3 Years of POGIL at Fossil Ridge High School

1. 3 Years of POGIL at Fossil Ridge High School Mark Morehouse and Melissa Vigil

2. Year OneWe are all in, but what are we going to do tomorrow??? Successes Challenges • We made it through the year! • Wrote, revised and borrowed a lot of lessons • More interaction with students • Exciting to do something new • Partner teachers in same building was crucial to sticking with POGIL • Not much POGIL material available • Unsure how to effectively use roles and provide feedback on group effectiveness • Tried several different feedback and report forms • Grading POGIL activities • Created class notebooks • Pushback from students who prefer traditional classroom

3. After Year One What We Kept What We Changed • POGIL classroom • GALT assessment • Used to create heterogeneous groups • Many lessons • Class notebooks • Roles • Dropped Recorder & Equipment Manger/Reader • Created Process Analyst & Quality Control • Kept Facilitator & Spokesperson • Rewrote role descriptions • Created process analyst form • Room arrangement • Stopped using the word ‘POGIL’

4. New Room Arrangement Minimized distance between group members to increase interaction

5. Year Two Successes Challenges • Access to HSPI and more lessons • More positive student participation • New room arrangement • Better group cohesion and performance • Changed groups once/quarter and noticed stages of group formation (forming, norming, storming, performing) • Individual and student group performance • Students struggled to be effective in roles if they didn’t have strong interpersonal skills • How do we give students meaningful feedback on how they are working in their groups? • How do we teach kids to be active and effective learners in groups? • Process Analyst form had little buy in and did not help individuals • No grade motivation for students

6. Process Skills Competency Model Tier 1: Personal Effectiveness Tier 3: Workplace Competencies • Interpersonal Skills • Integrity • Professionalism • Lifelong Learning • Facilitator • Spokesperson • Quality Control • Process Analyst Tier 2: Academic Competencies • Content specific to course Bruce Wellman from Olathe Northwest High School deserves all credit for this model and his extensive work on it

7. After Year Two What We Kept What We Changed • POGIL classroom • Roles – no changes • Lessons and class notebooks • Room arrangement • Developed process competencies model • Personal and role competencies • Feedback system and self reflective assignment • Videos – used to teach personal effectiveness skills • Facilitation style – fewer class check-ins, more group check-ins

8. "Building Blocks" for Competency ModelsU. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration This reference source consists of a set of "building blocks" for competency model development. These "building blocks" are arranged in nine tiers including: [1] [1] Taken from: http://www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel/pyramid_definition.aspx (accessed May 2010)

9. "Building Blocks" for Competency ModelsU. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration Occupation Related Tier 9 -- Management Competencies Tier 8 -- Occupation-Specific Requirements Tier 7 -- Occupation-Specific Technical Competencies Tier 6 -- Occupation-Specific Knowledge Competencies Industry Related Tier 5 -- Industry-Specific Technical Competencies Tier 4 -- Industry-Wide Technical Competencies Foundational Competencies Tier 3 -- Workplace Competencies Tier 2 -- Academic Competencies Tier 1 -- Personal Effectiveness [1] This model was crafted from materials from the U.S. Department of Labor and contextualized for a high school environment by Bruce Wellman (Olathe Northwest High School, Olathe, KS) and the Hach Foundation’s Northern Colorado POGIL Collaboration for Chemistry Teachers.

10. Personal Effectiveness • Interpersonal Skills • Speaks clearly & confidently with appropriate eye contact with audience • Applies active listening skills (reflection, restatement, questioning, clarification) • Integrity • Treats others honestly, fairly, & courteously • Accepts responsibility for one’s decisions & actions • Professionalism • Accepts feedback & attempts to learn from mistakes & misunderstandings • Manages conflict respectfully while maintaining progress towards goal • Demonstrates positive attitudes towards work and others • Lifelong Learning • Seeks feedback & asks questions to strengthen own understanding • Uses newly learned knowledge & skills to complete specific tasks All credit to Bruce Wellman

11. Workplace Competencies • Facilitator • Utilize systematic method to insure every members contribution towards goal • Maintains efficient pacing through the activity • Asks purposeful questions to insure comprehension of every group member • Spokesperson • Utilize active listening to clarify groups question before seeking outside help • Seeks appropriate and timely assistance when the group needs help • Quality Control • Employs systematic method to insure correct & comparable quality answers • Respectfully provides feedback when a written discrepancy is discovered • Process Analyst • Provide respectful and constructive feedback on role and personal effectiveness competencies and suggests ways the group can work better All credit to Bruce Wellman

12. Video Examples of Personal Effectiveness Skills • Video 28 – Positive example of accepting feedback • Video 31 – Negative example of accepting feedback • Students only provide feedback in the form of positive evidence of another student having a skill!

13. Year Three Successes Challenges • Still POGIL’ing • Better student buy in • More front loading on goals of the course (learn chemistry, how to learn, how to work and learn with other people) • Interpersonal skills instruction, feedback, and reflection – truly awesome • Struggling to cover all of course material • Need more lab based activities or hands-on lessons / variety • Feedback system takes time • Didn’t follow through 2nd semester with role competencies but plan to next year

14. Quotes from a Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “When other students asked me for help it reinforced my understanding because being able to teach something shows that you have the highest level of knowledge about it. Using almost exclusively group assignments like we do helps me learn the concepts better and also remember them better. I feel like the first semester of chemistry went very well for me and it was because of the learning process that we used in the class.”

15. Quotes from a Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “From this class I learned that I'm smarter than I like to give myself credit for, and I had to face an academic laziness that I had been in denial about. I realized this when our groups shifted and I no longer had super-smart Kevin to lean on. I had thought I didn't know how to do the work. But as soon as I was placed in a group with a more balanced skill level, I realized that somewhere along the way, I had learned how to do the work. I just lacked the motivation to do it……..I also came to realize that while I probably won't spend every day of the rest of my life analyzing the electronegativities of different atoms, I actually have learned things that have practical applications in my life. Even if I don't become a chemical engineer, the interpersonal skills I've accumulated or strengthened throughout this class will benefit me wherever I go.”

16. Quotes from a Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “The personal effectiveness competencies table and the POGIL system have clearly been benefitting me in chemistry so far this first semester. Reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses have made me become more aware of how I am interacting with the other students in my group and what I can work on to improve and what I am doing a good job of so far. Obviously, I have enjoyed how our class is set up and the personal effectiveness aspect of it.”

17. Quotes from a Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “This class has made me realize that I want to help other people. I always thought of myself as one who just wants to get the facts. I’ve never really been asked to help other people learn what is being taught. We just had to find out on our own. None of my other classes do much group work, so this has been a huge change. It made me see that I am not as shy as I once thought I was. I have become much more confident in who I am……..It has changed who I was from the beginning of this year. I have learned to become a people-person.”

18. Quotes from Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “This personal effectiveness activity really helped me see my strengths and my weaknesses, but without this activity I don't think I would have been paying attention to how I was acting in my group or be as aware as I was in my group. With this activity I really learned how to be an active part in my group and to really respect my group members. Also at the beginning of the semester I don't think I was as outspoken about what I thought or as outspoken with any questions that I may have had. This activity has really helped me be unafraid to ask questions with my group members and be unafraid to state my thoughts or opinions. Without this activity I may not have been as active in my group as I should be or I may have done some things differently that would not have been right . In closing, I say that this activity was a great eye opener and a great way to help me better understand how I should act, speak, and treat others in my group.”

19. Quotes from Student’s Personal Effectiveness Reflection “I really gained a lot of insight on myself………. I think this should be applied to jobs I think that it would really help the communication and provide a more positive and more efficient work-force. Overall, I learned more about myself and how I can be a better person, and a better student. Now I know why we do such a silly thing!”

20. Northern Colorado HACH Group • 3 year program funded through the HACH Scientific Foundation was key to commitment and implementation by teachers • Different teachers have different interests and skills • Support and continued collaboration with teachers in our building and region was a cornerstone of implementation – despite rigor of being away from our classrooms • Pay and credits “encouraged” teacher participation

21. Northern Colorado Hach Group