Orange Lutheran Learning Teams

The Language of Art

2011-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

LHS Student Artwork

Self-reflection aids students in incorporating elements and principles of art into their own artistic process.

Synopsis: Self-reflection can be a valuable tool and is an important aspect of human development and learning. Learning to communicate thoughts, ideas, and principles especially about one’s own work can create a level of understanding that allows students to continue to grow over time. The Art Team (Todd Eklund, Jeannie Mooney, David Sohn) has created a lesson on “Thinking Visually” to address the student need of connecting the thought/critique process through the duration of the year to enhance future growth. Their main objective was for 100% of Exploratory Art students to reflect through writing on their artistic process at the end of a certain art project by evaluating a specific principle(s)/element(s) used within their artwork.

LHS Student Artwork

The art team crafted a format by which students would be able to reflect on their work in terms of specific principles/elements of art currently being studied in class. Students will respond in their sketchbooks to specific questions given by the instructor. This format will be used multiple times throughout the year for each individual art project.

The Plan

The lesson began by teachers reviewing the concepts of the elements of arts and by reviewing the critique process and specifically targeting texture, balance, and unity.

For the first implementation, the art team chose the ‘texture quilt’ project as the topic of student reflection. After learning about the work and social commentary of New York story quilt artist Faith Ringgold, students were to apply the use of diverse textures into a quilt design. Through their work, students were to explore the use of actual, visual, simulated, rubbing, and invented textures. The quilt composition also needed to incorporate a sense of unity through color, theme, balance and placement of the textures implemented. This project had already been completed and was returned to the students for the reflection activity. Teachers introduced the structure of questions and how they would be used. It was also noted how important the questions were for the review process.

Students were then given a sheet containing four questions and were given 15 minutes to complete them in their sketchbooks.

Written Questions distributed to students to be completed in their sketchbooks.

How did you decide on the textures that you chose to use for your quilt?
Is your design symmetrical or asymmetrical? Explain how your design demonstrates this.
Describe how you think balance unifies your artwork.
Name at least one thing that you would change in your artwork if given the opportunity to do it again."

The art teams commented, “The purpose of answering the questions is for students to find success, search for ways to improve, and experience growth in the creative process by understanding the visual language of art.”

Teachers responded to the effectiveness of the lesson in that all students were reflective and thoughtful in their responses but some students struggled with the process as the use of specific art vocabulary varied. Based on evidence from their responses, it was clear that students had an understanding for the vision of the project from the beginning and were able to reflect on their work at the end.

Results

In order to analyze the effects of their lesson on student learning the art team chose writing samples from eight case-study students selected at the beginning of the year. They evaluated student responses to each question using the following grading scale:

Assessment Criteria

1 - Below Average - Didn't address what was being asked

2 - Average - Answered the basic question. Didn't expand.

3 - Above Average - Gives a "how" or "why"

Question	1. How did you decide on the textures that you chose to use for your quilt?	2. Is your design symmetrical or asymmetrical? Explain how your design demonstrates this.	3. Describe how you think balance unifies your artwork.	4. Name at least one thing that you would change in your artwork if given the opportunity to do it again.
Mean Score	2.6	2.2	2.3	2.5

Instructional Finding

Based on their results the art team identified three main findings.

#1 By modeling and discussing the proper use of vocabulary, students were able to successfully use this vocab in their written and verbal reflections.

#2 By giving students repeated opportunities to reflect and respond informally, students noticed that they incorporated these elements and principles into their work.

#3 Given new opportunities, students will continue to build on old concepts while infusing new concepts.

The art team found that this process of questioning allows concepts of critical thinking to be applied to other lessons or opportunities for reflection.

LHS Student Artwork

Eklund emphasizes, “This critical process needs to be practiced continually. Through practice it can get more sophisticated and help promote a successful creative process. By the end of the year each student will have evidence of growth in their art and understanding.”

The art team is now currently working on their second lesson in a series they call “Connecting the Critique to the Artistic Process.” Eklund says, “Exploratory Art students enjoy the creative process and they can be critical of their own work. The toughest part of this process is for students to understand what makes a work of art successful. It is a difficult task to verbalize what is intended to be visual.”

Math B: Developing Patience in Problem Solving

2010-10-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius. - Benjamin Disraeli

Synopsis: When presented with a challenging problem, students often give up and appear to not spend much time struggling with the problem. Having patience with problem solving often requires accepting a delayed solution resulting from many different thought processes. Students can not necessarily expect to arrive at a correct conclusion by merely looking at the problem. There are many small steps that lead to solving a challenging problem. These steps interact with each other and require students to recall past information and apply it to the current problem. Teaching students to be patient by modeling how to set up smaller goals encourages students to continue working towards a delayed solution as they can see the progress they’ve made so far. Having sectioned off each step of the problem solving process, students can revisit each step as often as they like. Problem solving then becomes a fluid process with many parts leading to a whole and correct solution. To this end, the Math A team developed and taught students how to use a construct to guide students in solving challenging problems.

Choosing the Student Need: For the first blog of the 2010-2011 school year I decided to share a story from the team I facilitate from last school year. Each teacher in the Math A team (Dustin Boburka, Mark Klitzing, Jeremiah Nelson, Facilitator: Matt Potthoff) teaches the common subject of Geometry. Over the last few years we have been addressing individual lessons (Congruent Triangles, Applying Area Formulas, etc.) but last fall wanted to address the need students had for showing patience while solving challenging problems across the Geometry curriculum. We spent several meeting discussing why this need was of particular importance and exactly what it meant to be patient. What we found was that patience in problem solving is different than patience for waiting for a package to arrive. Blaise Pascal also recognized this important need of patience in problem solving:

Intuitive minds, on the contrary, being thus accustomed to judge at a single glance, are so astonished when they are presented with propositions of which they understand nothing, and the way to which is through definitions and axioms so sterile, and which they are not accustomed to see thus in detail, that they are repelled and disheartened. But dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical. Mathematicians who are only mathematicians have exact minds, provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms; otherwise they are inaccurate and insufferable, for they are only right when the principles are quite clear. And men of intuition who are only intuitive cannot have the patience to reach to first principles of things speculative and conceptual, which they have never seen in the world and which are altogether out of the common.

- Pensees, Blaise Pascal 1660

Instead, patience is a diligent process by which one uses a methodical process to come to a solution. Patience with problem solving means taking the time to understand a problem, developing a plan to solve the problem, writing down everything known, referencing material for what you don't know, writing down the thought process of going through the problem, checking to see if the answer is logical, and going back to correct mistakes while documenting amount of time spent per problem.

Defining our Objective: We determined that by the Chapter 7 Test, 95% of honors Geometry and 80% of regular Geometry students would be able to show patience with problem solving. In order to measure if students were showing patience, we outlined specifically what this meant in terms of student work.

The students will:

1. Set aside sufficient time to prepare to do the problem.
2. Take sufficient time to understand a problem.
3. Develop a plan to solve the problem.
4. Reference material for what you know and need to know to solve the problem.
5. Outline their thought process of solving the problem.
6. Check to see if their answer is logical.
7. Go back to correct mistakes.
8. Document the amount of time to go through the process.

Developing a Plan: In order to teach students to show patience with problem solving we decided we needed a construct or advanced organizer that would not only give the students an outline of the steps needed to solve challenging problems but create a space where students could write down their work on each step in an organized manner. For this we developed a 4-step Problem Solving Plan, adapting a problem solving plan that Mark Klitzing currently used and enlisting the help of Rob LaPointe who also employs a general problem solving plan in his Physics classes. We invited Rob to one of our Wednesday morning LT meetings and he shared his insights on the problem solving process which helped to clarify our vision for our own 4-Step Plan.

Our instructional approach consisted of explaining each step of the 4-Step Plan, modeling how to use the construct with a challenging problem, and then letting students work independently to solve a problem using the construct. The 4-Step Plan itself is made up of four boxes: 1) drawing and labeling a diagram of the problem, 2) listing out general information about the problem including definitions, postulates, and theorems using a reference guide (a composition book of notes taken during class as a result of a previous Learning Team cycle), 3) developing a detailed plan of how to solve the problem, and 4) finally implementing the plan to come to a solution and verify the solution is sound. While presenting the plan we stressed to students that the entire process of problem solving would be graded and not simply the correct solution. We showed students how the process was fluid, moving back and forth between the different steps, adding additional markings to the drawing as more information surfaced, crossing out ideas that were irrelevant to the problem, and re-outlining the plan to solve the problem as necessary. We also made note of how long each step as well as the entire process took.

Results: We then recorded the results of students using the 4-Step Plan to solve a problem on the Chapter 7 test. We found that 100% of students were able to draw some sort of figure and 85% of students were able to draw as well as label the figure correctly in Box 1. In Box 2, 91% of students wrote down at least some pertinent information and 60% wrote down all the information needed to solve the problem. In Box 3, 93% of students attempted to write a plan with 47% writing a plan that would lead to a correct solution. In Box 4, 89% of students were able to correctly follow the plan they outlined in Box 3, while 38% actually followed their plan and got the correct answer.

We found many strengths in the student work that we felt were a result of how we taught students to use the 4-Step Plan. We observed students putting in an unusual amount of effort and never stopped working on the problems for the allotted time. Students, for the first time gave positive comments about working on the challenging problems and showed less anxiety. We also found that most students were able to draw the diagram, give basic information about the problem, and develop and carry out their plan to solve the problem. While there were some needs that still need to be addressed (Box 2: writing a more detailed list of information, Box 3: developing a logical plan) we decided we had met our objective for now, and would continue to use this 4-Step Plan for challenging problems throughout the curriculum working to refine each step of the process and teach students to use them more efficiently and effectively.

Instructional Finding: To help students develop patience while solving challenging problems it is important to give them some sort of construct (or plan) that presents problem solving as a fluid process made up of smaller more easily achieved goals. The construct should provide students a starting point and require them to list what they already know, to brainstorm a plan to solve the problem, and a place where the problem is to be worked out. Teaching the construct requires a detailed explanation of the purpose and effective use of each step, modeling how to use the construct, and continuing to assist students in utilizing the construct over time. It is in the process of problem solving that students should find their achievement with the correct answer being merely a byproduct of sustained, relevant, and focused effort. The entire process should be evaluated by the teacher and not just the correct answer.

Removing Affective Filter Key to Active Involvement in Conversation in Spanish

2010-04-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

Picture yourself in a crowded apartment, standing room only. It is loud as friends laugh and joke and share stories from the past work week. Groups of three and four huddle close to hear what each other has to say. Your friend, the only person you would know at this get-together is running a little late. You are eager to meet new people, even though the art of conversation is a struggle for you. As you position yourself to join in the conversation of a group standing near the kitchen you realize, they aren’t speaking in English. Actually, no one is speaking English. Fear, panic, dread, and high school Spanish class flash through your mind as you begin to sweat.

The Orange Lutheran Spanish Learning Team (consisting of Norma Arambula, Azalea Holness, Ignacio Brache, Krystin Tribole, and facilitated by Bonnie Nourse) has identified being actively involved in a conversation as a key need of students in the Spanish classroom. They define active involvement as the ability to listen and speak in a manner that adds to a conversation without anxiety. Mrs. Nourse states, “Students feel inadequate when speaking a foreign language; they are uncomfortable speaking. Here in the Spanish department we want students to leave this school feeling confident in their ability to hold a conversation in Spanish.” While the above scenario might be a bit far-fetched, many Orange Lutheran students do have the opportunity to attend mission trips to primarily Spanish-speaking parts of the world. They have been in situations where Spanish is the only language they have in common with which to communicate. While this need might address a component assessed by AP tests it is useful and practical beyond the classroom. Mrs. Nourse Said, “It's really different from what we do in class, because they are not practicing the same thing over and over again. It's much more difficult outside of the classroom because it's tougher to anticipate what they might need to say, and they really need to listen much more carefully.” Mrs. Nourse also commented that even apart from Spanish, communicating through conversation is a life-long skill all students will be required to use in their daily lives.

It was the goal of the Spanish Learning Team that 85% of Español 4 students will apply the subject matter from a specific set of given questions in a conversation lasting four minutes. To help students with this art of conversation the team devised a plan where students would pair up and participate in several four-minute conversations resembling ‘speed dating’ while recording their conversations.

Prior to the conversation activity, students were given clear expectations for what would need to take place during these four-minute conversations. The class watched a video on getting to know a person. These videos served as a listening activity to get students warmed up to the concept of what you ask someone when you are trying to get to know them better. The class then held a discussion after viewing the videos and discussed who they thought might be the better friend (or more interesting person to talk with) according to the questions they asked. Mr. Brache put it this way, “If you were on a date and all you did was give ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses, or if the other person didn’t ask any follow-up questions and you just sat there and stared at each other, how well do you think that date would be going?” Nourse added, “The hope was that these samples would motivate the students to make more interesting conversation.” Audio recorders were distributed to each pair of students lined up across the room. (The Spanish Team found that spreading students out more is beneficial to the quality of the audio recordings.) Students were allowed to pick their partner so they would be comfortable with the activity, thus lowering the affective filter. “At first there was some giggling because the students were uncomfortable with the recorders but they settled down and were able to complete the activity fairly proficiently,” said Nourse.

One student was given a card with several questions designed to initiate the conversation. The other student would respond in complete sentences elaborating on the questions while the first student actively listened. The student with the card was then encouraged to ask follow-up questions so the conversation would continue for the entire four minutes. Students were expected to speak only in Spanish and without verbal delays. The pair would then trade for a different conversation card and have another four-minute conversation. Overall, this process was repeated a total of three times. One of the immediate findings of the Spanish Learning Team, after their first implementation, was that it would have been more beneficial to pause and have them listen to their recording and reflect on their conversation, instead of repeating it over and over again.

The recorders were then turned back in to the teacher. The teacher then led a class discussion of the process. The students identified where they got stuck and then the class collaborated on possible responses. Many of the initial responses were in English, and then were quickly translated back to Spanish. In retrospect it would have been helpful to have a written reflection where students individually evaluated their conversations. Nourse shared these and several suggestions from the Spanish team for having the lesson run more smoothly in the future. “Definitely more practice with the recorders, and less modeling with the videos at the beginning. It will be key for the students to evaluate themselves (listen to their own recording) to deepen their reflections.”

The Spanish Learning Team then listened to the recorders as a group during their Wednesday morning meeting. Nourse commented, “This process of evaluating our teaching and inquiry is extremely helpful and is exciting to be a part of. Using the Google Doc to record meeting notes has helped the group members understand the 7step process and feel like more active participants in the process.” The team used a tally sheet to evaluate the student recordings. The tally sheet functioned to allow every teacher to focus on the actual objective. It made it black and white whether or not students were meeting the objective. It also eliminated unrealistic expectations that were not a part of the objective. The result of the tally sheet showed the greatest strength evident in the recordings was that students tried! Most made it through speaking the whole time and had fun while doing it. They did answer the questions and did not seem too nervous. They were engaged in the conversation, talking with their partner about whatever came up and enjoying it enough to not be worried about how they sounded. The Spanish Learning Team really felt that lowering the affective filter really helped students feel comfortable and allowed them to be successful in this activity. There were some continuing needs identified through the recordings, as well. Students struggled with subject/verb agreement, verb conjugation and elaborating their response and/or expanding the question (using yes/no responses). There was also a bit of nervousness with the recorders, which caused some mild giggling during the recording. Subsequent instruction will continue to focus on using recorders to reduce the giggling and nervous ‘umms.’ The team also will come up with a structured activity to help students think of relevant responses to questions, giving them tools to aid in conversation such as slowing down and thinking about the question and how they will answer before they start speaking.

The Spanish learning team feels they have met their primary objective of students engaging in a four-minute conversation without anxiety. In addition they found that students speak more freely, with less anxiety and inhibition than they did before, but would like to see students continue to elaborate on their answers. They have also observed that students are more likely to answer questions in class, engage in speaking activities, and have improved in their listening skills. Mrs. Nourse concludes, "We're very excited about this process because it makes Spanish 'real' for students. We want them to be able to take something with them from their 4 years of Spanish. We think, that with a little bit more practice, and a few more assessments, we would get the kind of speaking sample we are looking for."

Critical Thinking Drives Student Need in Deeper Reading of Great Gatsby, Paradise Lost.

2010-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: The English A Team (consisting of Skye Marciniak, Rachel Young, Christina Ramirez, and Evan Herold and facilitated by Julia Parsons) is putting their Wednesday morning efforts towards figuring out how best to teach students to read for broader concepts in conjunction with specific details. They believe that students should be able to read for broader concepts in conjunction with specific details. Students should understand that details contribute to the overall piece rather than believing that details ARE the piece and be able to reference the text directly during written and oral discussions. In order to address this need, they have employed a strategy of teacher modeling, group discussion and presentation while giving them a lens to focus their thinking.

The beauty of good literature is that it reads on such a deeper level than simple storytelling. While reading comprehension relies on details to understand the development of the plot, it also has to do with understanding how all those details contribute to the overall piece. Details can add to and influence the tone and mood of a piece as well as enliven characterization and setting. This team’s goal was to get Freshman English students to reference the text directly during written and oral discussions using The Great Gatsby. Julia Parsons (facilitator) notes, “Critical thinking is really what is driving our student need. Students often rush through passages looking for the plot and miss details that enhance the overall story. Fitzgerald writes very intentionally and each detail is important.”

The English A team’s primary instructional focus was to have students collaborate in groups to discuss how a passage’s details contribute to an overarching theme or attribute of the entire work.

The lesson began by students reading the beginning of Chapter 7 on their own. Students were then asked to fill out a confidence survey rating their ability to:
1.   Understand the passage.
2.   Discuss why specific details were included and what they contribute to the overall story.
3.   Give a verbal presentation on how these details add important character information.
4.   Write an essay on why the setting is important in the text.
In addition, students were to judge whether or not the passage was important to the overall story and cite two important things that happened in the passage. Next, the teacher led a whole class discussion of a passage while modeling for the students what they would later be doing in their own groups. As a whole class they looked specifically at characterization, symbol and tone. After this, the class was divided into six groups to discuss a different passage. Two groups were to look specifically at indirect characterization, two groups had a passage detailing setting, and two groups had passages regarding tone. Each group had ten minutes to discuss their passage focusing on their specific key element. Parsons stated, “We wanted to give the students a lens for looking at how a specific detail would relate to any one of the five greater themes of tone/mood, word choice, symbolism, meaningful character info, and setting.“ After this time each group shared/lead a class discussion on their passage. Finally, students were asked to reread the beginning of Chapter 7 and fill out the confidence survey again. According to Parsons, “this was a key point to the lesson because it allowed students to slow down and reread the passage using a specific lens to focus their thoughts.”

When the English A team went to look at student work and the results of the confidence survey they were guided by their objective: “By mid-November, 75% of students will indicate a confidence level of 7/10 or higher when given a survey testing confidence levels in understanding higher-level concepts. “ Parsons commented that it was the first time they had numerical data to evaluate the strengths of their students and found this to be quite worthwhile. The English A team found that most students showed some improvement in number scored from the first survey to the second survey and all of the groups came up with something to share with most of those being quality insights. The average for the confidence level survey for each period was either above 7/10 or close to 7/10, meeting their objective.

The instructional approach helped students focus on the details they need to be reading for when they read on their own. By having students reread passages they were able to see things they didn’t pay attention to the first time. The combination of these two strategies (focus on details and rereading) gave students the proper lens for looking beyond plot details towards a deeper understanding of the work as a whole. Some continuing needs for the students included a low confidence level for writing an essay about setting. Students still required some sort of help or needed to be prompted to give appropriate responses. They were not to the point where they could be self-sufficient with each of the tasks. The English A team feels students needed more time to give their group presentations and that more repetition of modeling would have been helpful.

Although this team met its initial objective (70%) they still felt this student need had not been met to the point students could complete these tasks independently. While this strategy was helpful, the English A team needed to figure out how to have students complete work at home and on an individual basis.

After employing their instructional focus and documenting both the successes and the continuing need for develping student independence, they decided to employ the same instructional approach with the Junior level English 3 classes by choosing five passages from Paradise Lost (worksheet). They chose to use the same questions but tried to instill more of an individual thought process. “I really liked this LT lesson,” shared Parsons, “Paradise Lost is so difficult for students making it the perfect place to employ it. Students stick on the surface idea of the book, but don’t look at the details or the language.” During a Wednesday morning meeting the English A team was able to do a dry run-through of the lesson. This allowed them to know what to target specifically and how to direct students. Parsons noted, “As a teacher you don’t always have that much time to do that much legwork. It made the lesson stronger to have four other teacher’s insights and not just my own.”

The English A team felt this lesson helped students dig deeper into the text by requiring them to cite actual quotes. The lesson also allowed time to focus on shorter passages as well as gave students individual time to think them through. In place of filling out the confidence survey, the students were given a worksheet to fill out individually while they took notes on the passage. Then students paired up with a partner to discuss their answers to the worksheet before discussing together as a class. During the class discussion students were able to add to the notes they had taken individually. From this worksheet teachers were able to see the individual student work as well as what students learned from the class discussion. This method allowed teachers to differentiate between student’s individual thoughts and those of the collective class.

At this point the English A team is keeping the same student need for future lessons. They are looking into adapting their lesson for other classes and reading assignments and connecting it to the next stages of deeper reading. They intend to focus now on having students think more independently and representing their thinking in writing.

If you have any comments about this story or would like to ask any questions, please leave your comments below.

UPDATE! The Laboratory Connection

2010-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

In conclusion to the Chemistry Team's lesson on Lab Technique (Original Post) the following represent some successes of the lesson and things that still need to be worked on.

Lab Technique Rubric

Things that went well:

* Having an extra teacher in the classroom.
* Emphasizing the importance/expectation of these skills
* Including this skill test is part of their finals grade
* Integrating the lab technique exercise at the beginning of the year.

Things to improve on:

* Keeping the sitting students quiet – better instruction as to being quiet or give a quiz or test
* Reducing the size of the rubric – make it a ½ sheet
* Handing students the sheet with the item already circled – then they worked on their own pace (although there are some who took too long given this method)
* Prep time – starting more than just a day in advance
* In labs throughout the semester having pauses where individual students are asked to mass (or other skills)
* Pre-determining tolerance levels
* Holding “hard and fast” to a time limit – figuring out a way to make this easier to monitor
* Implementing an "Automatic failure" – throwing match in the sink; not putting on their safety equipment
* Ideally, figuring out a way to make it one-on-one (keeping track of 6-8 at a time is difficult). Setting a schedule at the beginning of the year where each student is given a date that they have to stay 15 minutes after school to complete this exercise. Students could reschedule if done two weeks in advance, but if they miss their scheduled date they would receive a zero. This would allow the teacher to do one-on-one with the student.

UPDATE! What do Bungee Jumping and the Discriminant have in common?

2010-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Since my last posting, the Math A team has had a chance to teach their lesson on the discriminant, garner video of the lesson and student work, and analyze how their plan impacted student learning. When we left off, we were unsure if students would connect the use of the discriminant to determine the number and nature of roots of a quadratic function to the real-life situation of bungee jumping. (Follow this link to read the original post.)

Garet and Jenny were both able to teach the lesson according to plan. They started off with a brief review of the quadratic equation, which is used to determine the actual solutions of a quadratic function (the x-intercepts). Garet felt that more emphasis could have been placed on this previous fact as it related later in the lesson. The student driven calculator activity worked to develop a rich discussion among students. They would struggle to first determine the value of the discriminant and compare there finding with the graph a certain function produced. A video of the lesson was made, which the Math A team then analyzed in their Wednesday morning meeting. The video showed how pairs of students were able to realize that the discriminant would tell them how many solutions an equation had and how this related the number of times the graph of the function would intersect the x-axis. Students correctly deduced that when the discriminant was positive, zero, or negative, the function would intersect the x-axis twice, once, or not at all respectively. Maggie commented, “It was interesting to hear students describe a function that didn’t intersect the x-axis as ‘up in the air’.” It seems at this point the students were well primed to tackle the bungee jumping problem.

The Math A team found that students generally enjoyed working on the bungee jumping problem and figured out pretty quickly that if the jumpers didn’t want to hit the ground there couldn’t be any x-intercepts in the function. They were able to connect that they needed to determine if the discriminant had a negative value to see if the jumpers would survive and not hit the ground. Erica commented, “I think this illustration just made the students stop and think for a minute rather than just rush through a problem. There was actually a real-life purpose for understanding the discriminant value and what it needed to be in order for a person to not die bungee jumping.”

Overall, the main strengths evident in student work were that students did not ‘memorize’ the application of the discriminant but actually understood it. Students had a very strong understanding of the idea that a negative discriminant value has no x-intercept. Students were also able to analyze the mathematical concepts presented and connect a function to its visual graph. The main element of the lesson that contributed to these strengths was the lack of direct teacher instruction, whereas the students needed to make connections for themselves. This forced students to discuss the mathematical concepts together. The visual approach of connecting the graph and the x-intercepts helped students to understand the purpose of the discriminant.

After analysis of the lesson, the Math A team found that there were still several items that needed to be addressed in terms of the discriminant. While students were able to determine the number of roots of a function as well as how that related to the graph, they were still not able to connect that the x-intercepts were the actual solutions of the function. Other continuing needs include using function notation where g(x) is a function ‘g’ in terms of the variable ‘x’ as opposed to g times x. Using correct mathematical vocabulary such as ‘intersect’ instead of cross and using equalities and inequalities to represent positive, negative and zero values of the discriminant would also be something to add to future instruction.

In this story the bungee jumpers lived to jump another day. Through this process, the Math A team was able to glean some general truths about teaching that they are now working to apply in other areas of their curriculum. The connection between a graph and the concept is a powerful tool in student understanding. Teaching through a mode of student discovery forces students to discuss mathematical concepts with each other and generate their own conclusions. Real world applications are very helpful in developing student’s problem solving skill and developing a deeper understanding of a mathematical concept.

The Laboratory Connection

2009-12-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: The Learning Teams setting is not that disimilar to the laboratory setting found in a Chemistry class. Plans are laid out, hypotheses are created, and results measured and analyzed. The Chemistry Learning Team consisting of John Malmquist, Mark Maietta, Dave Elfman, Tanya Grasz and facilitated by Jane Besch has identified an essential need in the Science curriculum regardless of course level and it takes place in the laboratory. Students need to know and use proper laboratory techniques to gather data, and then practice critical thinking skills to interpret and analyze data, and succinctly and coherently express their findings about scientific phenomenon or questions. This overarching need has driven the Chemistry team's work in Learning Teams for the last three years and with this new thread they are striving to use first semester to sequentially teach and assess student's laboratory techniques and second semester to have students use these techniques to connect the concepts taught in the classroom with a physical lab and be able to express themselves through a lab report. The Chemistry team hopes to form a set of criteria with which they can measure the success of their students of all different grade levels in conducting and analyzing labs.

Over the last three years the Chemistry team has seen improvements in student's lab reports due to their work in Learning Teams, but felt they needed another cycle to adequately address this student need. While the five teachers don't have a common class among them (Introductory to Physical Science, Chemistry, Honors Chemistry, and AP Chemistry) the lab setting is common to all. The group hopes that students will also be able to take these basic lab skills with them to college where professors will already expect students to know how to perform the simple tasks of data collection in the lab. The group has formalized a specific set of skills necessary to collect data in a lab:

1. Safety - Proper safety techniques and equipment.
2. Use of graduated cylinder to measure volume.
3. Use of triple beam balance to measure mass.
4. Use of a metric ruler to measure length.
5. Igniting a Bunsen burner.
6. Use of a calculator with concentration on exponents.
7. Demonstration of proficient use of significant figures.

Their basic plan to teach these elements include informing students at the beginning of each year of the skills in which each will be expected to demonstrate proficiency, demonstrating the techniques each student will be expected to master, and giving students ample opportunities to practice lab skills, specifically massing, volume determination, burner ignition and linear measurement. Students will be given a packet on measuring (length, volume, mass), using significant figures and precision and accuracy. Students will be asked to use measurements to calculate things like density given a known object with a known mass or length, etc. to measure and will be graded for accuracy. Mrs. Besch says, "Each lab will have repetition of techniques. There won't be a particular lesson, but each lab will highlight the seven basic elements. In the labs for first semester there will be planned 'pauses' that focus on how to do a lab, rather than just doing the lab." To ensure all students must learn all the elements of lab technique, lab partners will be switch periodically throughout the semester.

To assess whether students have mastered these lab techniques and interpreting data, at the end of semester one, each student will be given a hands-on evaluation that will be scored to check proficiency of laboratory skills. A final exam question will also be developed for semester one (level appropriate) to check proficiency of interpretation of data.

The promise of this focus is that after students master lab techniques during semester one they will be able to more freely focus on the connection of material learned in class with what they are doing in a lab. "Labs are done for a purpose in a unit – we want students to use the information from lectures clearly connecting the concepts with what was visually/physically expressed in the lab," explained Besch. To achieve this, the team will create a set of pre-lab and post-lab questions that enable students to produce a correct response. During the second semester each course will use a different lab to gather data about student's progress toward this goal. General Chemistry will focus on the above as it relates to the Soap Project, Honors Chemistry will use the Spectroscopy lab, and IPS will use the Sludge Test. The Chemistry team expects that 100% of students will be able to score an 85% or better on their lab reports by the end of second semester.

As the data from their different classrooms comes in over the next several months the Chemistry team will have the task of interpreting this data as to whether their efforts have indeed addressed the students' need to master lab techniques in order to use labs as a powerful tool to reinforce and model the truths of Chemistry. This connection between instruction and student learning will help guide the Chemistry team as they teach their respective students in view of the student's total time of Scientific study here at Orange Lutheran.

UPDATE!

Who’s the Real Jesus? The great reversal and the six woes.

2009-11-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: Who is Jesus to you? Is he your buddy? Is he God? If Jesus does something in the Bible you don’t like, that doesn’t fit your belief of who He is, do you just dismiss it? From what the Bible teaches, Jesus might not be the guy you were expecting. The Theology B team has been working to help students determine who Jesus really is as portrayed in the New Testament. To accomplish this goal they have decided to use ‘The great reversal’ as their lens for viewing the New Testament. To help students view Jesus in a Biblical context and apply what Jesus has to say to their lives the team has established a three-step process in which students analyze Luke 11 and the six woes and try to identify with the Pharisees in this story. After learning about Jesus’ intentions and the Biblical context, students will apply Jesus’ teachings to the student body of Orange Lutheran.

The Theology B team, consisting of Sarah Salzberg, Ken Young, Jon Larson, and Ben Strohschein, have been working on the lens with which they would like their Theology students to view the New Testament through. Students do not see that the Jesus of the New Testament is the same Jesus today and they do not understand how Scripture reveals the person and work of Christ both in the Gospels and the early church. Students' needs include reading the context of Scripture and applying those learnings to their life and theology so that they are equipped with the knowledge of the New Testament as developing their ownership of their faith.

To address student’s need to understand who the real Jesus is, they have chosen to look at the New Testament through the lens of the Great Reversal as found in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28.

²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.

When Jesus came, he wasn’t the guy the Pharisees were expecting. Jesus treated the Pharisees fairly harshly and our students often find it easy to point the finger at the Pharisees. What students don’t realize is that Jesus isn’t just convicting the Pharisees, but them as well. Students need to understand the real person and work of Christ in scripture as well as our lives.

To determine whether this need is met through their lesson, the Theology B team has set for the following objective. “On the Unit 3 exam, given lessons taught through the lens of the Great Reversal, all students will improve in their ability to describe Jesus in terms of His work in His time, synthesize, and analyze how that work is relevant in their life today with most of the students properly analyzing a Scripture passage they have not studied before through the lens of the Great Reversal.”

To help students make this connection, the students will work through a lesson on Luke 11 and the six woes to the Pharisees. The method will be a group triathlon competition. The winners will be based on finishing first and accuracy of answers. (Luke 11 Worksheet) First the students will work through the first column of the Luke 11 worksheet to decipher the six woes. They will read each scripture passage and in groups come up with the accusation Jesus is making. When a group has figured out all of the accusations, they will need to get it checked by the teacher before moving on to the next leg of the triathlon. For the second leg of the triathlon, students will match the given Bible passages on the Pharisees with each of the specific woes. Again, when the group believes they have the verses matched correctly, they will check them with the teacher justifying their reason for pairing the verse with the accusation. The final leg of the triathlon involves students working together to fill in the third column of the worksheet. In this column students are asked to come up with 4 modern examples at Orange Lutheran for the woes. After each group finishes, they must turn in the worksheet to the teacher. The winning group is decided based upon the first group in with the most accurate answers in the third column. Class ends with a discussion on the modern examples as a way of evaluating if students truly understand what Jesus was telling the Pharisees and how it is still applicable.

The responses from the teachers after this lesson was taught and student work was analyzed were mixed. One teacher found that students were able to complete columns 1 and 2 quite adequately with guidance and probing questions from the teacher. This teacher also noted the group competition setting worked well when the teacher was able to converse with each group on their modern examples. The students that thought they had already figured it out wanted to skip the first two steps and get straight to the application. Other teachers found that as they worked carefully to get students to understand the woes (column 1) they ran out of time to get to the application step (column 3). Those teachers also found that connecting the woes with other Bible passages (column 2) was an unnecessary step that didn't aid in student comprehension of the woes and only shortened their discussion time for the application to modern examples. These teachers suggest cutting this step or changing column 2 to have students write the accusation in simple, general language. Several students definitely succeeded in the application of Jesus’ teachings, as they found many striking modern examples of how the woes apply to the culture at Orange Lutheran. One specific success was identifying how Orange Lutheran can sometimes be a place where we build fences to curb our behavior but our hearts are not truly shown. An example is following the dress code as a strict rule as opposed to dressing in an appropriate manner because of the values students hold. Other students still struggled to connect the woes with daily life at Orange Lutheran. The Team believes that a more structured guiding of of step 3 or simply more time for students to struggle with the concept would help students to make that connection. A possible change for the third column would be "Woe to Lutheran High...woe to you gossipers and slanderers...". Overall, all teachers agree that students do understand the message Jesus was sending to the Pharisees and that going through the three columns really helped reinforce this idea.

As an adaptation to the lesson, the Theology B team will give a short answer question on the Unit 3 Exam asking students to give three of the woes and explain what each woe means in general language.

While students have not yet taken the Ch. 3 test, the results from the Luke 11 worksheet and the adaptations that have been discovered promise to describe Jesus in terms of His work in His time, synthesize, and analyze how that work is relevant in their life today while properly analyzing a Scripture passage they have not studied before through the lens of the Great Reversal. Ultimately, the Theology B team hopes this lesson will deepen their understanding of Scripture, see their connection to the Pharisees, and ultimately see a call to repentance and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ.

What do Bungee Jumping and the Discriminant Have in Common?

2009-09-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Synopsis: The Math A team has been working on the misconception students have that math is simply a set of steps that need to be followed to yield a memorized response. To help students critically examine and determine an appropriate course of action in solving a problem the Math A team has created a student driven calculator activity on the discriminant. In addition, they have created a real life problem where the students will use the discriminant to determine the safety standards of a bungee jump.

The Math A team (Jenny Miklos, Maggie Duerr, Erica Hantula, Garett Hill) has been working on the misconception students have that math is simply a set of steps that need to be followed to yield a memorized response. Ms. Miklos stated the team really wants students to understand that by critically examining a problem they would find there are multiple ways to get to the correct answers. Mrs. Duerr noticed this student need in her Advanced Placement Calculus class and it has trickled down to all levels of Mathematics at Orange Lutheran. The Math A team all agree that the critical thinking that leads to the development of a set of steps is crucial in a math student's understanding of any concept.

The Math A team identified a concept that was simple (students generally did well on a test, performing rote memorized responses) but didn't really understand what those responses meant or know how it applied to the real world. This combination led to a perfect concept, ripe with possibilities for critical thinking. The concept is the discriminant and is used in the realm of Algebra II.

The discriminant is generally used to determine what types of solutions a quadratic polynomial function has. In the past the students were simply asked to use the discriminant to describe the solutions as being two unequal real roots, one double root, or two unequal imaginary roots. While the students could spit back the appropriate response they were not able to make connections to the graph of the function or why knowing the types of solutions was important.

Based on insights gained from the results of past Learning Team lessons, the team developed a student-directed activity leading students to connect the function’s graph and its roots. According to Ms. Miklos, "When students discover things on their own its more personal and real to them; it helps them to remember the material in the long term which is important for the final as well as future classes." To be able to lead a successful student-directed activity in the classroom most of the work is done in very careful planning as opposed to what happens during instruction. Miss Miklos explained the main focus for this type of instruction as "giving students an organized activity where they have all necessary resources to succeed and that leads them to make connections and conclusions on their own without the teacher."

The Math A team is hopeful that students will learn the correlation between the discriminant and the graph of a quadratic function. To test student’s newfound relationship between the discriminant and a function’s graph, Mr. Hill thought students needed to see a real-life situation involving the discriminant. Here is the real-life example the group created.

Jon and Jaime went bungee jumping in a hot air balloon on their trip to Cabo San Lucas. Before Jon and Jaime jump, they decide, “Hey, we better make sure we’re high enough to not hit the ground when we jump.” They figure out that the elasticity of the bungee creates an equation of h = t^2 -9t + k , where h is the height above the ground of Jon and Jamie at any time, t, after jumping and k is the initial height from which they are jumping. How can we use the discriminant of the quadratic formula to find how high Jon and Jaime must start to make sure they don’t smack their heads on the ground?

Will Jon and Jaime survive? Will the Math A learning team’s plan succeed? Follow this link for the results of this exciting educational work!

Student Needs and Objectives

2009-09-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday will mark the third Learning Teams meeting at Orange Lutheran for the 09-10 school year. So far each of the eighteen groups has identified a basic student need in each of their subject area. Most groups have formulated an objective (or what they would like to see students do) that relates directly to this need. A few groups have even begun brainstorm possible methods to deliver instruction and are planning their lessons in detail.

I have chosen several groups to follow in detail as they go through the seven step process. I will be telling their stories over the course of the semester. Below is a list of these groups' student needs and objectives.

(To view a list of all student needs and objectives, click here.)

Math A - Analyzing and Justifying

Student Need: Analyzing and justifying means taking time to critically examine the problem presented to determine an appropriate course of action and giving a succinct and valid, logical explanation as to the approach taken or conclusion arrived at.

Objective: All students will demonstrate progress in analyzing and justifying mathematical problem solving through clear and concise explanation, use of mathematical language, and correct notation.

Theology B - The Real Jesus: The Work and Person of Christ

Student Need: Students do not see that the Jesus of the New Testament is the same Jesus today and they do not understand how Scripture reveals the person and work of Christ both in the Gospels and the early church. Students' need includes reading the context of Scripture and applying those learnings to their life and theology so that they are equipped with the knowledge of the NT as developing their ownership of their faith.

Objective: On the Unit 3 exam, given lessons taught through the lens of the Great Reversal, all students will improve in their ability to describe Jesus in terms of His work in His time, synthesize, and apply how that work is relevant in their life today with most of the students properly analyze and apply.

English B - Critical Thinking

Student Need: Thinking critically means being able to analyze and evaluate the literature creatively and independently.

Objective: By December 17, Within a given passage of literature, 100% students will be able to use diction, syntax, imagery, fiction element cues, and/or other literary devices and techniques which contribute towards a meaningful subjective interpretation and value of that passage.