What went well - Why?
Students took to them quickly and engagement was high, especially in my advanced classes. The students use of them encouraged and reminded me to keep making them part of the routine. Students referred back to them during Socratic Seminar and it quickly caught on in the entire class.
What was a challenge - Why?
My traditional students did not like to fill them in as readily and it took some rewards to get students engaged with the device. It took longer for them to see the value of it and some students had lots of attendance issues which made keeping up with it more difficult. While in my advanced class students who missed days used their UO to catch up, in my traditional classes this didn't seem to work as well. I think that many students have been conditioned to not try to do work because it is often too difficult for them, so even when it isn't too difficult for them, they don't want to try it. I had 8th graders who were reading at a 2nd grade level, so I can understand why they might hesitate to participate our of fear they won't be able to do it.
What you will do next time
I will continue to use the UO with my traditional classes, but I will be faster on the reinforcement of participation. Once it was established that students were rewarded for answering questions and filling in the boxes the students started to participate more.
What adjustments you made
I adjusted for traditional by reinforcing participation with rewards. I also put the UO on the Elmo and would write words, since spelling was a big hang up for some students. I had some students who still struggled and I would give my UO to them to copy, so they at least could have a copy for themselves in their notebook.
Ideas generated for issues encountered
I wonder if doing the UO on two pages instead of front/back might be easier for my traditional students. I think it would make gluing them into their notebooks easier. The only other issue I really ran into was time to review and create UO for the classes. It was tough at times, but collaborating with other teachers helped speed the process when time was short as did working with a coach and using the provided work sessions after school hours.
Students took to them quickly and engagement was high, especially in my advanced classes. The students use of them encouraged and reminded me to keep making them part of the routine. Students referred back to them during Socratic Seminar and it quickly caught on in the entire class.
What was a challenge - Why?
My traditional students did not like to fill them in as readily and it took some rewards to get students engaged with the device. It took longer for them to see the value of it and some students had lots of attendance issues which made keeping up with it more difficult. While in my advanced class students who missed days used their UO to catch up, in my traditional classes this didn't seem to work as well. I think that many students have been conditioned to not try to do work because it is often too difficult for them, so even when it isn't too difficult for them, they don't want to try it. I had 8th graders who were reading at a 2nd grade level, so I can understand why they might hesitate to participate our of fear they won't be able to do it.
What you will do next time
I will continue to use the UO with my traditional classes, but I will be faster on the reinforcement of participation. Once it was established that students were rewarded for answering questions and filling in the boxes the students started to participate more.
What adjustments you made
I adjusted for traditional by reinforcing participation with rewards. I also put the UO on the Elmo and would write words, since spelling was a big hang up for some students. I had some students who still struggled and I would give my UO to them to copy, so they at least could have a copy for themselves in their notebook.
Ideas generated for issues encountered
I wonder if doing the UO on two pages instead of front/back might be easier for my traditional students. I think it would make gluing them into their notebooks easier. The only other issue I really ran into was time to review and create UO for the classes. It was tough at times, but collaborating with other teachers helped speed the process when time was short as did working with a coach and using the provided work sessions after school hours.