AR cycle 2 survey reflection

Hopefully I can remember to split this blog into two posts, but in case I forget, there is so much going on with cycle 2 and 3 of my AR. I am trying to “wrap-up” cycle 2 of my AR in order to concentrate on my cycle 3 which is quickly becoming overwhelming. Cycle two is focusing on the multiple revision policy of so that students can redo their work as many times as necessary in order to receive a passing grade. Cycle three, I am focusing on student feedback in order to increase student success with my students writing their position papers and are able to receive feedback from me, from my student teacher, and both written and oral feedback.

With cycle two wrapping up, I gave the students a poll online to complete using Google Spreadsheets. The poll was fabulous because it allowed for me to get some structure to follow regarding their responses. I focused the question on the multiple revision policy because this policy has been in place since the start of the school year in August and now going into its 24th week of use. I wanted to see with this amount of time devoted to helping my students succeed, is the multiple redo policy working towards that goal? Here is an attachment to the results.

As I was watching the poll populate into Google while the kids were taking it, I was amazed at the data I was receiving from them. 20 kids completed the survey out of a class of 23. Of the 20 who completed the survey, 16 said the multiple revision policy was “Always” beneficial to them. As far as the positive impact the multiple revision policy had on their learning, 10 said always and 6 said most of the time, and 4 sometimes. No one indicated that it had no impact on them. This is another affirmation of the change the kids are experiencing in this class with No D’s and with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning and understanding.

The class was more split about the question that dealt with doing an assignment correctly the first time: 1 (always), 10 (most of the time), 7 (sometimes) and 2 (not at all). In conjunction with that question, the next question asked the students to think about when they redo an assignment, how often does it take them to redo it correctly. Interestingly enough 19 of the 20 were in the 1-2 times range. This could be that students are not understanding the assignment the first time it was given, or needing further clarification in order to turn in their best work.
Kids responded to the questions about taking the policy for granted that 11 (sometimes) and 7 ( not at all). I will react more to this with the interviews that were conducted on this question as to the reasoning behind the students choosing “sometimes”.

To piggy back with this question, I asked the students if I did require homework to be turned in immediately, how often would they do it.? 10 said most of the time, 5 always and the other 5 sometimes. Even with the multiple revision policy, these numbers seem consistent with what work they turn in now with a chance to do redo.

Looking into the effort they are putting into their work with being able to revise assignments over and over again, students commented that 11 indicated the effort has not declined, 7 indicated sometimes, and 2 sometimes. The effort was something I worried about with having the policy in place for this long as well as them taking the policy for granted. I was concerned that they would slack off and not take the work as seriously knowing they had the opportunity to redo the assignment. One student commented about the work load in an interview that would entail as a result of having so many assignments to redo. The stress of having assignments to redo because she didn’t do her best work the first time compounded with new assignments so that she realized it was better to do her best work the first time around on all work.

The last few questions on the poll were some of my favorite. I was interested in the change in their learning as a student and as a writer. As a result of the multiple redo, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being greatest improvement, 14 were in the 7-10 range. With the question directed more towards their writing and improvement as a writer, 18 out of 20 were in the 7-10 range. And finally, when asked if they would hold themselves accountable to redo assignments even if there was no redo policy, 14 said yes.

The entire poll was anonymous with no names or gender submitted. After talking with my LC last night, I wish I would have asked for gender information especially to see the breakdown on some of the questions. They were really impressed by the feedback I received from my students. We talked even about the kids in my class thinking differently about grades and learning.

Taking these survey results forward, I asked for students to volunteer to be interviewed about the multiple revision policy so I could receive some “why” explanations to their answers on the poll. I interviewed two girls yesterday and have a group of boys tomorrow.