I've been thinking about deliberate practice: how do I encourage my students to practice physics, rather than staring at notes (or complaining that I don't give them enough notes to stare at)? Part of it has to be the sort of in-depth conversation I had with several students this week, as we discussed the parts of the CVPM standards they met and the parts they haven't yet met. (Even if it boggles my mind that sophomores can be uncertain about their answer to the question: if Carla drives 120 miles at 60mph, how much time did she spend on the road?)
What's working:
- Standards-Based Assessment: I'm not balancing points, and my students don't have an excuse to give up yet, because they're not failing.
- Mistake Game: my Honors kids (who hate making mistakes in public) are still eager to get up and present their solutions.
What's not working yet:
- Feedback mechanisms aren't fast enough. I'm thinking about Frank Noschese's orange pens for quizzes, and screencasting my comments on other assessments.
How do you encourage your students to engage in deliberate practice, rather than cramming or memorizing?
1 comment:
re: Deliberate practice.
For most cases, I think there are two problems. Kids don't know how to study and they don't know what to study.
We certainly need to teach kids how to study. I'm setting that aside for now.
For the second problem, this is one of those SBG is so clutch sort of things. If you can narrow their focus to a specific standard, or even a part of a specific standard, they've got a place to start. Telling a kid they need to learn "about atoms" or "improve your test scores" is a tough start. Where do you even begin?
Post a Comment