Halfway there... a self-evaluation

My greatest concern going into this school year was to effectively teach AP Statistics. Though I have been teaching statistics for ten years, I had never taught AP before and I was worried about pacing and the quality of the lessons and assignments. I was worried about sacrificing pedagogical beliefs for the sake of getting through the syllabus in time and preparing students for the format of the test.

The course is going better than I had hoped. I greatly value projects in lieu of tests. Whereas a test is completed in a set amount of time, contains closed questions, and is done individually, a project is done over a number of days where students can choose how much time to spend on it, is more open-ended, and is done in a group of 2-4 students. Tests have very little value in helping students improve on their knowledge and are limited in their ability how much information they provide regarding what a student knows. Projects can help a student to better understand material and are provide richer information about what a student can or cannot do. My non-AP Statistics course was always completely project-based. I wanted to carry over as much as I could from the non-AP course into my AP course, but I feared the pace would make this difficult. I was optimistic that I could incorporate two projects this year. Happily, the students were able to complete two projects in the first semester alone. I now expect them to complete two more in the second semester at least.

The pace has been fine. While I am going faster than I ever did in my non-AP course, the pace has not been so fast that students are being left behind. The faster pace requires students to be more self-motivated, but, maybe because it carries the AP designation, students have been up to the challenge. Also, I have been able to adjust the pace at times based on feedback from my students. I had concerns that there would not be enough flexibility to adjust the pace mid-semester. But there proved to be more flexibility than I had anticipated.

Back in August, I started this blog regarding my teaching of AP Statistics. I am happy with how blogging has gone. This makes post number fourteen. Though my audience is quite limited, people have been at least clicking on the blog links I share on Twitter. One Twitter user even added one of my blog posts to the Math Education Daily and that particular post had a lot more page clicks. Blogging has allowed me frequent opportunities to reflect on my teaching and that alone has helped me to design a better course. It has provided little so far in professional discourse. I hope to get back to blogging weekly and I hope that my regularity can increase the chances of future discussions about my posts. I have engaged in a couple Twitter discussions with other math teachers. I would like to do more of that going forward.

[Regarding Twitter, I very much want to participate in Twitter Stats Chat. This is definitely a goal of mine. I have yet to figure out how to do that. I know the hashtag (#statschat) and I know that it starts at 6 pm (Pacific Time) on Tuesdays. I have TweetDeck set up for #statschat. But I never see a bunch of posts starting at the specified time in my feed. Grumble.]

In looking over the various assessments I have designed for my AP Statistics students, I am very pleased with the progress they are making. The projects and tests show that they are learning the material at an acceptable rate. Predictably, the multiple choice items have been the least helpful. I do not like such test questions. I have felt compelled to include ten with each chapter test so as to better prepare the students for the AP exam which will contain forty multiple choice questions. However, I am questioning how much practice students really need with such types of questions. This re-evaluation has partly been fueled by Jo Boaler’s book, Mathematical Mindsets, which I am almost done reading. In the book, Dr. Boaler presents research that affirms my views that students do not need practice for standardized tests. Rather, students can actually perform better on standardized tests if they have learned to be confident mathematical problem solvers. For the next chapter test, I have included ten multiple choice questions. But, I have made one adjustment that was suggested by a Twitter user: students can designate a first-choice answer and a second-choice answer. A correct first-choice answer earns two points while a second-choice answer earns one point. However, I think I will include more short answer questions and fewer multiple choice questions on future tests.

The Weekly Menu

This semester, I have started serving something new in AP Statistics: the Weekly Menu. (Click here to see the Weekly Menu for this week.)

After each class meeting, the Chefs du Jour are expected to add one note taken from class. That note can be anything the student thinks is useful or important to remember. Other students in the class can see the notes posted by their classmates and add to them or even edit them. The Topics du Jour and the SMART Board notes for the day are also posted.

One goal of the Weekly Menu is to get students more invested and active in their learning. I am currently reading Jo Boaler’s book, Mathematical Mindsets, and it inspired me to be more intentional in trying to develop student self-awareness and responsibility. Dr. Boaler outlines Assessment for Learning (page 149 of this book) which “teaches students responsibility for their own learning.” I hope that by assigning some responsibility to students to fill in the document, they will take greater ownership of the course. There is also a level of peer accountability since all students will see what the Chefs have or have not added to the document.

Another goal of the Weekly Menu is to provide students the opportunity to reflect more often on what has been covered in class and what they should be learning.

Additionally, I am hopeful the Weekly Menu will serve as a good review tool. They can use it to review for tests and even for the final exam and AP exam. We will also use it to review what we did the previous day and use it to transition to the next topic.

Students can also use the Weekly Menu as another way to see what is coming up that week. And, if they miss class, the Weekly Menu can get an idea of what happened in class that day.

So far, the feedback I have gotten from students has been somewhat positive. We are only on the second week, so it is still in its infancy. Colleagues of mine like the idea, but ultimately it is meant to be a tool to help students, so it is their opinion that I will value most.

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.

Trying to keep things fresh

Once upon a time, when I was a young, inexperienced teacher, the same-old-same-old was perfectly acceptable to me. Each day was much like the day before. The students learned and we moved forward at a reasonable pace and I was content.

Many grey hairs and many incarnations later, I am far from content. The same-old-same-old is boring. For both me and my students. It does not promote deep learning and it makes for less interesting teaching.

But, the world of AP Statistics sure does lend itself to routine. There is a wealth of material to cover and efficiency is necessary to get through all of it in time. So, many days in my classroom, I find one day feeling an awful lot like another and I see that glazed look in the students' eyes. As I wrote previously, the honeymoon is over and the students understand that they must grind.

But, that doesn't mean I have to give up. No, I won't do that. I am too hard-headed to give up and my expectations for myself would never allow it. Now that I have a better way to teach, I am not going to give it up. So, I constantly search for something new, something different.

As we have been going through the material, there do seem to be multiple processes that one ought to follow when answering certain kinds of AP exam free response questions. Want to compare two groups of a single quantitative variable? Don't forget your SOCS (shape, outliers, center, spread). Have a problem involving the Normal Model? There's a four-step process for that. Want to analyze a scatterplot? There are four characteristics to consider. Need to judge the quality of an experiment design? Be sure to consider the Three Principles.

Memorization is not something I like trying to teach. Yet, to be an efficient test-taker, there are advantages to having such processes down pat. To freshen up the class and at the same time help students remember these processes, I had them create posters. We will hang these posters in the class and they will serve as reminders of topics past. The students clearly enjoyed creating the posters. And I know that an enjoyable learning experience is one that is remembered. Memorization? Check.

Pictures of posters to follow...

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...

Honeymoon's over

Today, there was a palpable difference in the attitudes of my students. The mystery and wonder of just what AP Statistics is has worn off. College application deadlines are no longer small specks off in the distance. Summer is now a long time ago. The senior fall outdoor trip is a fading memory. We are six weeks into the new school year and the word "new" no longer applies as a modifier for "school year".

Here we are. Here we go.

The students by now should fully understand the expectations and demands of this course. As they juggle the many demands on their time, they are likely finding it a bit harder to give as much attention as they might want on certain subjects, such as AP Statistics.

I do not think their dedication has flagged, but I think the flood of work that comes in the first semester of the senior (or, in a few cases, junior) year is wearing them down. So while they still aspire to certain outcomes, their energy is lower.

A few did not have their homework complete today. This even after I made a conscious effort to lighten the load. The spark was not quite as bright today in class, the attention not as sharp.

In reflecting on my use of class time, I know that I have kept it varied. They just completed a group project. This was an assessment that had a very different feel from the tests. They found their own data and used technology (StatKey and Google Spreadsheets in addition to their graphing calculators) to analyze their data. Then they wrote meaningful conclusions based on their statistics and displays. I have already evaluated their work and returned it. And, because I want them to produce the best possible work they can, I have given them the opportunity to improve on their work and re-submit it for a potentially better grade.

So, I am not taking the change in mood personally; I am not taking it as a repudiation of my teaching or of the course. No, I think it's just the normal rhythm of the senior year. At least for the near future, it will be an extra challenge for the students. Can they grind through it until the mood brightens?

Fortunately, for students and teachers alike, our two-day Fall Break is this weekend. Timing is everything.