Saturday, September 28, 2019

Making Connections Using Data


  

Image result for data Mondays clipart



My focus this is year is making deeper connections with students, parents, and colleagues.



What does the beginning of your week look like in your classroom?  Is it a time to set goals for the rest of the week?  Is it a time to reflect on the past week?  Is it a time to reteach?  Is it time to jump into the curriculum?

Everybody’s beginning weekday is different depending on the classroom culture you have built, expectations laid out since the first day of school, class makeup of students, time and curriculum needs, or possibly other requirements.

In my classroom, I use Mondays as another opportunity to instill a Growth Mindset with my students – by reviewing data from the previous week – so it is called Data Mondays.  I am trying to develop a system (yes, this is something new for me this year) where I recognize students for their growth, recognize students for their achievements, and recognize students who have excelled academically.  I wanted a system where all students would eventually be recognized at least ONCE a month and hopefully twice a month for their achievements.  The system has evolved over the first few weeks of school and hopefully will continue to evolve but here is what I am currently doing with my students on Data Mondays.


The system rewards students with green tickets that I pass out.  Students collect five of these green tickets and can turn them in for a free homework pass.  Since I give homework every night this reward system is embraced by the students.

Students are recognized in four different ways:

1.       A student who has shown an improvement in their quiz percentage from the previous week is given one green ticket. 
a.       When you think about this, every student will eventually get a ticket based on this simple standard.  A student cannot keep getting lower and lower quiz percentages all year long (well, yes, actually it is theoretically possible) because at some point they will improve.

2.       A student is recognized for achieving 90% or above on last week’s quiz.
a.       This originally started out as 100% but as the year has progressed and the assessments have gotten more difficult I had to adjust this requirement.  I am pleased with the adjustment because it allows a student to make a minor mistake and still be recognized for outstanding work.

3.       Top Khan Academy point winner for the week.
a.       I use Khan Academy during the week for students to improve on very small skills needed to be successful in the math curriculum.  Khan Academy is directed aligned to Eureka Math so these lessons are meaningful and relevant for students.  Khan Academy sends a report every weekend so there is little work for me to do in gathering this data.

4.       Earning 100% on individual Khan Academy lessons during the previous week.
a.       This originally was recognizing students who achieved 100% on all lessons during the week but has evolved to its current format.  This is motivating students in ways I did not expect – I now have students who will miss one question on a Kahn Academy lesson and redo the entire lesson so that they get 100%.  Students usually have four lessons during the week so they know that they can earn four tickets on Monday if they get 100% on each of them.  This last way of earning tickets is the one the students enjoy the most because they get the tickets the fastest. 

The purpose of Data Mondays is to try and build a Growth Mindset with my students be explicitly rewarding students who have shown improvement in achievement or excelled in their achievements.  The hope is that this 5 minute review propels students forward for the rest of the week.  I will continue to reflect on the system I have in place to assess its success with my students’ mindsets.

I hope that the beginning for each of your week’s throughout the year are meaningful and impactful.  We each have our own way of setting up the week’s learning for our students and I wish you continued success with yours.


                                                                                                               Still teaching and loving it,


                                                                                                               Kevin Stott

                                                                                                               De Anza Middle School 




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