Kate Gaskill: Hi Angel, how are you?

Angel: Good.

Kate Gaskill: Good. Nice job, Mr. 6.10.

Kareem Farah: So, one of the toughest challenges students when they walk into classrooms is they feel tense. They’re worried about being put on the spot, especially if they’re behind or don’t understand a skill. When they come into our classrooms, they know they’re picking up where they left off. We’re seeing students’ anxiety levels drop and their commitment and desire to master content increase.

Kate Gaskill: So, I want to shout out Nathaniel and Will. They came on their own time. They got some videos going and they are ahead of pace.

Sah Brown: Eastern High School is a located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Being a hundred percent free and reduced lunch, our students come to us with varied levels of academic performance.

Kareem Farah: When I came to Eastern I was sort of shocked with how broad the variety of learning levels was. We have students who’ve experienced a ton of trauma or are behind on certain skill sets, or are ahead in certain skill sets, have different subsets of experience when they go home. I quickly found out that my traditional model of teaching was not actually effective. So, at that time I realized I needed to make a shift and I wanted to start by getting rid of the lecture at the beginning of my class.

Kareem Farah: I’m going to get started today with the revision. So, Santana and Jayme, just see me in the back real quick.

Kareem Farah: The instructional model that I started implementing, there are three components: blended learning, self-paced structure, and mastery-based grading. What you would see today is really a controlled chaos environment. You have some students starting a new lesson, watching instructional video, taking their guided notes. You have other kids working on actual lesson assignments, collaborating on white boards, really problem-solving. And then you’ll see other students working on exit tickets to achieve mastery.

Zakyra: I like Mr. Farah’s class, because it teaches you independence. For every lesson we start off with a video and then during the video we have to take notes. Mr. Farah, he does the videos himself. You’ll hear his voice every time you watch a video.

Kareem Farah voiceover: In today’s lesson we’re going to focus on finding our local maxes and mins.

Jayme: Yeah, I love it actually. You get to pause it, stop, and then go back and be able to re-watch the lesson over again until I fully understand and grasp the strategies and formulas.

Kareem Farah: And once they’re done watching that instructional video, they transition to some type of assignment or activity.

Jayme: And that it for A, right?

Student: Mm-hm.

Jayme: In AV, you already found the number of [ph?] this. And now, so, you find the rate of change in the weight of the oil.

Zakyra: Everyone learns different. So, you may be on lesson five. Someone may be on three. It all depends on how you work. It’s better than in a regular class where everybody has to stay on the same thing. The students help each other. So, if you ahead, you might could help someone that’s behind.

Jayme: Oh, okay, so, I do get nine over four. You got to divide the whole thing by four.

Student: Okay. All right.

Jayme: After that, there is an exit ticket.

Kareem Farah: So, an exit ticket is like a mini-quiz. It’s just a couple questions at the end of the lesson that really succinctly measure the student’s ability to execute the activities they learned. And, so, when a student has mastered an exit ticket, they move forward. When they don’t, they have a re-teach.

Kareem Farah: You’re assuming that your Y is zero.

Student: Oh!

Kareem Farah: And then they try a new exit ticket until they’ve achieved mastery.

Kareem Farah: Show time! Did you get your exit ticket right? Well, your derivative is spot on.

Kareem Farah: So, because I am not delivering a lecture, I’m now free to work with students for the entirety of the class period.

Student: X equals four.

Kareem Farah: Yes! Whooo!

Kate Gaskill: Real quick. Just remind me: What do you have to argue? Who is more responsible for perpetuating the Cold War? I’m going to meet with a few people on topics sentences first.

Kate Gaskill: The video instruction makes me feel like I’ve been able to clone myself. Instead of needing to explain a concept and then it– re-explain the concept and then say it again, I’m giving the instruction on the video, which frees me up to work one-on-one or in small groups.

Kate Gaskill: Does your topic sentence directly answer the essay question? No, it doesn’t.

Jermisha: I like it a lot. I never feel like I’m being rush or feel like, “Oh, I already know this. Like, why am I going over this again.” I always feel like I’m being challenged.

Kate Gaskill: I have a really accurate pulse check of where my students are. So-and-so is on 6.9 and they’re about halfway through, because I haven’t seen an exit ticket yet. Whereas another student has advanced to 6.10 and I can even lean on that student to explain something to their peers.

Jermisha: Okay, so, you’re only going to use two quota explication charts. Your two strongest ones.

Will: I think it helps with your time management I had to stay after school to get my work done, because I was slacking a little bit. All right when you’re missing class, you can watch the video at home to catch up.

Sah Brown: Part of the reason this format works so well is we have a lower-than-average, in-seat attendance rate. In a traditional format, once the teacher delivers that lesson they’re moving on to the next lesson the next lesson the next day. And they don’t get an opportunity to go back over it.

Kate Gaskill: I’ve had students who, sadly, in a traditional classroom, they simply would’ve failed the quarter due to their number of absences for legitimate reasons and often sometimes really heartbreaking reasons. With this way of teaching, that student can come really with more of a fighting chance and ultimately pass a quarter.

Kareem Farah: In our motto, if a student is experiencing distress and needs emotional support it doesn’t disrupt the larger classroom environment. I’m able to pivot and work with that student, discuss what’s going on while the other students are able to access the content and flourish.

Student: You have do ten in parentheses in the calculation, too.

Zakyra: I did.

Student: It’s supposed to be a positive, girl!

Zakyra: Ooooh!

Eastern Senior High School