End of the year

I haven't posted in so long, the end of the year just got nuts.  I advise two clubs and I've got my fingers in a lot of pies.  It's all done, so now I'm back to communicating.

ALEKS went well, I liked it as a lab activity.  My class has a 40 min lab in addition to the regular 80 min block schedule.  ALEKS was good for reinforcing basic skills and it let students practice the new concepts at their own pace.  They were cooperative about working on it (for the most part) and the lab time was well run.  There was no increase in their final exam grade compared with last year, though.  I think it helped them, but it didn't translate into higher grades.

This was also the first year that I put all of my course materials online.  The part that worked the best was having my class notes available.  I used a SMART Board in class and exported the day's notes as a pdf.  Student used those regularly.  The ck-12 online book was only marginally successful.  Part of the problem was that I didn't have the entire book ready at the beginning of the year.  I had it about 90% done and I finalized each chapter as they year went along.  They didn't particularly enjoy having to download a new version each chapter and they got a little negative about it.  I still think it's a good idea, though.  We are going to be changing our curriculum around next year for our first try at the Common Core and the flexibility of the online book really lends itself to that.  I will have it done at the beginning of the year this time.

ALEKS for Differentiated Instruction

I have been using ALEKS in a half block algebra 1 lab since August.  I have recently started using Homework Quizzes to facilitate small group instruction.  I can look through their pie chart reports and see what objectives each student is struggling with.  I put them in groups of three and spend about five minutes with each group.  After the discussion, they go back to ALEKS and they have two chances to complete a 5 question quiz on the topic we just discussed.  ALEKS is very personalized, it is easy to assign custom quizzes to each student for the topic their group discussed.

ALEKS Focus Group

I am currently sitting in LAX waiting to board my flight back to VT.  ALEKS flew me and 20-ish other educators out to Irvine, CA to to get our input on a new instructor module they are working on.  It was an awesome session, I was really impressed with the company.  They are energetic and customer focused in a big way.  Their product is unique and they are really trying to figure out how to make it take off.  This focus group was special, they took a TON of input from us (including my concerns I mentioned in my last post) and educated us all on how to use the product more effectively.  Nice work, ALEKS!

ALEKS concerns

We are using ALEKS in a 40 min lab that meets off days of a block scheduled 80 min algebra 1 class.  All was good at the beginning, but I think the lab is starting to get a little behind the class.  It's good for them to practice the basics, but some of the objectives are things like multiplying decimals that I'd like to be able to let go.  I am going to work with ALEKS and see if I can change this.  Does anybody know of a self directed practice site that allows me to align the objectives with the class?  I know about Khan Academy, are there any others to consider?

ALEKS

I am continuing to enjoy ALEKS very much.  The students are very engaged with it and they are clearly learning.  I learned two important things in the pilot last year that I have successfully changed for this year.  One is that they really need a place to do scratch work.  I bought them all inexpensive composition notebooks and handed them out on the first day of lab.  I collected them a few days ago and made comments on their work, I will continue to collect them occasionally to make sure they are using them productively.  Last year, when I didn't do this, they tried to do the work in their heads or use some scratch pad thing on the screen with the mouse.  Neither one of these methods contributed to good math habits, so I'm glad I've made scratch paper a requirement.

The second thing I learned is that it would be better if the ALEKS we were doing in lab was correlated to the material we were doing in class.  Fortunately, the nice people at ALEKS were willing to add my textbook to the list of books that can be used to control the order in which they see the objectives.  This helps make the lab experience more meaningful and I like how it is going so far.

Another small thing that makes ALEKS work well is the class playlist that I am building on Spotify.  I have a subscription music service, so it's easy to take their suggestions and add them to the list.  The music in the background adds a nice touch of atmosphere and it helps keep them happy.

ALEKS

ALEKS is working well so far.  I piloted it last spring in a lab that accompanies a high school algebra 1 course.  The people at ALEKS are always working to improve, the reporting menus are better than last year and I think it will be easier to keep track of where all the students are at.  They are just finishing up their pre assessments now and the data I'm getting is a good starting point.  This year, I will be directing their learning by keeping the lab aligned with the classroom objectives.  I'm hoping this will be a good thing.