right, I always bring forth my best effort and try as hard as I can. I also believe that while I try my best on tests and responses, I think class work and discussions should be counted for a grade as well even if it's small.  I also know that I get distracted a lot but that doesn't really inhibit my learning experience because I usually get back to my work fast. I realize that I have to turn in my assignments on time but overall I do think that a B in the class would best reflect my efforts and general knowledge of the class.

Me

A recurring comment I read was how they are distracted.    must be harping on them to stay attentive in class.  I feel that the students are almost always on task and I am really proud of them.  It is interesting to read how they want more class work to count in the grade book.  I have never done that and I am not sure if it would get the effect they want.

Reflection and Impact:

First, I need to frequently tell my students I care about their well being and how amazing they are.  They put enormous amounts of time in accomplishing tasks for the course, I just want them to know that I see their time commitment.

Next steps: I want to ask students more frequently to assess their ability. Start earlier in the year.  Ideally, I like the idea of me not assigning the final grade, but rather the students doing it. Alsa, I am not there yet. I want students to be reflective and give me insight on what they need and what I am doing that creates conditions to help them.  I am going to ask them the same question again before the semester ends and I hope they view themselves better.  I was happy to read their insights and feedback on the process.  I am glad I did it and looking forward to seeing what it will look like next year when I start the process earlier.

Read week thiry-one here. 

A Year in AP: Class Lesson Planning (Week Twenty-nine)

By Mark Heintz

Context

I have two main focuses as I write this weekly blog. Two driving questions that I have in my mind while making decisions.  They are:

• How do I know if my students know? 
• How do I get them to know if they know?  

Whether that is a skill or content, I want to know if they know it.   I no longer think it is acceptable for me to guess or get a feeling on whether or not they know it. Getting the students to know if they know it is downright hard, but I am really attempting to get to a point where the students can recognize their understandings or progress on their skill levels and content knowledge.  Therefore, the purpose of this year of reflection is to see how I make progress towards these two goals and elicit feedback from staff, students, and hopefully people who follow along on the journey.  You can read how last week went here.

Week Twenty-nine: Answer the Question

This week the content focus was primarily on World War I. Here were the standards for this week:

1. Analyze the responses to the influenza pandemic of 1918.

This week's skill focus was still centered on analyzing charts, maps, and texts and pulling evidence from documents to support a claim.

1. Write one cause/effect, and one comparative short response that reflects an understanding of essential content.
2. Analyze charts, maps, graphs, and texts.
3. Write a thesis statement, contextualize a prompt, and draw evidence from two documents to support the thesis. 

Provide Specific Evidence: 

This semester, I am including, or trying to include student's perspective on the week.  Last week, I brought in a few students to help me plan the week.  The experience led to the implementation of many powerful changes; therefore, this week, I asked the whole class to help plan the week.  I posted a discussion in Schoology that prompted each student to respond.  Here are a few of their responses:

Student A: 

We need more work on perfecting our DBQ to get at least 4/7 on the AP test, also we need to go over the structure of the short response and what we need to include in the short response to get 3 points every question. Also, maybe some practice content questions from old AP tests to help us get more comfortable with the multiple choice portion of the AP test.

Student B:

I think we need more practice DBQ’s, in my opinion. Along with that, more practice on the short answer. If we write DBQ’s this week, we should write with a partner and try to exploit each other’s strengths.

Student C:

Individual writing for sure + work on grouping the documents by ourselves with you checking occasionally to make sure we're on the right track. Sometimes when we analyze documents all together I think to myself that I would have never come up with that by myself.

Student D: 

I like the idea of working through a DBQ together in class and practicing the short answer. However, what I would like is a DBQ that we can work on completely by ourselves either at home or on a couple of quiet, workshop days.

Me:

From these student responses, I changed the whole week. The first change was to the beginning of class.  Each day, I started with an environmental question, but the daily question rotated through time periods.  The goal was to focus part of each day on the short answer and how they approach each question.  Towards the end of the week, I had the students do a more formal short answer question that I evaluated.

Here is some of the lead-up work to the short answer.

 

In the above picture, I the students brainstormed ideas centered around the environment in the early twentieth century.

Another day, the students drew out their understandings of environmental changes in the nineteenth century.  

The second major change I made due to the student feedback was centered around the document based question.  A lot of students felt they needed to be more independent but still valued peer feedback.  To satisfy both, I took an idea that I got from Hazel Mason on using digital student portfolios.  The students created a Google Document and shared it with me.  For each stage of writing, a peer gave the student feedback.  After they received feedback and made any necessary changes, they took a picture of their work and placed it in the document to be checked by me.

The process allowed me to see the peer feedback and gauge the current ability levels of the student writing and the one giving feedback.

Most of the feedback prompted the students to fix their writing without the need of me.

Reflection and Impact:

I saw tremendous improvement in the students' ability to tackle an environmental short answer question.  I keep forgetting how much time it takes to look at questions outside their comfort level and approach it from different vantage points.  After five days of attempting to shift their thinking about the environment, they started to naturally change their approach to the questions.  Without my prompting, they thought from multiple perspectives.

As for the digital portfolios, I LOVED them!  I want to implement it earlier in the year next year.  Mainly because the students could then see the progress of their writing throughout the year.  I know writing portfolios are not a new thing, but they are for me.  I love that they made the students learning visible and allowed for a great medium for feedback from peers and me.

The biggest improvement from using the portfolios was in the students' ability to connect two or more documents to each other.  Normally, the students more or less listed documents.  They would merely say what the document was and what was in it. Then do the same for the next document.   I am always attempting to get the students to have the documents relate to each other through the use of qualifiers in their writing. After the changes, I know the students have improved in that area of their writing.  Here is a sample of that in action.

One downside to the portfolio process was that it took a lot of class time. It took four days of the week and most students did not finish the essay.  From that vantage point, it seems like a failure.  However, I contend that the time was worth it.  The feedback the students gave to each other was worth it alone.  For next time, I need to have something at the end of class to break up with the writing process.  The process required a lot of mental focus and exhausted most of them in a very short period of time.  I hope to have an end of a class activity that allows the students to talk about the process with each other.  

Read week thirty here.