Success Seminars in Developmental Algebra

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Success Seminars in Developmental Algebra

• An experiment from popular motivational
  literature.

Russ Baker Gabriel Ayine Betty Anderson
AFACCT Conference January 10,11 2002
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Why would we do this?

• Student attitude seems to be more of a hindrance
  than aptitude.
• There is a growing gap between expectations of
  teachers and expectations of students
• Vast body of motivational literature from the
  corporate world generally untapped in academia.

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Scheduling the Seminars

• Students in MATH 067 were given the option of
  doing projects or attending Success Seminars for
  a 25 point total out of 800 points.
• Students signed up and gave their schedules to us
• We grouped students by availability, found rooms
  in which to meet, and began on September 6 with a
  schedule of 5 seminars including two evening
  sessions. Students were assigned but could
  attend any of the sessions.

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The Turnout

• Signing up was easy over 90
• Showing up was not so easy 54 students attended
  regularly
• The median number of sessions 9
• The mean number of sessions 8.3
• Seminars met a total of 10 or 11 times

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What did we do?

• Goals
• Continuous Improvement
• Self-talk
• Test-taking
• Team building

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Results

• Survey- At the end of the semester we gave each
  student who had been in the seminars a survey (in
  your handout)
• We were looking for student perceptions of the
  results of attending

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Goals

• Formal goal-setting
• difficult concept for everyone, not just our
  students.
• selling it to them was tough many are not
  prepared to even try. They feel it is kind of
  silly or embarrassing.

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Welcome toSuccess Seminar 1Goal Setting

• What is it?
• Why should I do it?
• What if I dont meet them?

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Why set Goals ?

• Everyone needs a target
• No one can tell how they are doing if they don't
  know where they are going
• People who set formal goals are generally more
  successful

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Steps to Successful Goal-setting
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Choosing a goal

• Hard enough to be worth it
• Reasonable enough to attain
• Specific enough to be measured
• lay out details
• have a definite deadline date

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Planning Stage

• List anything that could possibly prevent you
  from achieving the goal
• List who can help you and where you can get help
• Break down the goal into small steps--

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Break down the goal into small steps--

• Increments may be times -- daily or weekly
• Increments may be amounts-- minutes, hours, or
  scores increased by a small amount toward an
  eventual goal

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Be cautious about sharing goals

• Give-up goals can be broadcast
• Go-up goals should be kept to a small support
  group

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Putting the Goal into Action

• Write down your goal and post it
• Somewhere you'll see and read it often
• Keep track of progress
• Use your list of resources to keep going when it
  gets tough

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Making Adjustments -

• Push back the deadlines
• Temporarily lower your "numbers"
• Rejoice at failure-- it gives you something to
  fix
• Renew your Commitment
• review why you set the goal
• be persistent--greatness takes time
• be kind to yourself--everyone makes errors
• be flexible--look for other ways to do it

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Adjusting after Disappointments

• Attendance-- Could absences be avoided?
• Working too many hours?
• Need childcare?
• Is there a time to make up missed work?

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Adjusting after Disappointments

• Homework--
• Applying your learning style knowledge?
• Need more time to do the problems?
• Have to do more than the assigned set to
  understand?
• Check and correct answers before class?
• Ask questions in class about troublesome
  exercises?

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Adjusting after Disappointments

• Study
• Apply your learning style knowledge
• Review past sections/ units every study session
• Spend time beyond homework problems

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Goals...

• They do work !
• They motivate, not frustrate
• They focus, not confine
• They straighten the road to success, not
  block it.
• They are for everyone, not just special people.

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Student survey results

• GOALS
• 1. What have you done with goal-setting?

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Basic Idea of Continuous Improvement
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Sources of Weakness

• Study time
• Are you studying enough ?
• Long enough to do some good,
• Short enough not to get inefficient
• Are you studying at a good time of day?
• Are you alert?
• Have you energy to work?
• Are you free from distractions that interfere?

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Keeping Track

• Keep it simple--but keep it
• Its not meant to take lots of time
• Make it handy, and easy to do
• Once you get in the habit, itll get better
• Use record-keeping charts to find weaknesses
• If you dont know whats happening, you cant
  expect to improve it.

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Student Survey results

• 1. How helpful were the tally sheets in helping
  you keep track of your study habits?
• Very helpful
• Somewhat helpful
• Not very helpful
• Not at all helpful
• 2. Did you change any of your habits as a result
  of your tally sheets?
• Definitely
• For a time
• Not really
• 3. How EASY did you find it to keep up with
  recording in the tally sheet?
• Very easy
• Quite easy
• Not very easy
• Hard

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3
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Self-talk

• Students found this topic easy and fun, not as
  intimidating as goal-setting.
• We offered three types.
• Affirmations
• Academic self-talk
• Personal self-talk

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Self Talk Sample Pages
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Welcome!

• to
• Success Seminar, session 3
• for 2001

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and
believe, it can achieve.
by Russell Baker
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WORDS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE

• The words you speak will either put you over in
  life or hold you in bondage. Many people have
  been held captive in their circumstances by their
  own words.
• Quoted from THE TONGUE A creative force by
  Charles Capps

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How to end the NEGATIVE self-talk

• When you catch yourself in negative self-talk,
  mentally shout STOP!
• Say something like, Thats not really me. I am
  capable and can be successful.

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How to end the NEGATIVE self-talk

• Replay the event that caused the negative
  outburst with a positive twist
• Im having trouble with this, but Ill get help
  and then Ill be ok. I can do this.

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Affirmations

• We tend to let ourselves get boxed in by false
  limitations.
• Affirmations help to permanently end negative
  self-talk and remove the limits to our success.
• Make up a positive statement reflecting the way
  you WANT it to be...

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Affirmations

• I am enjoying learning algebra I am finding it
  easier and more understandable each day.
• Seeds of Greatness, Denis Waitley

• Start with I
• Use present tense
• keep it short
• keep it positive
• avoid competitive statements
• strive for improvement, not perfection

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Academic Self-Talk

• Listen between the lines
• The obvious part of the lesson is information
  that the instructor writes on the board
• The hidden part is what is SAID while the
  information is being written.
• The first is usually an example,
• The second is usually a procedure.
• CAN YOU LEARN BOTH????

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Academic Self-Talk

• If you only have time to take notes for one part,
  either the self-talk series of questions or the
  sample problem...
• Jot down the self-talk
• Then when you are doing homework you have the
  procedural questions.
• This can be a big help if you often say I can do
  it in class but not at home.

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Academic Self-Talk

• Start-up self-talk
• What type of problem is this?
• How is it like the previous problem?
• How is it different?
• What is the method used in class to solve it?
• What should I do first?

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Try it What have you got to lose?

• If you always do
• what youve always done
• youll always get
• what youve always gotten

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What to do this week

• Write an affirmation and repeat it daily.
• Catch yourself in Negative self-talk and STOP
  it.
• In class, pay more attention to the lesson
  between the lines take notes on what the
  instructor says about a problem instead of the
  problem itself.

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Student survey results

• SELF TALK
• 1. Have you tried affirmations to make you more
  aware of things that will help you meet your
  goals?
• 2. Have you tried academic self-talk to help with
  homework and testing?
• 3. Have you used personal self-talk to be more
  positive?

• Yes, and it has helped
• Yes, but it hasnt helped yet Ill keep trying
• Yes, but I gave up
• No, I havent tried that

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Test-taking

• This topic, of course, was also very popular.
• Some students were amazed at some very simple
  ideas-- like not doing a test in numerical order.

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Test-Taking Sample Pages
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Welcome toSuccess Seminar 4Test Taking Skills

• Preparation
• Taking the Test
• After the Test

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Preparation Time-line
Review EVERY day
Do a few EASY warm-up exercises just before you
enter the classroom
Correct every error in your homework
Build your own sample test from the text,
Calm jittery nerves with hot chocolate
Get a good nights sleep
Seek answers to questions immediately
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Taking a Test

• If you are tense and anxious,
• Tighten and relax your legs, then arms, then
  hands. Then let your arms hang limply from your
  shoulders and shake them a bit.
• Take several deep breaths. Count as you inhale
  to 3. Hold your breath to the count of 6, then
  exhale to the count of 9.
• Close your eyes and visualize yourself in your
  perfect environment, feeling great and confident.

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Taking a Test

• Getting to work
• As soon as you have permission, write down any
  formulas or facts you will need for the test.
• Scan the entire test--how many problems, point
  values, style of questions
• Do all the problems you are SURE about
• Go back through the test to work on the tougher
  questions.

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Taking a Test

• Getting to work
• If a problem really stumps you, leave it until
  last. Be sure you have answered all the
  questions you know before returning to it.
• If there is time, check your work. Know whether
  your tendency is to change right answers to wrong
  or wrong to right.
• When finished, remind yourself that you have done
  your best. Be satisfied with your effort.

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POST-Test Activities

• When you get your test back
• check each error
• is it a skill error or
• is it a knowledge error
• Correct every error know what you did wrong and
  what should have been done.

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Adjusting after Disappointments

• Panic and forget during the test?
• set aside more time for preparation
• spend time memorizing formulas and procedures
  until they are as easy to remember as your
  telephone number
• do relaxing exercises when you begin to tense up
• Use Positive affirmations about being calm and
  confident.

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Adjusting after Disappointments

• run out of time?
• plan ahead to have more time next time
• time yourself on a pretest to get an idea how
  long it will take to complete the test

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Student Survey results

• 1. Have you tried any of the testing strategies?
• Yes, and they have helped
• Yes, but they havent helped yet, Ill keep
  trying
• Yes, but I gave up
• No, I havent tried them

• 2. Do you believe that using the testing
  strategies has improved your test scores?
• Definitely
• Maybe
• Probably not
• No

Question 1 Question 2
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Team building

• The final week of presentations was an eclectic
  bag of ideas.
• The remaining weeks, we encouraged students to
  build study teams, using the seminar time to
  meet.
• We tried to offer them something to try or think
  about, and asked them to relay any experiences
  they had.

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Team Building and Misc.
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Success Seminar 5 Odds and Ends--Attitudes
and Habits
Russ Baker
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Curiosity- Cure for Boring Classes

• Make the class a game. Can you guess what the
  next question will be?
• Can you figure out why the instructor picked that
  particular example?
• Do you know how two examples in class are
  different? How they are the same?
• This game is often more fun if you read ahead in
  your text.

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Try to Remember

• Make 3 x 5 card of special facts and formulas.
  Carry them with you to glance at in line at the
  super market, bank or while waiting for a green
  light.
• Tape yourself quoting information you need to
  memorize -- play it in the car and at night
  before you go to sleep.

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Try to Remember

• Study with a friend or a group. Study casually
  during lunch or formally
• Teach someone else the material.
• Create a poem, chart, poster, jingle, song
  parody, or any other creative invention about the
  material.

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Im tryingIts not working!

• Are you spending enough time outside of class?
• Do you do all homework problems and fix all
  errors?
• Do you mark examples on which you need help?
• Do you read the examples in the text?

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Im tryingIts not working!

• Are you really tuned in to class every minute?
• Do you sit where you can hear and see well?
• Do you take careful notes?
• Do you attempt to answer to yourself every
  question asked by the instructor?
• Do you come to class prepared and ready to learn?

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Will you be my study buddy?

• Serious and even casual study with others is a
  great benefit
• You dont feel so alone
• More ears and eyes miss less material
• Discussion of material clarifies understanding
• Peers are less threatening than instructors

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How are your NOTES?

• Take notes during class
• Annotate your notes after class

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Satellite-format notes
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Student survey results

• Study Groups
• 1. Have you formed a study team or study
  partnership?

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Results

• scores/grades
• We didnt expect to change everyones lives in a
  few weeks.
• We are building awareness planting seeds for the
  future.
• Grade data is encouraging.

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Grade results
Seminar participants were 44.63 of the total
population of 121 students.
73.08
66.67
60
33.33
6.25
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Student Survey Results
Do you thing that Success Seminar contributed
positively to your grade in MA067?
Definitely Maybe Probably No
not
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Student Survey Results
Do you think everyone should learn about the
topics of Success Seminar?
Definitely Maybe Probably No
not
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Plans for the future

• Track both the successful and those that repeat
  the course.
• Improve the interaction of participants.
• Have more experiments for students to attempt and
  report on.

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What can you do?

• Suggest some success concepts to your students.
• Tell us if you have a success seminar student in
  your class.
• Mention their participation in class.
• Join our team to help develop the sessions for
  next Fall.