We’re busy but feedback is needed. I had advised a teacher to go to the book with two bad classes. Now this has happened:
Hi Ben,
Since I’ve stopped doing CI in a couple of my classes now due to behavior, I’ve run into further CM problems with one especially. Now the students are bored out of their minds and falling asleep, messing around, not doing classwork, etc. Since I’m not following the jGR with them and I don’t anticipate doing CI with them at all, I’m trying to figure out how to keep them under control. I’m having one parent come in to observe her daughter in my class this week. I came up with a Participation self-assessment that they’ll do at the end of the class which is essentially based on if they participated in class, kept their heads up, etc. Do you think that’s a good idea? They fill it in at the end of class and at the end of the week, hand it in and I either alter or keep their grade. Since I’ve switched to the book I haven’t taken many grades and so the students’ grades are all still decent. I’m trying to light a fire under them to behave better. I’m also going to meet with a counselor to discuss removing a student or 2 from the class.
My other class that’s not doing CI has the problem of just being zombies. I called them the living dead last week because they just stare at me. My two “stars” have become bumps on a log and put their heads down often. I’m hoping this participation rubric will solve the problem and bring their grades down enough to where they’ll have to take things more seriously. Let me know if you think this will work. Thanks!