Do we really?

I am now in a position to write the test and he wants to include on it some of these type of problems: reading a meniscus on paper. But why? My idea is to have students one by one come back during the testing process and just actually, literally, physically read a graduated cylinder of my choice.

 This allows differentiation by choosing the graduate cylinder (10 vs 50 vs 100) and a variety of scaffolding techniques provided in class. The task is authentic, and easily graded. While students are switching I will simply read the g.c. and check their results.

 The handout has the multiple copy fade going which makes it actually physically difficult to read. The task is about as inauthentic as you can get. This might be something that prepares students for using the equipment but why the hell would this be what they are tested on. The performance task should be more concerned with students reading an actual graduated cylinder. I can see practicing a few in class before seeing the actual equipment, maybe.

 “We have a 10-ml graduate cylinder” No we do not. We have a representation of a 10-ml. We have a small small snapshot. 

A volume of difference

The student answered 450g for a reading on a graduated cylinder between 60 & 70 mL. It is wrong on so many levels. I suppose considering water’s density is 1g/ml that the answer is slightly less ridiculous. The work is spot checked by a teacher walking around and seeing if it was done, and that is that. Why does this bother me so? The work does not seem meaningful in the sense that is not building towards something real or connected to something larger. Things that are done in isolation seem of little consequence. Imagine how many people one passes by every day without any consequence (although I hear they show up in dreams). That is the equivalent of some homework I have seen in my content. It is costly; each student has their own “consumable” textbook.
 
Feedback seems essential as we are learning in Understanding by Design / Differentiated Instruction. Students, however, are not trained to receive this feedback. Most feedback I see (and I give) is guided by the rubric. Since not having units is half a point for each answer on the lab, that is a lot of what feedback is during the lab. “Make sure to put your units!” And yes, those are important. But what is important was pre-determined by the rubric!

Simple

How powerful would it be to use the same common example and refer back to it. This might look like a guiding question. But what about just using the same lab? Using the same lab, perhaps even doing the same lab multiple times while looking for different things as way to have an anchor point to refer back to easily. Choosing those anchor points, or a focus direction for the whole quarter, a common example, a guiding picture seems particularly powerful. 

So this one student...

Today was the day I let the hammer fall. Well, that is what it felt like. I gave a student detention today (gasp). It was my first time. I received feedback that my classroom management need some strength. I felt I was channelling the firmness of Shawshank Redemption and the justice of The Merchant of Venice. That is what it felt like at least.

I breathed deep and stated the punishment. And it felt odd, pronouncing judgement. Dealing out these statements that will forever change their....lunch period. Perhaps their life, but we will see. Class moved on, the student came in at lunch, and it was all a matter of course.

The student took it as a matter of course. There was no downcast eyes. There was no grumbling. Class policy states a student gets a warning then next offense, slap down. Detention (a.k.a. after eating at lunch, cleaning a few desks).

Rarely did I receive punishment as a student, most likely due to my obsequious attitude. The students that I punish are regularly punished I imagine. This punishment would have shocked me as a student, however, I wonder if this is what has characterized this particular student's school career?

Vertical Horizons

The idea of connectivity, in a vertical and horizontal sense. Horizontal in this case meaning connection to other class work, to other students, to the teacher, to those things within the classroom. Vertical being connection to bigger or smaller ideas. Making connections outside of the class to related situations.

This was sparked by a situation in my classroom where students worked on “procedures” for a week with various activities, but the connections to bigger ideas and the connection to previous work was tenuous at best in my mind. Sure, as a teacher and scientist, I can see the importance of writing good procedures but do students? As a teacher I can see the flow of events from writing procedures of PB& J sandwiches, to writing procedures for legos, to writing procedures for a “helicopter” lab, do students? Is it enough that students are practicing skills?

This led to the idea of student work, and how it functions. How often does what a student does actually change what happens in the classroom? Perhaps more important, how often does it impact their future work. Sure, when it is part of the same assignment and connections are explicit, but how does a teacher incorporate student work?