One Year in AP: Week One

By Mark Heintz


Last year I attempted to blog about my class and a newborn thwarted those attempts.  He is adorable and it was totally worth the failed endeavor.  However, I am attempting it again! To help, I tweet once a day from my AP World class to capture the essence of the class and a few pictures to visually record the day.  Then once a week, I will add more context through the blog.  You can follow me on twitter with the hashtag #1YearAP.  Furthermore, Linda Ashida is coming into my classroom at least once a week to visit, observe, and help in the reflection process.  She visited my class on the first day of school we sat down to reflect on the week.

Getting to Know the Students

For the students, school started on a Wednesday this year. I make the attempt to learn all of my students name on the first day.  I am terrible at pronouncing student's name and a few years ago I starting purposefully saying all the names wrong like Key and Peele's substitute teacher.  It really helps me remember all the names and helps build relationships with the kids.  They keep whispering to each other if I am doing it on purpose.  I am pretty good and being dead pan, which goes a long way with keeping up the performance.

 Interpreting History from the Start

Once I go through the names, I want the students to start interpreting history themselves.  I use images of the Venus statue and Taylor Swift. I have the students come up comparisons of the two and then we start to guess what life was like when the Venus was created.

Day two started with a 32 word summary of a short reading on the Paleolithic Era.  The students struggled with the word restriction which gets them to think about what words are the most important. Then students moved to other groups and provided feedback on the evidence they used and word choice.  The students read another quick excerpt, I hope you are seeing a pattern with the class. We read a lot in class.  After reading they pulled out evidence to support a claim about how the Neolithic Era was a significant turning point in human history.

 .  

For Friday, the students attempted to draw the world with the regions from memory.  The students were in groups and were asked not to talk as they attempted to make their drawing.  Then the students rotated to another group's table and gave feedback on the drawings.  Then I stood in front of the classroom and had them guess about my life based on what I was wearing and physical appearance.  We discussed how one item may not be enough to validate a claim.  It was impressive what they came up with. I was wearing a cross-country shirt, have a farmer's tan, and am fairly thin.  They figured with these three observations, they could safely assume I am a runner.  Then they turned to a partner and did the same process to each other.  Finally, they read (yes!) and excerpt from Jared Diamond and determined whether or not he validated his claim with enough evidence.  

There is the week in review! I hope to have you read next week.

Read week two here.

Critical Thinking on the First Day of School

By: Rachel Barry

Following up on yesterday's post on the ways teachers build relationships with and among students on the first day of school, I wanted to share a more in-depth look at my first day of classes.  

This past spring and summer, numerous math teachers around the district embarked on an opportunity to take a massive open online course (MOOC) from Stanford University called How to Learn Math for Teachers.  This course focused on how to change student mindsets towards mathematics, pedagogical strategies to promote active learning, and build critical thinking skills.  (Small plug...there were about 80 teachers across the district - math, science, special education - who took this course, and it was AWESOME!).  Prior to taking the class, I felt that I had a strong understanding of how to change the focus in class from grades to learning, however, this class gave me numerous more strategies to emphasize this more through how I communicate and how I create effective classroom activities.  Here are some activities that I did on the first day of classes to both build relationships as well as challenge students to think critically.

Would You Rather...?
In groups, I had students develop a "Would You Rather...? statement, one per group, and wrote it on their tables (see whiteboard tables here).  Then, the students rotated around the groups and voted at each table.  

In my AP Statistics class, I took this a step further and had students discuss the expected outcome prior to voting.  This is a key concept of statistics, so I loved being able to bring it up on the first day.  In this class, we continued the first day by performing a simulation where they worked in groups, getting to know one another, and getting introduced to statistics.

In my regular Algebra classes, I had the students calculate the percentages of tallies for each.  It was interesting to see the various methods that students used (proportions, decimals, etc) and whether or not the set up two equations or if they calculated one and then subtracted that from 100 to get the other.  We then had a class discussion on how many math problems can be solved using different steps or methods.  

This lead perfectly into my next activity...

Number Sense Activity
For this activity, I put this problem on the board and showed students how to solve this using traditional methods.  Then I challenged them in their groups to come up with FOUR other ways to solve this problem.  

Some students hit the ground running, while others sat back.  It was interesting when most groups got two right away (15 + 15 + 15 + 15 and 4 + ... + 4), and then they hit a road block.  Some students immediately started drawing (a grid of 15 x 4, four circles with 15 dots in each), and others sat back and observed.  Many students also separated or broke down the numbers (10 x 4 = 40, 5 x 4 = 20, 40 + 20 = 60 or 15 x 2 = 30, 15 x 2 = 30, 30 + 30 = 60).  The last method, though only two of my three classes saw it, was time.  

As groups were finishing up, I was having students share at the front of the board.  I have always struggled getting students (probably me coming up with excuses as to why it may not work) to do this regularly in class, so I decided to just start it on the first day, as a class norm.

I repeated this method with 25 x 7, and the students were much quicker, using other groups' methods.  Many students then saw the connection to money.

Rectangle Activity

For the next activity, I drew this figure on the board and asked students "How many rectangles are in this figure?"

Now that students were acquainted with one another, the brainstorming started much quicker.  In each class, after about a minute or two had passed, a student asked "Is a square a rectangle?"  YES!  Exactly what I'd hoped!  We then had a (short) discussion about the importance of asking questions and challenging me throughout the course by asking "Why?"  Then students continued working.  It was very cool to see students using colors, breaking down the figure, etc.  (If you want to know, there are 18!)

Fractions Activity

The last activity was for me to formatively assess students' prior knowledge of fractions.  Our first unit focuses on simplifying exponents and radicals, and if students do not fully understand the basics of fractions, they will struggle when we throw in variables, exponents, and square roots.  

I wrote random fractions on a bunch of notecards.  Each student was given a notecard and a partner.  Each pair was given a die.  Students were to roll the die, and if the die landed on an odd number, they added the fractions, while if it landed on an even number, they subtracted the two fractions.  Once they solved for the correct answer, one person traded their notecard with one of another group.  They repeated the process.  Next, they used the same notecards and rolled the die with an odd number meaning that they would multiply the fractions, and an even number would mean dividing the fractions.  They switched cards, and repeated.  

Survey

Finally, students opened their iPads, logged into Schoology and pulled up a Google Form survey.  In this survey, I ask them both routine questions (when is your lunch/study hall, who is your counselor, when is your birthday, etc.) and getting to you know questions (what are your future career goals, is there anything that I should know that would help me better teach you?)

Connect with Students from the Start: Team on Tuesday Kick Off.

By Linda Ashida

Today the Collab Lab kicked off the first of our Teaming on Tuesdays, a weekly learning exchange in various formats that will include Spark Sessions, Show and Tell, Lesson Demos, and Book Chats.


We welcome all EG staff to join us in the Collab Lab on Tuesdays during the morning professional learning time. We will also connect with colleagues across District 214 and beyond on future Tuesdays via Google Hangout and Periscope. (More on that soon!) Each session will be framed around a different focus question that will drive our discussions and sharing. All staff are invited to share topics of interest for future weeks.

We anticipate that these conversations will be a springboard to future collaborations: connecting again one-on-one or in small groups, and visiting classes. 

In fact, that already happened with the 12 staff who came together to share! Two participants invited colleagues to stop by their classes the same day to see examples of the strategies they shared. Three others dropped by the Collab Lab later in the day to share how they were  planning to implement an idea they heard from another colleague! Talk about multiplying our learning from just a 40-minute exchange of ideas!

If you weren't able to join us for this first Teaming on Tuesday, no worries! Of course, as always, we used the whiteboard wall to document the ideas that everyone shared. We will keep them on the wall at least for a few days so that you can stop by to get an idea or add a new idea of your own!

And . . . even without stopping by the Collab Lab, you can do the same with this very Collab Blog post: Get a new idea, or share one of your own in the comments below!

Read on to see what we learned today!
 

Today's guiding question: 

What do you do to build relationships with your students from the start?

Today's format: Show and tell.  

Round 1:  Each person takes 2 minutes to share their ideas with group. (This could also be done in a speed-dating format.)

Round 2: Follow-up conversation:

• What works?
• What challenges or question do we have? 
• What are our next steps?

Wrap up: Call to action:

• Keep the conversation going.
• Consider sharing examples via Twitter or the Collab Blog 
• Consider extending an invite to class to see strategies in action.

Ideas we shared:

Rachel Barry:  
Connect students in ice-breaker activities with varied prompts such as "Would you rather . . ? Use Team Shake to solve challenge problems. Rotate teams often. Remind students that mistakes are ok, in fact, important because we learn from them. 

Mark Heintz: 
Act as Substitute Teacher trying to figure out pronunciation of each name while taking attendance. Take notes to pronounce names correctly from start. Names are important.  On index cards students write answers to "get-to-know-you prompts. Mark uses these cards throughout the year call  and group students He keeps refers often to the cards to really get to know his students.

Tim Phillips:

Get-to-know-you activity with Claims. Throughout the year, students will use evidence to defend claims, so he starts they year with an activity to do this with non-academic prompts first. He also has students fill out a get-to-know-you survey,  including question: What can I do to help you be successful?"

Ricky Castro: 
One-on-one conferences with students. These conversations serve as a way to get to know students and prevent issues. Ricky talks with them about challenges from previous years and asks, "How can I help you?" He does a "Drop-the-Rug" team-building activity and name game. He starts year with Identity unit, so that embeds discussions that build relationships. Ricky is also considering plans to do home visits on Saturdays to involve parents as partners in solutions to best meet the needs of our students. More on that soon.

Mary Kemp:  
Students respond to get-to-know-you questions including: Something you'd like me to know about you? How are you as a learner? Successes? Challenges? These questions help her understand, and better respond to, the needs of the diverse learners in her classes. Mary also does problem-solving activities in teams, including a pass-back activity that she already invited us to see in her Physics class. Students work collaboratively to solve different problems and correct and revise with each pass-back that happens every 45 seconds. Check out this video clip the strategy in action!

Jim Arey:  
Team-building activities like egg-drop activity. He also does a map activity: asking students to identify: "Where is your family from?" Then they pair with a classmate and share. He does processing activities with talking circles, and Chiji cards. Jim also has his students maintain a Reflection Portfolio across the semester.

Amanda Lamorte:
Low-key get to know you activities. Take toilet paper sheets and share an idea for each sheet (interesting fact about you, etc.) Dice roll activity where each number corresponds to a category that they respond to. Can do with different kinds of candy, too.

Kim Miklusak: 
Speed-dating activity with editorial writing.  Students get to know one another at the same time that they are interacting with content. In this case, their topic ideas for editorials with questions from peers to probe and improve development of topic ideas. Use whiteboard tables for students to share ideas and rotate and learn from peers' ideas.In-depth survey that includes question, "What can I do, what should I do, to help you with .  .? "

Jessica Maciejewski:
Day 1 rotating stations: Prezi on Jessica (student watch to get to know her); assignment example completed by Jessica to see model and to see that she does the work she asks them to do (builds buy-in); a day-in-the life prompt (students share what is a day in their life like); and, improv activities.  Jessica has a book of improv activities if anyone is interested.  (And rumor has it she has a weekly improv show . . . )

Quinn Loch:
Students do an "All About Me" Spark videos. The first weeks they work in teams on fun problem solving challenges.  He invited us to his class the same day to see one in action:  Fortune Telling Fish, captured in the photos below:

Linda Ashida:
Speed-dating activity with varied get-to-know-you prompts. Marathon Pep-talk (Long journey of training, all different levels, can we all cross the finish line? yes! Training has to start long before and we have to commit to cross the finish line. . . ) Index cards with names of students and responses to questions that are referred to throughout the year and when talking with parents at conferences or during phone conversations.

Rita Thompson:
Rita stopped by a bit later in the day to share an activity that has a sginificant impact on the sense of community in her class. She has even noted fewer tardies to her class. She made changes in her "get-to-know-you" survey from previous years.  This year she invited them to share: dreams and ideas about careers; where in the world they would go if they could go anywhere; struggles; pride in an achievement, and more. 

Next steps

Let's keep the conversation going! Even if you didn't attend this Teaming on Tuesday session, consider sharing an idea of your own. And, if you read an idea you'd like to know more about, reach out to these colleagues in person or via their Twitter accounts (linked above with their names). Or, stop by the Collab Lab to chat with us.

The photos below give you an idea of the enthusiastic exchange of ideas we shared. We are looking forward to the Teaming on Tuesdays to come.

Do you have an idea to share? Feedback or a resource to share?  We'd love to hear from you! See us in person or leave a comment below!

What happens in your classroom the first day of school that makes students run to be there the second day?

By Linda Ashida

What a great question!

This recent tweet by  Alice Keeler reminded me how important it is to consider what we do in our classes on the very first day.  Do we engage our students in such a way that they look forward to returning the next day?

Today on the first day of classes at Elk Grove High School, I realized the Physics team had an answer!

Eleanor Pattie invited me to her Physics class where teams of students were engaged in a problem-solving design activity. Eleanor credits fellow Physics teacher Phil Winter for suggesting the activity. Along with Eleanor and Phil, the other Physics teachers planned to do the same activity as well:  Mary Kemp, Chris Rogers, Tom Boczar and Peter Wang.

Here's what they told their students:  

The Challenge:

Design a free-standing chair using paper and masking tape with at least 4 legs and a back that can hold more books than any other team's chair.

 Constraints:

Limited resources
Chair with at least 4 Legs and a back rest
Rise of leg must be at least 1 cm
Chair must hold weight of books for at least 5 seconds

Here's what I saw in Eleanor's class:

The Process:

Teams brainstormed and asked each other a lot of questions to decide how to best tackle the challenge with their limited supply of paper and tape. They came up with very different ideas and began testing them out. They tinkered, assessed and revised their ideas to decide on the best plan.

 

After trying out a few ideas, they began building.

After the chair building was complete, they began stacking the books, and assessing the integrity of the structure. Would it work?

Feeling confident, another group began stacking. Six books and preparing for more.




Time passed. More books.  Another group wondered. . .  28 books?!! Would it hold for five seconds? Oh the suspense!

 

Would it hold even more?!!!! 30 books?!!! The team steadied them for another five-second test.

Could they be outdone by another group?!

11 books . . . then three more . . .

 

23 books and counting!  But wait, those extra big books count for two!  That's 56!!!

 

 

The Result:

 Bravo!  The winning group of the day with 69 books atop their paper chair!!!!!!

From the very first day the students were thinking like physicists. The design challenge with constraints was a a problem solving activity that got them working in groups, asking questions, posing solutions, testing hypothesis and reflecting on their results.

All of that, and they had fun, too. I'm guessing they'll will be looking forward to going back to class tomorrow!

A shout out to the physics team for sharing their ideas, and Eleanor for inviting us in!

Growth Mindset with Assessments

By Mark Heintz

The AP World exam just transpired and I am in full reflection mode.  I asked my students a few questions about things they felt they needed based on the test they just took.  The students felt they needed more writing practice throughout the year.  They felt they needed more individual practice with feedback on their ability to perform on the spot.  To give some context on the test, the exam has four components. Part one is fifty-five stimulus multiple choice questions. Part two is four short responses.  Part three is one document based question (DBQ). Part four is one long essay exam.  While AP does give a course framework, the students do not know the prompts or documents ahead of time.

To adequeately gather enough assessment data for each component, it takes a lot of class time.  To prepare the students for each component and give feedback along the way so students feel success, it takes a lot of class time.  Despite the enormous use of classtime, I feel they are one of the best elements of the class because they require the students to think. Since they take a lot of class time, I have often taught small elements of the essays in the first few units, but never had hard checkpoints or summative assessments for each writing component in each unit.

Based off the student feedback and my feelings on the year, I created an assessment chart to ensure a linear progression of the skills required for each component of the exam.  I wanted to hold myself accountable to formally assessing each part in each unit with the exception of the first unit which is a very short unit.  I did not want to assess the entire essay in the beginning because it would be too difficult and too time consuming.



To give an example of the progression, in the second unit, I will give the students a two document DBQ.  The students will only be required to write a thesis, give contextualization, and connect the two documents to their argument.  This will not require fifty-five minutes like it will at the end of the year.  It only assess three skills, which I can easily provide feedback to the students to help them grow by the next assessment. Each unit I add a skill or documents to progress them towards the final product of seven documents. Unit three adds the synthesis skill.  Unit four moves to four documents.  Unit five adds source component and five documents.  Furthermore, it gives me data on what my students have mastered and need help on at a very early stage in the year.  They do not need to be able to write a DBQ until the middle of May.

I have selected the DBQ's for each unit already and tailored the documents to get at the skills being assessed.  I am hoping that this holds me accountable to ensuring that students are progressing in the skills to be successful.   Furthermore, my hope is that the students will master the skill in smaller doses so I can make them feel comfortable with the exam, hold them to a higher writing standard in the end, and not spend as much class time in the last few weeks leading up the examination.

Read, Speak, Listen and Write - All in one activity!

By Linda Ashida - Inspired by Kirsten Fletcher

First, A shout out to Kirsten Fletcher for emailing the Collab Lab team with an invitation to visit her French classes to see her students engaged in a Running Dictation Relay Race.

Intrigued, we stopped by to find some students wandering around the room reading the walls, other students sitting at their desks seemingly waiting, and small groups of students crowded around one of their desks.

Kirsten explained the "method to the movement" that got all of her students--collaborating in groups of 2 or 3--engaged in using the language in all modes: reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

Step 1) 
One student in the group goes to read one of numerous sentence strips posted around the room. The student reads the sentence as many times as necessary to memorize it.

Step 2)
The student who reads the sentence reports back to the group and recites the sentence from memory to his partner(s) who must listen and write the sentence accurately, exactly as it was written.  If the student who read the sentence forgets any part he can go back,  re-read, then return to help his partner fill in the gaps.

Step 3) 
The students repeat this process with each of the sentence strips around the room, until they have all of the sentences written correctly.

While this activity is great for World Language classes to get students up and moving and using all modes of communication, it could be adapted easily in any language arts classes.  The content of the sentences could be easily modified to adapt to any level of language learners.

The activity could involve varied extensions as well.  For example, sentences from a story could be posted in random order.  Once completely written, the students would have to put them the correct order, building an additional layer of reading comprehension.

Kirsten is thankful--and would like to give credit to--her #langchat colleague Martina Bex for sharing this activity. 

To learn more, read Martina's blog posts:

Running Dictation Relay Race
Running Dictation Extension

#214EdPrep: Nicole Reflects on Her Experiences

By: Nicole Holubec

Thanks to the District 214 Educator Prep Program I’ve gotten to experience so many great things. Ever since I was a little kid I knew I wanted to be a teacher. When I heard about the College Intro to Education course being offered at school I knew I had to join and be apart of it and that was one of the greatest decisions I had ever made because I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet so many new people and make new connections. 

In College Intro to Education I have learned the meaning behind what teaching is and I was able to create my own philosophy of teaching. I also got to take part in an internship which I am still currently in. Three days a week I get to go to Grove Jr. High and student teach. My rotations have been in 6th grade, Language Arts classes. 





I've taught lessons on annotations and have done “A Look Into High School” activity with my students. My annotations lesson is one that I actually have improved on. The first time I went through the lesson it was very simple, taking notes with paper and pen on an overhead projector, but the second time I taught it I changed things up and used technology. I created a Google Slides presentation for the students to take notes from, then a Nearpod activity to practice annotating, followed by a small quiz at the end to check for understanding. 

Besides going out on an internship, this class has given me many opportunities to work with different groups like Estudiantes Unidos, the Future Teachers Club from Devonshire Elementary, and first graders from Salt Creek Elementary. 

By working with these groups I’ve been able to get a first hand look into different ethnic and age groups which makes me more prepared for my future with the students I will have one day. Talking with these groups and hearing other students having the same passion that I do gave me even more motivation to continue in the field of education. 

Some of the greatest opportunities have also come my way thanks to the teachers in the Collab Lab. Ms. Ashida and Ms. Barry have come into my class, also along with Mrs. Miklusak and Mr. Heintz, and showed us different ways of teaching with and without technology and different styles of teaching. 

This collaboration with the Collab Lab led to an opportunity for me to present and take on the role of teaching the teachers at the EdCamp In-Service day at EGHS. 

Thanks to EdPrep I’ve gotten to grow as a person and as a future educator.

To learn more about the program, and the experiences of other EdPrep students, check out #214EdPrep on Twitter!