For the last 3 or 4 years my daily living class has done a cookie sale. We make cookies for about 2 weeks and sell them during lunch breaks. We sell them for a quarter and usually make 3 different kinds. At the end of the sale we use our profits to 'adopt' a family in need during the holiday season.
I really enjoy doing this activity with my students. They have an opportunity to learn so many skills and they also have a lot of fun with it. We take turns making the different recipes. This way they all get to learn 3 recipes. They all also rotate selling during lunch. This gives them an opportunity to interact with their classmates and are able to practice their money skills. The kids have a great time with this.
This year we sold about 2100 cookies in 9 days!! Let me tell ya' it is a relief to be done!! Our next step will be to take the money that we earned and buy gifts for a family in need this holiday season. This is another great lesson for my students. It gives them an opportunity to give back to their community.
I am excited to be done baking but even more excited to go on our shopping trip.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Redos and Retakes Done Right
I read the article "Redos and Retakes Done Right" by Rick Wormeli from the Nov. 2011 edition of ASCD.
This article talked about the positives of allowing students to redo and retake assignments and assessments. The article explains how when allowing students to redo/ retake assignments/assessments and giving them only partial credit or giving a student a 0 for not turning in an assignment on time, will only slow down the student's achievement and maturation. This can cause student's to lose hope. Without hope student's will disengage from school and from the adults who care for them.
The article goes on to talk about how student's learn at different speeds. Wormeli points out that curriculum goals don't require all student's to reach the same level of proficiency on the same day but rather, every student achieve the goal. He also talks about how practice is very vital. He compares this to running. When a runner is in the learning-to-run stage, they practice, practice, and practice. When the runner has reached its final race, like the Olympics, they are in the proficient-runner stage. At this point they are no longer able to redo the race. He also has built this confidence because each time he ran his time was not an aggregated compilation of all his digressions woven with his more successful time. He was also able to practice and repeat until he had mastered the skills. When learning, we will master the skills that are repeated and we will be better at retrieving those skills the more we experience them.
Wormeli goes on to compare education like a conveyor-belt learning. He points out that curriculum taught in K-12 schools in the United States would take to about grade 22 teach (I found this to be amazing). This can cause us to fall into "here's a bunch of stuff you have to learn; now take a test. Here's the next bunch of stuff you have to learn; now take the next test, etc. So when students fail to learn the content we keep moving them foward, like a conveyor belt.
The article goes on to say that in the real world we are always doing things over and over until we have reached mastery. For examples, a lawyer will practice debate and analysis of agruments before stepping into a court room; a pilot will fly multiple times in a simulator and solo flights before taking passengers; and surgeons practice on cadavers before performing surgery on a live person. All of these things can be redone until mastery is achieved. Why don't we do the same in education? He goes on to talk about how teachers who allow retakes/redos, are not considered 'soft'. Student's are quick to figure out that the teacher is not soft but rather wants to be sure that the student's have learned the material and will require the student to do the work over and over until they are correct. The final point that I found interesting was "to let a student settle for work done poorly, ensuring that he or she doesn't learn the content. Is this really the life lesson we want to teach? Is it really academically better for the student to remain ignorant?" I thought these were good questions to ponder. The article also listed 14 points to consider when allowing student's to retake/redo assignments/assessments.
Do you allow student's to redo/retake assessments/assignments? Do you think the pressure of what needs to be covered in our classes interfers with the learning process?
This article talked about the positives of allowing students to redo and retake assignments and assessments. The article explains how when allowing students to redo/ retake assignments/assessments and giving them only partial credit or giving a student a 0 for not turning in an assignment on time, will only slow down the student's achievement and maturation. This can cause student's to lose hope. Without hope student's will disengage from school and from the adults who care for them.
The article goes on to talk about how student's learn at different speeds. Wormeli points out that curriculum goals don't require all student's to reach the same level of proficiency on the same day but rather, every student achieve the goal. He also talks about how practice is very vital. He compares this to running. When a runner is in the learning-to-run stage, they practice, practice, and practice. When the runner has reached its final race, like the Olympics, they are in the proficient-runner stage. At this point they are no longer able to redo the race. He also has built this confidence because each time he ran his time was not an aggregated compilation of all his digressions woven with his more successful time. He was also able to practice and repeat until he had mastered the skills. When learning, we will master the skills that are repeated and we will be better at retrieving those skills the more we experience them.
Wormeli goes on to compare education like a conveyor-belt learning. He points out that curriculum taught in K-12 schools in the United States would take to about grade 22 teach (I found this to be amazing). This can cause us to fall into "here's a bunch of stuff you have to learn; now take a test. Here's the next bunch of stuff you have to learn; now take the next test, etc. So when students fail to learn the content we keep moving them foward, like a conveyor belt.
The article goes on to say that in the real world we are always doing things over and over until we have reached mastery. For examples, a lawyer will practice debate and analysis of agruments before stepping into a court room; a pilot will fly multiple times in a simulator and solo flights before taking passengers; and surgeons practice on cadavers before performing surgery on a live person. All of these things can be redone until mastery is achieved. Why don't we do the same in education? He goes on to talk about how teachers who allow retakes/redos, are not considered 'soft'. Student's are quick to figure out that the teacher is not soft but rather wants to be sure that the student's have learned the material and will require the student to do the work over and over until they are correct. The final point that I found interesting was "to let a student settle for work done poorly, ensuring that he or she doesn't learn the content. Is this really the life lesson we want to teach? Is it really academically better for the student to remain ignorant?" I thought these were good questions to ponder. The article also listed 14 points to consider when allowing student's to retake/redo assignments/assessments.
Do you allow student's to redo/retake assessments/assignments? Do you think the pressure of what needs to be covered in our classes interfers with the learning process?
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