Upgrading in 7th Grade Math

7th Grade Math

Mr. Brandon & Ed Oliva

Problem Identified: We have created a Hive Upgrade protocol that allows for students to upgrade Learning Outcomes over the internet at any time. Students are able to re-submit quizzes to demonstrate mastery (they are not told the correct answer to the questions they miss). Only a perfect score is accepted as a demonstration of mastery. This system has worked well all year. However, some students fall into the temptation to do trial-and-error submissions when they cannot solve one or two problems in a quiz. As a result, we have found that some students, for example, submit quizzes around ten times in a short period of time on a single Learning Outcome. As a result, we cannot recognize the quiz as a demonstration of mastery, even if a perfect score was ultimately achieved, leaving the student frustrated. We wanted to create a format where students are less tempted to engage in trial-and-error submissions.

Hypothesis: If we modify our on-demand Google Form Hive Upgrade protocol to include “short answer” questions instead of only “multiple choice” questions, then students will better demonstrate mastery when scoring 5/5 on a submission after multiple attempts.

Data Collection: Modification of Hive Upgrade protocol in this manner is in beta at this time.

Actionable Step: You can create assessments linked to specific Learning Outcomes and post them to your class website along with notes and screencasts. You can use these assessments to provide for an on-demand Hive Upgrade protocol allowing students open access to demonstrating mastery on every Learning Outcome in your course. In Google Forms, you can use the “short answer” question format to prevent students from engaging in trial-and-error submission.

Overall Findings/Impact: A system that allows students to self-select to improve their mastery ratings at any time can be meaningful employed to improve student achievement.