Adapting LPM to a New Course

I started my journey of assessment reform during the 2015-16 school year, which happens to be the last time I taught biology. I’ve learned a lot about assessment and teaching since that experience, so when I was told I would be picking up a section of biology, I was excited. This was an opportunity for me to see if all the things that I’ve learned could be implemented in a different course. Is the Learning Progression Model as adaptable as I hoped it would be? We’re just about a month in, so I wanted to reflect on the start of the year.

 

Preparation

 

Things are going well in class, and I’m pleased with that, but I didn’t prepare for the year the way that I wanted to. Although I was given ample time to go through my traditional off-season routine, I didn’t. Like most people, I was exhausted and needed to step away for longer than I normally do. I had plans to rework lessons and have a few units done before the school year started. It didn’t happen. However, I did get the chance to review the learning progressions I use in physics and modify them for biology. The course sequence here is biology, chemistry and then physics. Rather than completely changing the learning progressions, I decided I am going to use the progressions over multiple years, with the goal of getting students to the proficient level by the end of their freshman year and advancing beyond that in subsequent years.  There were some minor language changes necessary to make these specific to the course and a couple of progressions that are not addressed in enough depth to assess. When all was said and done, I landed on 8 progressions instead of the 10 used in physics. This process went as smoothly as I hoped it would.

 

The Start of the School Year

 

One of the things that I learned while investigating grade reform is that the assignment itself doesn’t really matter all that much. What we plan to do with it, how we frame and support it is what is going to give it the impact we desire. Even though I didn’t get to revamp the lessons the way that I wanted to, I felt ready. One of the biggest challenges I noticed students have is asking questions that will get them the information they’re looking for. That became my focus. The theme of the class for the year. That’s always been something that I’ve valued, instilling a sense of curiosity, and having students question everything. However, I never decided to make it the central theme of the course until this year. We’ve discussed purpose a lot in years past, but now it is front and center. On the first day there were demos set up all over the room. Students were told to write down whatever questions came to their head. They were reminded not to try to answer these questions or try to explain what was happening in each demo. Just write questions. We then discussed whether the questions were seeking an explanation from someone else or something they could design an investigation around and answer themselves. Were these questions that we could answer today? At the end of the unit? Maybe it would take until the end of the year, or we wouldn’t get an answer at all. I wanted them to understand that just because a question doesn’t always immediately result in an answer, it doesn’t make it a bad question. From this point on, students will be generating questions at the start of each unit. So far, it’s been working well.

 

Shifting the Focus from Content

 

As is the case in all subject areas, we have educational practices (NGSS Science Practices) that help students engage with the content. Content is still important, as it’s the vehicle to develop these practices, but it’s no longer the goal for me. The last time I taught biology I had started shifting my mindset more to the development of practices. However, I wasn’t very skilled at presenting opportunities that supported that in a meaningful way. I know I’m definitely better at this than I was 6 years ago, but this is going to be my biggest challenge this year. I want to make sure that these practices are connected to the content and highlight their value and not merely an activity that we’re doing to say that I taught students graphing for instance. When do we use the different types of graphs? How can they help us organize data, visually represent it, and support our conclusions? As I go through the course with my current mindset, I think this will become easier. It’s just going to take some work.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Through the first month of school, we have done three investigations and I can already see the improvement in the skills we are practicing. Students are actively engaged, they are asking more questions, and it seems that they are happy to be here. I think part of that is being back in a full class setting and getting the social interaction that they have missed for the past year and a half. I look forward to what the year has in store. I know it won’t be perfect, but we’ll keep working to make it better.