Advice on high school co-op class

[Alice]

I'm teaching a class on Human Anatomy at our co-op this year. We are using the Apologia text and I'm quite familiar with the subject material. However, I've never taught high schoolers and I'm looking for advice on a few things.

 

The class is really fast paced and difficult. All the students were meant to have already had Biology and Chemistry and most are junior/seniors in high school. We meet once a week and I view my role as more of a facilitator. It's not possible to teach everything in the text in one hour a week. So I go through what I think is most important/difficult/a new concept and except them to be reading and doing the study questions at home. We discussed the expectations the first day.

 

On the first test, the grades were scattered. The test was supposed to be mostly review material and to my surprise there were 2 D's out of 9 kids. (There were also 4 A's and 3 B's and one 100%.) The grades are somewhat optional, I've told them I'll grade them but it's really up to their parents if they want to use a final grade for something like a transcript. The grade is more of a service to them than that it really matters for the class itself. Still, the grades also help me see how much they are understanding and retaining.I was worried that two of them scored so low on what was essentially review material (and several of the B's were borderline low grades) but maybe I'm over-reacting since it's so early.

 

I'm going to go over a few test taking ideas with them (read ALL of the question, don't skip questions, take your time, write enough so I can understand what you mean and possibly give partial credit) as I think the lower grades were more from some of those kind of errors than truly not understanding. I thought then I'd wait and see how they do on their second test (they will have a test every two weeks and each one is only a small part of their final grade). If the same kids really struggle (or if a lot more do) I feel like I either need to reevaluate how I am teaching and/or make sure their parents know they are struggling. Does that sound reasonable?

 

We also had planned on doing a weekly chat outside class to make sure that they were understanding the material and to answer questions. After compiling their schedules there was virtually no time available that they could all do it. There was one possible time, but one girl had said it wasn't ideal for her. So my co-teacher and I came up with the idea to do an open email question...they were told to email questions by Sunday night at 6 pm and that I would email back answers to the entire group. I got no questions this week so now I'm wondering if this is going to work. I'm also not sure how often they check their emails, this is more the texting generation.

 

Would you just set up a chat time and tell the ones who can't make it they will need to go back and access it and read it on their own? Any other ideas for out of class communication that have worked well for you?

[Kim in SouthGa]

First of all, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. Our experience with coop classes has been that some kids just refuse to do the work and the parents don't/won't/can't make them, just like in other schools. I was blown away when my 15ds's Spanish teacher told me that she had to fail a couple of kids because they simply wouldn't turn in the homework!

 

My son is taking a Bravewriter class online and really likes the format. She posts the assignments and the kids turn them in online in an open format..I am not techy enough to describe it, but basically you can look at just your work or you can look at the whole class's work. Maybe something like that would work? I guess more of a discussion forum so everyone sees it, like a yahoo group, instead of private emails.

Also, engrade.com has some awesome tools! I know someone hear posted their page for Apologia Physical Science and it is great. You can put up flashcards, youtube videos, etc, and you can also do class discussion there and keep all the grades (which is what it originally started as, thus the name, I guess). It is really a great tool for coop classes.

Lastly, is there anyway you could extend the class to 1.5 or 2 hours? Are you doing labs? Our experience has been 2 hours minimum (concurrent) needed for science classes.

[regentrude]

I have not taught a coop class, but I teach college.

 

It has been my experience that even college students have trouble with independently reading a text; if I would use a format like you do, most would fail miserably. It would be desirable if they prepared at home for your class (and absolutely necessary for the material you cover), but I would question whether you may not be expecting too much maturity from some of your students.

I offer help sessions and office hours; my class is difficult and expensive (four credit hours - if they fail, they have to retake and pay again) - yet only a fraction of the students ever shows up and asks questions, usually, these are not the low performing students. They have the option of emailing me at any time, yet few use it. Unless your students are very motivated, and unless they sort of know what they are doing and can formulate specific questions, it might be difficult to get them to ask. Maybe you can create a message board and make participation a mandatory part of class? (as in: everybody has to post twice per week, responding to a classmates post or asking a question).

In any case, I would discuss the expectations with the parents. parents need to know how much reading is assigned and what you expect them to do at home, so parents can make sure it gets done. I am afraid that some of your students will not be organized and motivated enough to do this on their own without parental support - I know my college students are not ((as they have no parent present, I have to do the nagging, not fun)

Seeing how little time you have for class, I would explore options to give the test outside of class. Can they take it online? Under the supervision of their parents? Having a test every two weeks means they only have one real class every two weeks which makes it seem hardly worth the effort.

 

Good luck.

[Alice]

Thanks for your input, both of you.

 

Just to clarify, they do take the test outside of class, it would be an absolute waste of time to do it otherwise. So the format is that we do one chapter over two weeks, with lecture on both days. There are very few true labs in the Apologia Anatomy course. Some are to use a coloring book which they will do on their own, some are to look at slides which we will do in class but it somewhat goes along with the lecture as opposed to being a true lab. There are also three dissections and a few other true labs but those will be done outside class (which they knew about before signing up for the class). I can't make the class longer as we are the second period and they all have another class directly after.

 

I didn't mean to imply that I just have them read the text and ask questions. I do go through and outline the chapter myself and then lecture on the main points and teach the main concepts. It's just that it's a lot of material to do in two hours and by necessity it has to be fast-paced. They will do well only if they read, come to class and do the assigned questions that go along in the text on their own. They all took biology and chemistry classes at our co-op which essentially followed the same format so they should be used to the format, even if the material is more challenging.

 

I think you are right, regentrude, in suggesting that I need to make the midweek posting/online session mandatory. I like the idea of a message board that they have to check and post on, instead of a chat. Well, I like the idea of a live chat but I'm not sure how to handle that with their crazy schedules. You are probably also right in that I'm assuming they are capable of more independence than they perhaps are.That's one reason why I posted here, for help in figuring out expectations.

[FaithManor]

A & P requires a LOT of detailed memorization. It's a really difficult class for most high schoolers, challenging even for the top students if it is taught thoroughly with high expectations.

 

I would suggest a fair amount of "hand holding", grace in grading, and anything you can do to help with memory aids...menomics, catchy phrases and tunes, word associations, etc.

 

A & P was a weeder class in pre-med and paramedic school for dd's fellow classmates. She did phenomenally well, but her fellow students weren't so lucky. Half of the paramedic class and 1/3rd of the pre-med/nursing students at the end of it dropped out of medicine! The instructor was a no mercy kind of guy and students were not prepared out of high school for the sheer amount of hard slog and constant memory work it took to be successful in that class. But, that's okay because one does not want a medical professional working on you that can't remember his/her A & P.

 

I would encourage the students to attempt to study together outside of class. Taking turns quizzing each other is a real help towards getting it cemented.

 

Also, review a lot. In the frantic hunt to survive the test, it is really easy to then block that information out in order to survive the next chapter, only to have the cumulative need for that info kind of bite you in the tushy.

 

Best wishes,

Faith