Making it Work
My end goal for next year in regards to my problem of practice is to help my students become successful when it comes to word problems. My personal goal for this upcoming school year, is to guide my students to successfully navigate through at least 3 of the 4 open-ended word problems on their Keystone exam. There are, however, several evaluations that need to occur throughout the year in order for me to know that this goal will be met.
First, I will give my students a pre-test. It will have a variety of topics that students should know prior to the course and what they will learn after, but at the end there will be word problems. This same test will be given at the mid-year point and at the end of the year, with the hopes that students will do better each time. In addition, students will be surveyed on their thoughts in regards to confidence in word problems.
Second, I want to observe how my student handle this classroom shift over the course of the year. I know that many of my students have probably never done something like this in any other classes prior to mine. I am excited to see the progress; to see some students that were not confident, finally answer problems with ease, as well as grow as a group member. To show my students this growth over the year, I will have students write a FutureMe email to themselves right before their Keystone exam that asks them to explain their thoughts on word problems and why the feel that way about them. I believe that many will see the growth just by these simple emails.
And lastly, and most importantly, is that as a teacher, I need to reflect constantly. I believe that it’s important to have check-in’s with myself to make sure that I am pushing my students to be on target with my goal. If I am not on target, I need to make new action plans to make sure that I don’t continue to veer off.
First, I will give my students a pre-test. It will have a variety of topics that students should know prior to the course and what they will learn after, but at the end there will be word problems. This same test will be given at the mid-year point and at the end of the year, with the hopes that students will do better each time. In addition, students will be surveyed on their thoughts in regards to confidence in word problems.
Second, I want to observe how my student handle this classroom shift over the course of the year. I know that many of my students have probably never done something like this in any other classes prior to mine. I am excited to see the progress; to see some students that were not confident, finally answer problems with ease, as well as grow as a group member. To show my students this growth over the year, I will have students write a FutureMe email to themselves right before their Keystone exam that asks them to explain their thoughts on word problems and why the feel that way about them. I believe that many will see the growth just by these simple emails.
And lastly, and most importantly, is that as a teacher, I need to reflect constantly. I believe that it’s important to have check-in’s with myself to make sure that I am pushing my students to be on target with my goal. If I am not on target, I need to make new action plans to make sure that I don’t continue to veer off.