In Defense of Lectures, Worksheets, Homework and Other Heretical Educational Practices

Note: Unlike my previous post which sat for a long time, this one was written in one sitting, with no editing and no linking, so take it for what it is.

I pretty much can't go a day without running across a post in my Google Reader or a Tweet in my Twitter stream excoriating lecturing, or flipped classrooms, or drill and kill, or homework, or a variety of other techniques that are currently out of fashion. And, to be clear, I often criticize many of those methods as well. Critique is good, and I'm not suggesting that we stop critiquing or that we can't continue to innovate and find better ways to help our students learn.

But my concern is the black-and-white nature of many of those critiques. It's not just that they think lecturing or a flipped classroom (for example) is bad for students, but they think it's both horrible and evil. It's not just that worksheets or homework are perhaps not always best practices, but that anyone who utilizes those methods is either incompetent or wholly owned by corporate reformers. I think that approach is wrong, and a tragedy.

It continues to amaze me that folks who rail against standardization and who believe in individualized learning, who believe each student is unique and has unique needs, who think that one-size-fits-all approaches are doomed, still apparently have no compunction whatsoever about criticizing a teacher 1200 miles away in a school and a classroom they've never visited, with students they've never met, and with curricular requirements, school structures, and other local cultural norms and expectations that they know nothing about. Apparently one-size-fits-all is wrong, unless it's their one-size-fits-all approach.

So I'd like to propose a New Years' Resolution for the folks who are reading this. Cheeky, I know, since I just got done telling you that mandating from afar has some issues, but bear with me. This resolution has three parts:

1. Part one is to continue critiquing. Please. It's vitally important that we continue to question our practices and point out questions and concerns about those practices. I would suggest, however, that some folks could perhaps do a better job about simply critiquing the ideas, and not disparaging the practitioners.
   
   
2. But after you're done critiquing, part two of your post should be making constructive suggestions about how to improve that particular practice (not doing away with the practice completely, but how to make improvements to it to try to address some of the concerns from part one. For example, if you were going to critique something like the Flipped Classroom (which I have many concerns about myself), part two might look like:
   
   Have you considered having students watch the videos after doing inquiry and exploring the concepts in class first, as opposed to replacing the inquiry with recorded lectures?
   (or something like that, this is just an example)
   
   
3. And after you're done suggesting improvements, if you have an alternate, perhaps more radical approach you'd prefer, then in part three you need to describe that, in at least some level of detail within the structures and restrictions of the particular school and classroom you are critiquing. For example, if you were going to critique practices at my high school, then here are just some of the facts on the ground you'd need to address:

• I teach at a high school with 2150 students. We can argue all we want about whether that's too large (I would agree that, for me, my ideal size would be a lot smaller), but that doesn't change the fact that that's the reality, and it's not going to change any time soon. So if you're going to suggest a PBL/PLN/Individualized-Constructivist-Inquiry-1:1 classroom, make sure you give some details about how to accomplish that in a school of 2150.
  
  
• We have a variable schedule at Arapahoe, which means that while some classes meet five days a week (for about 58 minutes a period), other classes only meet MWF, or TR, or MWRF. For example, my Algebra class meets four days a week for 58 minutes a shot (minus quite a few days taken for testing, or shortened classes for assemblies or PLC days, etc. etc. etc.), so please make sure you take that into account and don't equate it to your Algebra class that meets for 85 minutes a day five days a week. Oh, and keep in mind that our students also take an average of 9 classes at a time due to the variable schedule, and well over half of them are involved in athletics and activities after school.
  
  
• It's hard to really tell how much money we get in our district, but it's in the neighborhood of $7200 per student. That's more than some places for sure, but compare that with the $14-16,000 per pupil that some of my friends in the east coast get. Even accounting for some cost-of-living differences, that's a significant difference. At $5000 per student, that would be over $10 million dollars more per year just my high school could spend. (Yes, I know it wouldn't all go to the school, but theoretically it could since our overhead is currently covered within that $7200.) Yeah, we could perhaps make some changes with $10 million more per year, but we don't have that money. Deal with the reality we have.
  
  
• My school allows students to bring their own devices, but we also try to provide many devices as well. It's all well and good to say we should be providing chromebooks/netbooks/iPads/Macbook Airs to all of our students to ensure a level playing field, but my entire budget for technology at AHS is $12,000 per year. To be sure, the district spends a lot of money on network infrastructure, and Internet access, and servers, etc., and sometimes is able to provide us with some machines (we got 28 staff machines for staff this year, as well as a 26 replacement computers for one of our business labs), but in terms of day-to-day funding to try to provide a 1:1 experience in my school, I get $12,000 per year, or approximately $5.22 per student and teacher in my school. Please keep that in mind when you suggest that BYOD is a travesty.
  
  
• Feel free to rail against the Common Core State Standards (I frequently do). But please keep in mind that my high school is in Colorado which, like 44 other states, had adopted the Common Core. Which means that teachers in my school are required to teach to those standards, whether you like it or not. So we can (and should) continue to advocate for changes to those standards if we disagree but, in the meantime, it's the law of the land in 45 states so please stop telling teachers they should either ignore them or quit their jobs in protests. Yeah, that's going to help our students.

I could go on (and on, and on), but I think you get the picture. Each and every school has their own structures, restrictions, and culture. Please note that I'm not suggesting we don't advocate for and try to make significant and perhaps radical changes in our schools. What I am suggesting is to stop trashing teachers who are trying to make the best of the current situation. Some folks argue that anything that incrementally improves the status quo is verboten, because it makes it less likely we'll achieve their picture of educational nirvana. Other folks, and I'm one of them, say let's do the best we can with (and for) the students we have in front of us, while still pressing hard for those larger changes we believe in.

And next time you critique someone for their use of lectures, or worksheets, or homework, or anything else, please consider following the resolution above and completing parts two and three as well.

As always, comments are open.

Blended Algebra

I need your help again. I'm currently in the brainstorming phase of trying to figure out what a blended learning high school Algebra class might look like in my school. We're defining a "blended" class as one that is designed with both virtual and face-to-face components, with a significant portion of the class taking place in a non-school setting.

(Note: "significant" does not indicate a certain percent, it just means that this is not a "regular" face-to-face class with an online component. A "significant" portion of the content/learning will be delivered/completed/happen outside of  a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom.)

Since this is very much in the beginning of the brainstorming phase, it's pretty wide open in terms of how it might be structured. At this point, the following are the only parameters that we can't change (and I may be assuming too much even with these):

1. We have to teach our current Algebra curriculum. See the skill list from my current Algebra class for an idea of what we have to "cover." So this is not the time or place to have the discussion of whether we should be teaching Algebra.
   
   
2. We have to assign grades, and those grades have to be kept in our student information system and available on our portal for student/parent access at any time.
   
   
3. The class is time-bound to our school year, so students need to start at the beginning (mid-August) and finish the course by the end of our school year (late May). (And the course might have to be time-bound to our semester schedule, so they have to finish the equivalent of first semester Algebra by mid-December - not sure of this yet.)

Other than those three restrictions, the rest at this point is open. Here's my Google Doc with some notes (not editable, also embedded below) and the brainstorming wiki page (editable, please do edit). You can comment on this post, edit the wiki page, or start/contribute to a topic on the discussion tab of the wiki page.



You can see from my notes that I am making a few assumptions in addition to the three non-negotiables above, with the most significant one being that this will be a "flipped" or "reverse" classroom, with the traditional lecture component delivered via online video outside of face-to-face time. While these assumptions are where I'm leaning, they still are subject to change.

You can also see that one of the huge questions that is still up for grabs is whether this class just teaches the Algebra skills, or whether we try to teach the skills and have the students try to go deeper, exploring the mathematics (perhaps through a project/problem-based approach, perhaps not). While it's probably no surprise that philosophically I prefer the latter option, this pilot course may not be the place to try this.

So, I'd appreciate any feedback/brainstorming you'd like to contribute.

We See This as the Future of Higher Education

(Cross-posted on my Algebra class blog - thought I'd share it here as well.)

I’d like you to read this article in the New York Times titled, Learning in Dorm, Because Class is on the Web (two pages, make sure you click through to page two). Go ahead, go read it, then come back.

This article illustrates that many colleges – which most of you will be attending in 3-4 years – are starting to utilize some of the same video techniques we’re trying to use in our Algebra class. There are a variety of different ways colleges are using this, some are pretty similar to what I’m doing, others are very different (consider yourself lucky, you only have to watch 8-10 minutes of me, not an 85 minute streamed lecture!).

Note that some colleges are doing this primarily for financial reasons,

You have X amount of money, what are you going to do with it?

others are exploring whether it can be a more effective way of delivering instruction,

She said an advantage of the Internet is that students can stop the lecture and rewind when they do not understand something.

No matter the reason, it appears likely that more classes will be offered this way by the time you get to college.

We see this as the future of higher education.

So consider our Algebra class a chance not only to learn Algebra (and enjoy my amazing wit), but an opportunity to begin preparing yourself to be successful in college – and beyond – by learning how to learn through online components of courses.

Notice how some students don’t like this approach.

In a conventional class, “I’m someone who sits toward the front and shares my thoughts with the teacher,” she said. In the 10 or so online courses she has taken in her four years, “it’s all the same,” she said. “No comments. No feedback. And the grades are always late.”

This is one of the reasons why I believe hybrid classes – where there’s an online component and a face-to-face component - are perhaps currently the best of both worlds when done well (although that may change as we get better at implementing online courses). But several things have to happen in order for classes like this to work.

First, students must watch/complete the “lecture” or “content-delivery” video portion of the class outside of class. Clearly some college students – as well as some of you – are not doing this. If this part isn't done, the entire model falls apart.

Second, just as critically, students must be active participants in class to maximize the value of our time together. Students must be willing to use class time as an opportunity both to explore and to practice mathematical ideas and concepts, not as a time to sit back and be “told” or “shown” what to do. This is why I continue to try to get you guys to think more on your own, to talk and work in your groups, and to take risks in your learning, instead of simply waiting for me to show you the “right” answer.

So I’m hopeful that as we continue with this approach we all will get better at it. I need you to hold up your end of the bargain (watch/complete the videos outside of class - including the Guided Practice and Self-Check portions, complete the homework and online pre-assessments, actively participate/explore/think in class, and come in for help and to re-assess), and I hopefully will get better at structuring class to complement the video instruction outside of class. Together we can not only help you master Algebra, but prepare you to be successful learners in college and beyond.