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Wanted to post an update. I've had TONS of meetings and gaining more insight with each passing day. Here is the latest...
We are going to "chunk" the placemat into 3M-like pads (ones that you see in conference rooms). Each page of the pad will have a specific lesson (enlarged section of the placemat) with room to write additional notes. One cool feature... I can pick up the pads periodically, take all the wonderful teacher notes and incorporate them into an new version of the placemat and pad. The system keeps improving with time and teacher input.
On both the placemat and pad, we are going to highlight what is mandatory and will absolutely be on the state test versus what's supporting (still important). This way if the class is running behind, the teacher can make sure to hit the important stuff.
On the cover of the pad will be the school district's learning objectives for the class. Each objective will be a tab in the pad. The second page of the pad will be a full table of contents (cross reference) for the pad.
A teacher may begin each class by walking over to the placemat and reminding students where they are in the journey. Then s/he goes to the pad and flips to page F-7 and teaches the day's lesson. F is a district/state objective. 7 is the 7th lesson in the sequence. And these lessons can overlap. F-7 may be parts of the flower. F-8 may still show the flower parts, but add pollination to the mix (excuse pun!).
When a teacher wants to do a review before the test, it's a matter of going back to page F-1 and reviewing 5 or 6 pages to give a refresher. If a test is given and the class under performs on a certain test question, the teacher can go back to a specific lesson page and with a red sharpie review the material (post test). This tells me the pad did a poor job and we need to focus more energy on this confusing topic.
The kids each have a notebook that matches the pads, but in wireframe only. Each student has to add labels as the lesson is being presented. The notebooks are kept in the classroom so they do not get lost. If the teacher is on F-7 in the pad, kids turn to F-7 in their wireframe notebooks.
Finally, technology is used to support the placemat/pad. A student goes to the classroom web page and chooses topic F, lesson 7. There are supporting materials (not the placemat/pad) including a short YouTube video on the lesson material. This video may be mined from the internet or reused from a class project last year (former students teaching the next generation!!).
If the teacher assigns a video for homework, the website monitors whether the student viewed the video, what time of day (like 2am!) and whether the student watched the entire video. Also, if a student is absent and misses F-1 through F-4, it's even more important to watch the videos. The teacher monitors all of this via a daily homework metrics report.
To sum up... the district is happy because their learning objectives are being followed. Administrators are happy because they can see how each class is progressing through the material. Teachers are happy because they have exclusive tools that improve over time, placemat helps connect concepts, reviews are easier and they save a lot of time having the graphics pre-built. Student are happy because they learn visually, have a way to catch up if absent and understand expectations in advance of each lesson, each learning objective, even the entire course via the placemat.
This is all good stuff and very interesting.
The wholeness and overview is very useful.
The idea of a a giant wrap around graphic large enough to wall paper a classroom with the whole course of study displayed is great as an augmentation to the daily incremental lessons presented.
It allows the incremental approach to be related by merely pointing out where today's lesson fits into the over all study of the general subject matter.
Still, in the inner city schools, the fundamental problems remain in the form (1) Absenteeism, (2) Lack of instant gratification, (3) time on Task, (4) willness to participate, (5) Wholeness/continuity, (6) Self-Rubrics, (7) Motivation.
1) Absenteeism is the main problem with the inner city schools, since if the students do not attend, they can't be taught.
60% attendance in the HS is a problem that is over whelming.
The Charter School concept is working because the small schools have drained off the attending student base which was the mainbody of kids that came everyday.
What America is going to see soon is the Public Schools left with those poor attending, disintersted, failed students who are also the disciplinary problems.
The fundamental problems enumerated above are really the other side of this issue.
How teachers deem to present the material, such as the reco here, is a different matter than how we can get the students assimilate and digest it.
If the teacher assigns a video for homework, the website monitors whether the student viewed the video, what time of day (like 2am!) and whether the student watched the entire video. Also, if a student is absent and misses F-1 through F-4, it's even more important to watch the videos. The teacher monitors all of this via a daily homework metrics report.
I get what you are going for here but for this to work every child would need a computer and Internet connection at home. Not all do, even in affluent schools, let alone high poverty schools. Yes, public libraries provide those things, but not all parents are willing to take their child there and some are not able to either because of transportation issues.
Awesome posts! Thanks for the feedback... big-time! I was coming in to post that I put together a little video demo... (note: I am not a biology teacher, so kind of made it up as I went!)
Oldhag1 -- Hear you on the lack of technology. The school district is making a big (huge) investment to give each student a laptop. So I have been asked to respect that initiative and bake it into the overall placemat idea. I am not a hige fan of tech in(side) the classroom and think it can take away (if not careful) from the teacher/student connection. Think the placemat/pad/wireframe could work without technology. I hope!
Cupid Dave -- I have a lot of great conversations, but am reminded time and time again... inner city is a unique dynamic. Absenteeism is a HUGE problem for this school. We have not really tackled/discussed this issue yet. Would be very open to ideas. Guess the student could use another's wireframe notebook to catch up? Maybe there are tutoring sessions a couple days after school to catch up on missed lessons. None of these sound that great. I am in the weeds on this one.
Very well put on how some schools are siphoning off public school kids. I would love to see every student automatically entered into the lottery and let each parent decide to pass or attend. Right now, the lottery (etc) engages a more ambitious parent and based on tears/excitement if chosen, one hell of a group influence (game theory stuff)!
Know how you are working on a project with all it's ups (cool graphics) and downs (lack of school response). Then you get a sign... it happened for me last Sunday (and is more of a personal story).
My daughter is a senior in high school. She was struggling with Honors Physics word problems. Was like staring at a blank wall. We did some research and cobbled together an "algorithm" for stepping through any word problem:
This is a combination of best practices from the internet and some additions based on mistakes made in previous word problems. The real key was labeling explicit and implicit givens from the problem. The implicits were the crux of my daughter's issues. She was either getting them wrong or not finding them at all.
To say this worked would be a HUGE understatement. It was remarkable! First, instead of just staring, she is able to immediately put pencil to paper identifying parts of the problem (find/given). This takes the complexity and immediately starts to break it down.
Next, using one piece of paper per problem was a great idea. Kids need white space!! When I look at my daughter's math/science homework, it is crammed in there so tight, it looks like mush. Same with tests... no room to work out complex problems (or go back and tune!!). So, now she does her test/homework on a Ampad engineering pad (TOPS Forms 35500: Engineering Computation Pads | OfficeWorld.com) and uses one page of the pad per problem. This cuts down on careless mistakes like you would not believe.
Little amazes me anymore. Daughter is a senior, so been there, done that. Create these placemats. But I was really taken back how a stepped process, white space and discipline equated to waving a magic wand. She can now handle the challenge problems with ease... takes a LONG(!) time, but she just slogs through it.
Just wanted to share. I think this is a good sign and I am adding a section on how to do word problems to the Algebra placemat.
This is great, especially for STEM disciplines. Can I make recommendations for Algebra 1 and 2, and Geometry? Not to tell you how to do what you're doing, but using the Common Core standards would probably make the most sense.
Absolutely!! I have been working on the placemat today. I decided to lay in some arithmetic concepts and tie them into algebra. Shows that algebra is not different from previous math learning... just an extension of it.
Next up is graphing linear equations. From there, it's FOIL and then graphing quadratics. All the algebra properties (many with proofs) are already in the placemat.
I also have a second page where I am working on a set of word problems connected to the floor plan of a WalMart store. I am finding word problems online and seeing if I can fit them into the Walmart story. Finding so many that don't connect to any real world application. It makes a huge difference (even for me) when it's grounded in baking a cake, mopping the break room, buying supplies for Subway, etc... I can visualize the problem...
I think a teacher could teach an entire algebra class inside a Walmart store!
Thanks for the offer to help. I need it! And super cool with any approach to receiving your help.
Page 1 of the algebra placemat is completed and going out for comments. Page two is Wal-Mart word problems and I am about 50% done right now. It has been a challenge to find "real world" algebra problems. Mary has 2 more coins than Joe and together they have 7 coins < not going to hack it with students. They can't relate... just look in your hand and count the coins...
Algebra is designed a bit different than biology. Where biology was a journey, algebra will be more of a reference (course correction) tool.
Teacher writes a problem on the white board. Asks the class for the first step. They start factoring. Hold up? Are you sure that's the first step? Walks over to placemat and points to GCF.
Students are working on a word problem. Teacher asks if they are (first) thinking about what type of word problem it is... a number problem? Ok. What are the key questions? Points to placemat. How to represent different numbers in terms of a single variable. Nice! It's all right there.
Teacher gives a test. Student gets the wrong answer. S/he forgot to check answer. Teacher writes "argue" next to the problem. Student immediately knows what was missed. Another problem? Teacher writes implicit. Or explore more. It's the language of algebra.
I also spend some time making a case for why we should learn algebra and go through some basic algebraic thinking that is an important foundation even in high school.
Algebra is not linear (excuse the pun). It flows, circles back on itself, requires proof. It's absolutely beautiful, almost like art. The teacher now has all of it at her/his fingertips. Nice!
This was an EPICALLY difficult placemat... probably the hardest I have ever done. Current word problems are nonsensical. It's insane how little they have to do with real life. I can see this causing 80%+ of kids to completely tune out. Here is an example I saved from my research...
"In a shipment of 12 television sets, 3 are found to be defective. In how many ways can a person take 5 sets which contain at least 2 defective items."
Why would I ever want to do this? It's a ridiculous problem and only serves to confuse the students. I know some of this has to be taught, but would put the nonsense problems (coins, age, etc) after the Walmart set.
I am hoping as kids' walk through Walmart in the future, they will think about some of these problems.
Been awhile since I posted here... but thought I would toss out the latest to see if you guys have any feedback. The placemats are in 2 high schools right now and we are waiting to see how it goes. One high school asked for 30 laminated copies. Fingers crossed!
I am in full research mode on the teenage brain and learning. I have several hypotheses. I think it all boils down to building up stores of background knowledge. Some kids have the ability to process working memory into long term memory for later recall and extrapolation (critical thinking). Others don't have this highway in the brain as developed and tend to work more from working memory (memorize and forget).
(Teaching) Information processing at the HS level is more of an intervention. We are trying to open pathways that have decayed over the years or perhaps were never activated? Here is where it really gets interesting (and a bit crazy).
My next placemat will be on how to write an essay. My hypothesis is that kids are first struggling (mightily) with the subject matter before pen even reaches paper. Take this example test (link) Robots, lifeguards, charity, Europe... do these seem like subject matters that are going to resonate with an inner city kid? If the student does not have "background" knowledge stored on each of these subjects, they have to do the entire exercise from working memory... in other words, they have to learn the subject on the fly... Take this simple statement...
Runner on first breaks for second, pitcher throws, batter gets in bunting stance, catcher throws ball... out!
This is a silly example, but if you don't know baseball (at all), you are going to struggle with this content. This is simple enough to test. Would you get better performance from your athletes in an assigned essay on baseball? Not A's, just better?
A non-sports reader will need to analyze, learn and interpret the above statement in real-time (working memory). Where the ballplayer can almost visualize the throw (recall out of background memory). Even if the statement were about rugby, the athlete would have an advantage... critical thinking by leveraging background knowledge of another sport (e.g. baseball).
And how many of us think robots, lifeguards, charity and Europe are skewed to higher income students? You can go 40 miles across Houston or Dallas and see more diversity than in all of Finland or South Korea.
I know a great kid, super values, really well put together, who does (very) poorly in school. I asked him why. He said looking at the subject matter makes him "feel bad about himself." That's a storage problem. No one can handle an entire chapter of physics in working memory.
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