{"id":148,"date":"2016-02-15T01:50:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T01:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/?p=148"},"modified":"2016-02-15T01:51:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T01:51:38","slug":"the-art-of-balancing-inquiry-and-content-in-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/2016\/02\/15\/the-art-of-balancing-inquiry-and-content-in-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Balancing Inquiry and Content (in Collaboration!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0060\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you teach a subject that is heavily driven by syllabus content? Any chance your students take major exams at the end of the course, and that those exam marks help decide their future opportunities? Yeah, me too. It’s a balancing act teaching in the IB Diploma Programme: on the one hand, Mathematics is about big concepts encompassing Truth, Beauty and Usefulness*; on the other hand, the better my students’ exam scores are, the more choices\u00a0they potentially have for university studies. The temptation to teach completely to the test is understandable, isn’t it.<\/p>\n

While the IB DP recognizes the importance of, and encourages, teaching the big concepts and linking them to other subjects, it can often feel impossible to do those concepts justice in the face of the exam pressure. Mastering the optimal combination of conceptual understanding,\u00a0skill development,\u00a0inquiry-based learning and content-focused instruction is one of my professional goals.<\/strong> The collaborative revamp of the grade 12 unit on Vectors <\/a>is one of the best units I have worked on this year, and it may come closest to that optimal balance. We’ll see how the results are after the unit assessment, and whether students retain their knowledge and skills when they take their external exams in May.<\/p>\n

The team approach to unit planning is exciting, as we have pooled our talents and resources into a first attempt at a unit overhaul that moves away from chalk-n-talk and shifts into the territory of hands-on, collaborative learning for students. In the few years\u00a0we have experimented with various methods for “flipping” instruction, my colleagues and I have found that the standard flipped model has a few drawbacks:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. All your time and energy are poured into creating videos, at least in the first run of a flipped unit. Class time is spent doing homework, and that is ho-hum.<\/li>\n
  2. Class time could be spent doing better, more meaningful things. Like what? We have struggled to find relevant ideas here for Mathematics.<\/li>\n
  3. It is still just direct instruction + independent practice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    In our current unit, therefore, we decided to do flipped learning for all of #3 above. It looks a bit like this:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Students work on course modules. Per module, they have a minimum of one week\u00a0to watch\u00a03 lesson videos (15-20 min each), take textbook notes, and do the independent practice problems.<\/li>\n
    2. Each module has a due date, and there is a formative assessment on that date.<\/li>\n
    3. Class time is mixed-use. So far, we have: run a scavenger hunt in teams formed from all three classes (54 students!), built 3-d coordinate systems to model vectors in space, taken all 54 students on a field trip to a pool hall to “do vectors” in reality, and had students work collaboratively to solve problems then present their solutions to the class. Other activities to come include creating mathematical models of the vectors produced at the pool hall, and collaborative work on “proofs” of dot-product properties. The farther we move into the unit, the more\u00a0class time is oriented toward theory and problem-solving.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"Student-built<\/a>

      Student-built 3-d coordinate system. See the vector toothpicks attached with play-doh?!<\/p><\/div>\n

      Running the modules has allowed students more freedom in planning their time. We are\u00a0attempting to get them to focus on the skill of note-taking to increase their own independence in learning, and are checking these notes at each module due-date. In terms of the activities during class time, we are finding that we aren’t perfect on this first run, and can improve on\u00a0clarifying our expectations, but the students are largely engaged and enjoying the learning. As we move toward more problem-solving classes, we teachers are free to spend our time as observers and facilitators, rather than as instructors. Watching students discuss and argue over solution methods, and listening to\u00a0them present solutions\u00a0and answer questions from their audience, allows us plenty of opportunities to guide their thinking and help clarify understanding.<\/p>\n

      Happily, all the videos were created in past iterations of flipping this unit, so we are benefiting from one colleague’s enormous investment of time. It is my hope that my colleagues and I have split up the workload so that we are each doing our fair share, and also playing to each individual’s strengths. One person has the videos, another is an expert organizer, another builds the tasks. Together, this team effort is producing a Vectors unit unlike any before!<\/p>\n

      It is exciting to produce a series of learning opportunities for students that actually breaks the mold of the standard math classroom. If you’re wondering how their summative assessment will look, it will look very much like unit tests as we all know them. With their final 2-year exam in just a few months, we can’t throw out everything. However, hopefully the increased focus on conceptual and connected learning will positively affect student understanding – meaning that they don’t have to cram as much for the exams, as they already get the big picture.<\/p>\n

      * This is my humble opinion, having teased out the answers to “why do I need to learn this” for over a decade.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

      \"Another<\/a>

      Another student busy building a 3-d coordinate system, this time with the amazing Zometool kit.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Do you teach a subject that is heavily driven by syllabus content? Any chance your students take major exams at the end of the course, and that those exam marks Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-plan","category-lesson-ideas","category-math"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/rutheichholtz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}