Establishing the meaning of every new unit

Whenever possible, start the new topic with an exciting activity or demonstration.  Make it as intriguing and provocative as possible. Impress upon your students how interesting and worth knowing this new topic is.  Convey how it is connected to the course, how it builds on what they already know and prepares them for what comes next in the course, and how it fits into their lives.  Leave them wanting more.

Introducing the contract

Familiarize your students with the contract.  Start with the learning goals. Remind students that these goals define what they should know and be able to do by the time the contract is finished.  This is what the assessment at the end of the unit will be based on. Briefly review the calendar so that students have a sense of the time frame for the unit and a first look at when homework will be due.  Some students may copy homework due dates into their planners immediately. Finally, review the front of the contract, how many items are required for the contract, how many are differentiated, what kinds of work are coming.

Ending the Contract

The last day of the contract will often be dedicated to reviewing the unit.  A review can of course be handled in any of a wide number of ways. One technique is to hand out concept maps for students to complete in small groups.  The purpose of the concept map is to see graphically how all the concepts of the unit are related to each other. Another powerful way to review is for students to get into study groups and actively talk through everything they know about the essential questions in as much detail as possible.  The expected level of proficiency of the skills is clearly defined by the problems contained in the required problem sets, so reviewing those is an effective way to prepare.

Grading Their Contracts

At the end of the unit, each student will self evaluate every item that he completed and then evaluate the contract as a whole.  The more completely and accurately he does this task, the easier your job becomes. In any case, contracts should be turned in at the time of the unit assessment.  Any work that is done after that point is likely to be busywork, being completed to reach the minimum number of contract items. Such work should be discounted, as it is likely to be of less value in the learning process.

Once contracts are graded, they should optimally be kept in a physical or digital portfolio as a record of the learning process.  This serves as an excellent tool for students when they are reviewing for an exam. They also form the backbone of the information used in grade conferences at the end of marking periods.

Testing for Understanding

At the end of the unit, some form of assessment is essential for both you and the student to evaluate how well he has learned the material.  In my experience, it is important to test concepts and skills separately. I found that the remediation required for the two forms of learning was of necessity different.  When a student didn’t understand concepts, remediation consisted of analyzing misunderstandings. The format I came up with was for the student to write a test resubmittal.  This is described in detail in “Rethinking Tests”. For skills, the remediation process consisted of identifying skills that haven’t been mastered yet, practicing them, and taking another skills test.

As usual, at the end of the energy unit there were two separate tests, one for concepts and one for skills.  For a student that did well on the tests, the cycle of the contract is over when he reviews the test with his study group.  He then puts his tests in the portfolio, along with the contract.

If a student did not do well on the test, there is a remediation process that begins with the study group review.  The remediation process is described in detail in the chapter “Making Tests Meaningful”.  For this student, the contract is over when that remediation is finished.