NZL One - Two - Three

There is nothing like a bit of mystery to get Year 10 boys interested.  Ricky Pedersen, HoF De La Salle College and his Year 10 class looked at a fake crime scene and attempted to solve a murder mystery. This was their second lesson on solving for unknown angles in a right angle triangle.  How the lesson unfolded:- 1. Ricky created a hook: Before the students got into the classroom they noticed that something was different. Ricky had cordoned off an area of his classroom and set up a crime scene. Students could see something worthwhile was going to take place in this lesson. Ricky was bombarded with question What happened? What are we doing?  Why is the room different?  Their task: to collectively find out where each blood drop originated from and how the murder took place. 2. They made connections:   Together they looked at a diagram of a blood drop hitting the floor and recapped their trigo...

Happy hump day - of course hump day means that there is not long until our students are leaving to write their exams. With that comes plenty of practice tests. I wonder what effect the results of these tests have on students mindset and motivation especially those that continually get Not Achieved ? Stiggins (2007) suggests we should look at the effect of assessment from the students point of view. from his research he notes that: For students who are succeeding For students who are Not Achieving Assessment Results Reinforce success Reinforce failure Which makes them feel Hopeful & optimistic Useless They think I am in control I can’t do this Feedback helps me Feedback is more criticism They become more likely to Revise Quit Take initiative Avoid doing anything Keep going when the going gets hard Simply give ...