When I opened the text this week and began reading I was not sure I was going to get anything of any real sustenance. However, I discovered some really interesting information on how to show students the correlation between the effort they give and the grades they earn. Technology makes it easier for students and teachers to track the effects of effort and facilitates more immediate feedback. (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007) When I read this passage I was wondering how they were going to get students to understand effort and to be able to track it. After seeing what Ms. Powell had her fifth grade class do, I immediately went and showed my wife who herself teaches a fifth grade single gender male class. It was truly thought provoking how she had the students track their effort during her weeks teaching decimals. I really liked how she even had a scoring system set up that would show the students if their effort grade correlated with their math grade. As a PE teacher I was thinking about coaching while I was reading this passage. I am not a coach myself but I know coaches are always preaching about giving maximum effort at practice and during games. This would be a great exercise to do with their players during a stretch of the season. They could easily track the level of effort the team gave to the results of the game. We all know how coaches love statistics, this could be another one.
As I read the next passage on homework I came across an Algebra teacher and a High school PE teacher or worked together to graph data that was collected by the football team. The football team tracked their weightlifting program for the duration of the season. At the end they compiled all the data they had and took it to algebra to make a parabolic graph. I thought this was a very clever way to make math more meaningful. This also was a good way for them to get more work outside of the school day. Any extra practice a student receives is going to be beneficial as long as they are working on the correct information. You cannot just give them work if they have not been shown the proper techniques and if we do not give them adequate feedback in a timely manner. What good is it if we provide advice on something a week later if they have spent that entire week doing it wrong? One problem I saw with what these teachers were doing was how they were helping all the rest of the students they see in a day. Targeting the football team is fine but that only accounts for a handful of students. I wonder if they thought of a way to do a similar thing with all of his PE classes. This would enable them to have all the students involved with the project.
I feel Both of these strategies correlate with the behaviorist learning theory. The whole premise that we have to understand what is going on inside our students mind to better be able to serve them is at work. We have to reinforce the behaviors we want. If the students can physically see how their effort on homework or anything else can impact their school work I think they would continue to work hard. If we also went and posted this information on the school website or somewhere in the building like the text mentioned it could very possibly push our students to keep giving their best.
Reference:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that
works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Hi Jakob.
ReplyDeleteBefore this week, like you, I had not considered how a technology like Microsoft Excel could be used to help students track the correlation between effort and achievement; and, I most definitely had not considered that such an activity would be incorporating behaviorist practices.
While I had not thought about using Excel to track effort vs. achievement with sports teams, I think that would be a great idea. Also, I agree with the problem you saw concerning how the Algebra and PE teachers helped the sports team members (by incorporating effort vs. achievement charting), but did not incorporate similar techniques to help the other students they taught. I think that was a very valid observation on your part. I like your suggestion that maybe they could do something similar with all the PE classes.
After reading your suggestion, I started thinking about ways the PE teacher could incorporate the same effort vs. achievement activity with all his students. You are an elementary PE teacher, right? Do you know if high school students still have to practice improving the time it takes them to “run a mile”? That was one part of PE that I will probably never forget. Every day we PE students would run, and, then once in a while we would be timed to see how quickly we could “run the mile”. The intention was for us to improve the time it took for us to “run the mile”. If that is still a practice in high school PE classes, then tracking student’s practice times and how well they improve each “timed” run may be a good way to use the effort vs. achievement spreadsheet. Maybe the PE teacher could have used “running the mile” charting as a means to help students see how their effort affects achievement. What do you think?
I thought you made some good points in your blog post. Thanks for sharing!
Tonya Todd
Hi Jakob,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job summarizing our readings this week. I too was astonished to see the impact of tracking effort and how that would motivate further advancement in the classroom.
I have not tracked performance in the way the teachers presented tracking; however, I have used excel spreadsheets to track multiplication and division progress. I give my students a monthly timed 5 minute division test. I created a chart with excel and I saved it to the server. The first time students used the chart took a lot of time. I had to closely monitor the students to make sure they did not change any cell formulas. The end result was much better than regular graphing and drawing in the bar graphs with a pencil. We print them out each month and the parents sign them. It is a great visual to show progression or not.
Jakob,
ReplyDeleteLike yourself I was surprised but technology tools we have taken for granted and used in manner which can make students visually understand the connection between effort and achievement.
I hope you and your wife put good use to the rubrics and charts.
Lastly, something that is key and it registered with me was that feedback is essential and soon after the success or error of the students to correct or reward them. Otherwise the student would lose faith in the teacher and the behavioral strategy will fail.
Thank you for post
John A
Tonya,J.Oliver,John A,
ReplyDeleteThanks you all for responding. I am an elementary PE teacher. There is a relatively new test that the state of South Carolina has implemented to test students cardiovascular endurance. Rather than having them run a mile they can run a PACER test. Its set up in 15 or 20 meter distance. They line up and when the CD starts the students run to the other side. You have to get to the other side before the CD beeps. Every minute the beeps get progressively faster. They are allowed to not make it once, the second time ends their test. The students actually have fun with this test. They begin practicing this test in the elementary level. This could be easily tracked to see how they progress. Have a good weekend.
-Jakob Lauffer-
Jakob,I will take the idea of tracking the weight lifting effort to all of the coaches in my building! I hear all of the time from the coaches that technology is not that relevant in their programs. Any idea that will boost the use of technology is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Sheets
Hi again Jakob.
ReplyDeleteThe PACER test sounds like a good tool. I agree that it would be beneficial in helping students keep track of their progress, and that it would be good to start in Elementary school.
Tonya Todd