In room E8, at Northside Middle School in Roanoke
County, Virginia, we view student success as a
significant growth over previous math achievement
scores. What does significant growth entail, you
might ask? We often wonder as well! In our
collaborative class, whether face-to-face or virtually,
success is measured by growth on a student-by-student
basis, and it’s measured on a class-by-class
basis. Success also includes the growth of each
student's emotional learning by gaining independence
and decision-making skills. When students belong
to a group in which their input and achievement are
valued, students’ self-esteem increases and peer
collaboration flourishes.
In room E8, there is usually a rumble of activity. If
there is relative quiet, either we are testing or we have
taken our class to another location for an activity that
requires more space than our classroom offers. Some
might call this level of daily activity undisciplined;
the eighth grade math team of BensonVoss calls
it engagement. In August of 2017, Amber Benson
and Ruby Voss, both new to Roanoke County, were
paired together and vowed to use this level of student
engagement to promote growth. We continue to rely
on active student engagement, without regard to the
method of delivery. We have found that our students
respond to energetic and imaginative methods
whether they are in class or online.
In room E8, our primary focus is to teach our
students how to think independently, how to ask
meaningful questions, and how to choose answers
deliberately. We accomplish these things by
embracing data-driven instruction and by teaching our
students to embrace data-driven learning. Our weekly
tests are a mix of previously taught skills and new
information. We analyze the data collected from our
Friday assessments, and we use it to make decisions
for the following week. Our homework, focus, and exit
questions rely on this crucial information. This careful
analysis of student results and data-driven instruction
promotes student ownership and growth. Finally,
we present this data to our classes at our Monday
data meetings. Our classes learn to read line graphs
and follow their progress in learning the curriculum.
After the discussion of data, we review the topics
in which students demonstrate less than a 70%
success rate. Each student scoring under 70% receives
individualized feedback and the opportunity to redo
and discuss questions they missed on the previous
week's test.
In room E8, we teach our students independence
by providing all class information on Blackboard. If a
student is absent, they can find the day's activities,
notes, assignments, and instructional videos on
Blackboard; therefore, there is never a reason to be
behind. We have recorded more than 300 instructional
videos over the past two years that are available on
our YouTube channel. These videos are available
for remote instruction, remediation, homework help,
and test preparation. Our newest effort to teach our
students independence is the use of QR codes on
class notes and weekly homework. QR codes allow
immediate access to "help" by linking to appropriate
videos on our channel.
In room E8, we teach our students how to ask
meaningful questions by challenging their current
understanding of mathematics and by encouraging
them to strive for a deeper understanding. We
consistently teach beyond the Math 8 curriculum into additional algebraic and geometric concepts.
A great example of this is our daily focus and exit
activities, in which each of our classes engages in
a friendly competition. Because it is a competition
between classes, students have greater buy-in and
ask questions to earn the highest class percentage
possible. Not only do we ask students to solve
problems in their focus activities, but we use the
exit questions to teach decision-making skills. Exit
questions ask students what the first step of a
problem should be, to define vocabulary words, or to
access prior knowledge. After two years of utilizing
our focus/exit combination, we have seen a positive
change in decision-making skills.
In room E8, we teach our students how to choose
answers deliberately by encouraging them to consider
important questions. Did I read the question carefully?
Did I highlight important information? Does my
answer make sense? Did I use previous knowledge?
Did I use Desmos to its full potential? Our students are
encouraged to work deliberately and never choose an
answer without a good reason. Deliberate students
will demonstrate growth. Guessing is not an option
because guessing is not deliberate.
In room E8, on the second floor of Northside
Middle School, we are a family. On March 16, 2020,
our family was separated but we came together
using technology. We continued to focus on student
engagement and student growth. We continued
to focus on teaching our students how to think
independently, how to ask meaningful questions, and
how to choose answers deliberately. We continued to
celebrate our accomplishments and we built on our
struggles. There is nowhere we would rather be, and
each year keeps getting better.
Ruby Voss and Amber Benson (BensonVoss) are a
collaborative math team at Northside Middle School,
Roanoke, Virginia.
rvoss@rcps.us
abenson@rcps.us
Published in AMLE Magazine, August 2020.