Lesson #1: Class Syllabus "Escape!"

The first week (if weeks are only 3 days) has passed and this week I got to meet all of my classes. Due to a schedule quirk, I did not see my last block class for the first 3 days of school. Typically, that first "real" day of class is hello, how are you, lets read and go over our syllabus to a bunch of groans. However, this year I tried to use our "syllabus day" as a way to introduce my students' to not only what this class is about, but also how this is going to operate in the future.

First, students completed round 1 of one of my favorite EduProtocols: fast and curious. This protocol is simply to implement and gives you loads of student data to work with. Pick your favorite online question platform (I use Quizizz) have your students answer questions in Round 1 (the scores will most likely be bad, I get really cheesy in explaining that this number is not good or bad, but just.... is), complete a lesson of new content, and have students answer the same questions in Round 2 (scores will hopefully skyrocket). Student will see growth, you will have loads of assessment data. Win-Win. If scores do not go up, you can revise and reteach to help students better grasp your learning targets. To me, the best part of Fast and Curious is that it is an extremely versatile strategy that can be used for just about anything. Here is a way to use this strategy to teach vocabulary (I will most likely be adopting this strategy this year):

For our class, I picked 5 generic topics from our class syllabus and had students answer the questions during 1 round of Quizziz. Thanks to @historysandoval for sharing the awesome syllabus template I used below.

Student scores for Round 1 were "low": Block 1 (56%), Block 2 (63%), Block 3 (49%), Block 8 (62%) and Block 9 (58%). 

Next we transitioned to our Syllabus Escape and idea I hodgepodged together for social studies teachers: Dominic Helmstetter and Adam Moler. Both share their amazing lessons - pretty much daily- through social media. Using Quizizz students answered questions about their syllabus - I allowed students to use their syllabus to answer the questions - and for each correct answer they were given a letter. The letter would spell out 3 words that answer the question: What do you need to do well in Social Studies class? I had to "build" my own set on Quizizz, but I borrowed the idea and the templates from Quizizz guru Kyle Niemis. One difference I did, however, was to have students write down the 3 words in their coursebooks before checking their work by submitting their work into the Google Form. When students completed the Google Form correctly, they were given the parent letter attachments to take home and review the syllabus at home. This lesson became like a makeshift breakout or escape room. 

This activity drastically changed our typical "syllabus day." Students were much more engaged in "unlocking the clues" to get their words. Students even worked together if a student missed a letter on the memes and just about all the students completed more than 1 attempt to reach 90% (if they needed to). As one student put it "I've never been so happy to get my homework for a class before!"

With parent letters in hand, students completed the 2nd round of the Syllabus Fast and Curious. We had some hiccups in this round, but all scores increased. However, the scores did not reach our goal of 85%. Each class wanted another attempt, so we quickly discussed the data of Round 2 and replayed a Round 3. Here are the results of Round 3: Block 1 (89%), Block 2 (94%), Block 3 (86%), Block 8 (92%) and Block 9 (87%).  

Overall, I was a big fan of this lesson design. Students were more active, engaged, and simply doing the work during a class where they would normally be listening to me. Also, the class got 3 quality reps of Fast and Curious and even got to peer behind the curtain a bit to see how I use data to inform our learning. For example, each class really struggled on 1 question. After our class discussion and questions, students scored progressively higher on this question. Minus the uncontrollable wi-fi issues and fire drill delays that caused this lesson to go more than 1 class, I am looking forward to adding this lesson for years to come.