Your graph of the backyard pool problem was pretty good. it put you in the right ballpark, but not quite close enough (the actual solution was 9 m). It was a reasonable graph, but you didn't show an algebraic solution to the problem, so I can't really tell how you're doing on this target. I get the sensation that the issue had to do with not having the equation you needed.... we need to be really comfortable with these equations. not just getting licensed to use them once, but knowing them well enough to be able to come up with them whenever we need them (or pull them out of our memories). If it was something else (like maybe the problem was intimidating), then I'd suggest some practice. Come see me sometime and we can chat about it.
The student who received this had an interesting issue- he had recently gotten a new iPhone and for some reason it was sending his texts and emails to his parents' computer rather than to his new phone (not sure how this happened). Well, mom got the updates from the BlueHarvest website saying that new comments were posted for him, and was astonished by the amount of text. I think that the word he used was actually "disturbed." Not sure if it's over the top or not, but it seems to have been a one-time thing, that particular night I had enough time to be able to geek out and write a ton, but that isn't normally the case.
So I'm still using SBG with my AP class. Some get it, others do not. One student said she definitely needs to come in for extra credit because she hasn't mastered many standards. I gave her a funny look, and this led to a new round of discussion regarding how I will calculate their grade at the end of the marking period. She wondered if getting less than mastery still earned her points on a target (it doesn't by the way, but it shows progress in the right direction). For the record, this is a conversation we've had before, but it had new urgency since it's about 2.5 weeks away. We also had a long discussion about what it means to be proficient in a skill and what should happen if they have an off day and don't do well on an assessment. I had been removing their proficiency if they bombed a standard on a new assessment that they'd already mastered- the point if it is to have the skills mastered, which means all the time, right? They argued that sometimes problems can be intimidating and hard to start. We went back and forth, their argument being that a single bad day shouldn't be cause for a drop in proficiency- maybe it should take two poor showings to drop back below proficiency. I'm not sure about this, but if we went to the two strikes model then I think I should add a caveat that if they do drop, they have to re-assess post-haste.
The whole discussion came up because there was a problem on an assessment I wrote that went something like:
Gwen and her little sister Natalia are hanging out in the back yard. It’s a hot day and they decide to race to the pool. Gwen decides that since Natalia is younger, she deserves a head start of 5 meters. After they count down “3, 2, 1, go,” Natalia runs straight to the pool at a speed of 1 m/s. Gwen starts off running at 3 m/s, but after two seconds slows down to a more sedate 1.5 m/s. A graph of velocity vs. time is shown below with the motion of both girls plotted.
b. How far away would the pool have to be for the girls to arrive there simultaneously?
The other interesting factor is that I didn't give my students any equations. They all have to get "licensed" before I will let them use an equation- basically they have to be able to show me how they derived it. I borrowed this from Kelly (aside: this will definitely be the case for the kinematics equations, not sure about the rest of the course). Some students either remember the equations or drew a quick graph of position vs. time and derived it again, while others struggled. So... all the kids graphed the situation correctly. Partway through the assessment one student asked me if he could solve the problem graphically. I repeated his question so the whole class could hear it and then answered that a graphical solution would be acceptable, but that it wouldn't prove to me that he was proficient in the problem-solving target. I encouraged the kids to give it a shot, and one said, "well, why would I? I'm already proficient on this target, so why would I risk dropping that?" Ah the fatal flaw in my plan. I think there needs to be a new score for intentionally evading a target--> -1. In all seriousness, I should have given him a zero, which I use as meaning that the target hasn't been assessed. So his proficiency would have been history anyway. I hadn't done this in the past because sometimes the assessments I wrote were too long for our 38 minute periods, and it didn't seem fair to penalize kids for my mistake. However, this was the first question, so that excuse doesn't fly. As I write this I realize I've just solved my own dilemma. Maybe this dialogue will be useful for someone else, but at least it helped me just to write it down.
I've also been giving some thought to what other people do. Frank's SBG never removes proficiency once it's attained. Someone else (who I can;t find or remember right now, mea culpa) takes the average of all the scores to assess their performance on a standard, but weights the most recent so that it's 80% of the score. I don't particularly like this- it kicks out the idea that learning something well erases past mistakes.
Not sure about this... the students also argued that I need to tell them what standards I'm going to assess in advance so they know where to study. I find this idea repulsive, it seems like it would undermine the entire process. Has anyone else encountered this request from students?
Today I stumbled across one of the best visual explanations of the differences between traditional grading systems and SBG on Bowman Dickson's Blog:
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| SBG |
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| Angry Birds with traditional grading |
I really like it and want to share it with my students. This week we also took on the Red Bull Stratos Jump a la iModel iBlog - constant v for Regents, full analysis for AP. It was neat, and I appreciate the efforts of those who tabulated the data. I was planning to, but didn't get around to it, and was thrilled to find it already done.
This post turned out to be way longer than I expected. I've mentioned a lot of stuff here. I'd love to hear what others think, so if you have any thoughts please chime in. I'll close with a quote from a parent who emailed me about her daughter's performance in my AP class and time spent studying (or lack thereof) outside of class. We exchanged several emails and this stuck with me:
"... came home very disgruntled about today’s assessment. I was quick to ask if she had done any of the practice from the website. She stormed upstairs and said, “We should just have HOMEWORK!” I think she’ll be availing herself of those practices now."
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