Unit 1 Wrap Up

The students took their Unit 1 test today.  I only made some slight changes to the AMTA stock exam:  I added some material we had covered in class, and I added an additional topic to the honors class exam.

I have graded all my standard class' tests and about a quarter from my honors classes.  (Can you tell I'm procrastinating?!?)

In the standard class, there was a pretty normal spread of grades:  As (including a perfect score), Bs, Cs... and three failures.  I am 90% sure those failures are directly linked to weak reading skills.   This test was heavy on the reading and details were important.  I could tell the students who did poorly weren't comprehending the reading just by the way they answered.

The honors classes made a mockery of this test.  I've already graded  a ridiculous number of perfect scores.  It was beyond easy for them.  However, they also have strong reading skills, strong math skills, and innate critical thinking ability.  Now I know I need to step it up a notch.

How would I say this unit went?  Slowly.  For the amount of a material we covered, I think it took too long.  I'm hoping to fly like the wind from this point forward.  Ready or not, we have an end of course exam in December.  Next time around, I really wanted to cram a little more detail into this unit about measurements and lab equipment, especially for standard biology students.  I think that's feasible now that I've worked many of my own kinks out.

What we completed in Unit 1 (about 7 90 min class periods):

• Lab Safety/Intro to the Lab
• The Game of Science (Scientific Method)
• The Goldfish Lab (Observations, Experimental Design)
• Exercise 1 Controls and Variables Handout
• The Seed Lab
• "The Blind Man and the Elephant" reading
• A quiz
• Graphing Review/Practice (I added this)
• Histograms (I added this for honors only)
• Exercise 2 Experimental Design
• Writing Lab reports (I added this)
• Unit 1 Test

I can't recall the source, but I did read that there is a magic biology pacing guide floating around somewhere. It suggests 450 minutes for Unit 1.  We overshot that by a mile.  I'm not sure how anyone could do more than two of the suggested labs and stay at 450 minutes!  Although I did add some things that I felt were needed.

Things I need to work on:

• Improving questioning (it IS getting better...)
• Increasing class participation in discussion, as opposed to the same "talkers" every day 
• Transition time:  we definitely lose time in the transitions.
• Figuring out how to imbue critical thinking skills on those with none.  This is a constant struggle for me.

Things I have been impressed with:

• I've had no one try to "check out" yet.  While they may not all want to talk or answer questions in discussion, they're all working and contributing when they have a group assignment.  And they're staying on task surprisingly well in their groups.  With all the groups, the room is often a bit chaotic... and loud.  But when you walk around and listen, they're earnestly debating the topics.  I'm still having Twilight Zone moments when I realize I'm not having to prod or cajole anyone.  Can this be real!?!
• Attitudes still seem decent.  I'm not sure if this is a result of the modeling, the fact that we're only a few weeks into the school year, or if I just have a good group of kids.
• The accountable talk.  In just a couple weeks, I've seen dramatic improvements in how the students explain their reasoning-- especially in my standard class.

They still dig the whiteboards.  I'm not sure how long the novelty will last... probably until I run out of fun- colored markers.