Formative/Summative Assessments

In the article, Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom, Catherine Garrison and Michael Ehringhaus ca\ompare formative and summative assessment.  Their definition of summative assessment is that it is used to gauge student learning relative to content standards.   In comparison, they state that formative assessment is part of the instructional process.  It actually provides information that can be used to adjust teaching and learning while it is happening, and the changes can ensure students meet the learning targets.  
There's a list of strategies to be used for formative assessment, and they quote research findings that descriptive feedback is the most significant instructional strategy.   I am working harder at incorporating descriptive feedback into my marking and I am seeing a difference in the kids' blog posts (a focus area.)  They're editing after feedback, at times, and if not, they are making more of an effort in their next posts to avoid whatever I asked them to.  This is great to see.

This relates to the 4th capacity, that is to draw on educational theories, research, and philosophies to inform your use of technologies to support teaching and learning.
Using kidblog.org is also using existing technologies in my practice-#3.

Creative Commons/Materials online.

I think that if people are putting their work out on the internet and you haven't password protected it or copyrighted it, then you should know that others are going to read it (isn't that why it's on there?) and perhaps copied, adjusted or shared.  Giving credit to authors, illustrators, photographers, etc. or the sites you've found work on is something that we should be doing.  Not everyone is, and some of us are guilty without realizing it.  We need to be aware that there are copyright laws and they still apply to work on the internet.  Many students copy like crazy from the web, without crediting the creators or the websites.
We don't know why people put their work online, or what their intentions for the work and the sharing are.  We shouldn't just presume that everything out there is available for free use.

Field Study Udpate

Where are you at in your field study?

I am working with the students and am providing more formative feedback, even though it's often brief; I have collected data in form of photos and blog entries by students and myself, and reflective journal entries.  This is evidence and data because of what it is, and how I use it.   I had research articles earlier in the term, I need to reread them and my outline / notes to choose the parts that I am going to be including in my presentation.   I don't need to find more, I did do it ahead of my class project this time.

What is left for you to do?  What is your plan to accomplish this? 

What I need to do now is organize my work and my findings to match the format I need for presenting to the class and for showing my own growth.   I need to lay it all out in the required format to ensure that I have all the parts and that I link it all back to the capacities.

Literacy

√ How do we help our students effectively gather, synthesize and transform information using digital resources?

I have my students read online and I'm teaching them how to use info. from articles and books to complete graphic organizers--on the computer and on paper.   We are also reading online and text book info. then summarizing online in our own words.   I'm trying to teach them to question where the information is coming from, and to find what is important info. and what's just extra.

I plan to go through the World Book Online student center information on research, and have them practice finding information.    I have them use graphic organizers, and have them complete a Venn diagram for 2-3 articles on the same topic, so that they can see what information is common to them.   These are generally the key ideas from all of the articles or books, and show the students what key info. they need to include in their summaries.                 

When it comes to presenting to the class, I ask for more than one source of info. and encourage a variety of sources to be used.   Students also can present their learning digitally, which often makes it easier for them to manipulate the information and be creative in their sharing.

√ Who owns the information on the web?
The authors, although some have given permission to use their work.
√ What resources can I use and how can I use them in a wired classroom?

World Book Student Research guide.   Various websites.  Programs such as Glogster, Keynote, etc. for sharing learning.

Reflection on popular culture #2.

Well, we've now looked at the sources of media, and how bias, purpose and intended audience can affect how messages are portrayed, and how personal experience changes the way that we receive and interpret those messages.   
I still think that we can use popular culture within the classroom, if it fits within the guidelines issued to teachers.   I wouldn't show the articles, photos, clips, etc. if I haven't seen them first.   This is just like when we were choosing videos to show and were asked to preview them before using them.   Using media allows us to have a discussion about questioning media and the reasons that things are presented in a certain way.

Popular Culture: part 1

Should we use popular culture in the classroom?  Why or why not?


I believe that we should use popular culture, if it fits the parameters of our lessons and is appropriate for sharing within a school setting.  
The students are inundated with youtube, itunes, google, facebook, msn messenger, etc. and respond better to material that is presented in a familiar way rather than simply as text in a book or an article.   If I can better grab and keep all student's attention (or many,) particularly the boys, why would I choose not to?   I want their attention, and so long as the focus is on what is done with the knowledge and content, rather than simply showing movies for entertainment, I believe the more teaching tools I can use, the better.  

Field Study and Literacy

My field study will be incorporating lots of the theory around literacy and how it has shifted.  With the use of a classroom blog for students to post upon for me to give feedback and increase my use of formative assessment in my teaching and planning, there will be more writing by the students.
I'm looking at using the blog to have students share their thinking, successes, challenges, and learning within the classroom each week.   In order to do this, students will need to respond to a prompt from me on heir own blog page.
As for literacy through reading, today, we used the Nelson Literacy series and read a text passage about the origin of Canadian Place Names.  We summarized the main ideas together on the board, and then followed that up in our lab class later in the day.   In the lab, we used the internet to read about the origin of some Canadian place names.   I had all students go to the same site; geonames.nrca.gc.ca/education; and then they could choose where to read about a province or city in Canada.   After that, they were to begin posting a summary of what they read onto their own blog page.

Field Study Ideas

Well, it's almost time to create an outline for a field study for the fall.   I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but I'm tossing around ideas again.

  I'm wondering about making my assessment more informative and useful to myself for planning and for the students to guide their learning, and if that's where I want to focus.  I am going to be using the new Smartboard, and as a result, I will show demonstration videos and interactive concepts for math and more, which I'm sure will engage the students more than just my talking to them.  What I want is to look at something I can use, not be overloaded, and that I can measure and track.   I'm pretty sure that students are going to be more engaged with the Smart board, so I can't prove that using it more is better than just me, as I can't compare as this year's class have never had a board before, or me, so there's no baseline data.  

That being said, if I want to ensure that my kids know math vocabulary and can solve a problem in more than one way, the reality is that it's hard to get to everyone each class, and I don't have the time to have them demonstrate and explain their thinking and reasoning to me.   Would having them show their ideas on a blog (that I can read, assess, edit, give feedback on, etc.) be plausible?  Can I use technology as a tool to make the assessment manageable and to have it guide my teaching ideas?  Will it allow me to look at student's thinking from their point of view?   Will it help me to look at everyone's ideas, not just those who hand in their work on time?   Can I ask questions either online or face to face to get a better understanding of thinking (deeper probes, or to see where misunderstanding lies,) that will be better for all of us.  

I think I'd like them to put their own definitions for current math vocabulary on their blog, in their own words, as we work through units, and show their understanding somehow, (draw pictures, use in a sentence, solve a problem, etc.) This will allow me to access their work almost anywhere and when it fits my schedule, and I can use classtime for informed discussions based on what I learn, not the conferencing with only 1 or 2 students that's not productive at times.   Will it work?

Rethinking Tech in Schools

Reading ch. 5 of this book by Domine, it hit home a few times and reiterated what we've discussed all along; that we need to be ensuring we're looking at the curriculum and our pedagogy first, then adding technology as a tool not the starting point for our planning.   The quote we were discussing this morning is, "the theory and practice of technology integration need to be inextricably connected to the processes and products of curriculum development." (p.99.)  At our table group, we discussed how we agree and we are trying to ensure that we aren't picking a software program, for example, that we want to use then fitting lessons to that; rather than doing it in reverse.  It makes sense to ensure we are covering curriculum and focusing on student learning, then add a tool to our plans.

Assessment in my classroom.

This morning, we have been discussing assessment, what it is, and how we can add assessment to our lessons.  Do we use technology to assess, or within our lessons, or both?  From the readings, we agree that some learning happens "by accident" and the rest if by trial and error, with problem-solving skills needed.  

Assessment need to be ongoing, and fluid.  I need to look for what they have learned (recall,) what they understand, can they share their learning with others, are they exploring the ideas, (going beyond the basics we tell them,) and can they create something that shows their learning along the way and their new understanding of the concepts.  

Assessment shouldn't be an interruption of learning, but should be a tool that will help to influence the learning and work of the students in the future.  

Keeping this in mind, I already try to incorporate the different aspects into my assessment, when I can.  For example, in math, I want students to show their work and explain how they work to solve problems.  I also use projects in science and social studies as an end of unit assignment, but the students are working on them throughout the time we are working on the units in class.  They have a criteria and rubric before the assignment, and part of the project is displaying a model, or having a slideshow to present (depending on the choice they make, or the content we are covering.)  Along with that, they must have a write up that tells what they learned, why they chose this particular topic/region/animal/habitat, etc.  They also have to tell how they've created the object, and what they learned in the process of creating the project, and during the unit of study in class.  Students have to share this orally in front of the class, too, as part of their oral language learning and this is also assessed.   When students get feedback, I include a score, but also a copy of the rubric that is highlighted for their project, a summary of what was done well, and suggestions for ways to improve/ things to consider on future projects.

Bringing it back to this year, and ideas for my classroom; I'm thinking that it may work to have my students create a wiki with their own blog page, too, and have them add information to it that track their learning.    Specifically, I'm thinking of having math vocabulary words posted, and then assigning the students the task of explaining what the terms mean, in their own words.   They could add examples to help explain things if they like, or drawings, etc.   I'm exploring more ideas, but I like to allow the students to show their learning in ways that work for them, and that they will revisit and be proud of.  

Possible things I will use....Aug. 18, 2010

This morning, we've explored iGoogle, Discovery Education, 8 links from our moodle, and more.   I think that I'll keep looking at link #5, which is teachersconnecting.com and see if I can incorporate the collaboration with other teachers around the world.   I want to know more about it, I joined already, but now I want to investigate teachers on there to see about bouncing ideas off people, before I consider taking on a project online.   Since I don't have my class yet, I'm not willing to commit to a project with anyone in case it won't fit.   I don't want to do that just to take on extra work, if it will be frustrating for my class.  I may go and visit Jenuine Touch for some of the project ideas.   I think that the edupln will be a place I search when I'm sure of where I think I'm heading this year.  Same thing with classroom20.com.
I am still needing to try netvibes more, as I struggled with it before, but I do like iGoogle for sorting and storing my common pages, etc.   We'll see....if I get netvibes another look, it may be useful for me but it seemed like a lot of work, and above my level of comfort.

So, where are we now?

So, after reading the article, Knowledge, the disciplines, and learning
in the Digital Age by Jane Gilbert, and discussing how different content areas, (in different grade levels,) have similarities and differences, I'm thinking that I need to perhaps shift my focus to learning more about Project Based Learning, and if that would be more beneficial for my students.
We generally agree that we need to have some guidelines on the content for each grade that is important, but that really it is the skills and processes that should be the focus as these are the common parts. I believe these are what need to be in a student's backpack to equip them for the journey through life. The ability to read and understand what we are reading, and then to communicate our ideas; be it through writing, drama, art or oral language, is what is necessary to be successful. This includes being able to connect to prior knowledge, to shift and rebuild the blocks within our brains and synthesize ideas.
So, what can I do? I try already to build connections and to show my students where this links to "real life" outside of the classroom, and how the new skills and concepts are not to used in isolation and that they are building blocks for future learning. I've found this leads to more discussion within the classroom, and that my students seem to be more wiling to try new things, and to approach tasks with less fear, when they see that it's not just "for a test," or unit specific. I hope to stay conscious of the need to do this, and will plan my instruction this way. Hopefully, it will work!

Next, how can technology be used across the content areas? Hmm, well, there's the obvious that jumps to mind.... I can use videos to show content specific and linked ideas, we can use the internet for research, we can type up our findings, we could listen to books on cd/podcasts, etc. The challenge will be to stay balanced, and be sure that what I'm doing is relevant and helpful to the students.

I found last year that by teaching the students some different ways to use software to share their learning (keynote, comic life, ebsco sites, word, etc.) that when given a choice as to if they wanted to use traditional pencil and paper or technology to demonstrate their learning and create a project at the end of a unit, almost all chose technology. I tried to have a rubric that included the content I needed to see, and the processes, but the way that students chose to present their learning was open ended. I was impressed with some of the students that created some great work, and normally do very little. In particular, a couple of the boys that are often disengaged were using their classroom time well, and lab time, and though their work may have not be as shiny and polished as some who use the computer often or who are artistic, they still had the necessary components and did well on the assignments. This was rewarding for both them, and for me. I love to see them reach their potential and impress themselves as well as others! I want to do that again.

ISTE Standards Goal

>My goal is to work on ISTE Standard #2, Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments.

The wording I have is that: Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NET.S.

I think that this is meaningful to my practice as I don’t want technology to just be all flash and games, I want the students to be able to use technology to further their learning, to track it, and to learn skills for life. The technological advances are huge, and I believe that students are going to need skills in technology in order to be successful.

I want to create lessons that allow my grade 4s to combine what we read in texts, and discuss in class, and what they can find online, in order to get a clearer understanding of the content we are covering. I also hope to meet the different learning styles of my students, and allow the students to respond in ways that allow them to be successful and that my assessment will allow for their greatest success levels.

I need to find ways to incorporate ideas at the students' level, not just ideas in the sky that they don't understand or can't relate to. This is something I try to be conscious of when teaching, without technology, as I consider it to be important. If I lose sight of that as I explore the different software programs, and get excited about ideas, or bogged down in the regular day to day workings in the classroom, then I don't think that I'm doing the best job I can. I hope to have my SMART Board arrive soon, and I need to be careful how I incorporate the technology so it is better for both my learning, and the student's learning, not just a plug and play session.

Adding in program capacities to this goal, I think that the capacities #3 and 4; the capacity to use, evaluate, and integrate existing technology into my practice, and the capacity to draw on educational theories, research, and philosophies to inform your use of technologies to support learning and teaching.
I think that these fit, as I'm planning to integrate a smart board and the notebook software program (3) and I want to stay guided and am following blogs and reading articles about digital communities, and how to integrate interactive software in the classroom, (4.)

Here's an assignment from the post-graduate program I'm in, that's structured around the use of technology in teaching:

Howard Rheingold is a leading researcher on social networks.

Bringing a Critical Lens to Reading on the Web

As we begin to explore the internet and the wealth of information to be found there, it will be helpful for us to begin to develop a critical eye. To that end, I'd like you to watch Howard's vlog post on "Crap Detection" :

http://blip.tv/file/3333374

And my response to that is; I've watched the video, and found it to be interesting and thought provoking. When viewing it in light of my own practice, I know that I try to teach my students to question facts, and to be careful what they believe as they read. In fact, I've deliberately had them enter the lab and research a frog that doesn't exist, read all the facts on the web page about it, talk about if they've seen one, etc. before I've told them that it's all false. This leads to a discussion about checking facts in more than one place, being sure that links from webpages go to proper locations, and such. I only teach grade 4, so I don't get too technical. I suggest locations for students to go to for researching classroom assignments, that I know are more trustworty, such as those on EBSCO, or that I've already been visiting.

I still use the internet as a source of information, and it's so accessible that it's wonderful. I personally try to check my facts in more than one place, and not usually one that's linked from the first site.