Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Too Many Objectives!

Whew! I am feeling so relieved to be done with Chapter 3, Linear Relationships. I had WAY too many objectives (22). I need to figure out a way to narrow them down for next year. Any algebra teachers want to weigh in on what they would consider the "top ten" objectives for linear relationships?
I am happily beginning Chapter 4, Line of Best Fit and Point-slope form. I will be keeping objectives much more general (As in "Can write an equation in Point-slope form"). Maybe too much so, but that will help me learn the balance.

4 comments:

  1. B - I agree with the objectives issue. It seems important to have details, but it can feel tedious. It would make sense to share our ideas. I'm finishing Moving Straight Ahead and probably have similar objectives. Let's share. Jane Pollock's book and the DuFour book has some ideas on how to choose "learning targets".

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  2. I just had my first PDP meeting and was trying to explain this grading system and what I really liked about it and some of the problems I am trying to solve.

    One of my problems is how to get students to take responsibility for improving their grades. One of the teacher at the meeting suggested that I print out a table with all of the unit's learning objectives in one column and leave the other column blank. Student could paste the table into their notebooks. When they receive a 3 or 4 on an objective, they could check it off their list. This way they have record of what areas they need to show improvement in.

    Does anyone currently do something like this in their classes? If so, does it work? Is it relatively easy to stay on top of it?

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  3. I give students a self rating sheet for the objectives at the beginning of the unit. They rate themselves and then can change their ratings as the unit goes on and they get feedback from me on assessments. By the end of the unit, they can see which objectives they have mastered and which still need work. I will post an example on my website and put the link here soon.

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  4. To respond to the objectives issue, it would be interesting to share with you the "Power Standards" that St. Paul has chosen. From each of those standards, chosen from the State of MN Standards for their importance on the MCAs and for their strong connection to the next math level, we have established a series of tasks that students should learn/do.

    I have found that focusing in on 10 or 11 broad standards has helped me establish objectives that are specific yet seem to cover a range of the related tasks.

    This is probably a bit ambiguous without the document and my gradebook. Sorry!

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