Alright, I could post the results of the quarter one experiment here, but they're probably boring to other people. And the first round is fairly inconclusive. I'll tell you what I do have - the final tests of grammar and vocabulary were separate and that was important. The supplemental review technologies seemed to behave differently for these two different skills. I found that independent practice on quizshow seemed to have a much more positive effect on vocabulary but the eInstruction pads seemed more effective for grammar. Interestingly, the kids' top choice - team Quizshow - did not seem to be the most effective way to do anything. My speculation is that recall activities require quiet and focused repetition. Skills that require comprehension of some underlying concept (Identifying and adverb is not memory in a new sentence, but understanding of how adverbs work) may work better when a teacher moderates and discusses what went right and wrong and then applies that concept to a subsequent question. As far as CPS being more effective in round one than Team Quizshow, I don't know if there's a distraction element in quizshow or what. Perhaps it was a peculiarity of the first round.
Round 2 should be easy, but I added a bunch of Quia games online. I know I shouldn't add any new variables while the experiment is still in play, but I don't want to deny the opportunity. I'll work it into the mix in terms of testing effectiveness later. Now it's available to everyone and not pushed by me more in one class more than any other so it's a new constant.
Blah - I'm not very focused today. So my new plan this week is to use Quizshow Teams period 7, CPS period 2, and Quizshow individual period 10. Already I'm messing up the data, though, because yesterday period 7 had extra time and got to do about 14 team quizshow questions. Not only that, but all three classes had various times on quia b/c they finished the new vocab and Parts of the Sentence Pretest (more later) at different times. I'm gonna pretend it doesn't matter because ignorance is bliss. I have a giant problem because I'm out all day Thursday and I can't run a review. IN FACT - Thursday is a big problem in my schedule for lots of reasons. But I'll have to run the review tomorrow and plan something for Thursday...
The grammar this week is fairly easy - sentences/fragments/subjects/predicates/kinds of sentences. I pretested and found the kids knew everything but compound subjects and predicates and didn't know the names of the kinds of sentences. So it should be pretty straightforward to measure growth. I wish I had pretested vocabulary.
Today I threw out some topics for a SPEAK prereading activity. My crazy theory is to have them create moviemaker projects for the issues and social problems that are dealt with in the novel. Well, I have to get back to work. But if I can't remember what I was thinking yesterday tomorrow then this will help.
No comments:
Post a Comment