Constantly Modifying

Thanks to Tyler, I have a name for my choice activity. The Choice Grid. I love this concept but it needs some modifying for sure. Thanks to the PD challenge at school I’ve been learning tons about Flip Grid and EdPuzzle. (Which in fairness, don’t have titles that truly encapsulate what these are, in my opinion.) However, both of these are amazing instructional tools with some small tweaks.

OK. So Choice Grid Pros & Cons:

Pros: I love the element of choice, one on one help I can give students, and how the class runs itself with very little problem behaviors. Students are mostly engaged.

Cons: I think the 4 X 4 Grid is too much and the type of evidence I’m collecting isn’t there. This could be that I’m revealing the holes in students learning. One column is supposed to be a review of skills but that doesn’t mean the students actually learned it. Also, perhaps it is the weekly.

Implementation Failure: I did not spend the time to teach my students how to submit their evidence or set up that expectation. That seems to be one problem we’re having here.

Ultimately, I have to ask myself what needs to be changed. What would make this more powerful? We know that student voice and choice makes a difference in the classroom. The intention of this choice grid was an avenue to offer that. However, it is falling short. It is still operating as a “replacement” to the classroom and not an enhancement.

Modification Ideas

So this PD Challenge at my school introduced me to Ed Puzzle. (Check it out… This is my referral link to earn me some more storage space. Join Ed Puzzle ) EdPuzzle has nothing to do with puzzles. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little bit disappointed by this. However, it is an awesome tool to enhance using videos in the classroom and is focused on helping teachers with this idea of a “Flipped Classroom”. I have struggled with the flipped classroom because Khan Academy has been my go to source for videos for students to watch. However, students are much more clever than we give them credit for. They find ways to run the videos in the background and move on without actually paying attention.. [Let’s be real… we sometimes do this as adults.] Ed Puzzle forces students to answer questions and take pauses in the process.

Here’s plan #1 – Keep the choice grid for assignments and tasks. However, instead of putting four standards in the choice grid… Maybe I do one or two related standards but differing assignments. Perhaps change from a 4×4 to a 3×3 and do a tic tac toe concept. Maybe one Khan Academy, One Desmos, One task.

Plan #2: Student’s gaps in understanding are real and are starting to show. Instead of doing an entire grid of “assignments”… Use EdPuzzle to supplement learning videos. The hardest part of using videos has been teaching students how to use them.

Official Plan:

Start by making the assignment more of a tic-tac-toe board. Smaller. More manageable. Easier to feel accomplished. This will provide a feeling of completion and success. Also known as a “quick win”. Students must make three in a row in order to complete the assignment.

Next – watch the videos in class to supplement learning. This is about teaching students how to watch a video for learning. They don’t always get the information out of lecture when doing notes. They don’t know how to pull information out of a video. Teach them. Use EdPuzzle to implement natural spots in the video to help students understand when they should be taking some sort of note. Use the quizzes to make sure they’re actually processing the video along the way.

New Goal

S: Specific – I will create a “Tic Tac Toe” board and find/create accompanying videos through Ed Puzzle for Monday 4/15/18.

M: Measurable – I will measure this goal by whether this is done by the date. I will also be able to anecdotally measure the engagement in class. I will also be able to collect information on student progress through the document.

A: Attainable & R: Reasonable — This may be lofty to do by Monday based on the other things on my to-do list. However, I think it’s doable.

T: Timely. Monday is going to be here before I know it.