Integrated Course Design for Euclidean Geometry, III

Today I finished grades for all of my Fall 2014 courses, so it is time to get back to planning next term. As my last “pre-holiday” bit of work, I’ll finish the course design template for Euclidean Geometry following Fink. I previously did the initial design phase which consisted of “building strong primary components” in Steps 1-5.

Intermediate Phase: Assemble the Components into a Coherent Whole

Step 6: Create a Thematic Structure for the Course

Fink encourages us to find 4-7 segments of the course, each focusing on key concepts or topics. I think I have five, or maybe four. It depends on how you want to count them. The first one on this list might be two things.

1. Polygons, and the axiomatic method, conjectures, and definitions. This is mostly about using triangles to study other polygons. But there is a little mini-unit on arguments with parallel lines mixed in here.
2. Circles
3. Straightedge and Compass Constructions (as an efficiency game!)
4. Area and the regular pentagon

Segment 1 is really long, it can take half a semester. Then segments 2 and 3 are shorter. We almost never finish segment 4 completely, but the fastest class I had finished 4 and started another (bonus) segment!

Step 7: Instructional Strategy

I have no desire to make changes here. For ten iterations of this course I have used a flavor of Inquiry-Based Learning called a Modified Moore Method. Really, I have done something called The Extreme Moore Method (EMM), which I have written about before. Students will spend their time out of class finding and composing arguments for conjectures. We will spend class time presenting and critiquing this work. Then students that will write papers for the class journal. Oh, just go read the other post.

Step 8: The Overall Scheme of Learning Activities

Here Fink wants the instructor to think about the variety of activities the students should do, and when. Also, how does the sequence of tasks for before, during, and after class meetings mesh together? This is all pretty well decided with my EMM.

Final Design Phase

I won’t be able to finish all of this tonight in detail, but I can generally get through the rest of the guide.

Step 9: How are you going to grade?

Well, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. For years. Next term, I will try something called “Specifications Grading” following the work of Linda Nilson. I have been part of conversation about this for a few weeks now. Go find the work Robert Talbert has been doing in this direction for a list of places to start.

I will wrap up work on this and make a new post soon.

Step 10: What Could Go Wrong?

I have run this class often enough that I only have one worry: The new grading system is (a) not a solution to my problem, or (b) actively messes with the other parts of class which were working fine. I guess (a) isn’t too big a deal. I’ll just keep looking in that case. But I worry about (b). So far, the assigning of grades has been kinda vague, and this pushes students to keep working. (It is just like the real mathematics community.) And I want to make things more reliable and, I hope, more “fair.” But I don’t want students to start micro-managing publication counts instead of trying to solve more problems. For now, I need an experiment.

Step 11: Make a Plan for Communicating with Students

Fink writes this as if the big deal is to just write a syllabus. Well, yes, and no. I see these tasks ahead of me.

1. Rewrite my syllabus
2. Rework my first day handout (which is like a mini textbook)
3. Update the course web page (which is like a digital syllabus and record of class).
4. Flesh out the detailed specifications for the grading system. In particular, this means I will have to update

* The class journal style guide
* the instructions for referees
* my grading policy document
* specifications for the “non-mathematical” writing assignments (reflections and essays)

Step 12: Make a Plan to Assess your Teaching

This is a challenge. How many of us do this with such foresight? Well, my plan is this: I will use a simplified SALG instrument at final exam time to assess student satisfaction and understanding of the new grading system.