Tag: planning

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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.

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Thinking about Metacognition….

Metacognition is in my blog name because it’s one of my absolute favorite things. (See metacognitive routines , and tips and reflections and goals)

But, it sounds daunting, if you’re not already doing it.

Or, you’re many teachers, and you’re already doing so many other things, that adding anything else sounds daunting, doesn’t matter what it is (if so, stick around, I’m also working on a workshop about self care and balance)

But, I would (do!) argue that adding metacognition to your teaching doesn’t have to be hard.

One of the easiest ways is by adding a log to something you’re already doing.

My classes use two logs a day for our spiral review and for our homework and they’re super simple, no frills, but really helpful.

Why logs?

They build a habit of stopping, reflecting, checking in on learning. But also, gaining the insight that comes from the metacognition.

Bonus points: They document patterns of progress or challenge (especially valuable that it’s in a form that students can see, because, ummm… they wrote it. This is helpful for the folks in my classes who insist on doubting their own abilities)

Bonus, bonus points: As a teacher, its so helpful to get insight into students experience/thinking about their learning.

Free metacognition teaching resource! Classroom log. Date, What I did, how it went, next steps

How to:

Decide what to log:

Anything you do repeatedly, that you want your students to thinking about is fair game: homework or independent studying are great because it also loops you in to a students progress but you could do a general log every Friday about the week, or at the end of every unit, or convert your exit tickets to a log entry, or, or, or…

Set up:

I love folders. They keep things just that much neater and easier to find. (Also, I have bright yellow for one and bright green for another and the odds that a log accidentally wanders home in the bottom of a backpack have decreased.) But, folders are totally optional. A chart is nice. I made one for you. But if you don’t like it, make a simple one you do like, or use lined paper.

Here’s a (free!) reflective log template to get you started.

Content:

I go for frequency rather than depth. You might want more specific questions, but a good starting place is:

  • Date
  • What I did (What homework? What unit? Whatever thing this entry is about)
  • How’d it go? (Self assessment and reflection)
  • Next steps? (Planning and organizing)

I like to keep the entries small, to keep the intimidation factor down, just a line or two.

Want some more support? I made a (Free!) teacher planning guide

Adding Metacognitive Routines: Classroom Log Planner Preview

( PS. This post is inspired by a workshop I planned for the Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education Network Conference in April.

NETWORK has been cancelled for public health reasons. I respect the decision, wish everyone good health… and am going to be offering a digital version.

n up to receive information about a digital workshop from mathacognitive: “Thinking about Thinking: Easy Tips to Boost Metacognition”

Here’s the workshop description: Many adult learners enter ABE programs with big goals, and a desire to achieve, but little understanding of how to learn/study effectively. We’ll explore low-prep classroom routines and activities to help students understand their own learning, practice metacognition, and become more skillful, independent learners. 

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Hacking my Prep Weeks

The beginning of the school year is the beginning of the school year. That is, exciting, but also (largely) frantic.

And yet, at the end of September, I can say that I feel like I finally figured out how to put my prep weeks to good use. The start of the year was still busy, but not as busy; the start of classes still came as a shock, but not as much of a shock.

 

Black file of photo copied papers, they are held together by paperclips. The folder is on a desk.
Making All. The. Copies.

 

4 Questions Helping my Teacher Prep Productivity:

  • What can I batch?  Classic productivity advice that I’ve never really applied to my prep weeks. This year, I’m batching everything I can. For me, that meant a couple hours adding HiSET answer sheets to lessons throughout the year. Not super fun, but done, and one less thing to think about each week from here on out. And I used a ream and a half of paper in one massive bout of photo copying.

 

 

  • How can I build capacity? I know, it’s non-profit jargon, but I was lucky enough to spend time early in my career in programs that thought a lot about capacity building. It means investing in tools, systems etc. now so that you can do more with less effort later.  This is a good mental framework for me. For my teaching, it’s setting up systems and organization. So, a playlist of videos, lots of pre-formatted spreadsheets, a class website made now… and less reinventing the wheel later.

 

  • And, the key innovation: When will I need this time? I started prepping lessons ahead. Nice enough. My 2 weeks from now self will appreciate. But, the game changer was figuring out that I’m not going to be super frantic and frazzled when I need to prep the two week from now lessons. But I will be way frazzled and frantic when I’m trying to prep lessons in, say, December, when I’m also getting ready for the holidays, and the HiSET, and the end of the trimester, and the flu, the snow day and the progress reports… all at once. So, I looked at my outline and spent some unfrazzled beginning of the year time to (hopefully!) make the crazy points a little less crazy.

 

 

Proof?  This one’s from a lesson I’m next teaching in January. It’s on TPT now.

Fellow teachers – I’ll take all the making-prep-saner tips I can get. Please share yours!

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Teaching the Test

Teach the students, not the test.

I am quite certain that what I care most about teaching is that you, yes, you the one who never got above a C in math class, can learn anything, even math. Teaching the students.

Except that what my students care most about passing a test (HISET) that stands between them and big dreams (jobs and college and examples for their kids and a sense of pride at finally doing the thing they quit years ago) And, there’s something worthy in helping them reach those goals, and it is nice proof of my basic thesis when they do it …so, yeah, we do kind of teach the test, too.

In a perfect world it would be different, but in this world, I’ve made some peace with the idea that it’s possible to teach both.

 

I have not, however, settled on a favorite way to actually, effectively incorporate test practice into class, so I’m giving it some thought before the rush of the school year.

The challenges:

How to give enough to expose them to the breadth and challenge of the test, without sending them into overwhelm.

How to connect it to our current learning and prepare them for an exam that covers approximately 5 years of K12 math standards.  (Yes, really: 6th grade area to high school algebra)

How to fit it in an already over-stuffed curriculum.

 

Past attempts:

Give interested students practice tests to take home.  (This only really works with a subset of students who are pretty prepared and pretty self directed)

Slip questions from the practice tests in to my weekly review routine  (A keeper, I think, although probably not enough by itself)

Collect multiple questions relevant to our topic from across the stack of practice tests, make it part of the lesson (Super-laborious until we found an intern to help us organize, now only moderately laborious)

Review sessions, on those random end of term/all-the-interuptions days when you can’t teach anything new anyways.  (Not bad. Not brilliant, I don’t think, but not bad)

 

Additions for this fall:

Easy win: Bubble sheets. Apparently one student was totally thrown off by the answer sheet when she took the exam last year.  I put “use bubble sheets in class each trimester” on my goals list. *Check*

Question of the Day: One practice test question every week, slipped into the routine of the class.  I spent one distinctly not-fun afternoon sorting through tests and picking a couple dozen out. This is the exposure therapy theory of math teaching: see the test questions often enough and they’re less intimidating.

 

But, I’m still in search of structures for those random review days that make them something more than solo worksheet time. Especially, ones that don’t rely on speed, shouting out answers, or competition to make them game-y. My students have enough math anxiety already, thank you very much.

 

My favorites so far:

These 3 problems all have the same answer. What is it? Where ‘answer’ means: the same letter on the multiple choice format questions.  This let me mix in questions students were likely to get with stretch questions without inducing overwhelm. It worked particularly well in groups, where different people knew different questions and could check each other.

Test question sort When you’re being tested on 5 years worth of standards all at once, quickly identifying what math you need to use is crucial. And hard. So we say, lets not worry about the answers for a little while and focus on identifying what we’re being asked to do.  Also, my students are very, very familiar with card sorts.

 

But, really, I could use more ideas. My best googling turns up few ideas that suit my class 🙁

 

 

 

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What I’m not doing this year

I think a lot about the things I want to add to my classes, the new goals I’m setting, the ways we’re all going to grow.

But, this summer, mapping out my classes (and gritting my teeth at the mismatch between goals and time available) I’ve been having to think about the things I’m dropping.

 

Some of them are easier.

The things that are just not pulling their weight.

The app that didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to (now accepting applications in the comments for new vocab apps)

A few flashy activities, that looked so good (and sometime made me look so good for doing them) but never actually closed the loop for student learning.

 

Some are harder.

The sequence of 3 lessons that I’m going to try to somehow fit into two classes.

And, especially, the content that I’m letting go of altogether (I have more flexibility than most to make that call)

 

The one that feels biggest is fractions. I’ve held on to a review in my middle level class, because when I talk to students that’s often where it (read: math) first went off the rails and I want them to know they can learn it this time.

For the teaching goals that were about passing the test and moving on to the next steps in their lives, it was not particularly relevant. But for the teaching goals that were about recovering and regrowing from their previous negative experiences, it was relevant.

 

But, I looked at the test, and I looked at my class calendar, and I looked at the test, and there is no way to fit in near as much math as they need.

And, so, choices.

And no fractions.  More algebra.

(Also, much shaking of metaphoric fists at the people who make these tests.)

 

 

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Scaffolding Homework and Asynchronous Work

Originally published Oct. 2018, updated Nov. 2020

Working at home is hard for my students. They’re mostly working parents, so they’ve already juggled shifts and childcare to get to class a couple of nights a week.

And then we ask them to find more time for homework.

It doesn’t always work.

But we want it to, because once a week math classes are not enough.

It is painfully easy to work hard in class, make progress, grasp a challenging concept, and then leave, think about everything except math, and come back a week later, feeling like you’ve forgotten everything you learned.

My homework system is intentionally flexible, but still.

To work independently you have to find the time, and the motivation, and the materials, and the focus, and get everyone else to let you focus. And you have to know where to start, and not give up when you get stuck.

This year, I’m experimenting with really planning for it.

Text "Scaffolding Asynchronous Learning" Image shows a desk with computer, notebook, pen, scissors and other supplies.

Week 1: Plan

We brainstormed times they might fit work into their lives. Things like: on my lunch break, after the kids go to bed, in the waiting room. I made a point to frame the conversation as small bits of time, that did not have to look like homework at the kitchen table for an hour after dinner.  They thought about their schedules and made plans, and back up plans. I made copies: one for them, one for me.

Week 2: Check in

I returned their plans and asked them to write one of two notes on the back. If the plan worked, what about it worked? OR If the plan didn’t work, what would they do differently next week?

Week 3: Repeat

Return the plans, write another note. This time, I added a list of some of the best tips from their Week 2 check ins and asked them to think about adopting some of their classmates’ ideas.

Three weeks in a row is about as much time as I feel like I can devote to this right now, but I kept their twice annotated plans, and they’ll make a reappearance later in the semester (especially if homework starts to lag)

And, can I take a minute to brag about a student who has embraced this?

This student is back in school for the first time in years, a single mom working in  the kind of entry level health care job that’s lots of hands on work, for little money.  She downloaded Kahn Academy, tried it, and came in discouraged a few weeks ago that she was working at a lower level than her young son.

This week, she came in beaming and eager to show me how her scores had gone up.

She was proud of the score.

I was proud of how she made it happen: Studying on her half-hour lunch breaks four days in a row, plus a few random times when she had a few free minutes.

I wanted to get up on a soap box and point her dedication out as an example to everyone in the class. She wouldn’t have appreciated that, though, so I just told her I was proud of her. (And then told you all about it….)

<3

Fall 2020: Expanded and updated tools to scaffold independent and asynchronous work.

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Constant Cumulative Review: Pt. 2 Making Materials without Going Insane

Read: Part 1: Start with Why and/or Classroom Routines: You will metacognate for background

When my student asked for cumulative reviews the first, highest barrier was figuring out how I could possibly make custom materials, at a scale that would be useful, without going insane or putting in more hours than I had to give.

There was a learning curve, but with practice, and a system, it now fits into my weekly prep routine without too much fuss.

 

Essential Supplies: One of those accordion folders with multiple pockets, scissors, glue stick, paper.

(I have dreams of one day getting organized enough to do this electronically, but I’m not there yet)

The Process:

Round 1:  New school year, I stock the first section of my accordion folder with a few worksheets worth of review skills that students should know coming in. I cut out 1 or two problems from 3 or 4 sheets and glue stick them to a piece of scrap paper.   I make copies and answer keys, the class does them, then moves on to learn some new math. At the end of our learning, I put some of the leftover materials in a new pocket of the folder.

Round 2: One or two problems from 2 or three review skills, plus a problem or two of the newly learned skill. Glue stick. Copies. Answer key. Class. New math. Extra materials to the accordion folder. (Each unit or major skill gets a pocket in my folder)

Round 3: A few review problems, one or two of the skill we learned two weeks ago, and one or two more of the skill we learned last week.  Glue stick. Copies. Answer key. Class. New math, extras to the accordion folder.

Rounds 4 to n: 6 or 8 or 10 (if I’m feeling ambitious, mostly 8ish) problems cut from increasingly scrappy looking worksheets.

As the year goes on and we’ve learned more than 6 or 8 or 10 skills, I select quickly, without getting too bogged down. There’s always the last thing we learned, a selection of previous skills, and usually some basic number sense item that I want to drive into their brains through the power of repeated practice.

Most weeks, it takes me about half an hour to make review sheets, answer keys  and copies for two levels of classes. (My classes change just enough each year that I haven’t found it worth it to try to reuse them from year to year, but maybe you’re consistent enough to pull it off)

I’ve created a template (although you hardly need it) 

 

The essential elements:

Organization. For me, the accordion folder (perhaps for you another easy-organization binder-ish alternative)  If I had to find 6 or 8 or 10 types of math questions every week, I wouldn’t do it, but I can cut and glue 6 or 8 or 10.

Letting go of any perfectionist impulses. I move quickly and don’t agonize too much over which items to include (or how DIY it looks). This is the power of doing it regularly – anything I don’t cover sufficiently this week, will certainly be covered in other weeks.

 

Stay tuned for Part 3: Putting it into Practice and Part 4: Implementation Considerations

 

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Constant Cumulative Review (pt.1)

As I’ve mentioned, my two primary math classes start every week with a cumulative review. It is a bigger commitment than most of the practices I describe here, but I think the impact is worth it.

In brief, my system is a short mixed review sheet that I make each week. I pick problems from a folder full of worksheets from the whole year, so that it is a constantly expanding cumulative review. Students know to work on the review when they first get to class, then correct it themselves and log their results. If they have extra time they work independently on any weak points the review sheet turned up.

I’ll be back with more details, in three parts

  • How to stay sane while making weekly cumulative reviews
  • Review sheets in action
  • Implementation considerations

But for today, start with why. 

We do it because…

  1. Retaining what you’ve learned is maddeningly difficult when you only have a few hours of math a week, and you spend the rest of your time thinking about other pressing non math things.

And because I got tired of students working hard in class to learn something, only to get to an end of term review or high stakes test (or the next weeks’ class) and realize they had forgotten it. This is discouraging for everyone.

 

  1. The brain science/pedagogy: recall practice and interleaving, low stakes formative assessments, the way it set up student-lead differentiated review.  All good, research-backed pedagogical reasons.

 

  1. But really, because a student asked for it.

This student, D–, was one of my sweetest, favorite students. The kind who cheerfully worked away at a subject that baffled her, who kept at it despite setbacks, who’s going to make a great early childhood educator someday, and who paid attention to her own learning enough to know that she didn’t always retain what she had studied.

So, when she asked for review materials that combined of all of the math we’d covered, I paid attention. It was a good request, but not one I could easily answer.

The textbooks had a cumulative review at the end, but we hadn’t done every unit, so that wasn’t so helpful. And I didn’t have a custom one ready for her. Making a custom one would require digging back through all of the units we’d done over the last six months, and that would take time (which is always limited)  I think/hope we did a review day soon after, but mostly I kept thinking about her request.

  1. And I do it because systems solve things.  (personal philosophies…)

No, I didn’t have a stack of perfectly aligned cumulative reviews when she asked for them, but by September, I had figured out a system. We could have them going forward.