The Best Laid Plans #MTBoSBlaugust

Every person remotely connected to the upcoming school year knows that plans are fluid. My district is set to have teachers return this Friday (3 days from now) and students in 13 days.

And I'm not sure I'll actually believe it's happening until we're in the building.

A good portion of summer is usually spent planning lessons. This summer, however, I haven't known how to plan. For a while, we didn't know if our start date would be adjusted (it was) or if we would decide to begin classes completely online (we're not).

But SOMEthing needs to be planned. I need to have SOME idea of how I'm approaching my classes this year.

I knew early on that I wanted a plan for lessons that would work whether we are face-to-face or virtual. In the spring, it took a lot of effort to "train" students (and parents) on how to "have school" in the virtual world. Yes, we did digital activities in face-to-face school, but not to the extent that had to occur once we transitioned (quickly) to distance learning.

I knew I wanted to "train" students from the beginning.

I also had the thought that some form of self-pacing would be good for the coming year. I have tried small chunks of self-pacing - individual days, a unit - but my class has not been widely self-paced.

I had a few ideas rolling around in my head but nothing I felt able to solidify.

Then @roxygirlteacher (Rockstar Math Teacher) shared her plan for her classroom, and things begin to click.

I want each week to follow the same format, whether we are in school or at home. I'm thinking (and hoping) the routine will mean we can transition back and forth (if it happens) with few hiccups.

I found a Google Slides template on SlidesMania that I decided to use.

Each calendar day links to activities for that day. Each activity has instructions and can link to an assignment in Google Classroom or a video or an online practice site.

My plan is to also have a "Weekly Handout Packet" with things that require paper and pencil. My reasoning for the packet is to reduce the number of times papers are being passed out and turned in.

In a perfect world (::grin::), I will have each week's activities posted on Monday morning and give students their Weekly Handout Packet.

Each day will have a specific lesson and objective and some whole-class activities, but if there are assignments posted ahead of time in the weekly planner - like videos or practice - students are free to work ahead whenever they have time, whether that is when they finish early in class, in a study hall, or at home, if they like.

I would not post things like quizzes or "Quick Checks" (mini-quizzes) ahead of time.

I'm considering have one "due date" a week: all online assignments are due and the weekly packet will be turned in each Tuesday. That will give students further flexibility in completing assignments.

I'm going to (attempt to) share a Week 1 Template here and would love feedback.

Weekly Plan Example

It is not linked to anything in Google Classroom, yet, and I haven't made the videos that I will link to video activities. You can test out the navigation through the slides by clicking "Present." From any slide, there is a "home" in the upper right corner that will take you back to the first slide.

If you choose to look at the Slides and share any ideas, thank you! I would also love to hear how you are formating classes this year.

An Improvement in Feedback

Timely, efficient feedback is an area I consistently find challenging. I believe I have improved over the years, but I could often be so much better.

A flipped classroom obviously allows for better feedback. I am with students as they work with content, and I am able to give frequent, verbal feedback as I walk around and watch students work.

I struggle with stuff I take up. Things I would like to look at, make comments on, and return to students. The turn-around on these things is seldom quick enough to make a difference. And students aren't keen on reading comments I've written on something they completed yesterday (or...before yesterday).

I want them to learn from feedback. I want them to be able to try and try again until they get something right.

A few weeks ago I had a mini A-Ha.

I gave a warm-up on material from previous days' content. When students finished they were to let me check their work. If everything was correct, they moved on to the next thing in the day's agenda (I love self-paced days, and kids do, too). If they missed anything, I returned the paper to them, and they continued to work.

My feedback got more specific the more I returned to a student. At first, I told them which problems they missed. The next time, I would give them something more specific about where they were missing a problem. Eventually, we might have some one-on-one instruction about difficulties they were having.

Students worked until they got everything correct.

They received immediate, meaningful feedback.

They acted on the feedback. Immediately.

I've used the process a few times since then, and I like it. Students are improving at finding their mistakes. They are developing perseverance. I think the process helps with stress levels, as they know they can work with problems until they get them right. I am able to give lots of high-fives as students conquer a problem that is giving them difficulties.

The only issue I saw is that one issue that permeates every aspect of what I would like to accomplish in class: time. A few students (not many) have spent most of the class on a few problems and not had a lot of time with the new material for the day. It hasn't been a deal-breaker, but it is something I will have to continue to look at and see if there's something I can do to make it better.

Overall, though, I like this way of delivering feedback. Anytime I can tell students right NOW what they need to work on, and they can work on those things right NOW, students will make progress and deepen their learning.

The Retention Conundrum

Retention.

While it's always been an issue and something I deal with as a teacher of middle school students (who - in the words of one of my interviewers years ago - wake up in a new world every morning), lately I have found myself particularly frustrated by it. Confused, even.

It doesn't seem to matter if we covered a topic last week, last month, or last semester. It doesn't seem to matter if it's something we spent a good deal of time with or how successful they were when we covered it (solving equations). It doesn't seem to matter if it's something we've been on for months, step away for a lesson or two, and return to (graphing linear equations). Sometimes it doesn't matter if we were working on it yesterday.

I find myself saying things such as, "We've covered this!" "You knew how to do this _____ long ago!" "You learned this in ______ grade!" All in an increasingly exasperated tone and more often than I would like.

Before the end of the first semester, I was determined to figure out a plan for spiral review for the start of the second semester.

I have NEVER been happy with the times I have tried to incorporate spiral review. Most of the time the process has involved students being given a few minutes to work a few problems. There is a handful of students in each class who will sit through the time allotted and not attempt anything, waiting for me to work the problems. After the designated time, I work the problems, and those who sat there for five minutes copy what I write, learning very little.

I found an eighth-grade spiral review product I liked and tweaked it some for my classes. Students have four problems to work, four days a week.

When I first started, I told students, "This is review material. You know how to do this. Look things up you don't remember. I'm not working the problems for you. Try SOMEthing." My goal was to check their work at the end of the week, highlight mistakes, and then work through problem areas together.

This was met with a little success in my Algebra 1 classes, but my Pre-Algebra classes were really struggling with the work. And checking all the papers of all my classes every week proved to not be my best plan.

So, I softened my approach a bit. I walk around and answer questions as students work. At the end of the allotted time, I ask for questions and will work a problem or two (but I seldom work all of them). Problems through the week are similar with a few included from previous weeks (hence the spiral, LOL), and students are seeing things over and over.

This week I had the idea of giving a "quiz" with a few problems similar to the ones students had been working to see how they are doing with the concepts we are reviewing.

I am seeing some progress.

Concepts that I would not have thought students would lose - like determining how many solutions an equation has - have been reviewed and strengthened.

Students are coming up with strategies that might not be the process I taught them the first time, but the "new" strategies are ones they understand and, therefore, will have a better chance of remembering.

I am learning - and am surprised by - how many times students must be exposed to material before it "sticks."

Rather than continuing to be frustrated, I am trying to figure out what I need to do to ensure students REALLY learn concepts for the long haul.

During this same process, I am in the middle of solving systems of equations with my Algebra 1 students, and I have seen that students need spiral review within a unit on top of the spiral review they need for topics from throughout the year.

And then I'm hit with the constant amidst all the variables of my day: I have 50 minutes a class period. My students need spiral review from older topics, spiral review from current topics, introduction to and practice with new material all within those 50 minutes.

Sigh.

Flipped lessons help. Self-pacing helps.

But it still feels very overwhelming. Insurmountable, at times.

I don't have it all figured out, yet. But the wheels are turning, and I will continue to work on keeping topics in front of students until we don't feel like we're starting over every time a concept reappears.

Reflections on a Surprising Unit

First: I am not happy it has taken me more than a couple of weeks to get to this blog post. I like to blog while things are fresh and I remember all of the little things.

I probably shouldn't even be blogging today. There are so many other things I need to be doing.

But this is a post that needs to be written, and it needs to be written before I forget EVERYthing (and I know I've already forgotten a lot of the things I wanted to write about).

It was just systems of equations. Nothing special. I teach it every year. I didn't expect anything too different.

But the unit surprised me.

This was the first unit I attempted some self-pacing. I have always struggled with how to handle the kids who "get it" quickly, finish the work I need them to do, and then have time to spare.

I don't want them to feel punished with extra (or busy) work.

I don't want them wasting time.

I don't want to lose whole class activities and discussions.

But I decided it was time to experiment some.

The way I approached it was having the "next thing" - the next video, the next activity - ready, and if anyone finished the day's work, I gave them the "next thing."

It worked well. No one got too far ahead. In fact, one day I had several ahead, and I knew there was a big thing for their English class they were working on, and I was able to give them time to work on it.

When it was a "whole class" day, we did whole class activities.

We all tested on the same day.

Overall, I was pleased with the process and plan to implement it some more. I would like to do as other self-pacing teachers have suggested and map out an entire unit with what needs to be done and give it to students ahead of time. I still have much to figure out about self-pacing, but I am happy I took the plunge and tried it.

The second surprise of the unit came when we looked at applications of systems of equations. Systems applications are so contrived and have little relevance to students. But they are a standard, and students need to know how to do them.

I began an Internet search for how to approach them differently, and I found these two gems:

Those Horrible Coin Problems (and What We Can Do About Them)

Piling up Systems of Linear Equations

I did the coin problem first. Rather than work an example (or three) of "how to work a coin problem" I showed Dan Meyer's video and gave guiding information and questions to lead students to the system of equations AFTER they had done some "guess and check" to find the solution. We got to talk about the number of solutions, which we later verified with Desmos.

Third Period (my first Algebra 1 class of the day) was magic. The students were making so many connections, and the light bulbs I was seeing all over the room were exciting. I am working on renewing my National Board Certification, and I kicked myself at the end of class for not recording the lesson.

Full disclosure, though: Fifth and Seventh Period were not as successful. It was a Friday afternoon, and they are tougher crowds to begin with. We completed the lesson, and some of them saw what I needed them to see, but I felt those two classes were more organized chaos than genuine learning.

I followed the Friday coin problem with the glue problems on Monday. Students were successful taking the information from the video and creating equations.

But after the two "Three Act" days, I found students struggled with written problems similar to the coin and glue problems. I did not do a good enough job of connecting what we had done as a class to how these problems would be presented in classwork and on assessments. I have an instructional video about how to solve systems of equations application problems, and I told students to "watch it if you need to." While I try hard to give students options and not make students who don't need to do things do them, this doesn't always work with the eighth-grade brain. Many students who do, in fact, need the extra instruction opt out and then struggle later.

We had a day with an altered/shortened schedule, and I chose that day to introduce Desmos linear "marbleslides." While not exactly connected to systems of equations, it was a way to review and reinforce why linear equations behave in a certain way. Many students found it enjoyable, and several worked on at home, even though it wasn't required.

I gave a reflection at the end of the unit. Student responses let me know how to change up the unit next year. Students told me they struggled most with solving systems by substitution and the application problems. I already knew the application problems were an issue, and I know why substitution probably presented some difficulties and how to do it differently next time.

The unit was a roller coaster (which is really not any different than this entire school year). There were days I was so excited at what I was seeing my students do and days I felt I had failed them completely. There were days I thought, "I have got to blog about this!" and days I thought "Maybe this unit isn't worth blogging about" (probably one reason I kept putting off the blog post).

But I did hear great things from my kids. When students use words like "magic," "math-gic," "cool," and "fun" over the course of a couple of weeks, the unit can't be all bad.