9th Grade Math.

Muchin College Prep - Noble Network

Chicago, IL | 2009-2011

The Physical Environment

Theme: Basketball

Class: The Arena

Periods: Team Names - Panthers, Tigers, Cougars, and Jaguars

Mission Statement: SLAM DUNK! Successful Leaders Aiming to Mathematically Demonstrate Unavoidable yet Necessary Knowledge

Analogy

Position Yourself: Homework is the “practice”
Aim for the Goal: Quizzes are “regular season games”
Shoot Your Shot: Interims are the “play-offs”
Swoosh!: The final is the “championship”

I tracked the class mastery percentage for each class. This created accountability for teams to perform well and it also fostered healthy competition across teams.

Students get recognized individually from each team monthly as the MVP for one or more of the following:

Above and beyond
Improve-ment
Peer tutoring

All students from each team who get 100% mastery on the current quiz got their quiz hung up on the board.

All students who earn MVP status get added to the Hall of Fame after each monthly update - and stays there the following year.

Students got to shoot for homework passes as an incentive for great work in one of the following:

Group work
Higher level thinking
Highest class mastery

They would get to choose "Double or Nothing" if they wanted to challenge me on a problem.

"In God we trust; all others bring data." -W. Edwards Deming

This was my data for the 9th grade EPAS exam my first year at Muchin (and teaching high school).

This was my data for the 9th grade EPAS my second year at Muchin.

The Structured Cycle for Teaching and Learning

I want to be sure to mention that the work here was done in collaboration with my planning partner - Emily Mason.

This is what my long term plan looked like (page 1 of 2).

This is what my long term plan looked like (page 2 of 2).

This is what weekly quizzes looked like. Each question was mapped to an objective and standard to make tracking of mastery easier and to help students know what exactly they are good at and what skills they need more support with.

After each quiz, I would grade it that night and pass it back the following day. Students had to complete this tracker to see which objective(s) they mastered and which ones they didn't.

After they completed the above document, they updated this tracker, which was kept in their binder and used to determine which objectives they still need to master.

After each quiz, students were required to complete quiz corrections for homework. They were expected to keep working towards mastery; this was one way I supported them in doing that.

Skill Sheets were made for each objective to give students a way to practice the concept after fixing their mistakes on the quiz corrections.

Mastery Quizzes were created for each objective. After practicing the skill enough, students had to reassess their mastery.

After taking mastery quizzes, students were given this slip with the objective number and score. If they scored an 80% or higher, they marked the objective as mastered on their student tracker. If they earned less than an 80%, they had to do more practice and retake the same mastery quiz again...and again until they master it. No mastery quiz was ever handed back to a student.

I would kept track of the mastery of each objective for each student. I didn't record whether they mastered it the first time or had to retake, but if I did it again, I would - and use that as evidence for an effort grade.

At Muchin, we believed writing across the curriculum was important to their learning and would prepare them for college. Each quarter, students were required to complete a Collins writing assignment for every class (page 1 of 2).

I implemented student surveys across the building at Muchin after attending a teacher convening with the MET project (Bill and Melinda Gates). There are more parts to the survey, but these questions provided feedback about my practice from the student lens.

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