K is a student that has been referred to as the “bad news bears” because there is always something going wrong for her. We have all had students like this, but in an online course – it can be a challenge. There are 92 posts in her private thread – lots of questions and explanations and excuses and other communications. K has fallen behind several times during the course. She was sick, she had internet problems, she had to care for a nephew in the hospital, she went on vacation and she is about to go on a school trip to Europe. She has been given extra time and half credit on a number of activities. She does well on the tests where specific grammar and vocabulary points are tested. Her written expression lacks sophistication and does not always reflect AP level work. Her inability to manage time has really affected her achievement in this course.
Note changes in the student's participation;
The student has missed many assignments, but to date has made up the much of the portions that she has been allowed to make up.
Note student dialog with other students and with the instructor. How do the learner and teacher interact? How does the learner interact with other learners?
The learner and teacher interact on a very informal and respectful manner. She feels comfortable asking the teacher for guidance and the teacher is very warm in her answers to her, even if they are not necessarily what the student is hoping to hear. Here is an example of how the student feels about the teacher based on a mid course evaluation of the teacher and the class:
1. The teacher made me feel comfortable in contacting her.
Sometimes I feel as I do not want to communicate with teachers because I feel like they just want to rip my head off sometimes. But I have become comfortable in communicating with you because it’s like I know you by now.
2. The teacher addressed my concerns.
My concerns were addressed when I asked about certain things. I’ve been concerned about my grade and you have found ways to help me try and bring it up.
3. The teacher communicated in an understandable way.
Yes, I think the teacher always communicated in a very understandable way. More than I ever expected. Coming into VHS I didn’t think that the teacher would communicate very much, but you have and I’ve been thankful for that.
4. The teacher communicated my progress to me in a timely manner.
(I don’t really have an answer)
5. The teacher assigned relevant work/projects
I think the projects were relevant because we’re learning more about the different things that are going on in Spanish countries. We read stories from authors all over the place, not just one country, not just Spain.
6. The teacher assigned an appropriate amount of work each week.
Yes it has. I thought that some weeks there were too much work but it didn’t click that it was an AP class. This was my first AP class and I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t know that there was going to be more work and that I would have to learn to manage time better.
7. The teacher worked well with me.
The teacher has worked well with me because you have been flexible with me. I’ve had some bumps in the road this year and you have still been cooperative with me.
8. The teacher answered my questions or addressed my concerns in a timely manner.
Yes. The teacher is very good to getting back to me within the same day or within a day or two, but for the most part within 24 hrs. That to me is a good time period especially since when I started the class I never expected the teacher to be as timely.
9. The teacher was knowledgeable about the subject.
I do feel like the teacher was knowledgeable about the subject. Work was made easier since there was knowledge of it from the teacher.
10. The teacher was fair in grading my assessments.
The teacher was definitely fair in grading my assignments. When I misspell something in the pregunta semales (the quiz like ones) you always go back and give me credit because it’s still the right answer I just happen to spell it wrong. You have also been fair in giving me partial credit on assignments that should have been done on time, so that is being more than fair.
In terms of her interactions with other students, she is very respectful and appropriate. She asks questions and shares information with them as expected. An example of her style is as follows: In week 26, students were to make comments to 5 classmates’ posts – questions or comments. All 5 of her comments include a recognition of her classmate's position and a compliment or observation about it. Her posts are pretty thorough this week. She comments on how she had never thought of the ideas expressed in her classmates' posts several times. She posted the minimum number of times plus one response to a question that I asked of her.
What types of thinking skills/information processing does the learner exhibit during their online discussions?
This student sees things in a very concrete way. She describes a work of art that she chose for a written review as follows: “Much of the artist’s work has a lot of colors and they are very vibrant.” Keeping in mind that this is expressed in Spanish, and the vocabulary in another language is going to be more simplistic, this is still a very rudimentary description of a work of art for this particular assignment.
How much time in relation to their peers did this student spend online?
It would seem that she spends less time than her peers. I looked in the Performance Dashboard and found that there are several weeks in which she posted less than 5 discussion posts for the whole week. When looking at other students, that is very uncommon. Most students post 10 or more times each week. This would make sense when a typical discussion assignment in a given week is to answer 5-6 questions and then post 8 questions or comments to your classmates – that is 13 minimum right there for only one thread/graded assignment.
How familiar and competent is the student with technology?
Technology knowledge: She seems to have less problems with the technology portion than some of the students. Most have problems listed in their private threads to the effect that this or that feature wouldn't work for me. She doesn't have much along that vein. Her main tech problems had to do with threads being closed because she was doing the work so many weeks late...
How successful academically is the student?
K is a somewhat successful student in this class. Her grade is an 78. She is the student with the lowest grade in the class. She has 12 graded items that are marked exempt in the early weeks of class. I am awaiting some info on that from the teacher. [Please see the last section of this study for the great response from the teacher. It illustrates some of the pitfalls of falling behind - both for the student AND the teacher!!] She does most of her work, but not always on time. Because the teacher accepts late work, she gets half credit for much of her work after it is due. She has several assignments that the teacher had to go in and open again to allow her to re-submit.
On March 18, the teacher created a document that outlined the late work she would accept from this student. It is a very large document that included 32 items dating back to January 12. This is a lot of make up work. Here is the message that accompanied the list:
Assignments in blue may be completed for 1/2 credit. You may not do the discussion thread portion of any assignment, in case I have included them by mistake. Only work that did not involved interaction with your classmates has been included in these assignments.
Please put the written work in your diario. I have opened a page. Please begin the make up work with Week 24 and work backwards to Week 16. In this manner, they will be in the correct order when you finish. As you complete a batch of assignments, please send me a message in your Private Thread so that I do not get bogged down with too many assignments to review at once. As you do a week, please place the new work at the top so that I do not have to scroll down to find it. This will speed up the amount of time it will take me to grade your work. And as I said previously, your work will then be in order.
Gracias,
Sra.
On March 27, the student wrote to tell the teacher that she had completed all the makeup work.
Select artifacts that represent the student's achievement. Write reflective statements for each artifact, elaborating on why it was selected and its meaning and value in the portfolio.
This is a group project completed by K and another student. It received a . It shows some creativity, but a lack of real organization or deep thought. She received full credit for the presentation.
This is an individual powerpoint describing members of her family. The vocabulary and grammar is very poor, not AP quality. Due in January, submitted and graded at half credit on March 22.
Master Teacher's reflections on this particular student. When asked about this student and her exemptions for many of the assignments, I received a great and lengthy response. Most of the response is included below. It sheds some light on this student and the unexpected issues that can complicate the online course. I mentioned to my Master Teacher and will say it here: the teacher did more work than the student here...
Hola Sarah, You picked a rather interesting student. I will give you a nut shell version of the story. Read the private threads, and it will fill in some more of the details. K fell behind in Term 1. She then came down with Mono. I revised her assignments to allow her to catch up and be able to pass. I included assignments prior to her illness in the belief that perhaps the Mono that she came down with had been causing her some problems before it was diagnosed. She was to receive exemptions on other assignments, provided that she completed the revised workload. Left me a message that her work was complete and she would be leaving on vacation. She would be missing the first week of the second semester. She did not complete all of the work, but still received the exemptions, to allow her the opportunity to pass the course for the year. She indeed missed Week 16. Another girl from her school needed a partner, so I allowed them to work together. She did not complete week 16. She fell behind on other assignments. Mom has sent me e-mails several times, which is against VHS policy. She just did not understand how her daughter's grades were so low. I have told K that I cannot respond to her mom. I also informed the Site Coordinator, who has the pleasure of dealing with the parents. She has different excuses for not turning in her work. Basically, she just was just picking and choosing what she felt like doing - this was also part of the problem the first semester, she did not just fall behind due to her illness. To allow her to pass this time, she was given a list of assignments that she could turn in late, but for 50% credit. This was done only at mom's hounding, because I was not pleased that she did not complete the assignments last time. She is also going to miss another week to go on a trip to Italy and Greece with her school. I told her that she should find an internet cafe or check to see if her hotel had Internet. I was not about to grant her another free week. She has also been told that she will be held to the standard late policy from here on out. This process has taken a great deal of time. K is not one of the first to complete the work.
As I said, read her Private Thread, that will fill in a lot of the details.
Conclusion:
K appears to be a student with potential in Spanish class. When she is on task, her work is good. She can write well, but doesn't always do so. I surmise that it is an issue of time. When she has time, she does relatively well. Her written expression can be complex and varied. Some of her written work samples are not complex and varied, but appear simplistic and hurried. She has missed so much work that an accurate picture is not really possible. The teacher has been more than generous about accepting late work and giving half credit for it. She has allowed work to be turned in up to 3 months late! This involved re-opening threads, resetting submission avenues, etc. The student is appreciative and respectful to the teacher. I believe that this has gone a long way for her! She has had some bad luck and made some bad choices in time management, but has managed to maintain a passing grade. I think that if her time management could be addressed, she would be a very successful student in this course.
Student: K
K is a student that has been referred to as the “bad news bears” because there is always something going wrong for her. We have all had students like this, but in an online course – it can be a challenge. There are 92 posts in her private thread – lots of questions and explanations and excuses and other communications. K has fallen behind several times during the course. She was sick, she had internet problems, she had to care for a nephew in the hospital, she went on vacation and she is about to go on a school trip to Europe. She has been given extra time and half credit on a number of activities. She does well on the tests where specific grammar and vocabulary points are tested. Her written expression lacks sophistication and does not always reflect AP level work. Her inability to manage time has really affected her achievement in this course.
Note changes in the student's participation;
- The student has missed many assignments, but to date has made up the much of the portions that she has been allowed to make up.
Note student dialog with other students and with the instructor. How do the learner and teacher interact? How does the learner interact with other learners?- Sometimes I feel as I do not want to communicate with teachers because I feel like they just want to rip my head off sometimes. But I have become comfortable in communicating with you because it’s like I know you by now.
2. The teacher addressed my concerns.- My concerns were addressed when I asked about certain things. I’ve been concerned about my grade and you have found ways to help me try and bring it up.
3. The teacher communicated in an understandable way.- Yes, I think the teacher always communicated in a very understandable way. More than I ever expected. Coming into VHS I didn’t think that the teacher would communicate very much, but you have and I’ve been thankful for that.
4. The teacher communicated my progress to me in a timely manner.- (I don’t really have an answer)
5. The teacher assigned relevant work/projects- I think the projects were relevant because we’re learning more about the different things that are going on in Spanish countries. We read stories from authors all over the place, not just one country, not just Spain.
6. The teacher assigned an appropriate amount of work each week.- Yes it has. I thought that some weeks there were too much work but it didn’t click that it was an AP class. This was my first AP class and I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t know that there was going to be more work and that I would have to learn to manage time better.
7. The teacher worked well with me.- The teacher has worked well with me because you have been flexible with me. I’ve had some bumps in the road this year and you have still been cooperative with me.
8. The teacher answered my questions or addressed my concerns in a timely manner.- Yes. The teacher is very good to getting back to me within the same day or within a day or two, but for the most part within 24 hrs. That to me is a good time period especially since when I started the class I never expected the teacher to be as timely.
9. The teacher was knowledgeable about the subject.- I do feel like the teacher was knowledgeable about the subject. Work was made easier since there was knowledge of it from the teacher.
10. The teacher was fair in grading my assessments.- In terms of her interactions with other students, she is very respectful and appropriate. She asks questions and shares information with them as expected. An example of her style is as follows: In week 26, students were to make comments to 5 classmates’ posts – questions or comments. All 5 of her comments include a recognition of her classmate's position and a compliment or observation about it. Her posts are pretty thorough this week. She comments on how she had never thought of the ideas expressed in her classmates' posts several times. She posted the minimum number of times plus one response to a question that I asked of her.
What types of thinking skills/information processing does the learner exhibit during their online discussions?- This student sees things in a very concrete way. She describes a work of art that she chose for a written review as follows: “Much of the artist’s work has a lot of colors and they are very vibrant.” Keeping in mind that this is expressed in Spanish, and the vocabulary in another language is going to be more simplistic, this is still a very rudimentary description of a work of art for this particular assignment.
How much time in relation to their peers did this student spend online?- It would seem that she spends less time than her peers. I looked in the Performance Dashboard and found that there are several weeks in which she posted less than 5 discussion posts for the whole week. When looking at other students, that is very uncommon. Most students post 10 or more times each week. This would make sense when a typical discussion assignment in a given week is to answer 5-6 questions and then post 8 questions or comments to your classmates – that is 13 minimum right there for only one thread/graded assignment.
How familiar and competent is the student with technology?How successful academically is the student?
Please put the written work in your diario. I have opened a page. Please begin the make up work with Week 24 and work backwards to Week 16. In this manner, they will be in the correct order when you finish. As you complete a batch of assignments, please send me a message in your Private Thread so that I do not get bogged down with too many assignments to review at once. As you do a week, please place the new work at the top so that I do not have to scroll down to find it. This will speed up the amount of time it will take me to grade your work. And as I said previously, your work will then be in order.
Gracias,
Sra.
Select artifacts that represent the student's achievement. Write reflective statements for each artifact, elaborating on why it was selected and its meaning and value in the portfolio.
La Fiesta Brava PP.ppt
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This is a group project completed by K and another student. It received a . It shows some creativity, but a lack of real organization or deep thought. She received full credit for the presentation.This is an individual powerpoint describing members of her family. The vocabulary and grammar is very poor, not AP quality. Due in January, submitted and graded at half credit on March 22.
Master Teacher's reflections on this particular student. When asked about this student and her exemptions for many of the assignments, I received a great and lengthy response. Most of the response is included below. It sheds some light on this student and the unexpected issues that can complicate the online course. I mentioned to my Master Teacher and will say it here: the teacher did more work than the student here...
You picked a rather interesting student. I will give you a nut shell version of the story. Read the private threads, and it will fill in some more of the details.
K fell behind in Term 1.
She then came down with Mono.
I revised her assignments to allow her to catch up and be able to pass. I included assignments prior to her illness in the belief that perhaps the Mono that she came down with had been causing her some problems before it was diagnosed.
She was to receive exemptions on other assignments, provided that she completed the revised workload.
Left me a message that her work was complete and she would be leaving on vacation. She would be missing the first week of the second semester.
She did not complete all of the work, but still received the exemptions, to allow her the opportunity to pass the course for the year.
She indeed missed Week 16. Another girl from her school needed a partner, so I allowed them to work together.
She did not complete week 16.
She fell behind on other assignments.
Mom has sent me e-mails several times, which is against VHS policy. She just did not understand how her daughter's grades were so low. I have told K that I cannot respond to her mom. I also informed the Site Coordinator, who has the pleasure of dealing with the parents.
She has different excuses for not turning in her work. Basically, she just was just picking and choosing what she felt like doing - this was also part of the problem the first semester, she did not just fall behind due to her illness.
To allow her to pass this time, she was given a list of assignments that she could turn in late, but for 50% credit.
This was done only at mom's hounding, because I was not pleased that she did not complete the assignments last time.
She is also going to miss another week to go on a trip to Italy and Greece with her school.
I told her that she should find an internet cafe or check to see if her hotel had Internet. I was not about to grant her another free week. She has also been told that she will be held to the standard late policy from here on out.
This process has taken a great deal of time. K is not one of the first to complete the work.
As I said, read her Private Thread, that will fill in a lot of the details.
Conclusion:
K appears to be a student with potential in Spanish class. When she is on task, her work is good. She can write well, but doesn't always do so. I surmise that it is an issue of time. When she has time, she does relatively well. Her written expression can be complex and varied. Some of her written work samples are not complex and varied, but appear simplistic and hurried. She has missed so much work that an accurate picture is not really possible. The teacher has been more than generous about accepting late work and giving half credit for it. She has allowed work to be turned in up to 3 months late! This involved re-opening threads, resetting submission avenues, etc. The student is appreciative and respectful to the teacher. I believe that this has gone a long way for her! She has had some bad luck and made some bad choices in time management, but has managed to maintain a passing grade. I think that if her time management could be addressed, she would be a very successful student in this course.