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.