ImagineIT: Phase V
Focus Group Short Report
I met with a great focus group of mainly seniors from my Honors College Algebra class. I met with them afterschool – “paying” them with pizza to give me some input…..
I also met with my colleague who is currently teaching Advanced Algebra, as am I.
Both meetings went extremely well and gave me some great insights into how to design my ImagineIT project with greater detail.
I was seeking input about a number of aspects of my project:
how long to give for the assignment
how to frame it (what options in the curriculum for students to do their videos on – content wise)
how much weight to give the project
how to break the students into groups – have them choose or me assign – and how large each group should be, option of students working alone
how to submit the assignment / use of technology
The students were very helpful and gave me the following input:
Give 3 – 4 weeks for completion with checkpoints along the way. Have students choose with whom they would like to work but be sensitive to students who might want to work with others but do not know how to ask. I suggested having students write down the names of 2-3 people they would like to work with and then I could identify students who may feel isolated. They all thought this was a good idea. They thought the first time I assign a project should carry less weight (for a practice run) and then subsequent assignments could carry more weight. They felt the rubric should include things such as creativity, key concepts presented, depth of understanding, organization, and video quality. My colleague said specifically that designing the rubric would be very important. This was very helpful since I am worried about the ambiguity involved in such a project – I want to be very clear and consistent in grading. My colleague also encouraged me to not be too focused in what I assign – this will encourage student creativity and allow them to take more risks. While I was worried how this would fit into Common Core, the more we discussed this, we decided that it was an extremely important assignment to have students do and that it would fit in nicely with the goals of Common Core. While I was worried at first that students might struggle some with the technology aspect, the students overwhelmingly said they would have no problem whatsoever with this – creating the videos and submitting them. We discussed uploading them to YouTube or submitting them on a flash drive. The students suggested I give a list of possible concepts to choose from, with brief descriptions of each. Students could then do their own research on the topics that seemed interesting – even if they were from previous math classes. This will work well since the students will have had some exposure to trigonometric concepts as well as some other non-linear systems.
It turned out to be an excellent time meeting with the students. I once had an administrator say “remember that students are much more mature than you think they are and they are much more immature than you think they are.” Although they can act very much like teenagers during the regular school day, I believe they really rose to the occasion and enjoyed being asked for their input and were excited about contributing to the evolution of my project. They thoroughly enjoyed the video I had made – especially the Lego people. The first thing they asked was “How long did that take to make?!”
I also met with my colleague who is currently teaching Advanced Algebra, as am I.
Both meetings went extremely well and gave me some great insights into how to design my ImagineIT project with greater detail.
I was seeking input about a number of aspects of my project:
how long to give for the assignment
how to frame it (what options in the curriculum for students to do their videos on – content wise)
how much weight to give the project
how to break the students into groups – have them choose or me assign – and how large each group should be, option of students working alone
how to submit the assignment / use of technology
The students were very helpful and gave me the following input:
Give 3 – 4 weeks for completion with checkpoints along the way. Have students choose with whom they would like to work but be sensitive to students who might want to work with others but do not know how to ask. I suggested having students write down the names of 2-3 people they would like to work with and then I could identify students who may feel isolated. They all thought this was a good idea. They thought the first time I assign a project should carry less weight (for a practice run) and then subsequent assignments could carry more weight. They felt the rubric should include things such as creativity, key concepts presented, depth of understanding, organization, and video quality. My colleague said specifically that designing the rubric would be very important. This was very helpful since I am worried about the ambiguity involved in such a project – I want to be very clear and consistent in grading. My colleague also encouraged me to not be too focused in what I assign – this will encourage student creativity and allow them to take more risks. While I was worried how this would fit into Common Core, the more we discussed this, we decided that it was an extremely important assignment to have students do and that it would fit in nicely with the goals of Common Core. While I was worried at first that students might struggle some with the technology aspect, the students overwhelmingly said they would have no problem whatsoever with this – creating the videos and submitting them. We discussed uploading them to YouTube or submitting them on a flash drive. The students suggested I give a list of possible concepts to choose from, with brief descriptions of each. Students could then do their own research on the topics that seemed interesting – even if they were from previous math classes. This will work well since the students will have had some exposure to trigonometric concepts as well as some other non-linear systems.
It turned out to be an excellent time meeting with the students. I once had an administrator say “remember that students are much more mature than you think they are and they are much more immature than you think they are.” Although they can act very much like teenagers during the regular school day, I believe they really rose to the occasion and enjoyed being asked for their input and were excited about contributing to the evolution of my project. They thoroughly enjoyed the video I had made – especially the Lego people. The first thing they asked was “How long did that take to make?!”