Keeping Anecdotal Records for Students

Ok, I know it’s something I should do, but I don’t.  Not regularly, not as a habit, and to be honest, not in a way that I can really work with well afterwards.

Why not?  My main excuse would be time.  When one class finishes and I have another to teach coming straight into the room, when do I have a moment to make a note.  And where would I store it, and …..  It’d be easier if I only ever taught one class, but with 5 on the go it’s not something I’ve developed as a habit.

But I’m doing this MYP course and seeing that I really should be doing this.  So how?  Well, I think technology is the answer to my problem, but we have to think about this carefully.

I need something I can use to make very, very, very quick comments without it taking much thought on how I’m going to do this.   So, this is what I’m setting up.

Using ActiveWords, I can set up keyboard shortcuts I can use from anywhere in windows.  So I’ve created a text file for each of my students.  Then I’ve created a VBScript which records my input and appends it to the relevant text file.  Then I created an ActiveWord for each of my students, which runs the VBScript.

So, now, all I have to do, for example, is type David and hit the confirmation key (which is F8 at present but I think I may change to Space Space), wait half a second for the VB InputBox to pop up, type my comment (did amazingly well at solving today’s maths problems), hit enter, and my comment is appended to David.txt (with the date in front of it).

Cool.  And since I can do this in any window, I don’t have to worry about running the application or anything, I can just pop to my machine and in a second or two make a comment.  When I need the comments, I just read the textfile.

Ok, that’s what I’ve come up with so far.  There are a few things I’m not happy with, I’m going to list them in the hope that someone will help me find a solution.

1. ActiveWords appears to be able to work with a line of input, using <LAST LINE>, so theoretically I could work without the VB InputBox which slows things down, but I can’t work out how to pass the contents of <LAST LINE> to the clipboard, or alternatively how to pass it to the VBScript as an argument.
2. I’m having to write a VBScript for each and every single one of my students.  Fortunately I only have about 80, so it’s a hassle but is doable.  I’ve written an ActiveWord that creates a textfile with the appropriate name, but I have to run it for each student.  I’ve written another ActiveWord that uses the textfile name to create the appropriate VBScript.  So it’s a relatively smooth process, but timeconsuming.  I think I can set it up so I only have one ActiveWord that sets up everything for each student, so I’ll only have to run it 80 times (Woo!) but that’s the best I’ve come up with so far.

As it stands at present, there’s some time consuming setup but it works beautifully when it’s all done.  We’ll see how I get on with it after we get back to school.  I’m not sure, but I think ActiveWords works on some handhelds – if that’s so there’s real potential for this to be used in that way, together with a synchronization script.

I also think this could be an outstanding tool for teachers in general, but you have to be pretty tech-savvy to set it up.  It involves buying the ActiveWords software but honestly, I think it’s worth the $50.  I use it for so many other things too.  If there was some way to streamline the whole set up process, perhaps a GUI involving a few options (where do you want to save your files?  Where are your students names?) it would be incredibly powerful and I think very popular.  Maybe ActiveWords and VB aren’t the right way to achieve this, I’ve been reading a little about AutoHotkey and AutoIt and maybe they are more suitable, but I’m not going to put in the time (not at present anyway) to learning whether that is the case.

Catchup reflections for MYP course

Ok, been a bit of a hiatus while we finished school – too much to do and too tired.  But I’ve had a few days off so ready to catchup now.

Ok, 4th Module – Recording and reporting Assessment Data.

Ok, this is an area that’s a bit of an issue – I find this challenging, or at least the first part, recording.  I’m willing to admit I’m probably a bit limited in the strategies I use here.

I use tests for evaluation of criterion A, that’s generally the main tool, occasionally a quiz but that’s really just a variation of a test.  And I use written assignments which generally take up to 2 weeks to develop for evaluation of criteria B, C, and D.  I have used, and intend to be using again asap, blogs for developing criteria C & D, but I’ve not really done any proper evaluation on them before, though I’ve been seeing how I can do that now (We use moodle at school, it’s going to make the evaluation process a lot easier).

Obviously as a teacher I do lots of informal observation just wandering around the classroom, and I know who’s doing well and who is not, but I don’t keep records of it.  I occasionally make some notes, but not in an organised fashion.  My excuse is that it is time-consuming, and with one class after another when do I have a moment to make notes.  I tried doing this with a checklist rubric years ago, but I found I didn’t like wandering around the classroom with a clipboard.  But maybe this is something I need to look into.  It would be fun to use some sort of handheld for this, but I think I need to play with the idea a bit and see what I can come up with before wasting more money on a fancy toy I might end up not using.

Recording assessment data isn’t an issue – I’ve used Asylum’s Markbook program before which I love but I haven’t found it lends itself amazingly to best-fit MYP rubric based marking, though I’d love to be convinced otherwise.  So I use Excel now, which does just fine, and we have SERCO’s ePortal system at school into which we put that data which will appear on reports.

As for reporting, we do this two or three times a year per grade level, we hold parent conferences a couple of times a year.  Ideally these come just after a report has gone out.  ePortal also permits students to see their grades at any time, I believe, though how much that is being used at present I’m not sure.

So that’s what we’re up to at present at our school.  Be interesting to see what comes out of this module.

Subjective vs Objective Assessment

Question: Are you comfortable using subjective and intuitive assessment strategies – shouldn’t they all be objective and scientific if we are to be fair and transparent in our assessing?

Response

I think it depends on what you are trying to achieve.  I’m also not convinced that subjective means not fair and transparent.  I don’t treat all my students the same, but then they’re not the same.  I see ‘fair’ as meaning ‘reasonable and acceptable for that particular individual’.  Which means I expect more from some students than others, I expect different things from different students.  I can give one student a positive comment for participating with something useful in a discussion, whereas someone else might get a criticism for coming out with a comment like that because it isn’t up to the standards I expect from them.  I also make sure my students understand that, because I think they need to become more socially aware of each others strengths and weaknesses, and we’re not just talking about whether they’re any good at maths.

When working through a unit I think a lot of my assessment is probably subjective.  Who’s doing ok, who needs more help, who needs to come back at break time, who needs a break, who needs to work on their own, who’d benefit from a partner, who’d benefit from changing partners, who can be forgiven for not completing their homework, who needs to be made a real fuss of because they DID complete their homework?  A random question from a student generates an interesting discussion and leaves a few questions open, I want them to come up with responses for next lesson.  Their evaluation – observation of how they do and some personal one-to-one or in front of the class feedback, depending on whether they need a little private recognition or whether it’d really boost their self-esteem to be told ‘well done’ in front of their peers.

This is all very subjective focused mainly, I guess, on approaches to learning as well as content.  I’m trying to get them to focus on the task at hand, cope with the challenges involved, interact more with each other and the subject, as well as learn the concepts.  I’m trying to challenge them in little ways, so they push themselves, so they get pleasure from success.  I want them to make choices – to choose to work because they like the results.

Is this what we mean by subjective assessment?  I don’t generally write down any notes for this sort of thing, it just happens naturally.

I do think, though, that end of unit assessment does need to be objective – perhaps that’s my mathematical nature speaking there.  I’m quite happy using rubrics, but I like there to be clear descriptions of what’s expected.  There are standards to be achieved, and I’m not sure that a subjective assessment really provides the right info.  Having said that – I’ll usually try to have a chat with each student about their grade, especially if it is lower (or higher) than they are used to/expected, to review reasons why it came out that way and what they could do to improve next time, etc.  Does that count as subjective?

I am interested in using a wider range of formal assessments – at present it tends to be end of topic tests and investigative tasks taking 1-2 weeks.  I want to do journal/blog writing, I think there’s a lot of scope there.  I’m not big on using presentations to assess mathematics, generally because my experience is that the ideas the students have are never sufficiently complete – in fact they can end up confusing their classmates, which takes longer to fix later.  But I also have the feeling I’m mistaken in this, I just haven’t worked out how to do it properly.

I think what I REALLY want to develop right now is my students’ reflective skills – because I think if they develop these habits of looking back over what they’ve done they’ll make so many more connections and they’ll start learning faster.  At present it’s so slooooowwwwww, they’re not used to thinking for themselves (lots of reasons for that) so getting them to put two and two together sometimes takes longer than it should.

Why plan assessment in the initial stages of unit planning?

Fairly straightforward I should think – because if I know the tool I intend to use to assess my students learning, then I can ensure that I teach accordingly.  It is also often true that if we don’t plan this early on, we end up falling back on traditional activities that we are used to – a test, a simple project, but we may not experiment much with things.  A bit of forethought enables us to be sure of what skills we want our students to develop, and then we can make a conscious effort to ensure that those skills are taught.

It’s not about teaching to the test, that’s different I think. That’s more content focused, where they need to know certain things.  The MYP idea is more skills-driven.  I can always ensure I cover the necessary content, but if I’m focusing on skills development I need to think about it a bit beforehand.

Content & Context in teaching mathematics

The MYP requires that we teach combining content and context together, and our Unit Plans should be designed accordingly.  Thing is, I’m not convinced this is appropriate with mathematics.

Mathematics is, by its very nature, an abstract subject.  To think mathematically, one needs to be able to separate content from context and explore the logic and internal rules of a situation.  One of the real powers of mathematics is that it can be used to model situations, and that many different situations can be modelled in exactly the same way.  So if we link content strongly to context, we can lose sight of that power.  We root our work so strongly in one situation, one story as it were, and for some students, uprooting it and applying it elsewhere is hard!

Mathematical problems are solved when the internal logical structure has been satisfied, moving from the original situation to the final conclusion.  They don’t need any real world to fit into.  In fact much of mathematical development has nothing whatsoever to do with the real world.

Most mathematics that is around has not been found through people trying to solve real-world problems.  Far from it, in fact.  The great thing about mathematics is that you can decide what you want the initial conditions to be, and then you run with them and see what you end up with.  The conclusions are fascinating in their own right, it’s like saying ‘look, this is what I started with, and look what I can do with it!  Isn’t this cool!’  It’s like when your child runs up to you all excited about what they’ve built from a complicated mess involving a sheet, two pencils, a cardboard box, half a bucket of Lego and a Spiderman sticker.  It’s just cool ‘cos it’s cool.  No other reason required.

And later on, perhaps, people come up with useful things to do with the whacky stuff people think up.  But if everyone only focused on the real-world, we probably wouldn’t have the useful whacky stuff.

Many of our students have enough difficulty realising that the way they solved problem (a) can also be used to solve problem (b).  One of the best ways to become good at mathematics is to solve more problems.  The more we solve, the more we see the similarities and differences between the situations, and the more we learn to look at underlying structures rather than the nit-picky details of a problem.  They can be dealt with later, if need be.

So contextualising everything is, I think, questionable.  I appreciate the reasons why it is believed necessary to contextualise things – it is supposed to give them meaning, and thereby provide links in the learner’s mind that help with memory and understanding, but I think mathematics is different.

Mathematics isn’t as fact-heavy as many other subjects.  Yes, there is a lot of what is often described as content, but look at them closely and see that they are skills more than facts.  You don’t learn mathematics by remembering things, you learn by doing.  It is strongly based on procedural, not declarative, knowledge.

I could get lynched by my colleagues here, but I’m going to go ahead anyway.  The two most important academic subjects in school are mother tongue and mathematics.  Why do I say that?

Because development of a strong mother tongue is essential since it is through language that we communicate, which is a fundamental human skill.  How can we describe and understand complex ideas if we do not have a rich linguistic structure?

And it is through mathematics that we learn logic, we learn rational though, we learn procedure and problem-solving. From these ideas we can develop skills of critical thinking, data analysis, understanding of cause and effect.  You could almost say that mathematics provides the skeleton, the framework upon which our minds function.  We all know the frustration of speaking to someone who can’t follow an argument from start to finish, of someone who can’t see the obvious in front of them, of people who are so credible they believe what the papers tell them.  These are skills which are developed through mathematical study.

So I don’t want to give my students wrong ideas about mathematics.  I want my students to learn to love mathematics for its own self, for its own beauty.  The fascination of solving a challenge.  Those ‘Oh. Oh!  OH!  NOW I see!  But of course!  That’s easy!’ moments.  And I’m not convinced that’s done by focusing on the real-world.

Having said ALL that, I was having this discussion with a colleague who mentioned Foucalt, and how he argued that everything in mathematics does have a context if we look at what was going on at the time those ideas were being developed.  We need to consider the economic and political situations at the time which resulted in different research being funded.  My immediate reaction is to say that there may be some merit in that, but that a lot of school mathematics is ancient stuff which is far too basic to reach those levels at which that sort of research is taking place.  Maybe not – I mean sure, there’s a context for calculus, we can easily discuss the historical issues that drove its discovery.  But that’s upper-end of school stuff (outside the MYP in fact).  What do we we do for multiplication, basic number properties, degrees in a triangle, solving simple equations?

So maybe that’s what context would end up being – the history of mathematics (well, that’s just marvelous, I’ve been wanting to study that for YEARS!)

I would really, really, really appreciate contributions if anyone has anything to comment.  Am I completely mad?  Can anyone suggest good avenues of research that would help me contextualise the mathematics taught between the ages of 11-16 years of age?

Let me know what you think

How can blogging be useful for professional learning and/or for students?

Well, certainly taking the time to write something knowing that other people are potentially going to read it is a factor.  If I simply think about something on my own, maybe I don’t develop the ideas very much, but when writing or typing them I have to structure my thoughts more.  So there’s definitely some elements of how it can help my professional learning – by encouraging me to dedicate more time to thinking about what I’m learning and finding ways to clearly express it.  It’s just like being a student, except that I’m both the teacher and the student: you learn more about something the more you have to explain it to people.

As for students?  Well, a couple of years ago I had a blog going with a class I was teaching and it was amazing.  Sure, there were some teething problems at first with learning how to blog mathematical symbols, but that was a minor issue (for that class, anyway)  Over the course of the year it became an excellent tool, students really felt that it was having an effect on them, by having to review lessons carefully in order to explain them on the blog, then going over them in detail, they picked up on a lot.  Many said that although they hadn’t understood it the first time around, by the time they’d written about it everything became much clearer.

I remember using that same idea for my own studying at university.  My notes were a disaster.  Sure, I dated the pages, and they were relatively neatly written, but then they just ended up in a pile on my desk.  Admittedly, I didn’t really need to refer to them that much, the benefits of a good memory, but when it came to revision time at the end of the year, I had to do something.  I had a pile of papers about a foot high with notes from every course I’d been on.

I went to the university shop and bought several copies of their hardback notebooks.  A4, ruled pages, university logo on the front – nice books.  And then I rummaged through the pile of notes to find the first pages, and proceeded to transcribe them.  Carefully.  Titles, underlining things with a ruler, diagrams carefully done with a pencil, everything.  I may even have used a fountain pen, I can’t remember.  Thing is, I found that I couldn’t keep writing if I wasn’t understanding what I was writing.  So I’d have to stop, and track back until I could pick up the thread again, and work my way through things carefully until it all made sense again, and then I could continue.

It worked really well, and I’d recommend it to anyone.  A blog could be a modern day alternative for that sort of thing.  I’ve been wanting to start using blogs again for a while, it didn’t happen last year for technical reasons, but should be easier this year.  Problem is that access to technology in the classroom here is much more limited than where I was previously, meaning that it’s not such an easy thing to pull up the class blog and refer to things students have done.  Will it truly come to life if we can’t bring it into the classroom easily?

I don’t know.  I’m almost ready to start them up though, need to pick a suitable class and go with it.  I’m trying to decide whether to use them as journals – we’re using Moodle, so each student could have their own personal blog, or we could have a course blog where a different student each day records the lesson.  Considering some of the issues with inattention on behalf of certain individuals, I think this could be QUITE interesting.

And in terms of developing their communication and reflective skills that are fundamental aspects of MYP evaluation, I think blogging could be an ideal tool.  I’m not sure I would formally evaluate their writing, but certainly give constructive feedback, I’d also like to encourage students to respond to each others comments.  Dave Wees, who I worked with before when I had the blogging class, has something like this going with his students here.  This is the sort of thing I’d like to get my students doing, I think they get so much out of it, and I think it could be very powerful in terms of improving their self-motivation and enjoyment of the subject.

Actually, as I’m thinking here (faster than I can type, unfortunately) I can see real benefits for students.  So many have weak study skills, and do little to nothing in terms of reflection outside the classroom.  So a blog which is public (within a certain environment) and which is expected and commented on could work really well in developing a habit of review and reflection.  I’ve really got to get going with this!

Task IM1 – Workshop aims and outcomes

• Which outcomes will bring me the greatest professional learning about MYP?

Well, the 5 modules are:

• Module 1 - The MYP model of assessment
• Module 2 - Creating a five year assessment framework
• Module 3 - Assessing student performance
• Module 4 - Recording and reporting assessment data
• Module 5 - Organizing for effective assessment

Well, I’m not really sure which one I’ll get the most out of.  I’ve alrady been working with the MYP for 3 years and although I’ve not been on any courses about it, I’ve picked up quite a lot over that time.  Plus it speaks to me very closely in what I consider good education anyway, so it fits me nicely.

I’ve already been part of a process of creating assessment frameworks, but I haven’t lead the process and it’s something I need to work with right now, so I’m hoping to get a lot from that one.   Number 3 is a doozy – it’s always easy in maths to fall back on traditional assessments such as tests and investigations (how traditional are they?) but I know I (we) are (often) not very good at using a wider range of assessment tools.  I’d like to really get to grips discussing (arguing) merits of different tools from a very subject specific point of view – I mean, I know presentations can be a great tool, but how useful are they in mathematics and should they be used for the formal assessment process, or just as formative assessment throughout the term/semester?  For example – and there’s many more.

I think maybe that overlaps somewhat with module 4, so there’s plenty to be going on with there.  I guess I really feel I’ll be getting plenty from each of the modules.

• Are there any other outcomes that I specifically need to focus on to help me with my own context?

Erm….. all of them?  Yeah, I reckon.  That sounds about right.  They are all areas I’m particularly interested in right now.

MYP Course

Well, I was given the chance to take an MYP online course and considering that

1. I’ve never been on an MYP course, and
2. It looked interesting,

I took up the offer.

They suggest keeping a blog with reflections etc, and considering I’ve already got this one I thought yeah, why not.  Much more fun than writing everything down, and maybe people reading this will feel like adding comments as we go along.  If not, well it’s a record for me I can look back on as I wish.