Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Day 110: Discussion

It's getting to the point that a class period set aside for going over a worksheet ends up just being more time spent working on the worksheet. So, instead of simple cycle of the EDGE method (Explain Demo Guide Enable) taking 3 days at most, a simple lesson takes about 5 days. 

Here's reality right now:


  • Day 1: Investigation. Some student centered activity in the vein of "organized play" in which students can discover the upcoming relationships without knowing what's coming.
  • Day 2: Formalization. Class works together to take notes and structure the discoveries just encountered. Examples given. 
  • Day 3: Practice. Students work on practice problems to become better acquainted with the material.
  • Day 4: Review / more practice.
  • Day 5: Quiz. 
Here's what I would prefer:

  • Day 1: Investigation. Some student centered activity in the vein of "organized play" in which students can discover the upcoming relationships without knowing what's coming.
  • Day 2: Formalization. Class works together to take notes and structure the discoveries just encountered. Examples given. 
  • HW assigned on Day 2, due on Day 3
  • Day 3: Quiz
The issue is that students won't do HW because they're either incapable or simply refuse to work independently. If they come across a problem with a solution that is not immediately apparent, they will do nothing until I guide them to an answer via a step by step procedure. 

If they won't work at home, I have to give them time in class to work. But there are 35 of them in class, so if I can't get to each and every one of them in class, they still won't work. Which means I need to give more time on the 2nd day to make sure everyone gets something done. This means there is often little or no time to actually go over the practice, which in turn creates a mentality of "the teacher never showed me how to do every problem and never gave me the answer to every problem, therefore I cannot be held accountable for demonstrating understanding on the quiz."

I honestly have a non-insignificant number of students who posses this mentality and will simply refuse to take quizzes in protest. 

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