Kicking Off a New School Year with LPM
Introduction
While school probably started for most of you either last week or last month, welcome back to a new school year! I’ll echo what I said a year ago: There’s something magical about the start of school, don’t you think?
As I wrote in the previous post, last year was my best teaching year ever largely due to my mastery of the Learning Progression Model (LPM) and the meaningful relationships I was able to develop because of it. I’m excited to see what this year brings!
Despite an incredibly busy summer—graduate coursework, book publication tasks, family time, and a bout of Covid—I’ve been making decisions for the new school year. I’d like to share some of my reflections and plans with you.
Challenges from 2022-2023
At the beginning of last school year, I was going to make seven changes.
- Fostering creativity.
- Adapting to AP Physics 1.
- Empowering student mastery of vocabulary.
- Focusing on engineering, especially for women.
- Implementing electronic portfolios using gotFeedback.
- Reporting end-of-unit grades on Genesis.
- Including more real world applications, especially regarding renewable energy.
I want to report back on each of them because they were incredibly effective. I’m thrilled with the progress made.
Renewable Energy and Engineering
Integrating wind and solar energy into every unit, I gradually increased the complexity of engineering design projects, which greatly benefited from the use of gotFeedback (formerly gotLearning). This platform allowed students to document their work more creatively, incorporating socially-responsive issues that particularly engaged the girls in my classes. By addressing numbers 1, 4, 5, and 7 almost simultaneously, I saw significant improvements and have even more ideas for the future.
Advanced Placement courses
AP Physics 1 went exceptionally well. My students were incredible, and I was thrilled with their performance—an average score of 3.6 out of 5 on the exam! Although I’m not teaching AP Physics 1 this year, I’m excited to apply what I learned as I transition to AP Physics 2. I used LPM with great success. (If you read my initial post and then the later one, you can how I shifted the assessment in that class.)
Domain-Relevant Knowledge
As for vocabulary mastery, I didn’t make significant changes last year. I introduced practice quizzes with 5 true/false questions based on core concepts, to help students study. I’m contemplating whether to continue using Content Mastery Checkpoints. I don’t use them for AP classes at all, and they still have to know the material. Therefore, I am beginning to feel as if they can show me that they know the vocabulary just fine by answering the questions (LP5) and documenting their project (LP9). I initially included CMCs to better support student learning, because they were not studying and preparing effectively for those learning progressions. I am not going to change anything this year, but I am going to think about it this year and perhaps make a change for next year.
Rethinking Grade Reporting
Regarding number 6, I reported grades at the end of each unit, which was much better than only at the ends of semesters. This, in addition to emails home and follow up phone calls as needed, really smoothed out the communication of progress. My gradebook for the first semester ended up looking like this
To more fully explain, the pins each have the message shown in the gray box. Notice that the Unit X grade is weighted as “x 0.0” because it doesn’t count. It only communicates the grade at the end of the semester. Note that there were 10 more columns with the scores on each of the practices. These were changed at the end of each unit. You can learn a lot more about recording and reporting student progress while using LPM in my new book. I have several chapters that I devote to this issue, with a lot of explanations and examples. I am going to continue this exactly as is this year.
Areas of Inquiry for this school year
Looking ahead, I have 4 focus areas for 2023-2024: New AP Practices, Diversity in STEM, Peer Assessment, and Patterns curriculum.
AP Physics
The College Board has revamped the AP Physics exams, reducing the number of practices and FRQs. I spent some time this summer writing LPs that align with these new requirements. While in theory I can continue to use the ones I use for all of the other physics classes, even last year I realized that my requirements didn’t fully match that of the AP exam. I’ll share my insights in a November 14th post after I’ve had time to test and refine my approach. Since I am teaching AP Physics 2, it may be difficult to tease out the causes… the curriculum or the practices? The good news is that I taught all of the students last year, so they all used and understood the original practices. They should be able to give me useful feedback.
Diversity in STEM
This year, I’m incorporating the STEP UP curriculum to highlight underrepresented scientists and advocate for inclusive teaching strategies. I hope this will encourage more students, especially girls and students of color, to see themselves as valuable contributors to scientific fields. There are several reasons for this: 1) I have noticed that girls do not see themselves as “good at physics” even though they work hard, earn excellent grades, and get positive feedback from me. 2) For too long, the contributions of non-Western, non-male figures in science have been marginalized, perpetuating a narrow and exclusionary narrative. The STEP UP curriculum provides resources to highlight underrepresented scientists and advocates for inclusive teaching strategies. I’m eager to see what, if anything, changes due to my using this approach.
Self and Peer Assessment
After a deep dive into the Assessment for Learning approach this summer, I realized that I need to incorporate more rigorous self-assessments and add in peer assessments, which I had been avoiding. I plan to research best practices further, as my previous attempts at peer assessment were less effective. (It used to be part of an earlier iteration of the Using Feedback learning progression, but I found it difficult to assess.)
Patterns and Inquiry
Inspired by a conversation with Bradford Hill at the NSTA conference, in Denver last March, I’m adapting the Patterns Science program using the resources he graciously shared with me. Although they teach physics to ninth graders, I am using the first unit, called Patterns and Inquiry, for my juniors in physics and honors physics. I suspect that it will help me directly address issues my students have been having with graph creation and interpretation. I hope to use it to initiate a more speedy ramp up in those areas in particular.
I may also adapt other units, but I haven’t gotten that far yet! It really looks like a comprehensive approach that pulls together the NGSS DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs. I’m looking forward to learning more about it.
What to Expect from ReimaginedSchools this year
There are a few changes with this website. One is that I am now working solo. Since this has been the reality of the situation for the past year, you probably will not notice any significant effect. ReimaginedSchools is managed and run by me, Elise Naramore only, for better or for worse.
I am currently working on my doctoral degree. Therefore, you may notice a shift in my writing as I report on topics that come up in my coursework. However, the program is for practitioner-scholars, and I have a high degree of autonomy to research topics of interest to me. I have a list of questions and wonderings that includes:
- Do rubrics stifle creativity?
- I wonder about “parents’ rights” in education
- What are the effects of school choice on students and schools?
- How can effective self and peer assessment be implemented?
- What role does diversity and equity play in education?
- Does evaluative feedback really stifle student learning as much as I’ve read?
- What studies have been done and what has been found out about the effect of traditional grading vs. modified approaches?
What other questions should I add to my list? Any suggestions? As the school year unfolds, I plan to publish one or two blog posts per month.
Conclusion
This school year promises to be another exciting chapter in our educational journey. I invite you to join me on this journey—sign up for my newsletter to stay updated. I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions, so feel free to engage through comments or email. With new challenges and opportunities on the horizon, I’m eager to continue exploring innovative teaching strategies and sharing my experiences with you. Let’s make this year another one to remember!
Please consider buying or recommending my latest book, The Learning Progression Model, available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, ebook, or (coming soon) audiobook.
