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If it was a very small number of students, you can blame it on them. But if it is true of many students, you must blame it on the system or how they are taught.
I won't go quite as far as "There are no bad students, only bad teachers" - but I will say there are not a great many bad students. Most kids (and most people) LOVE to learn, if you don't make it too unpleasant.
I think you must live in a bubble, this is not the real world for the majority of high school students. Most have little interest in learning for the sake of learning. There is a small percentage who love to learn. My son falls in that category but I think the reason is because it comes so easy to him. Once it becomes hard for most students, they need a clear reason (such as the grade on a test) to use their brain power.
If it was a very small number of students, you can blame it on them. But if it is true of many students, you must blame it on the system or how they are taught.
I won't go quite as far as "There are no bad students, only bad teachers" - but I will say there are not a great many bad students. Most kids (and most people) LOVE to learn, if you don't make it too unpleasant.
So how can you fix the problem?
That physics teacher who taught us Quantum Field Theory had a method of briefly reviewing material. If I remember right, each definition, method and theorem had a number or a name. So when he needed a prior definition, method or theorem, a long time after it was mentioned before, he wrote something like (changing to chemistry)
Recall: Definition 3.1 of Avogadro's number (N0) - The number of atoms or molecules such that one mole of C12 atoms weighs exactly 12 grams. N0 of anything is called one mole of that thing.
Theorem 3.2: N0 atoms or molecules of (average) molecular weight W weighs exactly W grams. Define those W grams to be the molar weight of those N0 atoms or molecules.
(N0 should have said N subscript 0, and C12 should have said C subscript 12 - I don't know how to write that on this board.)
(Chemists say "weighs" when physicists say "has mass". As long as your scale is calibrated using standard weights, it doesn't matter.)
You do not need to repeat the original proof or the original examples. (Since you gave the original Definition and Theorem numbers, students who don't quite understand the review can go back to the earlier notes from your class, and review the original context.) Instead you go on to use the theorem in the new application.
By using very concise definitions and statements, you can repeat them without taking much time. This form ("Recall" or "Review"...) is not much longer than saying "If you don't remember the idea of molar mass, go back and re-read unit 6", but gives them more information, and serves to create a review.
Brevity isn't just "the soul of wit" - it is the soul of good learning.
This method works best if:
1. You have taught them all the units.
2. You are well organized, and created a well organized set of numbered notes before you began teaching the course.
I certainly hope part one is true. But even if not true, such brief reminders (without definition and theorem numbers) fix all problems, without forcing you to spend hours on them.
BTW, this is the way I would write my New-And-Improved-Schaum's-Outline-like ideal textbooks.
If you are clever, you can sneakily use these very brief reviews to force them to remember everything important you taught in the class - without using zillions of words to achieve that important goal. After all, almost all subjects worth learning are progressive - you need what came before.
I KNOW my students were taught the quadratic equation in algebra. I know the teachers who taught it. I just taught it to them again. You don't want to know the average on the last quiz that required students to be able to solve quadratic equations. If I were on the outside looking in I'd probably think like you do but I'm not. I know what they've been taught. I also know that most of them didn't do half of the assigned practice problems. I know my chemistry students saw ratios in middle school, again in geometry and again in physical science yet they can't solve them when they get to my class even after I review how to solve ratios. It's like they just ignore anything they don't like and hope it goes away. Trying to get my geometry kids to PRACTICE solving quadratics this past week and my chemistry students to PRACTICE calorimetry problems has been a challenge. Day after day I see blank homework pages. Day after day they want to use work time to socialize.
I just gave a test that had a low average. One of the students pointed out the average and then the rest started to join in and say it must have been the test. I stopped them. I asked them to look at their grade, reflect on how much practice they did and ask themselves if the two match. Only one student said that he had practiced a lot and still got a low grade. The rest agreed that the two matched up pretty well. I told them over and over that they needed to do the practice but they didn't and it shows. I have this problem every year when we get to more challenging math problems in chemistry. I tell them every year that practice makes all the difference and every year they don't and every year they bomb the test. I have this problem with every section in geometry every year. They want easy. They don't want to work. They don't do the practice. How should the system fix this?
Students don't use previous notes. I've been telling my geometry students to keep a running list of the theorems that are introduced all year. I have a hand full of students who have done so. Interestingly, they all have A's. The error in your thinking is that students are responsible for taking notes (many don't bother) and learning what was taught. The mindset seems to be that I'm supposed to make them learn it. I had a student the other day who insisted on doing her reading notes during class (they were due the next day but were supposed to be homework). I made her close her book. She started to argue with me and I told her to listen to the lecture. 10 minutes later, I had to tell her to close her book again. Then during work time she didn't do the assigned problems because she was doing her reading notes. I told her she needed to do the problems because she could get help with them while in class and the reading notes are something she can do at home. She kept on doing them. I gave up. Guess who wanted me to reteach what I taught that day today because the quiz is tomorrow? I am convinced that education would be vastly improved in this country if we could just get kids to do their homework/classwork and to understand that what they learn in one class is useful in the next class. Unfortunately, I cannot open their heads and pour in the knowledge. Teachers open the door. The student has to walk through.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 04-07-2016 at 08:34 PM..
I think you must live in a bubble, this is not the real world for the majority of high school students. Most have little interest in learning for the sake of learning. There is a small percentage who love to learn. My son falls in that category but I think the reason is because it comes so easy to him. Once it becomes hard for most students, they need a clear reason (such as the grade on a test) to use their brain power.
THAT is the issue. They have little interest in learning what we're teaching. Many days I feel like I'm pushing a rope. You're right on the kids who find it easy. They're the ones easiest to engage. The ones who find the material difficult will often check out the moment it becomes at all difficult. You should have seen the pained looks and heard the groans when my chemistry students realized they were expected to use algebra to solve chemistry problems.
They are high school students not college students. They're taking classes on a curriculum prescribed to them not chosen by them. They have to take classes they feel they'll never use and learn stuff they don't see as valuable to know. They're teenagers. 'nuf said.
I disagree. My students certainly were and are taught material that is intended to be built upon. They just don't remember it when they get to me. I love unit 8 in chemistry. They get to the problem set and they're stuck. They ask me about molar masses and I tell them they learned it in unit 6. They puzzle over going from a chemical name to a formula and I remind them that was unit 5. They balk at writing an equation given just the reactants and I remind them that was unit 7. Seriously, *I* taught them the material in units 1-7 and when I write problems that utilize what they learned before they don't know what to do. I KNOW they get taught the material they need in the future and I also know they don't remember it when they get there. I don't know why. They seem to think that once they've been tested on something they're done with it. It's a ticket punched now move on mentality. I see it over and over. I teach them something this week, test them next week and they can't use it the following week. Then mom and dad start calling and complaining that I'm testing over previous material. Sigh.
Actually, being able to group and ungroup in math is critical to solving algebraic equations. This is a weakness in my students. They struggle with isolating a variable even though they've been taught it multiple times and given the opportunity to practice repeatedly. The problem is they don't do the practice which means we have to keep coming back to the same topic over and over and over instead of moving on to something more interesting. As with anything you have to build the foundation before you can build the house.
The math book I use has plenty of problems that have real world applications.
I just thought of something. Do your students have textbooks they get to take home every night? I remember when I took AP chemistry, I basically had to read the book three times over at home throughout the year in order to keep refreshing what I learned last month or the month before. And I aced that AP test. I just read an article in our local paper about how our local school system has completely done away with personal copies of textbooks, and is also trying to get rid of the one classroom set as well. How do students review lessons from last month if they don't have a textbook to bring home?
Sadly, in my 30s I don't remember a lick of AP Chem either. BUT I still have my textbook just in case, and I bet if I re-read it, the material would all come back fairly quickly.
I just thought of something. Do your students have textbooks they get to take home every night? I remember when I took AP chemistry, I basically had to read the book three times over at home throughout the year in order to keep refreshing what I learned last month or the month before. And I aced that AP test. I just read an article in our local paper about how our local school system has completely done away with personal copies of textbooks, and is also trying to get rid of the one classroom set as well. How do students review lessons from last month if they don't have a textbook to bring home?
Sadly, in my 30s I don't remember a lick of AP Chem either. BUT I still have my textbook just in case, and I bet if I re-read it, the material would all come back fairly quickly.
A lot of school systems are doing that now that book prices are touching $100 each.
The idea is that the kids can access the book at home via the internet. A couple problems with that, the school system still has to pay for a super secret code to access the book and many don't (my former one didn't so my kids went the year with only a classroom set to use) and many kids, more than we like to admit, don't have or aren't allowed the internet at home.
And yes, smartphones can access the internet but a lot of them cut out some function.
A lot of school systems are doing that now that book prices are touching $100 each.
The idea is that the kids can access the book at home via the internet. A couple problems with that, the school system still has to pay for a super secret code to access the book and many don't (my former one didn't so my kids went the year with only a classroom set to use) and many kids, more than we like to admit, don't have or aren't allowed the internet at home.
And yes, smartphones can access the internet but a lot of them cut out some function.
Also, if a parent leaves a kid in front of a computer in the study and says do your homework and goes to make dinner, the kid is going to do everything but homework. But if a parent leaves a kid at the kitchen table with a textbook and no computer in sight and then goes to make dinner, the homework is going to get done because parent is right there watching, and there isn't the rest of the internet in front of their face to distract them.
Why hasn't someone started making super cheap textbooks? Is it because Pearson controls the standardized tests and therefore one must get Pearson books?
I just thought of something. Do your students have textbooks they get to take home every night? I remember when I took AP chemistry, I basically had to read the book three times over at home throughout the year in order to keep refreshing what I learned last month or the month before. And I aced that AP test. I just read an article in our local paper about how our local school system has completely done away with personal copies of textbooks, and is also trying to get rid of the one classroom set as well. How do students review lessons from last month if they don't have a textbook to bring home?
Sadly, in my 30s I don't remember a lick of AP Chem either. BUT I still have my textbook just in case, and I bet if I re-read it, the material would all come back fairly quickly.
As I mentioned in another thread, our school system is in the process of doing that as well. Their goal seems to be google everything. Of course, how many kids will be able to tell an authoritative source from some others D- homework?
@Ivorytickler That must be very frustrating. In my Math2 course in HS, which was the "slow track" to the Trig course, all the kids made the teacher's life hell. They acted up in class constantly and had no interest in the subject matter. I didn't either, but I wanted to pass the course, and I'd struggled in freshman algebra, so I did my best. That was the teacher's first academic year at that school (it was a private school, too--usually kids are better behaved), and she quit after that, and found a nice alternative school in a nearby city where she was appreciated.
There's something wrong overall with how math is taught in the US, starting in grammar school, but it really cranks up in middle school, when algebra concepts begin to be introduced. Students (and adults) from many other countries don't understand why American's can't do math. I don't know what it is, but the teaching methods seem to turn kids off, so that by the time you get them, they've completely and irrevocably lost all interest. And we can safely say that it doesn't have much to do with low income kids, socioeconomic issues, public school issues and priorities, etc., because the same problems exist in private schools. I did enjoy geometry, but that's because it wasn't math, exactly, if you know what I mean.
Also, if a parent leaves a kid in front of a computer in the study and says do your homework and goes to make dinner, the kid is going to do everything but homework. But if a parent leaves a kid at the kitchen table with a textbook and no computer in sight and then goes to make dinner, the homework is going to get done because parent is right there watching, and there isn't the rest of the internet in front of their face to distract them.
Why hasn't someone started making super cheap textbooks? Is it because Pearson controls the standardized tests and therefore one must get Pearson books?
Really? That's what it's come to, now? The textbooks have to be bought from the testmakers? That gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Teaching to the test"!
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If I were on the outside looking in I'd probably think like you do but I'm not. I know what they've been taught. I also know that most of them didn't do half of the assigned practice problems. I know my chemistry students saw ratios in middle school, again in geometry and again in physical science yet they can't solve them when they get to my class even after I review how to solve ratios. It's like they just ignore anything they don't like and hope it goes away. Trying to get my geometry kids to PRACTICE solving quadratics this past week and my chemistry students to PRACTICE calorimetry problems has been a challenge. Day after day I see blank homework pages. Day after day they want to use work time to socialize. 
THAT is the issue. They have little interest in learning what we're teaching. Many days I feel like I'm pushing a rope. You're right on the kids who find it easy. They're the ones easiest to engage. The ones who find the material difficult will often check out the moment it becomes at all difficult. You should have seen the pained looks and heard the groans when my chemistry students realized they were expected to use algebra to solve chemistry problems. 
And we can safely say that it doesn't have much to do with low income kids, socioeconomic issues, public school issues and priorities, etc., because the same problems exist in private schools. I did enjoy geometry, but that's because it wasn't math, exactly, if you know what I mean.
That's what it's come to, now? The textbooks have to be bought from the testmakers? That gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Teaching to the test"!
