SLO's

My district finally got around to doing Student Learning Objectives or SLO's.  Until the professional learning opportunity where they taught us about SLO's, I was under the impression that an SLO was like an IEP for each student. 

It turns out I was wrong.  Its simply a plan to teach a specific standard or part of standard.  I choose the what, how, when, and do it.  You set a goal for improvement and it gives you some real data.

I chose my Algebra II class for my first SLO. I looked at simple factoring from the standards and created my plan of action.   I found a nice pretest I gave my students and the majority of them freaked out and didn't do well at all.  Most had a zero percent but that means the only place they can go is up. 

My plan started students off with a sheet to learn the diamond factoring.  I taught it, passed out worksheets and when I moved on to simple factoring using that, I had them use the Diamond factoring app to practice throughout the unit.  At each step, they saw a video to introduce each step, followed by "I do, We do, You do."  They practiced using IXL.  Finally I gave them a set of practice problems. 

The post test is this week.  I told them they could take it any day this week.  So far half the class has taken it and the results ranged from 50 to 100% which shows real growth.  I'm happy with having to use the SLO.

Before this, I didn't know how to write a unit that would help me focus on the best way to instruct my students.  Usually, I've had administrators who had us make pacing guides for the whole year.  This never really gave me the focus I needed.  I also had someone who decided we should look at the previous year's state test, analyze that and use it to teach but that didn't always give the students a good mathematical background. 

I really feel as thought I hit a milestone in my teaching and I know how to prepare properly.  I love it when I made a breakthrough in my teaching.