Recap
Class began and I started as close to on time as possible. I had already posted the assignment, and some students had seen it. I did a quick run-through of the setup, explaining the two parts (write your own problems, with solutions, and solve a different groups problems). As students divided themselves into groups I distributed printed copies of the assignment. Students got in and settled and started working pretty quickly, which was nice. Throughout, it seemed like students were doing a reasonable job staying focus on the task. I think the time pressure helps with that.
I let students work without any interruption for a few minutes. One student came to me and asked if the problem he had written was ok. It looked quite similar to textbook problems, which I told him, and he went away a bit disappointed. After a few minutes I started wandering around to each group, asking how things were going. Many of the groups were perfectly happy, and didn't have any questions for me. A few groups were having a hard time coming up with things. I tried to indicate how one might make up a new problem. For example, make up crazy rules a bank might use for some sort of account. Or: look at a textbook problem. They solve an equation for one of the 4 variables in our formula. Change the problem around so that a different variable is the one to be found. Sometimes this might not make a particularly new problem, but I think sometimes it could. The students I gave these suggestions to seemed to think they could make progress, and got back to work.
A few other students showed me problems that looked like textbook problems. One told me that it was different, and I challenged him to explain how. He noted that his problem tested the interpretation of the answers from some textbook questions. I can't really argue. He had 3 problems, 2 of which looked like textbook problems, and the third asked for the interpretation. Fair enough I guess.
At the half-hour mark, when students were supposed to be done writing problems, nobody was. I talked to them about it, and it was pointed out that probably solving problems that are already written would be quicker than writing your own. So the second half should go quicker. Makes sense. I told them all to take 15 more minutes on writing their own questions and solutions.
Just after the first group finished, it occurred to me that I should emphasize that they are all getting the same grade. So they should make sure to double check each other's work. I think many groups were divvying up work, so that each person wrote a solution to one problem. This is fine, but I think it is important that all of the group members double-check this work too. I made an announcement about this.
We were running out of time. With 25 minutes, groups were mostly starting to finish, and I re-distributed problems to groups that were done the first part. Since the time wasn't working out as I had anticipated, I told them to solve 2 of the 4 problems they were given.
With about 15 minutes to go, all but 2 groups had begun the second part of the assignment, solving another groups problems. One of the two remaining groups finished (group A), and the other was done 3 of 4 problems (group B). I took the 3 problems over to the group A to start the second part, but let group B continue working on their own problems. Group A eventually finished, about 5 minutes over time, and group B didn't have any time to work on group A's problems when they had finished writing their own. I'm still trying to decide what to do about that. [I assigned them some of the more challenging problems I had written]
While students were working on problems other groups had written, I decided it might be interesting to have them rate the creativity of the problems they were given. I told them to rate each problem they were given with either a 0 (this is a textbook problem), 1 (kinda new), or 2 (terribly interesting). I'm not sure how seriously they took this task, I have not yet (as I write this), looked at the work that was turned in. [Mostly I think this turned out ok, though some 2's were pretty questionable]
As students were finishing, I told them (a) I wanted feedback on the project, what they liked/disliked, how it could have been better, and (b) that I'd probably like to try this again, so to keep track of questions they think of outside of class.
After Class
I've been trying to write daily (we only meet twice a week) blog posts for my class, on whatever we talked about that day. I don't think any of the students are reading them, but I could be wrong. Today I posted questions I had dreamt up, to give students some sort of idea what I had in mind. Some of the questions I had though up before class, others were inspired by discussion in class.
As I was writing up my questions, it occurred to me that several of them weren't quite as original as I had originally (bam!) thought. I could see how to translate my problems into textbook problems. I do still feel like there would be a translation step though, and I guess that's part of the game. Or perhaps I'm fooling myself.
I emailed the class, specifically encouraging them to read my post, and also to provide feedback. Hopefully the reminder generates some feedback.
Initial Reaction
I mis-judged timing. I had originally given more time for doing other groups problems than writing one's own. Definitely backwards. Probably we could do 45 minutes writing problems, and 30 answering others'. Also, I think I need to be firm on the deadline if I try this again. At 45 minutes, you will have to give me your paper, and will lose points for not having written enough problems (well, you just don't earn the points you would have). Of course, that means the group that gets your paper isn't being graded out of as many problems, which must be accounted for. Hmmm.
I think trying this again, students may have a better sense about the project. Writing problems might come easier. Hopefully, then, timing would work out a little better. Perhaps showing students a list of questions before-hand would have been a good idea.
I didn't plan enough about organizing the work that got turned in. I'm sort of dreading looking at the pile. Here's how I think I'd organize it next time: Each group is assigned a number. There are then 4 things they turn in to me by the end of class:
- The list of problems they wrote. This should have "Written by group N" on it. It should also have "Solved by group M", the group that gets these problems.
- The list of solutions to their own problems. This should have "Written by group N" on it.
- The list of solutions to the problems they were given. This should have "Solutions written by group N, for group M's problems" on it. These solutions should not be on the same paper with the questions, since it mucks up re-distributing papers (more on this below).
- A paper with the group number and names of all of the group members. I suppose this information could just go on, say, the list of solutions a group writes for their own problems
I sorta like the idea of getting students to rate the problems they are given for creativity. I can't quite decide what to do about giving points based on those ratings, as they'd be pretty easily gamed. One option I came up with: Have students rate the problems they were given on the 0-2 scale above. As I'm grading, type up all the problems that earned a 2. Distribute this list, without any identifying marks, back to the students, and have them pick their favorite n, say (outlawing voting for your own (more bookkeeping for me, but doable as long as I have them write their name on the paper)). Any problem that gets more than m "favorites" earns the authoring group p points (1, likely).
Grading
As I organized papers, and got to a point I could start grading, I realized that I could extend this project to have the students do the grading. Group A gives their answers to Group B, and when Group B is done, Group A grades the solutions. This could be a valuable exercise for the students, seeing how their questions were interpreted, perhaps seeing other ways to solve questions they had designed. Of course, it leads to problems about what grade gets written down in the grade book... suggestions?
As I was grading, I realized that students can game the grading system by writing easy questions. This guarantees 3 points for solutions to each problem the group writes, even if they lose a point or two for writing uninteresting problems (I was pretty relaxed about taking points off for this). Perhaps this can be corrected for by having other groups rate "originality" first, (maybe "difficulty" too) and then base the score solutions are worth out of that grade?
Maybe take interesting problems in to class, have everybody do them, and talk about answers. Also problems with difficult wording.
On re-distributing papers: Group A did Group B's problems. Giving A's solutions back to A, they probably won't be able to see B's questions, to look back at.
Student Feedback
At this point, I still haven't gotten much. One said they enjoyed the project, even if making up problems was difficult. Another suggested just writing up questions individually and exchanging papers with partners; that working in larger groups was hard. Also the timing issues were pointed out.
Current Thoughts for Next Time
Be more organized about what names I need to see on which papers. I found that the paper-shuffling aspect of grading was easier for groups where group A did group B's problems and vice-versa. I'm not sure that it matters too much though.
Perhaps break this project into two class period. In the first, groups will meet to try to create interesting problems that they could solve (though I won't ask for solutions just yet). The problems will be re-distributed around the room, and groups will rate the originality and difficulty of the problems they were given. I will then gather up all of the problems, and we'll end class. Before the next class, I'll go through all the problems, find all those that earned good originality/difficulty ratings, and compile them into a list. In class the next time, all of the students will work those problems, maybe just working with a neighbor. Then we can spend time in class discussing solutions to the problems, talking about different interpretations of questions, what makes questions well-written, etc. There's issues here about turning in solutions - if students just wait until we talk about solutions in class, they can just copy those.
Thoughts?
I'd really like to know what you think about any or all of this. I know it's rather a lot to read through, sorry.
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