Life gets hectic, school gets crazy... blog gets thrown on the back burner. I have really been wanting to get back into it, but I have been waiting for a good topic to post about! And I think I finally got it!
So I have been kind-of, sort-of neglecting extended response practice this year. My kids have done an OK job on them so far this year and I have really been trying to hustle through content (which seems NEVER ending when it comes to 5th grade math). This hasn't left a whole lot of extra time to practice these- either modeling or working on them together.
I went to the KCM math conference a few weeks ago and heard a teacher talk about students giving each other feedback on written responses. It kind of sparked a trigger in my brain and I thought I could maybe make it work, in a fun and engaging way. In the end, I sacrificed TWO WHOLE DAYS for this activity- however it was well worth it.
So I started by modeling an extended response type question with the help of my students. We analyzed the problem, pulled out important information, and answered it together. We talked about restating the question and showing all of our work.
Here is the problem we did together:
Oliver always has to make an appearance one way or another :)
After that, I gave them another problem to work on, which was similar to this problem, and in their table groups they solved the problem together. They have to record their answers on big chart paper with a Mr. Sketch marker, of course! :) They had to take turns writing, making sure each person had a chance to put some part of the answer on the paper. In their groups, they were able to work together to brainstorm, solve, and make sure they had a COMPLETE answer.
Here was the problem they worked on in their groups:
That was what we got done in Day 1 (which I have a strict hour math block- I teach three classes of math). If you have more flexibility in your schedule, you could just keep working.
Moving on to Day 2!
We came in and I let them look over their responses for 2 minutes, with fresh eyes, seeing if there was anything they wanted to adjust or add!
Then came the fun part! I explained how they were going to "gallery walk" and read the other groups' responses. I proceeded to give each group a pack of post-its and explained that they were going to give feedback to the groups about their response. We talked about positive and negative feedback, and we also discussed how the "negative" feedback was something we wanted to give in a "positive" manner. They kids were great with coming up with ways to go about this by saying things like, "Well maybe if you added a model your answer would be more clear" or "If you restated the question with the answer it would be very obvious where your answer was on the page". They also came up with a great rule- if they thought of something they needed to improve on their answer about, they MUST FIRST give some sort of positive feedback- one for one! (My teacher heart about exploded with their kindness!)
I gave them about 5 minutes at the first one they got to, for them to get the kinks out. Then when the timer was up, I explained they were going to rotate to the next one. Here the catch was they could not repeat anything that was already given as feedback. One student explained immediately, "The last one is going to be SO HARD!!" We all laughed! I simply explained they were going to have to look with careful eyes!
We continued rotating and leaving feedback until they had seen every groups' response and returned to their original groups' response! Here are some photos of the fun!
Once they returned, they looked over the feedback and were very responsive! They took their classmates critiques to heart and it has definitely showed! The last test over 85% of the whole fifth grade received a 4 (the best you can get) on their extended response. I was so pleased and definitely felt like this activity contributed to their success! I will DEFINITELY be repeating this activity again as we get closer to KPREP testing!
I hope you can adapt this for your classroom! For example, younger grades could do short answers instead of extended responses, and you could use this for ANY content area! I also thought about the kids writing their own responses and doing this as a table activity- each person gets a different colored pen/marker/colored pencil and then writes on their table maters' paper. Then, have them pass the papers around the table till they get their own paper back! May have to try that next!
And here's to hoping I stay on the blogging bandwagon! :)
Brit
