Summer Mission progress requirements

Hello everyone, this is our first time trying a KA mission as a summer project for the incoming Grade 10 students. We are at a Vocational High School with a large number of students who are well below grade-level when they come in to the school. We are looking to use Algebra Basics so as to make sure that it is accessible to the struggling students. We have some questions about what is reasonable to expect from the students over the 8 weeks in the summer. We are looking for some guidance and would love to hear any lessons learned and experiences that you had with doing something similar.

Currently, we are thinking of counting the Mission Progress % as a grade towards 1/4 of the students homework grade in the first quarter (i.e.1/4 of 20% of the total grade for the quarter). We are thinking of telling students that they have to complete 80% of the mission before the first Friday of school in September. At that point we plan to extend the deadline to the end of the first Quarter, require 100% completion, and provide after school help for students who struggle.
We have some specific questions:
1) Is the above plan reasonable?
2) Is there a way to use effort points or badges as a requirements?
We appreciate any and all guidance!
Thanks,
PSabinin

Doug Massey

جولائی 18, 2017 17:10

Hi -- I know you posted this two years ago and no one ever commented, but I'm curious to know what you chose to do.

I would have recommended something similar to what you suggested, for what it's worth. If you make the end goal clear to your students (perhaps 75% to 100% Mission Progress in Algebra I by the end of the year), you could then tell them that there are multiple ways to reach that goal: steep climbs and gradual slopes.

If a student wants to go at it the most challenging way, then she could go straight to Algebra I and try to conquer the skills directly. If that's too daunting, she could take the easier path: backing up to Arithmetic, then progressing through Pre-Algebra, Algebra Basics, and finally to Algebra I. Make it clear that there's a lot of overlap -- as you finish the easier, earlier skills, you get a lot of credit towards the later Missions. Also make it clear that backing up to easier Missions means that you'll expect her to make faster progress.

Once students get started, I'd track their growth (a simple spreadsheet to track their Mission complete status on a weekly basis) and dangle carrots for their progress -- independent of where they started. Going from 5% to 10% should draw just as much credit as going from 50% to 55%.

Doug Massey, KA Ambassador

Summer Mission progress requirements

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