RE: Suggestions for improving Odyssey Ron Renna at Downtown Academy in Fort Lauderdale (a charter school) speaks highly of Odyssey... As teachers, we have benefited greatly from the Odyssey packet’s structure and clear sequence of programmed learning. The students really like the games, especially the spelling. Some general notes 1. Grades and progress Is there a button that the teacher can press to get the current status of every student? “click” and we see: Student History Language Spanish Math Jessica Smith John Craven Steve Maxwell 701-2 A 701-3 D 701-9 B 701-5 F 701-6 D 701 – 6 B 701-4 C 701-2 D 701-8 B 701-5 B 701-4 C 701-3 A Even if there was no grade, it would help to have a print out that shows all the students and shows what LESSON number they are on in the unit. Another print out might be just by subject area, where the math teacher can see where these are, even if there’s no grade achieved so far. 2. Printout I spent the first 3 weeks working off the computer screen until a colleague suggested that I print out the lessons. That’s a time saver! Is there a reason why Pathway doesn’t supply the teachers with the printouts? At least send us a CD with a word document for each unit. One long document with 12 lessons on it so we can print out that one month’s set of lessons. Instead, I spent the good part of an afternoon going click-on-unit, click-on-lesson, utility, print, click, wait, done, repeat. 3. How to handle parents. “I want a copy of the text book so I can follow along what my child is doing in the classroom.” Hooboy. The only thing I can offer is a print out of the lessons that we are covering. But this requires going into the program’s individual lessons and printing that lesson. Is there a “print unit” command? Or a “print entire course” command? Or “Print the text, not the exercises” command so the text can be taken home to study? 4. Exercises, Quizzes and Tests Some parts of the exercises, quizzes and tests focus on minutiae. Is it really important to know if the phrase is an adverb or adjective? My sixth graders don’t think so. But they might care if you asked them, Does the word tell us “which one” or “how they do it?” This suggestion is connected to the suggestion that comes next (about “teacher talk”). It appears that a college professor wrote much of the Language Arts section. Perhaps it sounds better to have an award-winning professor than a tried-in-the-trenches middle school teacher as the author of your programs. However, the middle school teacher knows that it’s easy to use the following sentence: “the word RED describes which fox we’re talking about.” Instead, there’s this sort of higher language that separates the reader from the author. With blue glasses is the prepositional phrase. The words in this phrase together modify (describe) the noun girl by answering the question which one? Modify = to change or alter. With blue glasses limits the number of girls that we are talking about. In a general sense the word “modify” in this sense means “describe”, but it’s a limited use. Please modify this car. Please describe this car. Hmmm. The first sounds like “add a chrome bumper and fins.” My basic suggestion is “get in the mind of a sixth grader and modify (change) the language to fit that person.” If you want to use a fancy word, provide the synonym in parenthesis for several occurrences, not just the first one. 5. Teacher talk The vocabulary is generally governed by “teacher talk.” Teachers of English give names to parts of speech. Sixth graders talk about the function. The red fox walked quickly. Sixth grader: Well, red tells the color of the fox and “quickly” tells how the fox walked. The opposite of quickly is slowly, so I know that the fox didn’t walk slowly. Teacher: what’s the verb? Sixth Grader: walked Teacher: What’s the adjective? Sixth Grader: blank look. Teacher: What word tells us more about the fox? Like, “which fox?” Sixth grader: Red. Teacher: What word tells us more about how he moved? Sixth Grader: quickly. Teacher: What’s the adverb? Sixth grader: Blank look As a teacher, I’m more interested that the student knows the function of “quickly” and the function of “red.” When asking the student to make a sentence more specific and more interesting (less general), I don’t use words like adjective and adverb. I ask “which one?” and “tell me about how he did that – was it carefully or very casually?” The parallel would be knowing the names of 5 animals. One is a king snake and one is a coral snake. Hmmmm “I don’t know what that is called, but I know the function of the one that has black next to red, you’re dead. Black next to yellow, lucky fellow. So I know that one of them is a king snake and it’s not poisonous to humans and the other can kill me. The name of the snake is less important than the description of the appearance.” “Hey, there’s a coral snake over here.” A person who knows nothing about the names wonders, “poisonous or non poisonous?” “Hey, there’s a name here with black rings touching red. What do you think it is?” Hmmm. Black touches red, you’re dead. “DON’T TOUCH IT!” Same thing with “teacher talk.” Why not present the names of these items for the quicker students (who might turn into teachers some day) and focus instead on FUNCTION. Another example comes from an addition and subtraction section. I had no idea that there is a minuend and subtrahend. I scored 800 on the math section of the SAT. Hmmm. It’s possible to go through school without learning the names of some items and yet The Odyssey pack made me look dumb. The names of the parts of a subtraction expression is a “surplus” point. Perhaps those items can be placed on the side, in a box, with the word “optional” written beside it. I have students who LOVE extra credit and they’ll look at that. But other students don’t need the added labor of learning vocabulary that will only be called on in a math textbook. 6. Put the text in several narrow columns, like a newspaper. Students get lost reading a block of text that is five inches wide. As you see in this letter, the text is formatted in double columns on the page. Why not do the same for the students? 7. Make the font bigger. The text will be easier to read. There are more general suggestions. We look forward to your reply. Teachers at DATA Some specific notes regarding Unit 701, Lesson 11, Language Arts I have written on the photocopy and I hope the marks are clear. If not, let me know. You can reach me at 954 646 8246 or call my home in the evening at 954 463 0310 It’s easier for me to talk after 7 pm East Coast Time. REGARDING PLURAL NOUNS Unit 701- Lesson 11 Does it matter which rule? The rule number looks like a busy-work exercise. Lesson Plans The automatic Lesson Plan system generates a custom lesson plan for a student using the student's assigned subjects and customized school year. The Automatic Lesson Plan produces a text file suitable for administration and creates an internal system that generates the "Past Due" notices. The schoolwork is spread evenly over the year according to the number of questions. Create Lesson Plan 1. Go to Teacher Mode. (If you have not already done so, we recommend creating a School Calendar for all the students.) 2. Click on a student's desk. 3. Click on Student Setup (If you have not already done so, Assign subjects to that student.) 4. Click on Create Lesson Plan for school year starting in 2001 (change the date to 2000 if you are finishing off the 2000 school year). The individual calendar for this particular student displays. 5. Choose Load Default 180-Day School Year to use the pre-programmed calendar or Use School Calendar to repeat the calendar you have previously set up in School Setup. Clear Calendar erases the calendar. The last option, Continue From Now can be used when you make changes to the calendar partway through the year and want to adjust the lesson plan. To select or deselect any single day, click on it. 6. Click DONE to save the changes and create the lesson plan. Follow the on-screen instructions. View (and print) Lesson Plan To see the lesson plan and print out a copy, go to the Grading Menu (if you are in Student Set Up, click DONE to get to the Grading Menu.) and click on View Lesson Plan. To print, select the "File" menu then "Print." Students access their lesson plan from their Schoolwork Menu. Note: You cannot change the lesson plan by changing the text in View Lesson Plan. Lesson plans are generated by Switched-On Schoolhouseä using the enabled subjects and current calendar. Changing the text in your word processor will have no affect on the lesson plan! You can only change the Lesson Plan by changing the calendar or assigned subjects and clicking on "Generate Lesson Plan" again. Once a Lesson Plan has been generated, the due date messages are posted and students will be warned by "Past Due" messages when they are falling behind. (To turn off the "Past Due" warnings, see Learning Options in Student Setup.) Change the Lesson Plan (after changing the calendar or adding subjects) Repeat the above steps, only make sure you select the option Continue From Now at the top of the page. Sample Lesson Plan Lesson Plan for John Smith Week #1 ______________________________________________________________________ Monday, September 3, 2001 Science 8 1:1 Science Today... Language 8 1:1 Improving Your Reading Math 8 1:1 Place Value Math 8 1:2 Whole Numbers from Words to Numerals Math 8 1:3 Composition of Whole Numbers History 8 1:1 Civilization Awakens From Darkness History 8 1:2 Exploration Catches Fire ______________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, September 4, 2001 Science 8 1:1 Science Today Science 8 1:P Essay S801A Mendel... Language 8 1:2 Inflections Math 8 1:4 Rounding Large Numbers History 8 1:Q Quiz 1 ______________________________________________________________________ Wednesday, September 5, 2001 Science 8 1:Q Quiz 1 Language 8 1:3 Root Words Math 8 1:Q Quiz 1 History 8 1:3 Spain Launches Forth History 8 1:4 The East Meets the West ______________________________________________________________________ Thursday, September 6, 2001 Science 8 1:2 Today's Scientist... Language 8 1:4 Categorizing Words Math 8 1:5 Number and Numerical Concepts History 8 1:5 Spain's Treasure Hunt ______________________________________________________________________ Friday, September 7, 2001 Science 8 1:2 Today's Scientist Language 8 1:5 Spelling Words (1) Math 8 1:6 Numerals Using Addition Concepts Math 8 1:7 Number Systems Which Use Multiplication History 8 1:Q Quiz 2 History 8 1:6 Spain's Rivals: English and Dutch Efforts ______________________________________________________________________ Week #2 ______________________________________________________________________ Monday, September 10, 2001 Science 8 1: Review for Quiz... Language 8 1: Review for Quiz... Math 8 1:8 Numbers Using Base Ten History 8 1:7 The Dutch Claim New Land ______________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, September 11, 2001 Science 8 1: Review for Quiz... Language 8 1:Q Quiz 1 Math 8 1:9 Numbers Using Other Bases... History 8 1:8 French Trading Interests History 8 1:P Essay H801A-New World Explorers... ______________________________________________________________________ |