Pam

December Entry
Just to let everyone interested know, I have only had two students say they are going to do a CAPSTONE. I haven't seen either finished project yet. I think it is important to really insist on bi-weekly meeting on the progress. The end of the semester is looming.

Update on the evaluating their own quizzes. This is not going as well as I had hoped. Even though I put the feedback sheet with the answer key and ask that they do it before passing the quiz in, students spend little time in thoughtful reflection. I find they make the same mistakes the next time. I have not decided how I will procede. I still have high hopes that maybe it just takes more practice. If they just correct with no thought, they do not improve. How do I get them to look thoughtfully?

Now for the real December Entry.

I am intrigued by the "Flipped Classroom" I posted on the MVHS staff folder. http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-manifest-823.php Here is a quote from the article above.

"In most Flipped Classrooms, there is an active and intentional transfer of some of the information delivery to outside of the classroom with the goal of freeing up time to make better use of the face-to-face interaction in school. When appropriate, information transfer typically takes advantage of technologies like podcasting or screencasting. This allows for more time to individualize instruction in the class time and keeps content alive for remediation, review, or other reference when needed. Learners have immediate and easy access to any topic when they need it, leaving the teacher with more opportunities to expand on higher order thinking skills and enrichment. Offloading some information transfer allows a classroom to develop that understands the need for teacher accessibility to overlap with cognitive load. That is, when students are assimilating information, creating new ideas, etc. (upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy) the teacher is present to help scaffold them through that process. "

I thought I would try this for students who are still struggling with a particular question on a practice sheet in physics. Most of the students did not have too much trouble picking up on this particular graph, but some did have trouble. Instead of "beating the horse" in class for the 5 or 6 that need more instruction, I thought I would try this new approach.

I made a screencast using INTERWRITEMOBI, Jing, and Screencast. I then posted the link to the screencast on the physics email folders. Students were expecting the screencast, at least in the Honors Class. I had asked those that told me they needed help to look at the screencast and give me feedback. http://screencast.com/t/R4VzNtrr

One disadvantage in using Screencast is you have only a few minutes of time. I could use Quicktime, but then the whole file would have to be downloaded by each student. I may need to do that. My screencast may not have enough information or be clear enough, but I have asked for feedback.

There is a steep learning curve for the new technology. I had to download MOBI software and used their technical assistance call line. I am hoping that the feedback I get from the students that use it will show that it is worthwhile.

UPDATE on how this went.
===I love the process. I would do it again. This quiz was not high stakes and I would only do this self evaluating on quizzes because of the time it takes. I did learn about how the kids think. Some of their comments opened my eyes to their thought process.=== The students found the process helpful. The proof will be when I give them another quiz along the same lines as this one. I think there is value in giving quizzes often, keeps the students from getting lazy with their knowledge but also having them do this self correcting. I would also make sure that they don't have pencils of their own when they go to the station to correct and give themselves feedback (they are to use green pencils), as I do give them a grade. I would also make sure they are separated from each other to go over their own paper and not all together up front.

[[file:Feedback.pdf]]
Something Else NEW

http://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/scaffolding-student-feedback/

John Burke is the owner of this blog. One of the Global Physics Department administrators. He has really helped me out in many different ways, but the one I would like to share is having my students grade their own assessments. I am going to try it. I have my quiz answer sheets ready to place around the classroom and a green colored pencil to go with it. I have made a copy of the handout "Giving good Feedback". I am only doing this, to start, on a 3 question quiz. They will still pass in the quiz and get a grade based on their performance, the feedback piece is for their benefit in the big picture. I am not really sure how to include that into a grade. I want to try this on something low stakes before I go for something like a unit assessment. As for the Capstone, I have had a few students tell me they are going to do it, but I have seen nothing yet.

It's NEW!
CAPSTONE

This isn't a regular literacy strategy, but something that I am going to try. At the beginning of the year I gave my students the objectives I wanted them to learn for the year- by unit. In physics if they don't "get" the objectives in the given unit, they are in trouble for the next unit. Things just build on each other. So, this year, if you fail the assessment, you have an opportunity to do a CAPSTONE. This is an extra grade, but is a way for the students to show me they have learned the material. I really am excited to use this. There are suggestions for CAPStones the students can use, or they can make one up. Whatever they do must be of publishable quality. I am not sure I can motivate the students to do this, but by making their CAPStone apply to a topic they are interested in, I hope they are inspired to try. We just took the first assessment, I had very few failures, but I will keep you posted on how many choose to do the Capstone, and maybe even publish the ones that do.