Tag: first day

Posted on

Planning Principles : Points on the Board in the First Class

It’s been a while since I wrote, here. Honestly, it has been hard to write about teaching, while everything about my teaching has been so upended by the pandemic. After a spring of emergency remote teaching, I (really) needed the summer break. I’m coming back soon to still-remote, but better planned remote teaching, and I’m looking forward to being back here more.

2020 update:

A few weeks before COVID, I started a new class, with a new group of students, and a new context. And, then, like everyone, I started (abruptly) to figure out remote work and online learning, turning on a dime, doing our best to navigate. I’ve started a few new things, professionally in the last year. And now, again, starting a new thing: a full semester online (for me, maybe hybrid or socially distanced for you).

I’m finding it calls me to think about first principles. In times of change, what do we know to be true about teaching and learning, regardless of the other stuff.

There are undoubtedly more elegant and insightful thoughts, but also: my thought in planning for the first day, the new year, the fresh imperfect start is ‘get a win’. 

For my skeptical mandated students, who weren’t interested in my name games 

And for my students, used to our supportive classroom, abruptly plunged into online learning

For my new this term students, and for me, never great at transitions.

Get a win. 

Teach a piece of math that we can all learn. 

Provide a sense of progress in the chaos.

Start the momentum, set the tone, take the first step. 

The first step is the hardest. But there’s nothing like making it, to remind you that you can take it. 

And the next one. And the next.

Text: Points on the board. Starting a new class or a new unit right. Mathacognitive. Image of a vintage scoreboard. Planning for the first day of a new school year or new term

Originally published March 2018, revised and republished 2020

Things that are different about adult ed:

Students don’t all start in September, stay in my class through June, and then move on to the next class after summer vacation.

They start when they’re ready, place into the class that suits their skills, stop when life gets in the way or when they’re ready to take a test and succeed, move to a new class when the teaching staff thinks they’re ready for it.

There are ways that this is beautiful (learn at your own pace! Education organized around the student not the calendar!) And ways that this is challenging (So many moving pieces. And I am not great at chaos). We manage it as best we can by starting and moving bunches of students together at a few scheduled points throughout the year.

All of which is to say, I get more than your average level of practice at first classes.

At least three times a school year, a third or more of my class is new. They might be new to my class, moving from a lower level where they were cruising along comfortably – feeling like the smart kid for once – to a new more challenging class. They might be in a math classroom for the first time in five or fifteen years (and feeling ready to get their HiSET, but maybe not so ready for math class) or back to school after a break to handle whatever life threw at them.

Different reasons, but for all practical purposes a new class.

So, first days of school. Name games and homework policies. What I wish my teacher (and students) knew. All of the standard stuff.

But, also.

Principles I’ve learned through multiple first days every year of my teaching career:

Get points on the board.

Meaning: By the end of the first class – between the introductions and the policies and the questions – be able to point to some math and say  –truthfully, universally — “we learned that.”

This is a worthy goal for any class, but especially for first classes, when we’re trying to set a tone that is not “OK, we’ll pick this up next class”. For the new students, in particular, it’s much needed proof that they can handle this, the first piece of tangible evidence in the case I’m building that ‘yes, you can learn math’

And, this, I think, is a goal for all of us, whether you have one first day or seventeen.

With apologies to the standards, I don’t think it matters so much what they learn that day, just that they learn.

So, my criteria for getting points on the board:

  • A one off. Something self-contained, not requiring anyone to have been here last week, or to come back next week to learn.
  • As close to guaranteed success as teaching allows. I’ve rearranged significant parts of curriculum to teach an easy win on the first day. (A student who leaves their first class feeling lost is off to a very rough start.)
  • Bonus points: An activity that incorporates getting to know you and math in one.  (Like these) Also, group work.

I often do something on the order of gather data about our class and analyze it.  (These proportions weren’t a first-class, but it’s of a type. These strategies for getting un-stuck were a my last first class.)

I have another first-class coming up. As I write, I’m still waiting for inspiration, but I’m clear on my goal: get a win.

Posted on

Back. Also, Lesson Sketch: Learning Strategies

So, that happened.

If, we define ‘that’ to mean life, a slight case of overwhelm, and an unplanned 5 month break.

 

But, it’s summer. I’ve been to the ocean, I’m off from teaching, and I now have the bandwidth to come back to this.

And, with my newly cleared head, I’m thinking about one of my favorite lessons.

 

Lesson Sketch: Learning Strategies

Why: 

I preach and plead for my adult students to study outside of class (see , por ejemplo: homework, more homework and planning for homework)

But —  I know the research: most students don’t use particularly efficient strategies to study. I think this doubly applies to my adults who didn’t have great success in the school the first time. And, they have even less time to waste on inefficient studying, this time around.

So, I’ve added preaching and pleading to study effectively. 

Also, this is one of a set of first class of the term exercises I use to ease people into doing math and being a student again. (Other examples: Stuck Strategies, Retrieval Practice)

 

What: Introducing research-backed strategies for effective learning + simple data and analysis.

The Learning Scientists have summarized lots of cognitive research to highlight 6 strategies. I rarely have enough students or time that it makes sense to do all 6, but they’re there if you do. For my class, I generally prioritize: Spaced Practice,  Interleaving, Retrieval Practice and Elaboration. 

 

How: 

I introduce the topic. I might talk about how scientists do experiments to see what works (I might add that if I had known you could do experiments about learning, not just chemistry or physics, I might have liked science better in high school)  I might talk about making the best use of our time, or about shaking things up/experimenting with new techniques, I might remind them how frustrating it is to forget what they’ve learned.

 

Then, I split the class into groups, and assign each group a strategy. One time I gave out these posters, more recently it’s been the bookmarks, because less is more. If tech wasn’t a headache, I’d try the videos. The group is in charge of working together until everyone understands the strategy.  (This can take some coaching) Then we jigsaw, and they teach it to their peers. (More coaching)

 

Once everyone understands the strategies, we take a poll:

Do you already do this?

Will you try it this term?

 

Then I have students analyze the data for the strategy they started with. Depending on the class and the time of year, they might find the percent, ratio and/or fraction of the class who gave each answer.  If I have more time, we might make graphs of the results. In a way less time pressured world, we might make a bulletin board display with the strategies and our data and study tips for other students at school.

 

Results:

Spaced practice is a hit. (at least in theory) Whether it happens or not, in the day to day of busy lives, they get this idea. In the great division between tortoises and hares, many of my students are tortoises. Slow and steady sounds good.

Interleaving, on the other hand,  is a hard sell. It just sounds so much harder and more confusing, and math is hard and confusing enough, thankyouverymuch.  (Although I make them do interleaved practice every week and they tell me it helps, so maybe someday…)

 

Next Steps:

Truth… this is the first class of the term and by the second we’re off and running, and it’s hard to get back to this. But, yeah, one-off’s are not all that helpful.

So, I’m currently pondering ways to fit a follow up in.  I’d love to collect a post- round of data later in the term to see if anyone is actually rying them out.

 

 

Free Resource: I fancied up my tally sheets a bit (ahem, data collection tools) and I’m making them available for free in my TPT Store

Posted on

Lesson Sketch: Retrieval Practice

Usually, we think of first days as starting from scratch. That’s never fully true – students are always bringing previous experiences with them. But it’s particularly not true for my classes this year.  Because, interesting things about adult ed: since students start at multiple times and progress at their own pace, I sometimes (this year) have a ‘new’ class, that’s composed almost entirely of returning students.

So, rather than spend most of the first day on syllabus-reviewing and class-explaining, or even on getting to know you’s (and my standard fist-day math move, of combining math with get to know you activities) we’re starting by remembering (retrieving, if you’re a neuroscientist) what we already know. And then doing math about that math (it’s very meta)

Why:

I start the year knowing what they know (more or less) without the anxiety of a pre-assessment (hello, formative assessment) (Also, they do the data analysis for me….)

They start the year knowing what they know (hello, confidence boost)

It brings some of what they already know to the top of mind (after a summer of probably not thinking about math) so, it’s a sort of global activation of prior knowledge.

Retrieval practice is good for the brain and the memories.

Talking about retrieval practice on the first day sets a tone for talking about metacognition and effective learning all year.

Working in pairs on the first day sets a tone for collaborative learning. (I’ll be strategically matching new and veteran students into pairs)

It passes my ‘points on the board’ test (Finding a percent should be a review for most returning students, but new or returning, we walk out knowing we know at least one piece of math)

Teaching percents the first day means they can start grading their own cumulative reviews on the second day.

I think doing math with real, it came from us data, helps math feel less like random torture they have to endure to get a credential, and more like a tool that tells us something about the world (ok, more of them still think it’s torture than a tool, but I try)

How:

Retrieval: An independent brainstorm then a pair-share to bring months old math memories to the surface.

I’m making sure to ask my students about both the math they remember (I remember how to do percents, I remember that y is the vertical axis) and what they remember about themselves as math learners (I remember that I like to work in groups, I remember that writing notes helps my memory).

This expands the discussion in metacognitive ways, and it gives anyone who is panicking about (not) remembering math a way to participate.

Data & Analysis: We’re posting memories as a gallery walk, making tally marks of agreements then calculating the percent of students who share our memories.

Follow up: We’ll practice finding percents, then have a chance to follow up on an independent goal (aka, pick something from my milk crates full of materials) to review a topic they feel they sort-of-but-not-really remember

Implementation

I’m implementing as a first-class activity, but I can see it working well after a shorter break too (Welcome back from winter/April/spring/whatever break! What do you remember from before?) or as a spiral review/comprehension check at a few strategic point during the year (We’re having a review day! But first, what do you remember already?)

Lesson plan and materials

(Actually, I was having fun – so I made variations to use with fractions or ratios, instead of percents, and included a bunch of extension ideas)