In the final installment of Kidifying Your Class, we want to encourage Geometry in Construction teachers to continue to research ways to hold students accountable for tasks that you have assigned. There is no “magic bullet” for this and it is not for the faint of heart. Teachers openly confess that it is easier to let the student fail than to encourage him/her to work. Before you give up, here are 2 reminders.
From the geometry side of class, homework is still an important task. For some students, grades do not motivate and they will not do the homework just because of grades. These students do not feel the need to complete the homework, then they fall behind and score low on assessments. We made a decision during our first year of Geometry in Construction not to allow this attitude to continue without a fight. The decision was to build a “Penalty Box” for students not doing their geometry homework. During the geometry class, the construction teacher is responsible to check each student’s completion rate of the previous night’s homework. If that rate is below 70%, the construction teacher assigns the student to the penalty box during the construction portion of the class. In the penalty box, students must complete the past geometry assignment as well as the next one in order to get out of the box. Why the construction teacher? The math teacher is already the “bad teacher” just because of what they teach. This is the time when the construction teacher becomes the “bad guy”. Plus this also allows the students to see the math and construction teacher as a unified front. Note the penalty box is nothing but an area on the job site that is reserved for doing math homework. It is amazing how much the homework completion rate improves when students don’t get to go build but instead is held accountable for homework. Our typical homework completion rate is 90%+.
Accountability is no less important on the construction side of the class. Students need to know very clearly what is expected of them at the end of the period. For us, we use something called an “Employability Card”. Each group of students receive a small card with the task that they need to accomplish by the end of class. This task must be specific and doable. For example, “installing windows” is not specific enough. However, modifying to say “install the kitchen window” becomes doable and more importantly, measurable. The group of students at the end of the hour must report in to the construction or math teacher, show their progress (or lack thereof), and summarize how and who worked. Students do an initial grading of themselves and the system is set so that typically, students can not earn more than a “C”. However, the teacher can over ride the grade so that the students can receive a higher grade. Students must verbally justify their accomplishments by showing what they worked on during the period. Also, teachers can help insure that there is no “bullying” of students to get an undeserved grade. We have seen schools use this model without the teacher time at the end....it was a failure. Students need that face time with a teacher to learn what accountability is and to understand how to improve. Teachers must be comfortable with “grading” the end product of what the students actually accomplished. Note that many times math teachers do not like this role. They would prefer black and white “answers”. However, when done right, you can increase production as the year progresses.
Obviously, there are many ways to keep kids accountable including structuring Cooperative Groups correctly (see article Quick and Dirty Checklist for Cooperative Groups, March 2010), parental communication, developing strong student relationships, and other ways. What is important is that we as teachers use as many tools as possible to keep students engaged in their learning.
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