I started having my design students use a forum I installed on our class web site. Every Monday, students read a posting by me and respond to a prompt. This week, I just wanted to get their feedback on the class. The results just go to show that a mixture of activities is best for all students. What one student hates another loves, and what the first student loves the second one hates.

A couple of examples:

“ive liked the chapter lessons and the work with photoshop, i didnt like the posters, they were boring and irritating”

“my favorite thing and that i learned from was making posters about different thingslike proximity and stuff like that. i dont like doing different lessons”

“My favorite thing i did in this class was when we looked at actual photoshop contests and we looked at all of them. Also i learned how to use photoshop now…kinda ”

“I really enjoy the Photoshop lessons, & i didn’t like the poster redesigning”

“My favorite thing I’ve done so far are the diffrent posters that we made about proximity,repetition etc. I dont really like all the quizes and photoshop.”

And, finally,

“My favorite thing that we have done in this class is freetime when you finish your work.”

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I’m really worried about the life science classes I’m teaching this year. These are students who have or cannot pass algebra and it seems in most cases they have failed previous science classes. Many of them are very unmotivated, and most of my students are failing so far despite my best attempts.

I am shadowing another life science teacher since I have not taught science before and have no curriculum of my own. In fact, I believe I’m expected to use the same assignments at the same pace so that all the life science classes are virtually interchangeable. This approach is not working out too well. I think I’m teaching it the exact same way as the other teacher, yet her classes have far fewer failing students. I cannot help be feel something’s wrong with what I’m doing. However, the teacher whom I’m shadowing is less than approachable.

My BTSA Support Teacher – I’ll call her Mandy – had two suggestions that together gave me a brainstorm. One, she suggested that I might ease my problem with students repeated talking during exams by randomly giving a candy to those who are behaving correctly. I love this idea. Two, she suggested I can justify changing up the curriculum a bit because “the current path is not working for these students.”

So I bought a bunch of bags of small candies at Wal-Mart. You can get like 200 pieces for seven bucks. Then I got plain and colored tongue depressors at Michaels. They even had some glow-stick bracelets at a good price, and I grabbed those too. Today, I located a few large beakers in the science hallway. I pulled out the markers.

Near the end of each science class today, I introduced “Five Questions”. I had each student write his/her name on a stick of his/her choice, decorate the stick and return it to me. I put all the sticks into a large beaker. Then I asked five questions, one at a time. The questions were right out of today’s notes and should be right there in front of the student. After each question, I pulled a stick out of the beaker and called on that student. If the student knew the answer, his/her stick went into a smaller beaker. A wrong answer landed the student’s stick onto my desk. When we were done, the students who answered corrected came up and picked their favorite goody from the goody jar. They were so excited! Many students were disappointed that they were not called. I told them they might be next.

Of course, many students still did not know the answers because these students did not bother to write the notes today. I am hoping that Five Questions is incentive enough to start writing notes. Subsequently I hope test scores will go up too, and perhaps even the general level of work completion and turn-in.

I’ll report back in a few weeks or months.

UPDATE 10/2/08

This has turned out to be very popular with my life science students. They are better at getting their materials put away and back into their assigned seats quickly so that we can do “5 questions” at the end of class. So far, the winners have mainly been those students who were already doing okay. I’m interested whether the less engaged students will start answering correctly, which means having paid closer attention in class that day. It may be slow going, but I’m hoping that this will have a positive effect. At the very least, it is a nice closure activity.

Having graded tests today for my graphic design class, I’m think I need to try “5 questions” there too. They do not appear to be taking the reading seriously and are just jumping ahead to do all the tutorials. This is detrimental to their understanding of the software and design concepts in general.

UPDATE 10/13/08

After viewing recent quiz scores in my design classes, I decided to try this game there as well. The kids in the design classes love it as much as the science students.

There’s a life science test coming up on Friday, and various design quizzes tomorrow and Friday. I’ll be calculating the average scores for these and see if there’s been any improvement in lesson retention so far.

UPDATE 10/17/08

My life science classes have shown some improvement. In 6th period, for example, last month’s Unit 3 test generated a 60% average grade. Today’s Unit 4 test generated a 66% average. These numbers include only students who took the test. This difference may have to do with the nature of the individual test questions and not my methods, but this result encourages me to keep trying 5 Questions.

Here are some stats:

PERIOD 5	Unit 3 Test	Unit 4 Test
Class average	50	62½
	% students	% students
As	4	0
Bs	11	10
Cs	11	38
Total As, Bs and Cs	26	48
Ds	15	19
Fs	59	33
Total Ds and Fs	74	52

PERIOD 6	Unit 3 Test	Unit 4 Test
Class average	60	66
	% students	% students
As	13	0
Bs	4	24
Cs	22	28
Total As, Bs and Cs	39	52
Ds	13	8
Fs	48	40
Total Ds and Fs	61	48

UPDATE 11/18/08

5th Period did much better this unit test, while 6th period dipped but still did better in terms of % of As, Bs & Cs compared to Unit 3.

PERIOD 5	Unit 3 Test	Unit 4 Test	Unit 5 Test
Class average	50	62½	69
	% students	% students	% students
As	4	0	18
Bs	11	10	18
Cs	11	38	18
Total As, Bs and Cs	26	48	54
Ds	15	19	23
Fs	59	33	23
Total Ds and Fs	74	52	46

PERIOD 6	Unit 3 Test	Unit 4 Test	Unit 5 Test
Class average	60	66	60
	% students	% students	% students
As	13	0	5
Bs	4	24	10
Cs	22	28	33
Total As, Bs and Cs	39	52	48
Ds	13	8	19
Fs	48	40	33
Total Ds and Fs	61	48	52

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I was just asked by on online friend to help her convince her boyfriend why art is important. I tracked down this webpage, and I am pasting the answer here (at least in terms of arts education) in case that webpage ever goes away.

The following points are taken from Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. [ Critical Links was published by the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, business, and philanthropic organizations. AEP is administered by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies through a cooperative agreement with the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education.]

Critical Links and other research studies point to strong relationships between learning in the arts and fundamental cognitive skills and capacities used in mastering other school subjects, including reading, writing and mathematics.

Of great importance to schools struggling to close achievement gaps are the indications that for certain populations – including students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and students needing remedial instruction – learning in the arts may be uniquely able to boost learning and achievement.

Reading and Language Development:

• Certain forms of arts instruction enhance and complement basic reading instruction aimed at helping children “break the phonetic code” that unlocks written language by associating letters, words, and phrases with sounds, sentences and meanings. (Critical Links, 2002).

• Young children who engage in dramatic enactments of stories and text improve their reading comprehension, story understanding and ability to read new materials they have not seen before. The effects are even more significant for children from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those with reading difficulties in the early and middle grades. The studies suggest that for certain populations – students from economically disadvantaged circumstances, students needing remedial instruction, and young children – learning in the arts may be especially helpful in boosting learning and achievement. (Critical Links, 2002)

• Arts learning experiences develop expressive and reflective skills that enhance writing proficiency. (Critical Links, 2002).

Mathematics:

• Music instruction develops spatial reasoning and spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which are fundamental to understanding and using mathematical ideas and concepts. (Critical Links, 2002).

Fundamental Cognitive Skills and Capacities:

• Learning in individual art forms as well as in multi-arts experiences engages and strengthens such fundamental cognitive capacities as spatial reasoning (the capacity for organizing and sequencing ideas); conditional reasoning (theorizing about outcomes and consequences); problem solving; and the components of creative thinking (originality, elaboration, flexibility). (Critical Links, 2002).

Motivation to Learn:

• Motivation and the attitudes and dispositions to pursue and sustain learning are essential to achievement. Learning in the arts nurtures these capacities, including active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence, and risk-taking, and increases attendance and educational aspirations (Critical Links, 2002).

Effective Social Behavior:

• Studies of student learning experiences in drama, music, dance and multi-arts activities show student growth in self-confidence, self-control, self-identity, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy and social tolerance. (Critical Links, 2002).

School Environment:

• It is critical that a school provide a positive context for learning. Studies in the compendium show that the arts help to create the kind of learning environment that is conducive to teacher and student success by fostering teacher innovation, a positive professional culture, community engagement, increased student attendance and retention, effective instructional practice, and school identity. (Critical Links, 2002).

Critical Links stresses that not all of the studies demonstrate that instruction in the arts directly causes learning in another subject, but rather the cognitive skills and achievement motivations used and developed in the arts appear to be fundamental in other learning situations as well.

Here is the 172-page PDF of the research article referenced above: Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development

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