I came across a blog (http://function-of-time.blogspot.ca/2009/05/final-exam-review-blog-is-live.html) that was very interesting and sparked some ideas in my head. The teacher has set up a blog for students and they are to pair up, take a topic and write a post on the blog about that topic so that all students can review it. This is very interesting especially if you've read my previous blogs about review. This review is such a great idea because it is what I find review to be: something that the students take ownership of and do constantly. It is a great idea to have a forum for them to post while having the responsibility to do so as well. I would make sure that it happens constantly and not only before big tests. In a sense this becomes more than just a review, rather a place where the students can interact and help each other with concepts (hence the title above). The teacher's job in all this is to moderate it all and help any misunderstandings that he sees on the forum.
It also sparked another idea in my head. During my university career I had a professor who gave us his phone number and said he is going to be available 3 hours the night before the exam and called the number "the microbiology hotline." Now aside from the fact that he was encouraging last minute studying, I liked the idea him being very accessable when I was doing the actual studying at home though. So I thought it would be a very good idea to have an online forum once a week perhaps at the end of the week when I would be available on a given time to answer any questions that students had from home.
3 Comments
Re: http://ispeakmath.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/study-guide-kit-for-math-tests/
As a student I have almost never found review packages prepared by teachers to be of any help, especially ones that are checklists of things I had to know. However, I have a huge bias in that I have always been a "good" student who did his work all the time and asked questions during the lesson and not right before a test. I have yet to experience how students who have trouble with the material find review packages, especially now that I am a teacher. However, I have a few thoughts to share. Firstly, when it comes to review packages, rather, when it comes to any review, it is almost always in the context of a test. Why does that have to be the case? Why can we not review all the time, whenever it is appropriate and necessary. For example, I was teaching a student I tutor about solutions to graphs. The lesson was focused solely on the graphical solutions to systems of equation and that's what was going to be testes for his online course. However at the beginning of the course we had learned how to solve systems of equations using substitution and elimination. So when we were covering graphical solutions to systems of equation, we also reviewed substitution and elimination and we related all of them together to get a fuller understanding of what a "solution" is and how we can find it, even though that was not going to be tested. I believe it gave a more well rounded understanding to my student. I mentioned how review packages made by teachers aren't helpful. In the education world we hear more and more that instruction should be differentiated and students must take ownership of their education. A checklist is a good thing to have for each student at the beginning of the year to help them know what's coming up next in the course. When it comes to review I think each student should list and prioritize what they know about the least or what they cant remember. A checklist might be helpful for this. According to their priorities, they can come up with specific question about the topic that they don't understand/remember. They can either try and find answers individually or as groups or they can also submit it to the teacher. That way the teacher can help the students with those specific questions and potentially give them practice questions. But I find packages with all sorts of questions for students to complete are inefficient and sometimes not even relevant to questions that students have. Review must also be differentiated. This week I read a blog on Sam Shah's page (http://samjshah.com/tag/general-ideas-for-the-classroom/) regarding his so called Algebra Bootcamp. The idea is that Calculus is not hard, Algebra is, so it's a good idea to review algebra before teaching concepts in Calculus. As I have not taught Calculus in a classroom before, I have no experience and no comments about the specifics of what should be reviewed and what shouldn't be in Calculus. However, I know that in any course, especially Math, it's best to review the foundational concepts before moving onto new material.
Now, what is not so obvious is that review shouldn't be the, too commonly used, review packages. What I really like about Shah's post is the self assessment of the students and its specificity. Activities such as a "boot camp" are great ways to bring excitement into reviewing concepts that might be boring to some and very much new to others. This, meanwhile having a clear objective. That is, students know exactly what it is they are reviewing and why. They should take on the responsibility and understand the importance of the review activity with respect to their future in that subject. A review is not to just remember, it's rather to prepare. |