Reminders

By Mark Heintz and Rachel Barry

Last week, counselor Scott Deutsch brought a group of students down to the Collablab to help students get organized.  We walked the students through how to create subjects and dividers in Notability.  You can read how to do that here.

The group discussed issues they have with completing homework or studying.  Students often have at least six classes with schedules and tasks that are very different.  Because teacher expectations vary many students struggle to keep everything they need to do or study organized. From the student perspective, it is hard to keep every expectation in every class organized. Furthermore, the students struggle with study habits at home.

One thing the group brought to our attention, was that they write down what they need to do in their planner, but they forget to look at the planer once they get home.   To help keep everything organized student can utilize the app called Reminders.

This feature allows the user to set reminders! A student can create a reminder for the items they need to complete that evening.   The reminder could be set to go off everyday! The next day the students can edit the task with the new items they need to complete.

If the student uses their iPad at night, it pops up on the iPad. So, it would be one more reminder for the students to further their learning at night. Its an easy addition to a student's organization methods. 

What Did You Do Today?

Guest Blogger: Colleen Mullaney

“What did you do at school today?” was a common question that I got when I went home from school while sitting at the dinner table.  My response was simple: “math, science, lunch, recess, and reading,” never actually answering the question of what I did in school. 

Now as a teacher, on the other side of things, naturally I see it a little differently.  The checklists that a number of EG’s math teachers have created, adjusted, and refined over the last couple years, have caused students to become machine like.  They crank out the work, going from video notes, to practice, to exit quiz and then move to the next level, only to repeat the process throughout the week.  So how do you help them to slow down, think about the work they did that day, and monitor their progress? It started with moving a magnet from one box to the next on a chalk board when a student would finish a level.  But what about the in between work, the little accomplishments, the small victories? Then it hit me! Let’s utilize those 5 minutes at the end of class that students use to pack up their stuff instead of finishing some work.  I would like to say it was simple and came to me easily, but what you see below is version 5 of this reflection.

At the end of the period, with about 4 minutes left, students are given group folders that contain their reflections for each skill.  All I ask them to do from day to day is check off what they did from Day 1 to Day 5 and at what level.  The key at the top explains the abbreviations in each square. 

Now here is where the true reflection starts.  Typically our students are taking an objective quiz every 5 days or so.  Once they receive those quizzes back, they answer the following questions on the back of their “work trackers.”

 

After showing students examples of what good reflections and poor reflections look like, it’s their turn.  They begin look over their quizzes and record their grades.  I also have them look up their overall grades too and then answer the questions.  As they do so we look at how long they are spending on each level, what day they get to level 3, if they were absent during the week, etc.

So what do I do with the reflections after the quiz? On one hand, it is used to monitor student progress and hold them accountable for the work they did that day.  On the other hand it is a conversation piece too.  If a student wants or needs to retake the quiz they will come in to make corrections on their quiz.  Before we even begin to look through the quiz and start corrections we have a one on one conversation about their work throughout the week and how it has reflected in their grades. I start with the front with all the check boxes and talk about pacing, length of time spent on each level etc.  And that usually gets them to understand why they earned the grade they did.  The level of understanding they have gotten through throughout the week usually matched the level of understanding they show on their quiz.

I was really excited about doing this reflection for all the reasons above, but there was one hidden perk that I wasn’t really expecting.  Students are not looking at their score and putting it in the retake or no retake piles I have in my room.  They are taking the time to look through their mistakes and look at the questions they got wrong.  Especially for the students who get through a majority of the checklist and don’t earn the grades they want or demonstrate the knowledge they think have of the topic.  They are looking for the ways they can improve and why they got the questions wrong.  They see and realize how easy of an improvement it could be.  They will retake their quiz and demonstrate they really do know this topic at a higher level. 

Over all, I have really enjoyed watching the students complete these reflections and it has given me more opportunities for discussions than I ever imagined. The reflections stay in their folder until the unit test, so it helps them to narrow their focus on the objectives to study before the test.  I have kept the ones they have completed so far, unsure of what to do with them yet.  But considering this reflection is already on version 5, I can only assume there will be more versions to come!

Schoology Question Banks and Feedback

By Mark Heintz

I have fallen in love!  My love is the Schoology quiz bank feature.  I teach sophomores world history, so I categorized my question banks by time period, then by topic (such as political), and finally by civilization.  The extreme organization allows me to easily repeat questions on later quizzes.

Here is what my classical political civilization question banks look like. 

As for each questions, I utilize Schoology's feedback feature.  Each question has an explanation to why the answer the student chose is right or wrong.  By using instant feedback, I hope to save time in class. I should not have to explain as many questions to the students. Also, the students can instantly see their misunderstandings of a topic and progress to the next attempt or quiz.  

Below each question, Schoology allows the user to input general feedback for an incorrect or correct answer.  Here I am pasting larger more general understandings of the topic.

 My intent with these questions and quizzes is to have students earn as close to 100% as possible.  I set up my first seven quizzes in a student completion checklist.  Students will have to pass each quiz with a 95% or higher to move to the next quiz.  I want my students to know the content, and I want them to know it so much they have to pass the checklist with a understanding of at least 95%.

 Each quiz has questions from the core set and then random questions from previous sets.  For instance, the Han Dynasty quiz has seven Han Dynasty questions and random questions from Greece, Rome and Persia.  My hope is to continue this process throughout the year. Eventually the students will see each of these so many times the content will be ingrained in their brain.

It is so easy to add questions from previous banks.  Schoology allows the user to choose random questions, so each quiz will be different for each student.  Also, each time the student takes the quiz it will be different! With the feedback feature, the student should not have to go back to their notes to find the information on why or why not the question is right. The feedback will tell them instantly so they can progress through the quiz.  

Schoology Checklists as Formative Assessment

By Kim Miklusak

Schoology checklists are not new on this blog: you can read more on how different subjects have used them here!  This year, Matt Snow & I are using them to differentiate instruction and provide immediate feedback for students at the AP level.

The sequence goes like this: Students take a pre-reading quiz on vocabulary from the text, using context clues and roots to determine the meaning of 5 words.  They have 3 opportunities to take the quiz in order to get 100.  This will then unlock the text, which students will annotate and submit, receiving quick feedback on a 4-point scale.  They then take a 10-question comprehension quiz, participate in a discussion in which they write a sample thesis (again using a 4-point scale).  Finally they are able to unlock the AP writing/analysis assignment, which targets individual writing skills.  None of these steps is graded!  They are the foundational skills required to reach higher level understanding, so students receive self-, peer-, and teacher-provided formative feedback before moving on. 

This example is not set up as a checklist because we are modelling it for students first.
The next assignment will be a linear checklist feature.

We have multiple goals for this set-up: 1) we hope to catch each student where s/he needs the most support, 2) we hope to provide immediate feedback on targeted skills, and 3) we hope to allow students who do not need as much support the opportunity to push themselves farther than they may have been able to in a traditional classroom set-up.

In pre-1:1 years, I had students fill out an excel print out, noting what score they received on the 4-point scale for each writing skill [more information on that can be found here].  But now with Schoology, if I can mark assignments as "graded" even if they are formative, I am able to see a running tally of how each student scored on each individual writing skill.  Now not only do students get quicker, targeted feedback on individual skills, but they can see their own development over time, thus making revisions and conferencing more effective and efficient.

This screen shot is set to display our "writing" rubrics/skills.
I can also change the view to "reading" or grammar rubrics/skills

You'll see in the sample above that there are some things I need to work out: for example, how to label each assignment.  Nevertheless, I'm excited to work with these features for this upcoming year!

Spring Break

By Mark Heintz

Spring break has come and gone.  Here in Chicago it snowed two days and barely got above 30 degrees. At least I got to use my snow blower.  But, that is not the point of this post.  The point is to show the power of spring break.

Spring break can be a time for rejuvenation before the final push of the school year.  It can be a time for students to take a break from the stress of exams and homework.  It is nice to have the students recover and see the last quarter with fresher minds.  They come back a little more willing to learn. However, spring break can be a time for students to get ahead or caught up.

There are forty-two videos John Green created for world history.  They are amazing, and I use them as review for the AP exam.  In Schoology, I have all forty videos posted with a short little quiz that a former student Deanna Duffy helped create last year.  I set a calendar for the students that starts over break to have them watch all the videos by the exam, watching about one a day over the next forty days.  In total, it is over 400 minutes over video.  Several of my students used their spring break to complete ALL the videos.  Every one of them.  I am continually impressed by the amount of time some students put into their work.  Now to be fair, there were some who did not start their videos at all. But many did more than they needed and used their break as a time to get ahead.  When the students finish all their videos, they get a badge in Schoology called the Fault in Our John Green.

Schoology Checklists to Teach Writing

By Mark Heintz

A few weeks ago @MsRachelBarry posted how to create a Schoology checklist.  If you want to learn how to create a checklist or don't know what they are, you should read her post by clicking here.  The checklist feature is great for materials that students can easily self-assess or can be automatically graded with an assessment, such as a multiple choice, matching, ordering of events, or true false questions.  You can mandate students post assignments, view links, or take assessments in the order you want them to.  I have used checklists in varying ways, but recently I created a Schoology checklist to help teach writing.

I teach a comparative essay in world history.  It is a very specific essay that addresses students ability to compare two concepts or processes using historical content.  Students struggle with writing and struggle more with writing in an academic sense.  Furthermore, teaching writing often comes with varying skill levels and the checklist allows for more individualized learning to take place.   Here is the prompt I used for this checklist:

For the first step, I had the students sort historical terms into either the Haitian, French, or Latin American Revolution.

When finished, the students submit their worksheet to Schoology. After submitting the worksheet, a quiz comprised of a matching question assessed the same information on the worksheet.  This is learning that the students could assess on their own through the quiz.  Here is a sample of the quiz:  

After students pass the quiz, they move on to grouping the information into either a method or an outcome of the revolutionary process.  The first two steps can sometimes be accomplished without my help.  Some of the higher skilled students can move onto to the harder concepts and work on the skills they need to at their own pace.  At the same time, I can have students who do not understand the content, stay at the own level and get the help they need. Furthermore, students cannot move on to higher level skills without laying the ground work needed to be a good writer.  It is a failsafe way to ensure students can be successful.  When students know the content and do the first steps, it helps students become successful.  Here is a sample of the grouping worksheet and quiz.  

After they pass the quiz, students have to check in with me, the teacher, before they can move on to the next step.  The next step is when students come up with possible groupings for methods and outcomes.  There is not one correct answer, therefore it cannot easily be assessed with a multiple choice assessment.  So, I have the students write their possible groupings in a short essay question in Schoology.  I check the students' work and approve of it before they can move.

Students move on to evaluating and writing of the essay.  I have the students read through several thesis statements to see if they contain all of the components needed to be considered a good thesis.  I then have the students submit their work and take a matching quiz in Schoology to assess their evaluative skills.  

Worksheet

Schoology Thesis Quiz

The last stage in the process is writing comparative statements.   Students will evaluate pre-generated comparative statements.  After reading the statement, they will fix the statement by rewriting it in the correct manner.  They will post their statements in Schoology for me to evaluate.  At the end of the lesson, the students will have a portfolio of student work and samples to look back upon for future essays.  

When completed, the students will be able to write the essay on their own.  This is in the early stages of the essay writing process.  The students will have seen several parts of the essay and have done the planning stages of the essay.  If everything goes well, the students will be successful when they write the essay. 

Individualized Learning in Mathematics

By: Rachel Barry & Colleen Mullaney

Six years ago, the Math department at EGHS did away with textbooks.  We math teachers started from scratch, writing our own digital curriculum based on the ACT College Readiness Standards.  The curricula are based on a tiered model, with each skill broken down into four levels: review, focus in isolation, focus in context, and extension. A sample skill is shown here:

	CRS Skill	Description
Level 1	GRE 403	Determine slope from a graph, from two points, or from an equation in slope-intercept form.
Level 2	GRE 502 GRE 503	Graph a line from slope-intercept, point-slope, and standard form and I can determine the equation of a line from a graph
Level 3	GRE 502 GRE 503	Write an equation of a line in point-slope or slope intercept form when given two points, or the slope and a point.
Level 4	GRE 604	Write an equation of a line parallel or perpendicular to another line through a given point

With the addition of iPads, teachers can create video notes--using apps like Educreations or Explain Everything--that allow students to work at their own pace through an objective.  Students are not slowed down by others who need more time or not forced to move on to something they are not ready for.  Not only do students understand the material on a deeper level, they are now taking control of their own learning.  Students have taken more ownership of their work with the self-paced curriculum because it is clear what they know, how well they know it, and at what level they understand it.  The increase in formative assessment, through online quizzes, provides students with constant feedback and allows them to reflect on their understanding of the material.

Another benefit to this individualized learning process is the increase in diagonal movement of our students into higher level math courses.  There are more students moving from the regular level to the honors level, as well as from the preparatory level to the regular level.  When working at their own pace, motivated students are able to cover more topics than typically designated to a specific course.  Therefore, by the end of the school year, these students have learned sometimes 7-10 new topics that bridge them into the higher level curriculum.  This not only provides them with more opportunities in the future but also saves them time and money on a Summer School bridge class.

The increase in technology has made all of this possible.  Prior to the use of iPads, we would print out these documents on paper.  Now with our 1:1 iPad Pilots, we are better able to differentiate the curriculum through the use of the Schoology Checklist.  The checklist function guides the students through the curriculum.  Students must complete one task in order to have access to the next, throughout the entire checklist.  

A detailed “How-To” on the Schoology Checklist will be brought to you in next Wednesday’s blog post!