12. Never Give Up On Them!

12. Never Give Up on Them!

This we believe (NMSA, 2010)

* Every student’s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate. Adult Advocate


This week my advanced students took a major exam. Based on an item-analysis, it appears that they "got" about half of the 30 questions. Whoa, that is a challenge. Additionally, about half of the students did well enough for me to think they have met the competencies. And then there is about half of the students who appear to be completely lost... Hmmmm. So what do we do?...

I have had to back up and punt. I told them, "We cannot move forward until you know slope inside and out. I will NEVER give up on you. Solving equations involving slope are foundational to algebraic thinking." From the item analysis I identified the top ten missed problems. I put them on paper, and included how to solve them so we can have conversations. I put them in teams of 3-4 with one person who did well and said, "You must go through these problems and talk about what you did wrong and identify the common mistakes. I gave them real world problems to solve together and I am treating the classroom like a college class in which students are given time to discuss and grapple with their thinking. While this is taking place I am moving around to listen to their thinking and to help them think more deeply about mathematics.

They have a retest next week. I will let you know how it goes. (:

Update: While last week two students scored in the 80s, and the rest below that, this week I had 15 with a 90 or above! Five are getting it; and five are still lost. Much better!!! Worth the time it took to re-teach, re-test... We can now move forward!

Advice

1. All of these students need to know that I will NEVER give up on them! These are advanced students who have, in theory, had an easy time in math. These are students who now may be being challenged for the first time. They need to know they will not be left behind. Those who are in the standard classes also need to know this.

2. There need to be opportunities for them to be able to practice and think about what we are learning. The school has a program called ICU. It stands for Intensive Care Unit.  This program was put in place by our administrative team to support our children. It is run by two retired teachers, excellent language arts and mathematics teachers, who work directly with children to help them, to encourage them, to support them in their efforts. The program runs from 7:30 - 3:00 every day. Teachers use these advocates as resource teachers as well as enrichment teachers.

3. Set up study time during the day. We spend 30 minutes a day allowing students to work on their individual assignments. I have set up a section of my room to allow the advanced students to come in and work on exercises. College students work like this. We need to teach our students how to work together and how to communicate their knowledge.

4. Set up technology tools to allow students to work at their own pace. There are many sources that are available. The Web 2.0 tools that are available provide school children with a plethora of information to review and share. We need to teach students how to search for information. I am using Gizmo's (part of ExploreLearning.com), am setting up exams based on the Problem-attic.com website. and have set up a Google Classroom to communicate with students.

5. Work with colleagues. I have found three other teachers who are interested in developing their skills in presenting material and using electronic tools to teach math and science. We are meeting one afternoon a week to talk about what we are finding. In addition, because we have different planning periods we are discussing how to use Lesson Study to improve our strategies and skills in the one-to-one environment.