The first step in thinking about how to provide students with frequent feedback is having students identify their learning targets. Not just the goals for the unit or year, but also the daily or weekly targets that are going to get them there. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m training for a half-marathon. The event is …
Happy New Year All! I hope this year brings you lots of laughter, learning and new adventures. My big adventure for the new year is to run a half-marathon. I started running in the fall and in that short time, I’ve learned a lot about myself. One thing is that I respond really well to …
In a 1982 study by John Clement, 150 freshman engineering students were given the following problem: Write an equation using the variables S and P to represent the following statement: “There are six times as many students as professors at this university.” Use S for the number of students and P for the number of …
Let’s say you have a binder full of the data I talked about last time. You know which students got which questions wrong on your latest assessment. How do you use this information to help those struggling students? You can’t. Knowing they answered a question incorrectly is useful, but you need to know why. That’s …
How to gather the data you really want about student misconceptions Read More »
During school visits, I rarely make it five minutes without hearing about “the data.” I am shown big binders containing spreadsheets of data. I sit in data meetings where teachers furiously highlight lines in spreadsheets and calculate percentages. Principals tell me how data are being used to evaluate students and teachers. Some of this is …