For my SLO project, I chose to investigate student choice. 5th period ag 1 would be assigned a ThinkLink poster, heavy on inquiry, for the topic of IPM in plant science. 8th period will get a choice of that ThingLink, a comic strip, lyrics, a video, or an essay. Both classes would get the same exact pre-test, which will be re-taken as a post-test. I wanted to know if 8th period would have a higher score increase, and if there would be enough evidence to say that it was because of the choice they were given.
In the end, 5th period actually had a higher score increase. When you compare the numbers side by side, 5th period had more consistent numbers on average, while 8th period had dramatic shifts in scores. Some students even got a lower score the second time.
If you were in the class with me, you would be able to conclude that 8th period on a Friday when it is warm out is not the best time to take a quiz. I had more discipline issues the last day than I have in the whole week before. What I am taking with me from doing this research is how more engaged the choice class seemed to be (with the exception of the post quiz). For my sake as a teacher, I enjoyed looking through 8th period's work more. Although I only established guidelines, not boundaries, 5th period projects seemed to get repetitive. 8th period had more variety of information on their projects, and they could be more creative with it. Would I like to try it again with a better control over my variables? Yes. But moving forward I think this project was a good way for me to work towards the student choice and inquiry based goals that I have.
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