In chapter 9, Boss and Krauss discussed
ways to make assessment meaningful. To do so we first have to know what our students’
prior-knowledge is. Since every child is unique and has different life
experiences, it is important to find out where they are starting to establish
the anchor point. To unveil this information, you can use a KWL chart. From there
you can build them up and differentiate instruction to help them be successful.
This chapter described several
different strategies used to assess students learning. One strategy discussed
was the online grade book, which measured students’ progress across time. Some of
the categories mentioned were how well the students knew the content, written
communication, critical thinking, and their work ethic. I think using type of
data collection helps pin point where the child’s strengths and weakness are so
you can plan strategies to target them. A strategy I had not heard before was videotaping
as you interviewed your students about the project they just completed. I think
if you developed good questions, this would give you a lot of feedback on
actual learning. Another strategy at the end of a project is to have students
create something new that summarizes or synthesis what they had learned. I
think this is a great strategy because it reiterates what the students learned
and informs the teacher of their progress. Other strategies mentioned were
having people in specific content fields evaluate their projects and having
students summit their work for publication. All of these strategies make the
children think and explain their reasoning. This provides us with meaningful information
about their progress and clues us in on what we need to focus on in their
learning. You cannot acquire information like that from a multiple-choice test.
This topic relates to my lesson
plan projects. To make our rubric we had to carefully think of the objectives
and what we were assessing our students on. It also relates to our class
because we are given detailed rubric on what is being assessed. We are also able
to see our grades online and anticipate the next projects arrival.
I like that you bring up how different every student is going to be. Even students who are in the same class have so many different backgrounds that play into how they learn. I agree with you on how useful it would be to have students create something new to summarize their project at the end. It would be a good way for everything to come together and see what students have learned.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers need to find out where students are at on the subject material. From there, you are more likely to be successful with your students when going farther into the lesson. I also agree that the online grade book does a great job at pin pointing where the student’s strengths and weaknesses are. I think interviewing is a good strategy as well and I think it would be a good idea for the students to watch it back so they can see what areas they excelled in and what areas they struggled in.
ReplyDeleteApril, I truly enjoyed reading your post about chapter nine. I think you did a great job pulling out the main things that were discussed in the chapter. I agree with you about the fact that teachers need to find out where students are at when it comes to the subject matter because if that is completed then the teacher is more likely to be successful as they are implementing more of the project later on. The point you made about how every student is different, and because of this I believe that the way they are assessed could be different which is completely okay because the student is still reaching the end goal and they are showing what they know. By allowing students to show what they know in different ways also shows their peers that everyone can do things in different ways and still reach the same goal which I think is an important thing to incorporate. Again I enjoyed reading your post and reading your opinion on the topics discussed!
ReplyDelete-Michelle
I think that your idea of videotaping your students during an interview of what they learned is an interesting idea. I like how it allows the teacher to go back and make better and more knowledgeable observations on what they student learned, and even more it can give the teacher better insights into how the teacher can further help the student. I think it might be cool if the teacher and student could revisit the video later on in the year and the student could critique on how much more they learned for that point, or what they wish they could have fixed in the video. Its a very creative way to assess your students and I think it could be very productive. I also enjoyed how you type your reflections in English. This is extremely helpful to me because I do not understand other languages very well. Perhaps one week you could type yours in Spanish and I could do my best to translate
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