Day 12: Reflecting on Quizzes

Quote of the Day: “Punishment is for the punisher’s benefit, to make him or her feel better. Discipline always has the other person’s best interest in mind.” - Helen Williams

Question of the Day: Any questions that the students had on the quiz. Especially where to find a repeating decimal on a number line.

Lesson Objective: Discover what numbers can be perfect squares

Lesson Sequence:

1. QSSQ
2. I passed out manilla folders, quiz self-assessment sheets, and yesterdays quizzes to all students. The manilla folders are used to store the students self-assessment checklists all year. That makes it easy for me to determine where students need to be retaught and retested (not always in that order).  
3. The students discussed the quizzes in groups. 
4. I passed out a paper copy of the weekly quiz and reviewed for students the expectations of it. 
5. I gave students 40 tiles that were cut out to be about 1 inch by 1 inch. This was the sheet that they used to discuss square roots in their groups. At some point between questions 6 and 8, we crossed into the lesson objective. One particular class had a great discussion about the fact that it was possible to find two of the exact same numbers to get an area of 40 for a square. 

Glass Half-Full: The glass-half full could fit for both classes. Having students discuss their quizzes the day after it is graded is something that I have never tried before. In the past I would just stand and deliver as students either asked me questions or I would simply generate a list of problems to review based on grading the papers the night before. I was afraid to let students review in groups because I did not want them to feel insecure or embarrassed if they did not do as well. To help alleviate that concern, I left the grades off the top of the papers. Students were forced to calculate their own grades based on how many questions were right and wrong. In essence it took the focus away from a number that would seem arbitrary to them and put the focus on where they were short in their learning.

In reality as I told the students, despite all of my pleas to have the students keep their grades private after quizzes and tests throughout my teaching career, I was still often ignored. Some students would just shout out "I knew I failed" or "I got a 100!" Other students would ask the people around them "Whadya get?" and before I could condone them the answer had already been given. And still others would simply peak to their left or right and easily make out the red X's. Today, I told students to let me know if they were uncomfortable having their peers know how many questions they got wrong. So far I have not heard anything negative about the process from anyone.

All in all, I think this process of reviewing a quiz was much more productive than in the past with standing and delivering. I was able to circumvent the room and confront the difficulties of students that might tune me out if I was speaking to the larger audience. These students also asked me follow up questions one on one where in the larger group they would simply nod their head out of fear for being in the spotlight. The students who were doing the teaching were of course gaining a deeper understanding having to explain to classmates who might be probing with more why questions than they might otherwise receive. And they also were more engaged than they would be if I was simply re-explaining something that they already understood.

Honors Objective: Analyze the value of two different variables in relation to their absolute value given that one number is negative and one is positive

Honors Lesson Sequence: Same as above with the exception of the fifth item on the agenda. This was changed to a task from the Big Ideas book. Students worked in groups determining what happened with negative signs outside and/or inside of absolute value brackets as well as changing inequality symbols to determine sometimes, always, and never as well what set of integers proved the inequality true.

Regrets: This goes with both classes (as does the glass half-full outlook). I wanted students to reflect on how they did with their quizzes as it related to their action steps leading up to it. Here is a summation of probably half of the responses I received:

These ones below were more in line with what I was hoping to get. They are honest. They are points that I can at least work with going forward. And in fairness, sometimes paying attention is enough to be more than effective. 

Finally these responses were more elaborate and specific. I like how the students named off the actual skills that were required of them, mentioned something along the lines of their learning style, and specific actions that were taken instead of just "study." The challenge for me of course is that some students do not know their learning style, have never been taught how to study, and if they did not do well on the quiz why would they know what topics were covered? Theses responses were few and far between, but serve as good exemplars to show the rest of the student body in terms of how reflective I want them to be and more importantly what type of students I want them to become.