Flipped Mastery: Finding a Balance for Middle School Students

For my upcoming unit of Patterning and Algebra, I have decided to run the class on a Mastery Method. I have spent the past two weeks setting up the program, marking plan, support materials and just released it to the students this week. I was surprised to then see two articles posted this weekend, one from the New York Times and the other from David Wees which both made me reflect upon my methods and goals.

The New York Times article In 'Flipped' Classrooms, a Method for Mastery, Tina Rosenberg summarized the challenge of a traditional class room as "the teacher must aim the lecture at the middle, leaving the faster learners bored and the slower ones lost". I have enjoyed using a Challenge by Choice approach to differentiate my teaching for my students. They select the level of challenge and support that they would like when learning a new concept. The issue I was having with using this method was that I was dictating which concepts we were learning and when. Students still enjoyed selecting their level of challenge as they could move slower or faster depending on their personal needs at that time with that concept.

However, looking forward to our algebra unit, I know that my students are coming from a wide range of backgrounds, and some have already covered this material. Due to this I wanted to provide the Challenge by Choice teaching style, but also with the student selecting which concept they wanted to explore and when. My solution to doing this was to combine the Challenge by Choice with a Mastery Method of teaching.

To make this happen, I have broken down the unit concepts into small, understandable steps for my students, each with their personal copy. I took this idea from Dan Meyer after reading his post about his checklists for students to track their learning. Students are made aware of which concepts we will be exploring in the upcoming week via an email and announcement on Friday. If students want to, they can go to another document that outlines videos that I have made or found as well as practice questions about this topic. They can explore the concepts ahead of time, practice, and then come to class knowing what kind of support they would like to have (Green, Blue or Black). When I introduce the concept, students can then decide if they would like to explore the concept together, or if they would like to move ahead and explore an additional concept through online resources, in class activities or with peers. As stated in the Times article, putting this together has been almost having another job, but I know that by having the resources available will allow the students to move at their own pace.

The plan for tracking the students progress is through the use of Mastery Quizzes. Students will sign up each week and identify which mastery quiz they would like to complete. These are formative and they can take them as many times as they like. To be a master, they need to get 4/4 on the concept twice. Students track their progress on their concept check list sheet and I do the same in my notes. It is through these quizzes that students can show me that they already have understood a concept and so they do not need to be in the Green group with me, but can move ahead. If a student has not preformed a mastery quiz on that concept, they are indicating that they would like some support walking through the concept.

In the end, all the students will still write a signature assessment (test) displaying their understanding of the unit. The difference is that they can select how they progress from the start of the unit until the end, not having to move at the same pace.

David Wees made some valid points in his post that made me reflect on my plan to use online resources like Khan for students to practice.  David identified the following challenges of only using online assessments or learning tools when looking at its use at his son's school:

• It did not measure his ability to explain his reasoning to others.
• It did not ask him to show multiple solutions for finding his answer.
• It did not present a meaningful context, and measure my son's ability to apply his understanding to that context.
• It did not check to see if my son had gained any transferable understanding.
• It did not allow my son to talk to peers about his solution.

I am going to keep David's comments in my head as I move forward. My goal is to ensure that those students that are moving ahead are also needing to think collaboratively and be challenged when in the Black or Blue groups. I will remember to think that online tools should be used as a way for them to track their own learning, but not as the way for them to display it. 

If you have any experience with a Mastery based program, I would love to hear or read about your experience and appreciate any advice you can give. 

My Grade Book: Tracking Progress, Not Product

This year I am trying out a new way to set up my grade book. My goal is to better see the progress my students are having in the class, identify areas where they are being challenged and provide extensions when they are showing mastery.

My grade book last year looked something like this:

	Formative Fractions: Quiz Sept 15 (/12)	Formative Percentages: Quiz Sept 30 (/15)	Summative: Test Oct 6 (/35)
Student X	7 = 58% Knowledge: 2/3 Thinking: 1/3 Application: 2/3 Communication: 2/3	12 = 80% Knowledge: 3/5 Thinking: 3/3 Application: 4/5 Communication: 2/2	29 = 82.5% Knowledge: 13/15 Thinking: 6/7 Application: 5/8 Communication: 5/5

In Ontario, each of our assessments are broken into four learning categories; Knowledge, Thinking, Application and Communication (Achievement Charts). Even though with this method, I am able to see that my students greatest area of challenge is in the application area but I can not be specific with my feedback about what concepts, or steps they should take to improve. I can only be general or have to sit down and go through the assessment with them to identify how they could improve. I found that a week later, I would only know that I would need to help this student with their application questions, but I would have no background as to specific concepts, or past areas of concern to adjust my teaching methods. 

To help give a better picture of each student and their progress and growth, I looked to Standards Based Grading for support. My school does not grade using this method, but I thought that if I used it in my personal grade book, it would help provide more meaning to my grades and therefore impact my teaching. My school grade book still looks like the one above, but now my grade book for each unit will look like the following:

Diagnostic		9abcd	4b,7a,b	8a	8b	7b	5	3, 4a
1st Assess	Formative		1ab	1c	1d	1b		2
2nd assess
3rd assess
First Name	Last Name	Algebra Awareness	Add and subtract fractions	Multiply fractions	Divide fractions	Convert improper to mixed fractions	Create equivalent fractions	Order rational number
Student	A	NC	VG VG	NI VG - formative	NC VG - formative	VG VG	G - mixed challenge	G - issue in boxes VG - formative
Student	B	Guess and check	VG VG	VG VG	VG VG	VG VG	VG	VG VG

This was the first few columns and refer specifically to specific concepts. As you move further along in the grade book, it then shows results for applications of rational numbers from word problems etc. 

With a lot more lines, it looked more confusing and more work, but I feel it provides a deeper picture into each of my students. I have put more emphasis on the concepts, taken directly from the curriculum, and now break up my assessments into these rather than the other way around. I have also indicated what question on each assessment referred to each concept. This way I can also ensure that each concept will be assessed multiple times and that students have been given feedback. Now a story can now be told about each learner:

Student A:

• From her diagnostic, Student A showed that she was comfortable with adding and subtracting fractions even when there was an improper fraction involved. However, she showed that she needed improvement in multiplying and dividing fractions as well as the rational number on a number line. Specific support was provided for these areas, and with the second assessment she has shown improvements. The student can be congratulated specifically on her improvement in each area.

Student B:

• From the diagnostic it was aware that this student already had the skills in these areas. Throughout the following class activities, she was encouraged to challenge herself with Blue or Black level activities. In her following assessment she continued to show a very good understanding of the concept and she will be encouraged to explore these ideas further with individualized questions. 

For me, it helped to see if students were continuing to struggle on a specific concept and more direct instruction or support was necessary. Also, I am able to say to Student A:

 "I saw that you have made a great improvement in your dividing fractions. Thats great! What did you do to make those improvements?". 

By identifying their specific achievements, I hope that we can celebrate together, but also reflect on their process. How did they improve in this area? What strategies did they use? What resources? When a student sees that they are the ones that made that improvement, I am hoping I can refer back to it when they may come across a challenge in the future. Also it allows me to celebrate each student because each one will hopefully show a progress on one concept even if their overall result is not displaying this. 

If you have a way to break down your grade book into specific concepts that is working for you, please let me know. I am hoping to make changes throughout the year to something that communicates the learning process.