One Pager - I am excited . . .

A couple months ago I wrote about doing a One-Pager with my math students and that I would give
an update on how it went.  My 8th graders have completed one of these activities and my 7th graders just completed their second one.

Well, I cannot contain my excitement about what I received from my students and the possibilities I see happening for next year.

Why am I so excited?  The products I received were all student created with very little direction from me.  I handed out the expectations and then let the students self-create their own product.  The students were able to capture the important facts for the unit of study, draw diagrams for the unit, list key vocabulary words, and ask two questions that they had about the topic of study.  While some of the final products lacked the eye appeal you might expect, there were so many the showed a huge effort to make them professional looking by adding color and setting them up in a easy to read fashion.

I wonder to myself what would have happened if I had actually shown examples of high quality work to the students as what I am expecting?  Without any guidance from me (besides the one page expectation handout), students were given free reign to design the One-Pager however they wanted.

Another small detail that I enjoyed was that students laminated their One-Pager on the day it was due.    This small detail seemed to show students that I felt this was an important document that I wanted them to keep for a long period of time.  While there is an expense on my part for doing this, I will continue with this practice as it ups the ante and allows students to keep something from being destroyed.

Next steps . . .

First, the 7th grade math team has agreed to prepare students for 8th grade by reviewing integer operations and solving equations after SBAC and before the end of the school year.  To that end, math 8 teachers will be visiting each of the math 7 classes and asking the students to complete a One-Pager for each of the topics.  Students will be shown examples of One-Pagers completed by 8th graders so that all students have a visual of what is expected.  The final documents will be put back-to-back and laminated, collected and saved for students to use next year.  The hope is that students will create documents that will be usable next year and give math 8 teachers some initial insight into students personal understanding of two key topics.

Second, next year, every 8th grader will create a One-Pager for each of the topics taught throughout the year.  These One-Pagers will then be used during our sprint to SBAC review and any common assessments given throughout the year.  The hope is that students will take pride in their work since they will be allowed to use them throughout the year and that they will become meaningful for every student.

I am thankful to our site's AVID team for presenting this type of student understanding conceptual.  I firmly believe, that as educators we hear different strategies throughout our teaching career, and many times we hear the same ones from time to time.  Yet, sometimes we are not at a place to use the strategy or it does not ring true for us at that time - but then at a later time, the same strategy is presented and we find so much value and meaning in it.  Continue to be open to strategies that are presented by your colleagues and value the time that they have put into the presentation.




Kevin Stott