Last week I blogged about some new class structure ideas that I would be starting a few days later (tomorrow!):
The stupid part of that plan is that Crystal Kirch already pioneered it with the WSQ model! It's like that idea was buried in my subconsciousness (I finally read the whole book last July) and stayed dormant until now. I actually made marks all over that book about Crystal's systems and how they compared/contrasted with mine. At the time, I was deliberately resistant to systematic changes ... but mid-winter almost always welcomes a sea change of some sort.
- online assessment/accountability for the flipped video lessons
- opening more class time for 1:1 conferences...
- ...and for discussions about the concepts introduced in those videos
The stupid part of that plan is that Crystal Kirch already pioneered it with the WSQ model! It's like that idea was buried in my subconsciousness (I finally read the whole book last July) and stayed dormant until now. I actually made marks all over that book about Crystal's systems and how they compared/contrasted with mine. At the time, I was deliberately resistant to systematic changes ... but mid-winter almost always welcomes a sea change of some sort.
I will try to do something smart: Write out the step-by-step plan for how I will set up the lessons and how students will interact with the flipped videos & with each other....
- I produce and upload a video into Edpuzzle with several multiple-choice questions. Those will act partly as refreshers & engagement points for the students -- and partly as stopping points that I can see on the Progress Screen in EdPuzzle, to verify students' partial completion of the task.
- I will add the link for those Edpuzzle videos and several question items on the "Need2Know Responses" GoogleForm that I meticulously created today. First, I had to test and re-test to ensure that the settings ("Limit to 1 response" & "Edit after submit") will let students revisit their answers later. I also added 2 questions to help with the grading/accountability aspect [illustration above]. The response spreadsheet has conditional formatting to make the "revised", "late", and "we made a deal" items display differently for my benefit. The specific scores were carefully considered over the past several days. 100% scores will be earned through revision after the class discussions (except for maybe 1 or 2 kids who actually really did nail it the first time).
- Now I think I could assign a flipped HW task with 1 day notice, but usually I will stick to 2 days. In the LMS (right now it's Schoology), I will post an assignment that just contains a link to the Need2Know Response form -- always the same form, although the old questions will be "bumped down" the list each time for students' sake. That is how I can enter the grade into the Schoology gradebook for each different flipped assignment. I need a different gradebook column for each task, but I decided that I should only have one GoogleForm for all of the responses in this unit, or else I will be going crazy clicking between forms and tabs!
- Students will open the Schoology assignment, click into the GoogleForm, find the Edpuzzle link, watch & answer questions about that lesson, then write their several-sentence response to the summary question. [example below] They should also enter at least 1 curiosity / concern / confusion question. Finally, they predict their grade.
5. My turn: on the morning of the due-date, I scan the students' responses and I can quickly assign a fair grade (85% or 50%). I also plan to copy all the responses for each class section, paste them into a document (without names) and print handouts for each student. Those should help our subsequent class discussions: we can all see examples of good, bad, and ugly summaries! This is my twist on Crystal's approach to let all students see each other's GoogleForm responses.
6. Class discussion for about 20 minutes about these concepts. At appropriate moments, I could focus attention to questions that students had posed online. We will probably see some popular/common queries repeated on the handout! I expect that students who gave Incomplete (50%) responses at first will learn how to correct their misunderstandings during these conversations. Maybe not, but this seems like a good way to try. This is my approach to another element of Crystal's system: "WSQ chats"
7. Brainstorm during this afternoon's dog walk: I get a bunch of different-colored Post-It notes. Students who got a score of 50% receive one color of Post-It on their handout, and students who did not yet do it at all (0%!!) get a different color. That's a quick and easy way for me to give feedback, I think. Best of all would be if I save the last couple minutes of those discussion days for 1:1 conversations ... especially for those who got a 50% score (unless I can explain it clearly on the Post-It note).
8. Those identified students should go back to the Need2Know Response form (like I used to make them re-take part or all of their assessments for more credit) to improve their 50% scores with accurate understanding. After some more thinking, I decided that 80% should be the highest-possible retake score for a "Fine" response. The 5-point "penalty" won't really impact anybody's term grade, but it sends a message about the importance of making a solid 1st attempt and it reminds me about their previous trouble with just a glance at the gradebook. I think those students should be eligible for a 100% score, though, if the re-attempt is such high quality. Does that seem fair?
Of course I will blog about the results after I unveil this on Wednesday!
6. Class discussion for about 20 minutes about these concepts. At appropriate moments, I could focus attention to questions that students had posed online. We will probably see some popular/common queries repeated on the handout! I expect that students who gave Incomplete (50%) responses at first will learn how to correct their misunderstandings during these conversations. Maybe not, but this seems like a good way to try. This is my approach to another element of Crystal's system: "WSQ chats"
7. Brainstorm during this afternoon's dog walk: I get a bunch of different-colored Post-It notes. Students who got a score of 50% receive one color of Post-It on their handout, and students who did not yet do it at all (0%!!) get a different color. That's a quick and easy way for me to give feedback, I think. Best of all would be if I save the last couple minutes of those discussion days for 1:1 conversations ... especially for those who got a 50% score (unless I can explain it clearly on the Post-It note).
8. Those identified students should go back to the Need2Know Response form (like I used to make them re-take part or all of their assessments for more credit) to improve their 50% scores with accurate understanding. After some more thinking, I decided that 80% should be the highest-possible retake score for a "Fine" response. The 5-point "penalty" won't really impact anybody's term grade, but it sends a message about the importance of making a solid 1st attempt and it reminds me about their previous trouble with just a glance at the gradebook. I think those students should be eligible for a 100% score, though, if the re-attempt is such high quality. Does that seem fair?
Of course I will blog about the results after I unveil this on Wednesday!
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