Week Seven: More students asking “Are we going to the lab today?” “Why don’t we just do Khan Academy every day?”
I allowed students to do an extra credit assignment by completing two exercises from home. Out of 116 students, 29 did the assignment. I allowed EVERYONE the opportunity, even those without internet at home. I arranged times for those students to complete the work from school. I’m still not sure why more students are not taking advantage of the system.
I allowed students to do an extra credit assignment by completing two exercises from home. Out of 116 students, 29 did the assignment. I allowed EVERYONE the opportunity, even those without internet at home. I arranged times for those students to complete the work from school. I’m still not sure why more students are not taking advantage of the system.
Week Eight: I showed the students a video of Sal Khan, the video from Ted Talk. I don’t know why I haven’t shown them this before. I should also be incorporating his instructional videos more often to encourage my students to view them from home.
I’ve begun assigning exercises for extra credit to be done from home. I’m allowing students without a computer and/or internet at home to come to my room to complete the exercise and earn the extra credit. First time, 29/116 students completed the extra credit. I hope this will be a good way to encourage students that need it, to do work from home in order to catch up. Second try at offering extra credit via KA, 32/116 students.
Good analogy to traditional math classroom setup… “teacher instructs for a week or two, assigning HW to check progress. At the end of the unit, teacher gives a test or exam…Some students score 100%, some 80%, some 60%.. teacher moves on. If that were the case in the real world, student drivers who score 80% on their driver test-what was the 20% they didn’t get? Was it left hand turns? Was it backing up a vehicle? Was it using their turn signal? Would we want that driver moving on if he/she hadn’t learned that 20%?” KA allows me to ensure all students master a specific skill or topic before they move on. I’m not doing that completely, but I know all students are becoming proficient in far more skills than they would without the use of KA. I honestly wonder if the number of skills students become proficient in would increase with more 1:1 computer lab time? I could probably teach class from inside a computer lab.
I’ve begun assigning exercises for extra credit to be done from home. I’m allowing students without a computer and/or internet at home to come to my room to complete the exercise and earn the extra credit. First time, 29/116 students completed the extra credit. I hope this will be a good way to encourage students that need it, to do work from home in order to catch up. Second try at offering extra credit via KA, 32/116 students.
Good analogy to traditional math classroom setup… “teacher instructs for a week or two, assigning HW to check progress. At the end of the unit, teacher gives a test or exam…Some students score 100%, some 80%, some 60%.. teacher moves on. If that were the case in the real world, student drivers who score 80% on their driver test-what was the 20% they didn’t get? Was it left hand turns? Was it backing up a vehicle? Was it using their turn signal? Would we want that driver moving on if he/she hadn’t learned that 20%?” KA allows me to ensure all students master a specific skill or topic before they move on. I’m not doing that completely, but I know all students are becoming proficient in far more skills than they would without the use of KA. I honestly wonder if the number of skills students become proficient in would increase with more 1:1 computer lab time? I could probably teach class from inside a computer lab.
New Entry 12/4/12: I’ve started reading Sal’s book The One World School House and am getting some motivation to try something new next year. I would like to design my curriculum with mastery of the content being the primary focus. My goal is to determine which set of skills need to be completed by the end of each grading period, and then determine how I can assign grades based on students’ progress. Basically I would be removing the “traditional” homework I assign this year, and replacing it with more time and focus on completing exercises in Khan Academy. Additionally, I believe I would gain class time to emphasize higher ordered thinking skills such as application, real-world problem solving, etc. Because equal opportunity to use Khan Academy does not exist in each of my students’ home, this curriculum change would require that I have a classroom set of devices with internet access. With a classroom set, I could allow my students sufficient time to master the set of skills by end of each grading period. One snag in the system: Student A progresses at a rate that earns him a 75% C for grading period 1 (approx. ¾ of the skills were mastered). That same student then gets on board and completes more skills during the second grading period, but is still far short of the stated “pace” of skills mastered by end of second grading period. What grade does that student earn?
The answer to this riddle, I believe is a combination of grades based on Khan Academy progress, and paper pencil traditional tests that provide students an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery. The next obstacle, then remains with those students who do not keep adequate pace in Khan Academy for one 9 week grading period, but then proportionately do keep up to pace during the 2nd 9 week grading period. If that student has still not met the required number of skills by end of 2nd 9 week grading period, what grade does that student earn?
Assign KA grade based on number of skills completed, but pro-rate every individual student after 1st 9 week grading period. Give them a new goal, etc. This would require a new goal and essentially, and IEP for each student after 1st 9 weeks.
I’m looking into donorschoose.org to submit request for laptops or tablet devices that run KA.
The answer to this riddle, I believe is a combination of grades based on Khan Academy progress, and paper pencil traditional tests that provide students an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery. The next obstacle, then remains with those students who do not keep adequate pace in Khan Academy for one 9 week grading period, but then proportionately do keep up to pace during the 2nd 9 week grading period. If that student has still not met the required number of skills by end of 2nd 9 week grading period, what grade does that student earn?
Assign KA grade based on number of skills completed, but pro-rate every individual student after 1st 9 week grading period. Give them a new goal, etc. This would require a new goal and essentially, and IEP for each student after 1st 9 weeks.
I’m looking into donorschoose.org to submit request for laptops or tablet devices that run KA.
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