Summary:
This chapter, based on the discussions we had in class, seem to be the most relevant to what we've discussed. It's about samples, describing success, and reinforcing that not all learners are the same. They start at different places, and we need to have diverse ways for them to show their learning.
Response:
I found it interesting that this chapter mirrored what our miniature debate was all about. To refresh, we were talking about the use of samples in class. Someone had mentioned that samples are obviously a good thing, as it gives students something to aim for, but I felt as though Diana brought up a really interesting thought, and that is as follows: does sampling snuff out the creative side of students? If they see what the teacher wanted/liked enough to keep it, are they more likely to just copy it?
I think we came to a fairly good conclusion that giving students creative merit is the most important, but showing samples to those who need a bit of a boost on how the assignment should work isn't a bad idea.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Reading Response -- Chapter 3
Summary:
This chapter was fairly short, but it certainly got its point across. In essence, Davies is telling us that we should always have an aim and set goals -- "what do I want the students to learn". She notes that laying out expectations for assignments is necessary for students success, and clarity is of the utmost importance.
Response:
In my ELNG 350/3501 class, I just had to do a presentation that suggests not giving students length constrictions (I.E. 500 words, 2 pages) if we want them to become good writers. If we lay out those perimeters, they'll aim for completing the assignment rather than writing until they've said what they wanted to say. I can certainly see benefits for both sides. I do, however, think that it changes with age. I wouldn't ask a grade 6 classroom to write until they're satisfied they've covered everything, but, depending on the students, it could work really well in a grade 11 or 12 classroom.
That being said, I agree with what Davies is saying. I've been in classes where assignments were convoluted and awful to work with -- it is outrageously frustrating.
This chapter was fairly short, but it certainly got its point across. In essence, Davies is telling us that we should always have an aim and set goals -- "what do I want the students to learn". She notes that laying out expectations for assignments is necessary for students success, and clarity is of the utmost importance.
Response:
In my ELNG 350/3501 class, I just had to do a presentation that suggests not giving students length constrictions (I.E. 500 words, 2 pages) if we want them to become good writers. If we lay out those perimeters, they'll aim for completing the assignment rather than writing until they've said what they wanted to say. I can certainly see benefits for both sides. I do, however, think that it changes with age. I wouldn't ask a grade 6 classroom to write until they're satisfied they've covered everything, but, depending on the students, it could work really well in a grade 11 or 12 classroom.
That being said, I agree with what Davies is saying. I've been in classes where assignments were convoluted and awful to work with -- it is outrageously frustrating.
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Learning Journey -- Week Three's Class
During this class, we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker come in and talk about assessment. Laurie Gatzke, if I'm not mistaken, works for Regina Public Schools as the Supervisor of Assessment and Evaluation, giving a great presentation of the evolution of assessment in public schools. She touched upon norm-based assessment, CAT and RAD testing, and rubrics.
I found it really interesting when we marked those Grade 9 sample RAD tests. Due to lack of resources, I was with a partner, and her and I were fairly accurate with our marks, which I found neat. Looking at the example responses, however, made it umpteen times easier to figure out where the student should be placed.
Once we returned to class, I learned of one heck of a good resource -- the PBIS website. It offers a fantastic amount of resources, supports, and information to aid with special education.
I found it really interesting when we marked those Grade 9 sample RAD tests. Due to lack of resources, I was with a partner, and her and I were fairly accurate with our marks, which I found neat. Looking at the example responses, however, made it umpteen times easier to figure out where the student should be placed.
Once we returned to class, I learned of one heck of a good resource -- the PBIS website. It offers a fantastic amount of resources, supports, and information to aid with special education.
Knowing your Students -- Chapter 2 response.
Chapter two, in essence, describes some of the different learners that one may encounter during their time as a teacher.
This chapter indirectly touches upon one of the biggest dissonances that I have when it comes to education classes -- setting up lesson/unit plans for a hypothetical classroom. This is not a knock against the process of lesson planning, and it's a fantastic thing to learn, but when we gear our plans towards a non-existent group of students, we won't assume that we will have an EAL student, a student who excels at a certain subject, and one who is at a shockingly low reading level. We will gear our plans as if our classroom is full of miniature versions of ourselves.
As educators, we need to understand that we aren't going to have a classroom of clones. Students come for different places, so we need to expect this. Until we get to know our students -- their learning styles, their likes and dislikes, and how they generally function -- we won't know how to teach them.
I found it very interesting that the chapter also touches upon gender. It's fantastic that it's showing a focus on gender differences, but they don't, in my opinion, go in-depth enough. More than two genders exist. It's hard to accommodate everyone, but we really should open the doors to get away from the gender binary.
This chapter indirectly touches upon one of the biggest dissonances that I have when it comes to education classes -- setting up lesson/unit plans for a hypothetical classroom. This is not a knock against the process of lesson planning, and it's a fantastic thing to learn, but when we gear our plans towards a non-existent group of students, we won't assume that we will have an EAL student, a student who excels at a certain subject, and one who is at a shockingly low reading level. We will gear our plans as if our classroom is full of miniature versions of ourselves.
As educators, we need to understand that we aren't going to have a classroom of clones. Students come for different places, so we need to expect this. Until we get to know our students -- their learning styles, their likes and dislikes, and how they generally function -- we won't know how to teach them.
I found it very interesting that the chapter also touches upon gender. It's fantastic that it's showing a focus on gender differences, but they don't, in my opinion, go in-depth enough. More than two genders exist. It's hard to accommodate everyone, but we really should open the doors to get away from the gender binary.
Monday, 20 January 2014
Response to Differentiation - Chapter One
To say that differentiation is a good thing is an understatement. I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say that differentiated education is one of the most important things that we, as educators, need to not only understand, but also implement. Clearly, by the book's title, the author(s) are going to be teaching us different strategies to use in terms of differentiated education, so that will certainly be nice.
This chapter, obviously being the first one, gives a brief introduction into differentiated education. It starts off by letting the reader know what differentiated education is, emphasizing the fact that one size does not fit all students. The most important statement that this chapter makes is the fact that we need to know that each student has their own set of strengths. This is something that I feel isn't recognized. Far too often, teachers will claim to have bad students in their class, when in reality, they're just not being engaged, which reminds me of a tweet/quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson:
As a final note, I just want to add that pre-planning differentiated plans is an awful idea. Until you've gotten to know where your students are, planning lessons around them won't work.
This chapter, obviously being the first one, gives a brief introduction into differentiated education. It starts off by letting the reader know what differentiated education is, emphasizing the fact that one size does not fit all students. The most important statement that this chapter makes is the fact that we need to know that each student has their own set of strengths. This is something that I feel isn't recognized. Far too often, teachers will claim to have bad students in their class, when in reality, they're just not being engaged, which reminds me of a tweet/quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson:
As a final note, I just want to add that pre-planning differentiated plans is an awful idea. Until you've gotten to know where your students are, planning lessons around them won't work.
Learning Journey -- Week Two's Class
As it stands, I very much enjoyed tonight's class. I'm not really all that good at class discussions, especially when I'm with a group that I don't really know, and even though I wasn't making comments to everyone, I was able to chat a bit with my table group. There were a few things I wanted to comment on -- mostly based on grading.
Grading:
In class, we had a big discussion on grading and whether or not we should put letter grades or numbers, whether or not we should change the letters that are used, and if we should keep where grades fall a secret. When it comes to the letter/percentage grades on assignments, it's hard to really make a non-biased statement on them. That system is what I grew up on, and I was always on "top" of it -- meaning I was a student who received good grades. Because of that, I see the benefits of this kind of grading, as in, you can see that your work does need improvement, and if you're provided with feedback, you can work on it. That being said, once you start thinking about how these grades create a hierarchical structure of intelligence and this shoves students into thinking they're not good enough for school and just deflates them.
If the province adopted a new grading system that hasn't been used before, straying away from percentages, straying away from the A, B, C, ect, I could see the use of quantifiable grading becoming a thing, it just has to be well through out.
There was also a discussion on not using the Assessment for and Assessment as learning not going towards the final grade of the class. The dynamic of students not doing work that doesn't go to their grade came up. My table discussed that if you had a section for classwork or participation, it would encourage students to do their work, but also not evaluate them based on the quality of the work done, simply the completion.
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Reading Response - Chapter 11
Summary:
The final chapter of Davies' book was about resources for teachers in terms of assessment -- specifically on that of learning circles. She explains that using the brains of your colleagues is an invaluable resource. She offers how to set these learning circles up, how to utilize them, and their benefits. Finally, at the end of the chapter, she plugs her book many times.
Response:
I think it is really important to note that regardless of where you are in your life, learning still needs to be done. Another quote that struck me while reading this chapter was either by Bill Nye (and I think it was adapted from H. Jackson Brown Jr., but don't quote me on that) -- "Every person you will ever meet knows something you don't." We all have learning to do, and that's something that we always need to be aware of, and I think it plays a big role in the classroom. We're there to teach the students, but they know things we don't, so adding the dynamic of students as teachers poses to be very beneficial.
Reading Response - Chapter 2
Summary:
Again, Davies uses a really apt title, as she goes into the roots of classroom assessment. She gives four headers for what need to be done in terms of assessment for learning, and they are as follows:
- Mistakes are essential for learning
- Understand feedback
- It takes time to learn
- Recognize that success has many different looks
Response:
While reading this chapter, there is one quote that popped into my head almost instantly. It's by a certain red-headed teacher that I'm sure we all know and love, and it goes like this: "It's time to take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" Of course, this is by Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, and it might seem juvenile, but, in context, it's actually really well thought out. Mistakes are very necessary for assessment -- perfection, in itself, is imperfection. Once you know what won't work, you're closer to knowing what will work.
Out of the remaining three headers that Davies offers, I'd like to touch on feedback. In my opinion, feedback is of the utmost importance if you're even almost looking to improve on anything. Hearing "this is good" or "this is bad" is simply a mood-changer and won't help improve the quality of work.
Boots:
1.) The most important time I learned something was in my English 20 class in high school. The assignment involved the breaking down of a poem to try and find the meaning within it. At that point in my English career, poetry was probably my worst subject -- but I, luckily, had some resources at my disposal -- my teacher and a close friend of mine were both able and willing to help me out with this project. With their help, I was able to read between the lines of the poem, hash it out, and do really well on the assignment. Since that time, I've developed an interest in poetry and have become fairly skillful at deciphering it.
2.) Obviously positive feedback is better than negative feedback, but there is always room for improvement, so the best kind of feedback is constructive. If you find something that doesn't really mesh within an assignment, letting them know is the first step, but after that, you need to give them the tools to fix it.
Again, Davies uses a really apt title, as she goes into the roots of classroom assessment. She gives four headers for what need to be done in terms of assessment for learning, and they are as follows:
- Mistakes are essential for learning
- Understand feedback
- It takes time to learn
- Recognize that success has many different looks
Response:
While reading this chapter, there is one quote that popped into my head almost instantly. It's by a certain red-headed teacher that I'm sure we all know and love, and it goes like this: "It's time to take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" Of course, this is by Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, and it might seem juvenile, but, in context, it's actually really well thought out. Mistakes are very necessary for assessment -- perfection, in itself, is imperfection. Once you know what won't work, you're closer to knowing what will work.
Out of the remaining three headers that Davies offers, I'd like to touch on feedback. In my opinion, feedback is of the utmost importance if you're even almost looking to improve on anything. Hearing "this is good" or "this is bad" is simply a mood-changer and won't help improve the quality of work.
Boots:
1.) The most important time I learned something was in my English 20 class in high school. The assignment involved the breaking down of a poem to try and find the meaning within it. At that point in my English career, poetry was probably my worst subject -- but I, luckily, had some resources at my disposal -- my teacher and a close friend of mine were both able and willing to help me out with this project. With their help, I was able to read between the lines of the poem, hash it out, and do really well on the assignment. Since that time, I've developed an interest in poetry and have become fairly skillful at deciphering it.
2.) Obviously positive feedback is better than negative feedback, but there is always room for improvement, so the best kind of feedback is constructive. If you find something that doesn't really mesh within an assignment, letting them know is the first step, but after that, you need to give them the tools to fix it.
Reading Response - Chapter 1
Summary:
As the title says, the chapter is about making classroom assessment work. Davies discusses the various ways in which classroom assesment can work and hashes out the differences of assessment for learning and assessment of learning.
Response:
To start off, I would really like to draw attention to the parachute analogy, as it put my thoughts into perspective. If we view at students who are struggling and look at their progress rather than the overall skill level, we really get a sense of who is learning. When we were asked which person we would like to be packing our parachute, of course we would choose number three, as their skill level at the end of the class was satisfactory, even though they started poorly and struggled to get there.
I found the "three general parts to classroom assessment" to be not only interesting, but also helpful. They're three very basic ways to begin assessment -- starting with a review of the curriculum, followed by bringing students into the world of their assessment, and finally the evaluation. It all seems to be very student-centered, which is exactly where it should be. Students need to be not only the basis of the assessment, but also be involved in the process of it.
Boots questions:
1.) It's confirmed the knowledge that assessment should be worked through with students. If they're part of the assessment, it's incredibly beneficial.
I've learned the three general parts to classroom assessment
2.) I'd like to know when the line of "too much self assessment" is reached.
As the title says, the chapter is about making classroom assessment work. Davies discusses the various ways in which classroom assesment can work and hashes out the differences of assessment for learning and assessment of learning.
Response:
To start off, I would really like to draw attention to the parachute analogy, as it put my thoughts into perspective. If we view at students who are struggling and look at their progress rather than the overall skill level, we really get a sense of who is learning. When we were asked which person we would like to be packing our parachute, of course we would choose number three, as their skill level at the end of the class was satisfactory, even though they started poorly and struggled to get there.
I found the "three general parts to classroom assessment" to be not only interesting, but also helpful. They're three very basic ways to begin assessment -- starting with a review of the curriculum, followed by bringing students into the world of their assessment, and finally the evaluation. It all seems to be very student-centered, which is exactly where it should be. Students need to be not only the basis of the assessment, but also be involved in the process of it.
Boots questions:
1.) It's confirmed the knowledge that assessment should be worked through with students. If they're part of the assessment, it's incredibly beneficial.
I've learned the three general parts to classroom assessment
2.) I'd like to know when the line of "too much self assessment" is reached.
Learning Journey -- Week One's Class
As it stands right now, I'm very excited to jump into the world of assessment. Within my ELANG 300 class of last semester, we had to make a 50 hour unit plan, and I found that assessment is what I struggled with the most. I found myself cycling through the exit slips, questions boxes, observations, and discussions quite frequently. One can only do that for so long before it becomes stale. I'm mostly interested in how this e-portfolio is going to turn out -- this is one of four portfolios I have to make before the end of the semester, and one of the two that is online.
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