Unit 2 Wrap Up

I'm sitting here in the process of grading my students' unit 2 tests.  Mood:  perplexed.

So far, I have graded tests for one honors class and one standard class.  The honors and standard tests were the same-- I really didn't feel there was much to differentiate material-wise in this unit.  What little differentiation I have applied has been in my grading, with me expecting the honors students to use more vocab in the short answer to receive full credit.  I used the AMTA test for both honors and standard, with the addition of 3 extra multiple choice questions from our state EOC practice material and one extra short answer question on prokaryote/eukaryote cells.

From what I've graded, the honors students' grades are as expected, with the class average being a bit higher than normal.  Lots of As and perfect scores, nothing below a high C.  I really need to challenge these students more...

But the standard biology students:  11 took the test today (small class, 2 absences).  6 As, 1 high C, and 4 failures.  Of the 2 students that still need to take the test, I expect their grades to be closer to failure than As.  The grade split seems more dramatic on this test than the unit 1 test.

I have taught standard-level students my entire teaching career (this is the first year I've ever had honors sections of anything).  I can't say I've ever seen a standard class divided like this. There is nearly a perfect dichotomy of students who "get it" and students who don't.  While in any class, there always seems to be a handful of students who struggle, I feel like I have a MUCH higher proportion than usual.  And I also feel like I'm losing those students more and more every day...

I've been pondering the cause, and whether or not it is related to the modeling curriculum or my delivery of it.

This is an unusually small class... so I'm not sure if the small numbers are making the split more noticeable.  Maybe these 5-6 students would be low performing regardless and just happened to be lumped into one tiny class.  But, being a small class, I feel like I have a decent pulse on these students' knowledge prior to the test, yet they keep surprising me with dramatically lower than anticipated grades.  The students who are succeeding are succeeding extremely well, while the other half of the class is crashing and burning.

The students in the failure group are much less motivated than the students passing, with generally poor attitude towards school on the whole.  They are the first to "check out" and be drawn off-task during group work.  They are the first to give up when they don't understand.  They are the students who struggle with thinking critically.  They are the ones who fail to turn in assignments.  And, as I suspected after the first test, I also feel these students read at a lower level than the others.

I am wondering if the lack of "structure" with the modeling curriculum (lack of lecture/apply/repeat) is causing these students to struggle more than usual.  I feel like they may be the type that get by on rote learning and good guessing on multiple choice without ever fully understanding.  This curriculum depends on "a-ha" moments, and if the students aren't paying attention or caring enough to ever have "a-ha" moments, the notes they have aren't going to be particularly helpful.

So.. how can I improve reading and critical thinking skills?  As a science teacher, critical thinking skills are technically my department.  Yet I've never fully mastered how to teach "thinking" to those who, well, don't do it period.

Also, how can I add a little more structure in unit 3 with the hopes that it will give these low-end students a safety net?

I also wonder if having honors students doing the same curriculum is affecting my ability to teach the standard students... maybe I'm taking too much for granted in my delivery and assessment because I can get away with it in my honors classes.

Tomorrow with my standard class, instead of moving ahead with unit 3 and the thirsty bird simulation, I'm going to pull out the students who failed the test.  I plan to do a half-period mini-lesson with them that reviews all of unit 2, then make them retake the entire test.