Improving student learning

It is the middle of summer. Temperatures are in the 90s and 100s. And here I am writing about my AP Statistics course.

This fall, I will embark on my third year teaching AP Statistics. I have not been generally pleased with the learning of my students in the first two years. A very low percentage of my students have passed the AP exam. I do not blame myself too much for these scores. My students thus far have not been terribly dedicated to this course. Senioritis interferes significantly.

But, there were some students that I think worked hard enough to get a three on the exam and fell short. I do think I provided ample opportunity for these students to succeed. I believe they had meaningful learning experiences that could have prepared them well for the exam.

I want better for them. I want to improve my course. Not just to improve AP scores. But to up the interest in the material and the course. I believe if students find the course more interesting, their learning will improve. I also want to make the material easier to access.

My first move is to start the year off with data gathering unit that will culminate in a questionnaire project. Working in pairs, students will design a questionnaire to gather data on an issue of their choice (such as abortion, immigration controls, the legalization of marijuana, etc.). The questionnaires will be distributed to the students and teachers at our school and the data we collect will be used throughout the year.

My second move is to increase the number of projects. Last year, there were four projects. The other main assessment I used was free response questions. So, this year, I am hoping to do six projects and reduce the number of free response questions.

I have been teaching a non-AP statistics course for many years now. That course has always been project-based. So, I have plenty of experience from which to draw. I am hopeful that project work will lead to deeper understanding.

Of course, today, one of our administrators wrote in an email to me that she hopes AP classes will be gone from our school in one or two years. That was a bit demotivating, but I owe it to my students to make the course better. Hopefully, that will be motivation enough.

A New Beginning

Last year, I started this blog as a way to journal about my experience as a first-year AP Statistics teacher. I wanted to share my experiences to help me reflect on my practices and to hopefully initiate some discussions with whomever read my blog and dared to comment. I knew that there would be other teachers out there in a similar position as I and that my posts might help them think through their own situations. I also hope experienced statistics teachers might stumble onto my blog and provide insights. In the end, the blog mostly served the first purpose, and that was fine. But, then I lost my drive to blog and I posted less regularly and then stopped altogether.

Now I begin again. I want to continue my professional development and I think blogging will be a terrific means to do that. Maybe some discussion will ensue.

Last year, I was anxious about getting through all of the material in time for the exam. To my amazement, I succeeded. Not only did my students cover every topic on the AP Statistics syllabus, but we still had two weeks to review before the exam.

However, in reflection, I do not feel my students were served best by zooming through the material. A few of them did tell me that they liked that we covered all the material (and finished the entire book). But depth of understanding was sacrificed for breadth and I hated that.

The students' results on the exam also suggested that some changes needed to be made. The students took a mock AP exam as their spring final exam two weeks before the actual AP exam. Based on their performance on that exam and based on their work all year long, I had expected them to score a bit higher. But, when I think about how hard they worked, and how some of them did not work too hard, I wasn't altogether surprised. Those who did the best had the best work ethic. Those who succumbed to senioritis largely did not pass.

This year, one change I am planning is to not worry about covering every single topic on the syllabus. I teach at an independent school (polite speak for private school) and we have only around 140 teaching days, I think, before the exam. My plan is cover 80-90% of the material, but to go into greater depth. The instructions on the AP exam itself state that they do not expect students to know everything. My class looked at scoring and were surprised to learn that you could get 50% of the multiple choice items wrong and still have a very good chance of scoring a 4 or 5.

Another change is that I am not going to give them very many multiple choice assessments. Last year, I gave the students 10 multiple choice items on every test and they had about 11 tests. And then they had 40 more multiple choice items on the mock exam. But I don't think one needs to practice multiple choice tests. Certainly not to the extent that I did last year. And I detest multiple choice items. So, I plan to give them the 40 problems on the mock exam and then maybe two other multiple choice assessments. That's it.

A third change is that I am going to incorporate more project work this year. When I have taught non-AP Statistics, I have always taught it purely project-based as I feel this is the best way to learn the material and the best way for me to evaluate their understanding. It feels more authentic and it removes test anxiety and the time constraints of tests. I will likely write an entire post on projects later.

But now, I must rest.

Thanks for reading.

The search for a grade

The first semester at my school ends tomorrow. We do not have semester exams. Some AP teachers at my school give an exam in the evening. I chose not to. I think the main reason my colleagues opt to give an exam is to give the students the experience of sitting through an extended test in order to prepare them for the exam in May.

I am confident that all of  my students have sat a 3-hour exam once before. All but one were students at my school last spring, and they sat final exams at that time.  Therefore, I don't feel the need to give them a long test.

I do want them to be frequently reviewing and revisiting previous topics. So, I am giving them three Free Response Questions that cover the first four chapters. But, those three questions will not combine to form some large percentage of their semester average.

After today, my students will have been graded on 13 free response questions. Two of them were of the Investigative Task variety (that is, Free Response Question #6 from past exams). The others were either taken directly from past exams or were in that style. I am dropping their lowest two scores.

My assessments in AP Statistics this semester have mostly been a departure from how I have evolved otherwise. I have another (dormant) blog regarding my thoughts on assessments and evaluation. My tenth grade integrated mathematics course has zero period-long tests. I have given homework quizzes. But, in that class, grades are largely calculated from projects and presentations. I believe these forms of assessment give me the best indication of what a student can do and knows.

My AP Statistics have completed two projects this semester and they account for a large portion of their grade. I think the projects have given the students a worthwhile opportunity to engage meaningfully with the course topics and skills in a way that will prepare them for the exam. But, I think they also help the students see the utility and relevance of the topics beyond the AP exam. And, I think they provide me with a much better insight into what the students really understand and their abilities to apply the methods they have been studying.

I dislike multiple choice items a lot. (I wrote about this dislike in this blog here and here.) I do not think they are fair nor do I think they tell me much about what a student understands. Perhaps, in a 40-item multiple choice exam, they give a better picture. The larger number of items reduces the chance that a score is based largely on lucky guesses and increases its probability of being due to a student's understanding.

The free response questions are better, but still contrived as they must fit into an arbitrary allotted amount of time and they are written in a way that takes much of the decision-making away from the student.

I do wonder if I could teach a project-based AP Statistics class and still prepare my students for the big, bad AP exam. Seems possible. I guess I have my goal for next year's course.

Anybody have experience teaching AP Statistics as a project-based course? I would love to read about your experiences, recommendations, ideas, and thoughts.

Projections and Senioritis

I had hoped to write weekly. I did that for nine weeks. Then, I lost momentum. I'm not sure why, but I expect it's not all that uncommon for new teaching blogs. You start out with a lot of enthusiasm, some good ideas to write about, and you're not too overloaded with work. Then steam runs out, work piles up, and ideas don't seem so fresh.

Tuesday is my blogging day. It says so on my calendar. I even have my calendar send me a nice email to remind me of that. Here it is Wednesday and I have not written a blog post since November 3. A month. And so, even though I am writing this without much of an idea of what I will write, I push the keys on my laptop hoping something worthwhile will end up coming out of this post.

My blogging statistics show that my posts gets anywhere from 12 to 26 views. I am sure that pales in comparison to many blogs, but I am honored that 12 to 26 people were taking their time to read my ramblings each week. I'm guessing my view count for this post will be lower because of my month off.

To be fair, I was out of town for a week in the middle of November, and then there was Thanksgiving. But, ideally, I would have written those weeks, too.

I have eleven more teaching days. AP Statistics will drop two of those days, so I have only nine more class meetings in 2015.

From where I sit, things have gone quite well this semester. Certainly, there is room for improvement, but I am pleased overall. We have covered about 40% of the AP Statistics curriculum. I made some projections based on the tests they have taken thus far and they are all on track for a three or better. Of my nine students, three of them currently project to a five, which certainly feels good to write.

Second semester will present new challenges. Seven of my nine are seniors. I would guess at least two of them will come down with a bad case of senioritis. That doesn't really bother me. I have been teaching seniors long enough to anticipate this and not take it personally. What concerns me is the potential negative impact they could have on the class as a whole.

For my non-AP Statistics class, I designed the second semester with the second semester senior in mind. I kept the workload light and we played blackjack, played craps, read the book "How to Lie with Statistics", and each student sold a product employing the artful use of statistics.

This year I have an AP Statistics class. Particularly since this is my first year teaching this course, I do not feel I can do the same projects. I expect the second semester workload will mirror the first semester, making senioritis a greater concern for me.

I will do what I can to fend it off. I will try to keep my energy up and do my best to incorporate several engaging activities that simultaneously teach the concepts and keep the interest of the students. But, ultimately, it is not me who will be taking an AP exam in May. The students will have to decide for themselves how hard they want to work and how important that three-hour exam is to them.

PS - If anybody can help me learn how to follow a Twitter StatsChat, I would greatly appreciate it. I have not yet figured that out.

Choose your own adventure

When I was young, I got hooked on the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. As the reader, I got to make choices and the plot progressed based on those choices.

As a new AP Statistics teacher, I am trying my best to prepare my students so that they have the chance to reach whatever AP score they find desirable. For the first four weeks, I set a quick pace and assigned a good amount of homework to complement the work done in class. For many, the amount of work proved to be untenable. In response, I started making some of the textbook exercises optional. I explained to the students that by doing the required homework, I believed they were still being sufficiently prepared to earn at least a 3 or even a 4 on the AP exam. The optional exercises would be more important for those who seek the 5.

I have a variety of students in my class. One boy seems in over his head and a 3 will be a great accomplishment. A few students are very ambitious and will likely try for that 5.

And so, I give my students the chance to Choose Their Own Adventure. They can choose to go the easier route, maybe not be prepared for a 5, but still have sufficient preparation to pass the exam. Or, they can select the more demanding option and give themselves a greater chance at a 5. I wonder how many will take the second adventure...