Student Thoughts on the Student-Paced Unit

In March I facilitated a student-paced unit of instruction for the chemistry of solutions with my high school sections of Honors Chemistry. Two days after the completion of the unit, with their work evaluated, I asked the students for feedback. Here is what they told me.

 

The top chart shows the grades for the last quarter (pre-self-paced unit) and the bottom chart shows the grades for the self-paced unit. I was looking to see if grades were about the same or better or worse. It looks like they were a little worse in the self-paced unit.

For the graphs below, 4 is always "strongly agree" and 1 is always "strongly disagree." For the comments below, I chose the student comments that represented an idea that showed up a lot or provided special insight or just something that really resonated with me.

Understanding Expectations

My comment: They knew what needed to be turned in. These questions show that the organizational structures worked.

Best student comment:  As long as you are personally responsible you can easily see what you need to complete and what you have yet to complete. Simple.

It was hard to tell what 'assignments' had valuable information in them that I should make sure to know for the quizzes and test. I tried to complete all of them, but a lot of the time I was getting information that I wouldn't end up needing to know for anything.

Learning Chemistry

My comment: 73% of students earned an A or B in the unit but only 50% of students thought the materials were helpful. *scratches head*

Best student comments: I personally needed more notes. I felt like a lot of the learn activities were meant to be practice, but the only real background I got on the lessons were from taking notes in the book (which isn't really an effective way to learn how to do math in chemistry). These notes also should have been required to complete so that the teacher knew which students actually understood it and were good to go and which ones needed some correcting before they even attempted extra practice.

Using only a couple resources, it was hard to understand certain concepts. However, once I used all the resources, I was able to understand the majority of the concepts.

Voice and Choice

My comment: I'm not sure they all knew what I meant by multiple pathways. One student asked during the survey.

Best student comments: I didn't like how there were different paths because I would feel pressured to do everything given to us to understand the concept fully. So I was doing twice the work I needed to. 

I thought there was a lot of resources provided to help people understand the topics, and people had the ability to choose what would benefit them the most.

I liked how you provided required things and additional activities to help. For example, the videos were very helpful for me personally. If you were to do this again, I had the idea to have a "pathway" where you could sign up for 10-15 minute meetings where you could have 1 on 1 talks with the teacher during your mod if you needed to. Then there would be more structure between teacher and student and you'd know for sure your questions would be answered that day.
 

 My comment: This was one aspect many students agreed that they enjoyed but some still said they preferred if the teacher creates the pace and those who can't keep up come in on their own time and those who are ready to move on just have to wait.

Best student comments: If I finished a topic earlier than the rest of my class, then I was able to move on without them

Although I ended up shooting myself in the foot on topic 3 due to spending too much time on topic 1, I liked the concept of spending as much time as needed on a certain topic.

I did like pacing myself better. I think in part it was my fault for not managing my time properly. However, I do think there should have been more required assignments and more "due dates" so that I could plan my schedule out a little better and would be more driven to complete things in a timely fashion.

This was the best feature of the self-paced unit, because I was able to go as far as I felt I needed to understand the material, regardless of what my peers thought about. 

I'd rather just receive everything that everyone else gets and have the same material to study so i'm not at any disadvantage and get the opportunity to receive help from a classmate that has the same materials. 

My comment: I admit that I was a little disappointed at this result, but not really too surprised. On the other hand, students don't enjoy all kinds of things that adults make them do for their own good.

Best student comments: I liked spending more time on the things I did not understand and I was more confident on quizzes if I could take them when I was ready and take my time.

Chemistry should not be self-paced because it is much easier to learn as a class with so many complicated formulas.

I liked the self paced unit because it gave me freedom for what I wanted to do for the lesson; however, I averaged a lower score for the unit as compared to the other units taught by the teacher, so I would rather not have a self-paced unit.

I would not do this again if I had a choice. I felt underprepared due to not fully understanding what I was trying to learn.    

I liked the self-paced unit, it made class more fun and flexible. I would look forward to chemistry every day because of the self-paced relaxed class, but somehow I still felt motivated to do well as a challenge to myself.

My comment: I think it's interesting that more than half of the students think it would benefit them but most (73% above) did not enjoy it. I also think the answer to this question shows they were giving really thoughtful, sincere feedback. I appreciate their honesty and candor.

Best student comments: I think traditional teaching has worked very well for me in the past and I very much would not like to learn like this again

College is going to be like this, so overall it has helped, although I didn't like it.

This experience has allowed me to understand what I need to do more, when learning the math of a self-paced unit, like taking more time to understand the math problems more thoroughly. 

What did students like MOST about self-paced

• I was able to do every piece of study material provided to ensure that I had enough practice with the material to take the quizzes or test. I was also able to take the quizzes whenever I felt ready.
• If you didn't feel ready for a quiz, you could just take another day to study without harming your grade.
• that I could decide what my homework each night would be so I could leave more time-consuming homework (like reading and taking notes) for days I was not very busy or for the weekends
• I liked best that we could learn the material on our own terms and that there were extra assignments to help us learn the topics so if we were confused we could do those to help us.
• I liked that I was able to go at my own pace. During a traditional unit sometimes we have to spend more time on a topic that I understand, so it was nice to be able to move on to another topic.
• I think the labs in the unit were quite helpful. A good visualization of what we were learning in real life.
• I liked the self pace unit. It gave me opportunities to work in a group I felt comfortable asking questions in and I was able to assist in labs without feeling like I might mess up.

What did the students like LEAST about self-paced

• It was hard to learn material without the teacher standing in front of the class giving directions and helping us through the unit
• Since everyone was at a different spot it was sometimes hard to collaborate with peers and ask them questions because they were always busy doing something else.
• the uncertainty and stress of whether I would finish in time (even though I kind of already knew that I would have time, I have a habit of stressing myself out for no reason)
• What i liked least was the lack of an authoritative figure. Its nice to have a tea her there to kind of "hold" your hnd when learning something that is new and challenging.

The unit could have gone better if . . .

• asked the teacher for help everyday.
• Given myself more time to study for the test
• Truly worked to understand the material.
• Asking for more help when I didn't understand something would've been beneficial for me as there were times when I did not understand the topic/material I was going over. 
• Asked for more instruction and help, and also taken more time to read the book and do the optional assignments rather than just the required ones, but the time was not always there to do this.
• Managed my time better and taken more time to help myself understand topics that I had originally underestimated.

Overall, I am pleased with the honest, genuine responses that my students shared. I didn't share the many comments of students who referred to the unit as "self-taught" because it was never meant to be that. When students asked for direct instruction, it was provided, but some students either didn't choose that as an option or felt there was a barrier to asking for it. We all learned some things about how my students learn and how they perceive learning. Moving forward, it will be important to think about how to take the best of this self-paced unit and merge it with what they want in a more traditional setting.

A Conclusion (For Now): A Student-Paced Unit of Instruction

A couple of posts ago, I described my experiment with a student-paced unit of instruction. Students were given 14 school days and 11 tasks to complete in order to learn about the chemistry of solutions. That unit is now complete and today I will share my thoughts on how it went.

A Quick Overview

Students did learn about the chemistry of solutions. Almost everyone took the test as planned on the day we originally planned it to be taken. Almost everyone completed and turned in almost every piece of work that was required by the end of the unit.

Cause to Celebrate

There were a number of reasons I thought the student-paced unit was a success:

• I was more able to answer individual questions and offer small group assistance. Quick questions answered on-the-fly redirected students and provided clarification. One day a group of seven students told me they were all very confused and would I just give them a mini-lesson to help. I did and they almost didn't need me to finish. As their questions were answered, they turned more to each other for help and suggestions.
• When students had questions about work, they were often more focused than the typical "I don't understand anything about this." Kids who had completed introductory material could come right in and identify what was confusing and get the help they needed.
• We had extensions in place for students who finished early (see above!). I had one group of four who created a pacing plan on day 1 of the unit so that they would all reach both of the extensions. They maintained their pace exactly as they envisioned and completed both extensions. They got to complete activities that I wouldn't do for my whole class and they enjoyed the results. 
• I didn't lose any papers. Let's be honest: 11 different assignments coming in one all different days by 44 students. The potential was there for things to be misplaced. I am very organized but this was still a challenge and I conquered it.
• Within two days of completing the unit, all of the work from the unit was graded and posted to my online gradebook. That never happens. It's nice to be starting a new unit without the cloud of work that needs to be graded hanging over my head.
• The conversations I heard students having, and the things I heard them saying about learning, were awesome. When I heard a student say, "I'm actually trying to understand chemistry," I responded with, "What do you typically do?" And he said, "Not that." There were lots of "how do you know?" and "can you show me how to do that?" that I heard in groups of students every day. I saw students owning their learning. And that was entirely the point of the unit.
• On a typical test or quiz day in Honors Chemistry, around 20% of my students don't take the assessment for one reason or another. On test day in this unit, only 3 students (~7%) didn't take the test. And two of those students had missed 3 or more days of the unit due to out-of-town absences.

Room to Grow

Of course, there were struggles, too.

• I saw many students off-task as the unit progressed. They weren't causing problems, but were using the time in chemistry to complete math homework or study for other classes. This typically caused problems toward the end of our unit as they rushed to complete things they had put off.
• Despite my warnings that if students wanted quizzes back before the test to help them with feedback and to study, they would need to take them two days before the test, many delayed until the day before the test to take one or more quizzes. In fact, about half of my students took the final quiz on the day before the test. This meant they did not see their quiz before the test, so it is likely they made the same types of mistakes on both assessments.
• There weren't many students who asked for small group help. I would have liked to do more of that, but I was also trying not to insinuate myself into their process too much. Maybe if we continued with this type of structure, that would improve? Kids kept referring to this as "self-taught" and it was never supposed to be that. I was hoping to enact the Montessori approach of giving lessons but that didn't pan out as much as I hoped it would.
• Some of our tracking mechanisms fell apart a little during the unit. I needed to do a better job helping them track their progress in the spreadsheet we were using and on our whiteboards. When our "tomorrow I'm going to" whiteboard became an eye sore, one of my administrators bought us these whiteboard magnet name plates and it kept things looking more ship shape.
• The chaos in the lab was still giving me anxiety at the end of the unit. The perils of having 5 different experiments (plus two extensions) all co-mingling on our dispensing table was a constant source of high blood pressure for me. Despite my best efforts to create masking tape barriers and labels, students spill things and don't clean them up or move things to where they are working. I would need to enact different expectations for what this looks like in future iterations. 
• Students were allowed to choose between two labs for each of two topics in the unit. All of my students chose the same experiments. While there was room for variation, the students did not choose variation. Unfortunately, many opted for experiments that had questions to complete as the follow-up work instead of a written lab report (even though students typically score higher on lab reports!). In many cases, I would have chosen a different experiment for them because it was a richer experience.
• I think the test score was a little lower than typical. In the last several years the average on my solutions test was between 77-80%. This year's test was more like 73%. When a test isn't around 78%, I curve it to get it there and I did that with this year's test. Looking back in my old gradebooks, there is no way for me to know if I had curved the tests in the last several years.
• Several of my colleagues told me that "everyone hated this." I wish more people would have talked to me about it or asked me why I was trying it and what I hoped would come out of it. I get the feeling that others won't be in a hurry to try something similar or help kids process how they grew because of this.

Stay tuned for my next post. I asked the students for feedback about the experience of the student-paced unit and I will share what they thought. Preview: We didn't always see everything the same way.

Quitters Never Win . . . Or Do They?

About a month ago, I tweeted what you see on the right. In a period of a couple of weeks, I watched people I respected quit things that appeared dear to them. It left me wondering how people know when to quit, especially because I practically never do. In fact, I can only think of about three things I have quit in my adult life.

The responses from Twitter were what you might expect:

"When it no longer fuels your passion and purpose - then its time to move on. Sometimes you just need to move on because you need a new challenge or better balance. There is no simple answer...but something tells me you know that already"

"I find that it's best to quit something when the idea of it causes you undue stress or despair. If, when you think about said thing, you immediately frown or panic, then it's time. I think that people will respect you for the work that you've done and understand that it's not the right commitment for you at this time. And if they don't, you don't owe anyone an explanation."

"Just say no to things that bring anxiety and no joy! You do way too much for too many people! No one will judge you for stepping down and letting others step up!"

Undue stress or despair? Anxiety and no joy? No passion or purpose? I would hope that if I (or others) felt that way about a commitment, quitting would be obvious! For different answers, I turned to a book: The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick) by Seth Godin.

Godin's premise is simple: If you can't be the best in the world at something, you should quit. I passed this nugget on to a colleague whom I love to banter with and he responded immediately as I knew he would. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." But wait, hear me (Godin) out.

Being the best in the world, to Godin, means being the best in your world, however big or small that may be. Your world could be your classroom or your school or your community or the actual world. Knowing what to quit and quitting it gives you the time and resources you need to become the best in the world in a different area. Guilty as charged: I do tend to take on too much, to try to do everything I can do instead of focusing on a few important things that I want to do really well. And I don't quit even when I should. It's hard to be the best in the world. It's takes a lot of work, so you'll need all the time and resources you can gather.

Godin explains that strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations. The Dip is a place where people find themselves, a place between starting and mastery, where progress becomes difficult. Sometimes extra effort can help you out of the Dip. In those cases, people should pursue that with passion. Sometimes extra effort won't help. Circumstances can prevent progress from being made. The trick, of course, is to recognize the Dip and predict (or weigh) your ability to overcome it. That's a place where I am still struggling. Godin provides some questions to help with that.

 

Three questions to ask before quitting:

Am I panicking?  "The reason so many of us quit in the Dip is that without a compass or a plan, the easiest thing to do is give up." Don't quit when you're panicking. Revisit when the panic has passed.
Who am I trying to influence? "Influencing one person is like scaling a wall. If you get over the wall in the first few tries, you're in. If you don't, often you'll find that the wall gets higher with each attempt. Influencing a market is more of a hill that a wall. You can make progress, one step at a time, and as you get higher, it gets easier." Knowing who you're trying to influence will help you see if progress can be made.
What sort of measurable progress am I making? "Measurable progress doesn't have to be a raise or a promotion. It can be more subtle than that, but it needs to be more than 'surviving is succeeding.'" Look for measurable progress. If you're not making any, is it possible to make progress?

And one last bit of advice

Decide in advance when to quit: Godin says that if quitting is going to be a strategic decision, you should decide in advance under which conditions you will quit.

My parents have recited this phrase (attributed to my grandfather) for as long as I can remember:

Once a job has just begun,

Never leave it 'til it's done.

Be it large or be it small,

Do it right, or not at all.

I've been focusing on the "never leave it 'til it's done" part for my entire life. In 2019, I'm going to try to shift toward "or not at all." In 2019, I will quit something. Maybe even a few things.

An Experiment: My Student-Paced Unit of Instruction

There's a long [and uninteresting] backstory that ends with I am trying an experiment in my classroom: a student-paced unit of instruction. The goal is to create a cohesive unit for students to experience, incorporating elements of choice, with results at least as good as a traditional unit.

To begin, my teaching partner and I planned the unit. Students will have 14 days of class to complete 3 homework assignments, 3 labs, 4 quizzes, and a test. We used Google Slides to create a Mastery Map that breaks the unit into three topics and provide avenues for students to explore the topics:



We also copied a tracking spreadsheet from Nikki Diehm to help students stay on track and help us know who was working on what when. With drop down menus in each column that represents an assignment, tasks are identified as finished or in progress. Students will begin class by tracking what they will work on and can indicate that they need work checked:

The experiment began in an unusual way because I was absent for two days. Still, my students got right to work, many of them taking a quiz on Day 2. They had two different labs to choose from on this first topic but everyone chose the same one.  Today is Day 5 of the experiment. Here's what's going well and not so well:

The Good

Students are organizing their time in a variety of ways. Some are using a calendar we provided; some are creating color-coded schedules.

Students have formed makeshift groups and are working together through the content. They are on-task for the most part and are having great conversations about chemistry.

Most students have completed one of three topics. When comparing the average score on the topic quiz to last year's average score, they are comparable, so I think my students have mastered this content.

The lab didn't go as planned for some groups, but students appreciated having extra time to re-do parts where they felt that was necessary. 

I have liked being able to spend some one-on-one time with students who need it and have grabbed some impromptu demos to illustrate answers to student questions that might not have surfaced in a whole group setting.

 

The Room for Improvement

That first lab day - the chaos of everyone figuring it out on their own in their own time - was loud and frenzied.  I had to keep reminding myself that the students would get better at this.

Some students are working very slowly. Many do not appear to be working outside of class. Our spring break is next week and some will need to pick up their pace and make adjustments in order to finish by our unit deadline. 

Parents (and some students) are worried about the outcomes. One parent emailed me some concerns, reminding me how important it is to communicate the plan and goals for this different way of thinking about chemistry class. 

Most students are not asking for help. The first topic was not too difficult so maybe this is why, but I am worried that they believe I don't want to teach, that I'm not available for help. I'm thinking about adding myself as a choice so students know they are not expected to be entirely independent.


Have you tried anything like this in your classroom? If so, please share ideas in the comments of my blog. I'd love to hear about your experiences in order to improve mine.