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Written by Miles Rios | miles.rios@uamaker.nyc
Problem
Students who are frequently absent, late and/or leave the room (ie bathroom) for excessive amounts of time. When are they disengaging? Why is this the point when they leave/take out phones/draw/etc? What are they doing when they disengage? Where are they going?
Hypothesis
If students are not engaging with the content , then they need a new way to access content , as measured by online labs and activities on Google Classroom as an alternative to in class activities.
Target group
I am focusing on my solo section of students. They are often absent for 1st period on Tuesday or some do not come in at all. I would like to see how they will do with a self paced system where they have access to materials at any time when they are able to engage with them.
Data collection
Data collection
Baseline data
Initially, I tracked how often students were leaving the room or were absent/late. As the students began to show up more regularly and stay in class without regularly leaving the room for long periods or being exceptionally late, I moved to the number of students who completed the skills and submitted them on Google Classroom.
Measuring success
I measured success based on how many students complete the playlist.
Overall findings & impact
The unit proved very successful initially. For the first skill check, I had over two thirds of students (19/27) turn in the work. The overall average turn in rate for all the skills was about 40%. Some students got stuck and actually moved on to different skills. There was a higher turn in rate for skill 4 vs skill 3 for example. I feel that in the future, I would definitely try this again. I need to be more intentional about making sure they know how to use all the tools they are provided. Skill 3 involved using the Earth Science Reference Table and the students were seemingly confused hence the lower submission rate. I would in the future have at least one lesson a week during a self paced unit to ensure the students were able to complete each step independently.
Actionable steps
If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, I recommend …
The unit should be planned out well in advance and that students have routines in place already. This is more of a mid to end of the year attempt to get students a large amount of content to students without having to worry about days of instruction lost because students will be able to work at their own pace. If students are working at their own pace, you need to have a good understanding of how your students work and who will need more support directly from you, who can lead peer based work and who would be responsive to that setup, etc.
Always have some kind of lesson and/or hands on activity spread throughout that you can do with students. Some students will not react well to entirely online work. Additionally, this is an opportunity for you to check in with students and see if there are any adjustments to be made.
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