This year I am committed to fully transitioning into a Standards Based Grading (SBG) system in my AP Chemistry class. In order to merge the process with the inquiry cycle described below (Explore-Flip-Apply), I re-wrote, and unpacked my old standards to fit into “cycles”. Each cycle consists of an in-class guided inquiry activity, a teacher and/or student created sceencast outside of class, followed by an application phase. The next day begins with a quiz to conclude the previous cycle. Obviously not all the standards could, or needed to be, reworked this way.

Students explore the core objective of the cycle first and reflect on their own constructs, models, and ideas together in class. The subsequent screencast provides introduction to lower level content standards (definitions, etc.), and during the application phase, students work through higher order standards collaboratively. Standards are then noted next to each quiz question and students track their performance, as do I. Each standard is graded and and entered into the gradebook individually. Only the standards are placed in the grade book:

Gradebook Snapshot


Student Tracking Snapshot


I find this makes the reassessment process much easier as students know which standards they are still not proficient in, and then I can design reassessment opportunities on the spot that are more meaningful and rigorous (usually by writing questions spontaneously on class whiteboards) without creating an entire new assessment. I enjoy doing this in class rather than online (moodle, etc.) as it allows for conversation following the reassessment. If students are ready to reassess without extra help, they may do it on the same day. If they need extra tutoring from me, I decide on a reasonable time, usually the following day, in order to create a more authentic and valid assessment experience.

If an assessment given in the future includes a previously assessed standard, for now, I am simply replacing the old score with the new one. I have a hunch this is where I have a lot of growing to do, but for now, it seems to be working with students, and in a course that concludes with a year long cumulative examination, I am hopeful it will motivate students to recall their specific strengths and weakness more directly.

What interests me most about SBG and the associated reassessment process, is the way students naturally talk about the material. Rather than discussing issues around “Quiz X” or “Exam Y”, students now use terms like “I really get Standard X”, or “I am completely lost on Standard Y”. When students come to reassess, their comments are also much more directed. “Mr. M, can I reassess Standard X”, is now a common statement, rather than the infamous, “I need to re-take Exam Y”. The prior gives me, and the student, much more critical information. I hope :).

Below is a screenshot from a student that demonstrates this idea:



If you are interested in SBG, I recommend reading Frank Noschese’s blog. His resources are amazing and provided the energy I needed for my SBG process this year.

I was honored to be asked to write a blog post for Edutopia. My goal was to be both objective, and personal. Click here to read.

Recently, a huge philosophical debate regarding the efficacy of flip teaching (i.e., inverted classroom, reverse instruction, blah blah blah...) as an instructional pedagogy has dominated the blogosphere. This post by Aaron Sams sums it up well. Personally (see previous post), I am very encouraged with initial results seen in my AP Chemistry classroom as I attempt to merge guided inquiry instruction with aspects of flip teaching. With that said, this merger works well for me, I think, for two reasons:

1. Good science instruction should inspire students to construct their own knowledge.
2. I teach at an urban catholic high school, and although improving, our schedule is still very limited (primary reasons include: additional school holidays and lack of athletic facilities that require students to miss class often).

Given this reality, in order for me to make it through an entire AP chemistry curriculum AND encourage students to construct their own ideas first, I must strike a balance between inquiry and teacher facilitated instruction. If I had it my way, and perhaps when I become a more experienced and well versed instructor, I will be able to move through an entire AP Chemistry curriculum in a way that completely removes any direct instruction from the picture.

In the meantime, rather than stepping in to fill in knowledge gaps and address misconceptions in class, doing this via annotated and narrated screencasts works very well for me, and for my students. (See “Explore-Flip-Apply” model below). Students get an opportunity to struggle with concepts in a collaborative and hands-on fashion first, and then use the homework space (only a few times a week at most) to learn key phrases, definitions, and models from me, that I feel push them through the curriculum at a good clip, in my voice and my handwriting.

Thus, it is VERY clear, that the above process is more a function of MY situation than anything. A lot of great information, knowledge and wisdom can be found when sifting through the past month’s debate, and for me, I was able to develop a model that I feel is working. But (deep breath…) that’s relative to me. For all interested in flip teaching, I encourage your to reflect on your own practice, what works for YOU, who YOUR students are and what resources they have. Then, perhaps aspects of flip teaching could help address a few of the road blocks you might encounter.

So, why am I writing this, and why is it titled “On-the-Go Responses? To be honest, going back and fourth about pedagogical differences, efficacy of flip teaching, etc., has totally burnt me out. Given this, I have been asking myself lately: why did I begin to do this in the first place? The answer is simple.

One day, 6 years ago, before Dan Pink even name dropped the term “flip”, I was frustrated with the time it took to go over homework in class, and decided to post video solutions on line. This led me to a fascination with mastering the tools needed to make this happen in a fluid and clean way for students and teachers. Done. I got super nerdy about the technology, and how it saved a few minutes of class time for me, and that was that.

So, lately I have been thinking about a similar thing, and rather than surround myself with debate on a grand scale, I thought it would be fun to get back to the nerdy tools that fascinated me in the first place. I got an email from a student asking for help on a problem while I was in the car yesterday (yes, like an idiot I looked at my phone while driving, I regret this…). I pulled over, and started typing out a long explanation. Then, I remembered a post form Kyle Pace on twitter about the new VoiceThread iPhone app.

I pulled up the app, and immediately realized I could only annotate over pictures. So, in an attempt to turn VoiceThread into Screenchomp, Replaynote, Explain Everything or Showme (iPad programs that allow you to record video tutorials on a blank white screen), I took a few pictures of a white sheet of paper I had in my car and recorded solutions to the problem over those images. In five minutes, not only was I able to send the solutions of to the student, but on their end, they received an explanation that is not only cataloged for other students to watch but, like all good instructional videos, maximized their audio and visual working memory channels.

Simple, but quick, and without an iPad. I think I’m going to use this method to respond to all student inquiries regarding difficult problems while I’m away form my computer. Below is a simple tutorial I created for how to do this. I used BoardCam (an iPad app that turns the iPad into a doc camera) to record this tutorial. It was my wife’s iPad :). Ignore the music at the beginning of the video. Forgot to turn Pandora off...