Another interesting week!
So this week we took our first semester Math Benchmark. I was VERY nervous, for several reasons...
- it was the exact same Benchmark as last fall, with only 2-3 questions increased for vigor.
- it would be a REAL tell of how my students are doing with their first year of the Flipped Classroom.
- and the scariest of all for me, I haven't taught ANY test-formatted questions since Oct 15th.
So I was a little scared. We took the benchmark on Wednesday and when I first got the results back I was disappointed The students did not do bad at all, I was just very disappointed that they were 3% behind last years scores.
BUT, then on Thursday I pulled tons of data reports (I love looking at data) and went over the data reports with each student and found that out of 80 students, only 3 missed problems because of mathematical reasons (not understanding what to do or how to do the math). The REST of the students that missed problems missed them because of READING errors (missing the word "Not" or "estimate").
That had never happened before. Looking at last years scores, answers were all over the place and I had equal amounts of students missing problems because they didn't understand them and because they read to fast.
But what I learned from this year's group, is that because of the Flipped Classroom, my students have a MUCH clearer idea of what the math is doing and why they have to do the math certain ways. I had never seen that kind of understanding with my students before and it made me very excited.
To me, that is proof enough that the Flipped Class is working. My students' understanding of the math and it's processess is on SUCH a deeper level. And it's easy to fix the "reading" errors they had from the test. And I am thrilled to have the test scores I did WITHOUT TEACHING ANY TEST-FORMATTED QUESTIONS!! That's the biggest to me, since we now live in a day and age where teaching the test is the easiest route!
I am excited to start the second semester with my students. Great learning lies ahead!
this is encouraging. I find it a little difficult to stay out of the hype.. currently over state testing in March.. which is based on the old standards and not the new CCS.. I don't want to teach on a test-practice level and I am working hard to trust that my students will do well regardless... we shall see...
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