The second semester of AP Biology I have attempted to use a different method of material delivery (based on this Discovery Magazine article, and also the material in this earlier post). My attempt has been to lecture very little, provide the resources and materials so students can research their own information, and to provide rigorous and relevant assignments so students can investigate the content. I have tried to make myself available to answer questions in class while students are working.
Now it's your turn to teach me. What were the positives of this approach?
What were the negatives of this approach?
How would you improve the assignments?
Have you done your part in preparing for class?
Would this be a method in which you would like this class to continue?
I truly appreciate your comments on this, if you would like to keep them anonymous I certainly understand it as I hope you'll be free in pointing out where I can improve. I hope that as you comment you will also look at the other comments your classmates have added and reflect upon them (even disagree if you must) and add that information as well.
The positive of this approach is it forces us to find information ourselves vs you just giving us the information. For some material this works well for me and for others this doesn't work well. When we got in the blood types and figuring out the parents givin the children and things like that I wouldve much rather had the information and worked backwards if that makes sense. I really like the assesments you make us take for your information because once we go over it and work through the answers I feel like I learn it better.
ReplyDeleteThe negatives are when you give us our notes during the first half of the year and we went through them and added the extra little notes that helped a lot! but now that there is no lecture or extra help unless we ask questions it doesn't help that much. but then again its kind of a win loss situation that i can't see a solution too. since the extra notes we get from asking you questions.
The assignments themselves are fine but I would rather have more worksheets or a variety than essay essay essay.
As for my part in preparing for class, I will admit I do not look at the notes unless I have a need too. I did not open one genetics packet until I needed to know how to figure the map distance between genes. I don't feel like there is a great need too so I don't.
This method to me is a little better than last semester provided we don't have any tests. When we are doing our assignments I feel like I am using the internet more than the notes you provide for us and since I am just using the internet and copying down the answer and then forgetting about it. Not a good combination if I have to cough up the information for a test. Although I am finally transitioning from the previous method to this method and learning how to use this to my advantage.
Thanks for the input. I certainly can work on a making variety of different types of assignments. The problem with the worksheets is that first semester I would get the worksheets handed in with many of the same answers! I'm all for cooperative work, I love it when you help each other in class, but with the essays you then have to put it in your own words.
ReplyDeleteGood comment about the using the Internet. I am afraid that the class will turn into an Internet research class. I'm trying to find a way that you can use it to search, but still understand it.
I like this approach this semester a lot better than last semester. I find this approach to be better for me because I actually HAVE to look up the information myself. This is an "AP" class. Pretty much how it's going to be in college. I find that this way is helping up prepare more for college since most of us are seniors in this class. I also like the individual work. This helps me in a way that I can sort out information and then questions I can ask. I like the time we have in class also to do work because sometimes the concepts are a little harder to understand and grasp our minds around and again, we can ask questions on what we don't understand.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I definately like this way of teaching a lot better, there are some down falls as well. I like the essay to essay because we are finding the information and putting it into paragraph form, but I would like to see more hands on activities and assignments. I know I'm a visual learner and this would help a lot. I don't know how many other people are in the class, but I think that if most of us were to see and experiment on what we are learning, we would actually remember what we are learning. Also, I hate to admit it, but I would like to see more quizes. I think that there is more presure on us to really remember and understand what we are learning. If we had more quizes, I think we would retain the information unlike just "checking up" on how we are doing. The quizes should be short, but basic sutff we should know and then get into a little deeper meaning. But we should also know what we are studying so it's not a suprise when we receive the quiz.
Again, I like this way of teaching a lot better personally, and I can't wait to see it progress throughout the rest of the semester.
We will get back to the lab work next week. I will try to work on getting more authentic assessments. Things where you're applying the knowledge, not just writing it down. I'm trying to find a way to do that in the context of class.
DeleteI appreciate how the entire class has used the class time. I truly feel that has been a success, or at least something to build on.
A positives about this method are that we do get to learn more in depth about a certain topics with the essays. I like that we get to learn by ourselves, but I do not like that you have not been teaching the content of the topic we are studying. It helped me a lot when you added in notes because it gave me a way to look back and understand the notes. Just looking over them I do not always understand what is going on. If you went over the notes just a bit more than you do now by hitting the main points. It doesn't have to be to the extent of explaination before, but at least a little would help me tremedously. With the essays I am not sure if what I am writing is right because we hadn't gone over the information and are just given it. I do not like this because I feel like I could be teacheing myself the wrong information and not even know it. I like the internet assignments good when we get to do them in class because we can ask the questions. I did not like the worksheet because we were not taught how to do any of it. It was difficult to try and teach yourself such tough information to find out when you get it back that you were wrong. If you just taught us the basics of what we were doing with the crosses it would have been a more successful experience. I have been looking over as much as I can outside of class, but I do have other classes that have homework and it is hard to look over all of the packets you give us and to understand all of the content in the little free time I have. The meathod is better, but I believe if you just taught more of the information in some way it would be 10X better than it is now.
ReplyDeleteI started this method with this chapter because these are concepts that I have taught in biology and hopefully students will remember on their own. After this unit I realize two things. One, I'm not teaching freshman biology well enough for students to remember the material later and that it takes quite a bit of time for you as students to glean through the material to find the information. I need to be able to get your the material in a quicker and more succinct manner. I thank you for your candor!
DeleteI think there are many advantages to this semester compared to last. I like being able to look up the information on my own. I think that instead of having a lecture, i am able to have time to look up the answer myself and then also having time for questions that I may need the answer to. I also feel like I have more one on one time that was kind of hard to receive with a lecture all hour. This method of teaching seems to be working much more effectively for me than last semester.
ReplyDeleteA disadvantage of this teaching method is that we receive a lot of essays. I know essays are not a bad thing necessarily, but then I feel like I am trying to cram a bunch of information all at one time. I do on the other hand like how you quiz us but then still go over the information with us. This is helpful in my opinion because the whole class has time to ask questions and we are not only learning off of what you say, but also what our classmates are asking as well. My classmates ask questions that I would never think about and this helps me as well as you standing in front of the class lecturing.
Overall, I like the idea of Moodle compared to a bunch of worksheets and quizzes. Everything is on the internet and ready for me to use. Some hands on activities would be useful as well but this way of teaching is helping me more than what last semester was like.
Many teachers use what are called 'formative' quizzes to determine where students knowledge lies. This is my first time trying them and I can see their advantages. I think that I'll continue to use those. I also like how many questions you are asking as a class. We are able to get to many issues and hopefully they help more than just one person.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and come up with other ideas rather than the essays to assess what you know. Actually, you can come up with ideas for alternatives to essays!