Emails From the Front - Parent Conferences...Basically Russian Roulette

Because I teach a modeling workshop class over the summer (with my amazing teaching partner Laura Ritter from Troy Schools in Michigan) I get a lot of email from participants that encounter both everyday problems and unique problems in their classrooms and at their schools.  Normally I respond and the responses end their existence in my "sent items" folder.  But I've decided to put some of the questions and responses here so that they live on in infamy.

Joanna Demars from Grosse Isle high school who is a new modeler and a new SBGer asked for some advice in anticipation of a parent conference later this week.  

My response is below.

I think this conference is a great opportunity for you!  You get to test drive your conviction regarding SBG and probably modeling.  However, this conference is not about defending SBG and modeling.  Nothing you say will convince her that SBG is the best way to go for her daughter - even though we know that it probably is.  Someone recently told me that, "You're never going to persuade anyone of anything just by telling them."  Which is akin to "You're never going to teach anyone anything just by telling them."  So I wouldn't sway her with articles or research.

Mostly this is an opportunity to listen.  The mother is clearly frustrated because her daughter isn't succeeding using the student methodology that she has been using up until now.  It may be (and I don't know the student) that she is one of those "if I do all of my work I should get an A" kind of kids.  If so and she's been able to do this for her career.  Instead of adapting her student methods she is blaming the grading system (and probably the modeling too).  This information has gotten to the mother and she is concerned.  So the most important thing...LISTEN to the mother!  Try to get to the root of the problem.  The C- that the kid is getting is the surface feature of a larger problem.  What is really underlying it is what we have to find out.  It may be that this girl isn't very bright and the farther she gets in high school the tougher it is becoming for her to stay on top without learning anything.  I can only imagine that being that grade focused is going to (or has already) led to a pretty mediocre ACT score.  Is her insecurity in school causing her mother's questions?  

Or are they having a mismatch between expectations and achievement?  If this poor girl has been told all of her life, "You're going to Michigan" and she's no where close in GPA and ACT then no wonder she and her mother are freaking out!  So no matter how much you want to explain SBG in detail, listen first.

Don't get frustrated.  In the end, you both really want the same thing; for her daughter to succeed.  And although you might have different models of what that looks like you really are on the same team.   You want that her daughter learns physics, and is able to show that learning is a way that is meaningful which will lead to a good grade.  She just wants the grade.  I think she is working from a playbook that is written like this - if the grade is good my kid must be learning something.  And because my kid is awesome, if they are learning something the teaching must be good too.  Most of the previous sentence is false.  As we know, good grades aren't always an indicator of learning.  And no one would consider it good teaching in a class where every kid gets an A based solely on their effort.  

Her comments are pretty interesting.  I don't know why she wants the class average; probably her daughter has always been above the class average and if she is not, then she probably feels that the problem is not with her daughter but with you.  But share that information with her so that she knows that you're perfectly transparent about your process.  

We aren't about learn and dump teaching and learning here.  You really want the best for her daughter and that is meaningful long term learning.  But (and this is important) if she has a suggestion to help her daughter you're would welcome it!  Use this line and put her in the position to suggest stuff, no matter how wacky.

In the end you and the mother have to come up with a plan to get the student moving in the correct direction.  

Consider this - there really ins't a moral high ground here.  As a new(er) teacher you may be thinking that you have to "stick to your guns" on your grading system.  However, this isn't a my-way-or-the-highway kind of conversation.  You have to come up with a plan that everyone is happy with.  And if that means giving in a little (or a lot) to get the girl and mother on your side and moving in the right direction (that will both lead to better understanding and better grades) then do it!  Highlight the ides of reassessment and how important it is to both the learning and the grading.  We don't know how long it takes each kid to learn a concept and giving them only one opportunity seems a little antiquated.  If she reassesses then she studies more, learns more and ends up with a better grade.  Where is the down side. 

As for student motivation.  We expect that our students have the maturity to understand how school works.  If they choose not to do any work until the last graded assignment then they won't create deep and meaning full connections with all of the activities we do throughout the unit or quarter.  We are trying to help our students learn the value of giving your best effort at all times.  However, giving effort grades for just showing up or "completing" ones homework isn't a substitute for actually showing that they have learned anything.  

Suggestions:

The girl has to reassess; plain and simple.  If necessary tell them that you're happy to schedule time just for her but the ball has to be in her court.

Host a physics study group session in your classroom so that she and her friends can come in and work together or with you to clear up their misconceptions.

Offer to let her drop the class.  If they aren't happy then maybe a different class would be best.

Offer to let her retake the tests (the same ones) that she did poorly on again.  This will let her and her mother know that she still has no clue or maybe she does!

Outline what it means to be a good student in your class; what does a good notebook look like, how much time is spent on homework, studying, reassessing, etc.  So that the mother knows why good students to well and why her daughter isn't.

OK enough rambling, I hope some of this helps.

The original email follows.

Hello Don and Laura! I hope you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep... although the buddies probably got you up, Don...

Anyway, I have parent-teacher conferences this week and I'm trying to gear up to talk about this new grading system. I have a parent email that I'd like some advice on how to respond. 

I know that I want to talk about how SBG promotes retention and deep understanding, but I know that this student in particular doesn't care whatsoever what she learns, but instead wants to just get her A. 

How should I approach this mother's email?

I welcome any advice you have!!

Joanna

Emails From the Front - Why Isn't This Working?

Because I teach a modeling workshop class over the summer (with my amazing teaching partner Laura Ritter from Troy Schools in Michigan) I get a lot of email from participants that encounter both everyday problems and unique problems in their classrooms and at their schools.  Normally I respond and the responses end their existence in my "sent items" folder.  But I've decided to put some of the questions and responses here so that they live on in infamy.

Kyle Luz from Eisenhower High School in Utica emailed me about some frustration he was having with his kids learning about the accelerating particle model.

Here is my response.

Here is the theme of this email: when we were teaching in a more traditional style the kids didn't really understand acceleration then either but our teaching didn't put us in a position to even know it!

Most teachers (at times myself included) exist in persistent state of denial about how much their students know and are able to do.  With a traditional model we teach and then give homework, go over the homework, and then quiz.  The students who do well "really must have paid good attention" and the students who did poorly "just didn't get it" or "didn't apply themselves".  The students are to blame and we just go about the business of teaching.  We don't know (along the way) what they know and are able to do and frankly many teachers really don't want to.  We don't even give ourselves an opportunity to find out!  This is not necessarily all true - I'm stereotyping to make a point.

With the modeling method we are constantly into the kids business of learning!  We are constantly finding out what they know and don't during white board creation when we visit their small groups, during white board discussion in large groups, during challenges (practicums) when they are forced to apply their knowledge, all of the time!  Because the focus is on the students and not on the teacher they have to express their knowledge on a daily basis not just on quizzes. 

This, however, doesn't mean that they "get it" in fact it just highlights the fact that acceleration is the HARDEST topic of study that they will encounter!  Until I started really working with kids I didn't know how challenging this was for them.  And even if kids can draw the correct graphs I don't know if they get acceleration.  That's why we do motion maps also.

Let's talk about the graphs.  How hard are these?!?!?!  Impossible, seriously.  But the fact that the kids cannot interpret these graphs is not necessarily a function of your class.  It is a deficiency built of years of mediocre math and science education.  This is a huge problem for all kids in all schools.  That is why the ACT science section (which is just interpreting graphs) is such a good assessment of kids reasoning abilities.  Knowing this and I mean really knowing this gives us a huge advantage over other teachers.  We now know what the kids can and cannot do and have the tools to help them do better!

Your situation is not unique, however.  Yesterday we were doing a challenge where they were given a ball bearing and a ramp and a buggy.  They took whatever measurements they wanted and the challenge was, when given a spot on the ramp from which to release the ball could they get the ball to hit the buggy at the end of the ramp.  Some kids jumped in and knew that they needed the acceleration of the ball and the speed of the buggy.  However, I visited one group who told me they were looking for the "speed of the ball on the ramp".  I'm like, but doesn't the ball speed up on the ramp?  Blank stares.  Seriously? 

After years of this, however, I kind of know where the kids are going to struggle so I'm not too surprised and I'm finally not in denial about how hard it is and how they really don't get it.  Consider this statement, "Fast cars have fast accelerations."  I don't think there is a student out there who would dispute this, however, aren't there huge issues with this statement!  The kids naturally confuse the value of a with the change in that value - in this case its velocity and acceleration.  But all of their lives the two have been inseparable! 

In conclusion:
1. They really have never gotten acceleration on a conceptual level that would allow them to do more than solve problems.
2. It is way harder than advertised!
3. Living in denial about what you students know and is so much easier and acknowledging their failings does turn one's hair white (or whiter).
4. The kids don't understand these things because of cultural misunderstandings.

But, there is hope.  Helping kids learn this stuff in the context of real learning is WAY better than not.  Even though they all might not get it, they will develop skills that will take them far into the future.  And they are engaged, and they like it, and you have a good relationship with them; all positives!  We never know how long it will take anyone to learn something.  That is why some of us have our kids assess and reassess and re-reassess.  It given them multiple opportunities to show what they have learned.  But that is a conversation for another time.

This will help until we get to unbalanced forces and ask kids to remember acceleration and they look at you like you're speaking Greek!

DP

The original email is below.

Funny you send out an email when I need a quick boost in my teaching.  I had a Unit 3 test scheduled today, but after the review exercise I gave out yesterday, felt that students were not ready.  So, going against report cards telling me when to give a test, I gave a short quiz today and will test next week after some more work. The quiz was a v vs. t graph from a 2000 APB exam.  Lots of positive and negative velocities and horizontal lines.  Things I feel we covered and practiced and talked about. (I am still talking too much, but I'm only a rookie).

My student did not seem to do as well as I thought.  They could not identify a zero velocity on a v vs. t graph as where it crosses the x-axis and most told me where it was horizontal.  I can understand the misconception and will work to change it next week, but I had about 5 of 35 tell me that the cart NEVER had a velocity of zero!?  How do I deal with that?  And after using and practicing "area" to determine a displacement, when the question asked where the "final position" of the cart would be if it had started at 2.0 m at t=0, it was like I asked them the question in latin.

It avoid any more of my hair turning white, can you tell me? Do you, after 15 years of skillful modeling, still have students get through a unit and not have a clue of what was done?  I have a sketch of that mythical outcome graph you showed from your book last month to keep me motivated, but hope you a second to give another boost.

Thanks, see you at the zoo,

Kyle