multiple measures
using google classroom - Google Search - 0 views
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ollie_4: Educational Leadership: The Quest for Quality--article - 5 views
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I think quality, multiple measures are important. Too often we give students one shot to get it beacuse we are so focused on covering the content or getting through the book that we miss the most important part....are the students learning the material?
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As an educator, I have found that I am expected to give multiple measures from directives "on high" only to find myself not able to look at the data,analyze it, and make decisions about it. Yes, we are all at different periods of our lives, yet we all have been given only so much time.
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responsibility for their own learning
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Absolutely! Students should feel as though they are in control of their grades. They should be giving a clear picture of what is expected of them and offered options to get back on track if they fall to the way side.
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I so agree. Giving students power and knowledge about their own learning is extremely engaging and motivating for the student.
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I also agree- my best students have always been the ones who take responsibility for their learning and not just because they want to earn an A, but because they actually care about their learning.
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I will concur as well, when they have a clear picture of what is expected of them, they learn more and when the don't hit the target, they are still motivated to learn. Testing should promote learning
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Effectively planning for the use of multiple measures means providing assessment balance throughout these three levels, meeting student, teacher, and district information needs.
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It is so important to use many different measures to meet the needs of students, teachers and districts because of the large group at hand. There needs to be a balanced use of these measures. There are many things to consider with these assessments that the key is to find out what is important to know and how to go about presenting these assessments.
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they can provide information about student progress not typically available from student information systems or standardized test results. The classroom is also a practical location to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate what they know and can do, adding to the accuracy of the information available from that level of assessment.
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Standardized test only give a certain amount of information for teachers to see. Often times, it's a guessing game for kids. In the classroom, students can be creative and add their style to the assessment with different opportunities to present the information.
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I like seeing teachers use a combination of testing approaches. I think kids get burned out filling in ovals, students like to be creative and can show that better through other means beside multiple choice or darkening ovals.
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Stephen Chappuis, Jan Chappuis and Rick Stiggins
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Knowledge targets
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Selecting an assessment method that is incapable of reflecting the intended learning will compromise the accuracy of the results.
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This key ensures that the assessor has translated the learning targets into assessments that will yield accurate results. It calls attention to the proper assessment method and to the importance of minimizing any bias that might distort estimates of student learning.
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Specific, descriptive feedback linked to the targets of instruction and arising from the assessment items or rubrics communicates to students in ways that enable them to immediately take action, thereby promoting further learning.
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I became very adept over the years as a writing teacher (and eventually began applying it to my teaching in general--reading and social studies) at descriptive feedback. I am an advocate and proponent because I have seen that feedback instead of scores/marks promotes learning.
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This certainly aligns well with the information from last week and writing rubrics with "fix" correctives in order to promote student improvement. A great way to focus on the formative piece.
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I would like to see something added here about timely. Specific descriptive is great but if the student doesn't receive the feedback in a timely fashion it becomes more difficult for them.
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The goal of a balanced assessment system is to ensure that all assessment users have access to the data they want when they need it, which in turn directly serves the effective use of multiple measures.
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Our district is really moving in the direction of standards-based assessment and reporting. This really does present to all stakeholders the specific and most important data---how well is each student meeting the standards of the Iowa Core?
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I know one question that comes up frequently with groups when we discuss SBAR - how many times must students demonstrate they can meet a standard before they are "checked off"?
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This creates a concern for me because so many students have it today and it's gone tomorrow. The forgetful hormones set in- in middle school.
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In such an intentionally designed and comprehensive system, a wealth of data emerges. Inherent in its design is the need for all assessors and users of assessment results to be assessment literate—to know what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate uses of assessment results—thereby reducing the risk of applying data to decisions for which they aren't suited.
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Sound Assessment Design
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This entire realm is both challenging and time-consuming. In order to have a high level of confidence, assessments usually need to be used many times and checked for validity and reliability…especially if they are being used as a summative assessment.This entire realm is both challenging and time-consuming.
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Assess learning targets requiring the "doing" of science with a multiple-choice test.
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As obvious as this statement is, and even though "doing science" has been an expectation in the Iowa Core (and now the NGSS), there is a general lack of 'performance assessments' in science - especially at the elementary level.
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I'm not typically in the classroom, so I'm asking... why is that? Is it because performance assessments aren't readily available, not easy to score, not easy to administer, messy to set up, time consuming? If these are true, I see lots of barriers in the way of performance testing. Even though they may be more authentic and reliable.
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I have found many districts concentrate on reading and math at the elementary level...as a result, science is on the back "burner".
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Mary, I absolutely agree! The publishers of the elementary reading series' are caught up in trying to include the required amount of non-fiction reading material for the students and so they have focused on material that is also grade level appropriate to what should be studied in the science and social studies curriculum at each grade level. Teachers are beginning to use the reading series' material as a substitute for real science and social studies lessons as a way to "save time" in their day and still cover all the required material. This does not bode well for the science and social studies learning of our younger students.
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Figure 1 shows a 3rd grade math test plan
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Figure 1& 2: can be seen in this version of this article: ( http://goo.gl/9S26Q )
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Strange that only "Number Sense" has 4 items worth 10 points! Could one question be weighted or did they really assign each correct answer 2.5 points?
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Will the users of the results understand them and see the connection to learning
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This is my contention with MAP testing. As an AEA consultant, I think it's wonderful for tracking student progress, and making instructional decisions for students, but I have found in more than one school I work with that the teachers receive this data from the testing and then have no idea what it means or what to do with it. It is so sad! They have received training on how to use the results, but by the time the test takes place and they receive the data, they have forgotten how to access it and what to do with it, so in essence the test was a waste of time because it's not going to bring about instructional change for the students in the classroom
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Students learn best when they monitor
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I once read a study where students with behavior disabilities saw an improvement in their behavior when they began to track and chart their actions in a spreadsheet. When they could see the change in a chart it became a positive goal to make improvements and watch the trendline go up. Monitoring and taking responsibility.
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betting
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summative tests, the reason for assessing is to document individual or group achievement or mastery of standards and measure achievement status at a point in time.
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I have found it interesting that we give semester tests, yet very few supervisors, parents, administrators, or students want to know the overall level of student performance....they just want to know the "grade". As a result, I see a need for doing summative testing a bit differently.
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How would you do summative testing differently? This makes me think about the cumulative projects I have my students complete. Very rarely do students come in to find out how they did. I think I need to move the end date of those projects up a couple of days so I can sit down with the student and go over the project before the last day of class.
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Teachers should design the assessment so students can use the results to self-assess and set goals.
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As an educator, I have found that having students self-assess is a lesson in itself. So many students think they are excellent, even after seeing many of their peers doing the same task with varying degrees.
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I agree that we must teach our students how to self-assess. In some classrooms we have never asked them to do this, so we can't expect them to fully grasp the concept unless we provide ongoing support while they learn to self-assess.
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I give a lot of written assessments in science, but have failed to make goal setting explicit. I think this could be really effective at getting students to view the feedback differently, especially if the student had to talk with the teacher about the goal.
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Use a reading score from a state accountability test as a diagnostic instrument for reading group placement.
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annual accountability purposes
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sacrificed to testing
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Is it possible to over-assess? If new assessments are being added, will students get burned out from being tested?
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Yes! I definitely think students get burned out from testing. My district did away with a few non-required standardized tests and the students did better on what they were required to complete, because they felt it was more necessary and appreciated that they weren't being forced to do all of it.
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students
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the use of multiple measures does not, by itself, translate into high-quality evidence. Using misinformation to triangulate on student needs defeats the purpose of bringing in more results to inform our decisions.
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The assessor must begin with a clear picture of why he or she is conducting the assessment. Who will use the results to inform what decisions?
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Unfortunately, I feel like this is not something I was ever taught in college and it took me several years of teaching to really think about this and understand it. I definitely feel like I (and my students) missed out on some things in class that could have been better because my knowledge was lacking in this area.
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selected-response formats
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I would have liked to see more specific discussion about the creation of selected-response format questions. I know "concept inventory" type questions that were developed using student misconceptions from previous written assessments are extremely valuable at assessing student learning, especially when compared with traditional questions from a textbook publisher.
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etter instructional decision
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I wish this were the case. So often I work with schools that are giving multiple forms of assessments in an attempt to insure that students are learning the core material and will do well on the Iowa Assessment only to find that the teachers have no idea how to interpret the scores and data they receive from the tests. This leads to no instructional decisions being made for the student after taking the tests and the testing being nothing but a waste of time.
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it is not capable of informing the student about the next steps in learning.
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This is so true!! Unless a teacher provides feedback in some way - whether in a conference style or a written style - the student will have no idea how to improve. Too often high school students receive a composition paper back with a letter grade and no comments or only spelling corrections underlined. This does not help the student to know what it is that was done poorly - other than the spelling - or how to improve on the next paper. I firmly believe that even papers that are considered to be "A" papers need to have feedback given - what was done well, what areas might the student extend themselves in next time, what areas could be better even though they were sufficient for this assignment.
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considered questioning the accuracy of these tests
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I create very few tests as I am in special education at the high school level. I am most often proctoring, administering or trying to interpret test results. I actually find myself questioning the accuracy of tests more often than you would think. The students are often asking me what a particular question means. Without giving any clue to the answer, I find myself trying to clarify when I am asking the same question. The way tests are framed and questions are asked can affect the accuracy of tests. I think creating a test that provides accurate results is an incredibly hard task. Kudos to those that are good at it, we need more of you
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The assessor needs to have a clear picture of what achievement he or she intends to measure. If we don't begin with clear statements of the intended learning—clear and understandable to everyone, including students—we won't end up with sound assessments.
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This is very important to keep and mind, and is something that I had an issue with at the beginning of my teaching career. It is imperative that a teacher knows what the intended outcome of an assessment is going to be before writing that assessment, so that they can look to those outcomes for guidance when writing questions, creating rubrics, or deciding a number of points for the assessment.
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and highlight crucial words (for instance, most, least, except, not).
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You can improve it by explaining why you think that will happen
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effective feedback
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For each assessment, regardless of purpose, the assessor should organize the learning targets represented in the assessment into a written test plan that matches the learning targets represented in the curriculum.
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the assessor should organize the learning targets represented in the assessment into a written test plan
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This seems necessary if we are to achieve the highest level of assessment making sure we are actually assessing the learning targets appropriately, but I struggle with the fact that teachers have the time in their busy schedules or will take the time to create a test plan for every assessment they give.
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Assessment literacy is the foundation for a system that can take advantage of a wider use of multiple measures
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Most assessments developed beyond the classroom rely largely on selected-response or short-answer formats and are not designed to meet the daily, ongoing information needs of teachers and students
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PLE Articles - 1 views
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Not every student is ready for this responsibility, so teachers need to have strategies in place to guide and support these learners. In addition, teachers must pursue training and be knowledgeable of how to utilize PLEs to enhance learning and ensure that students are using this e-learning tool in a meaningful way
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It is not enough just to have PLEs and use them in the classroom, a teacher needs to be able to provide intervention, conferring, and reteaching strategies to help the student understand the expectations. They need to know how to use the tool correctly.
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Having the opportunity to collaborate with, visit schools supporting PLEs, or receive support from other professionals already comfortable with implementing PLEs would prove valuable on my journey to create learning environments to best meet my student needs. I so agree with your comment of teacher role.
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This is a very powerful statement. I agree it is not just enough to have PLE's and use them. It is very important to have time to collaborate and have some professional development. Using PLE's teachers will be in a different role than in previous settings and will need the tools to support their students through this learning journey.
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Some instructors empower students to use their own mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones as a means to create PLEs. Others utilize sites such as Symbaloo or NetVibesas a foundation to help learners create and maintain their personal learning environments. Below is a video that shows how a 7th grade student uses Symbaloo as a PLE in her science class:
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How do students learn how to use their PLE? Do they take a class to learn how to correctly and effectively them or does each classroom teacher teach bits and pieces of it?
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I think this depends on the students. Some kids can naturally figure out how things work and others will need a tutorial. Ultimately the kids will choose a PLE that they feel comfortable with or already know how to use.
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Teachers, she explains, are no longer the primary or even the best source of information available to students, and our work must increasingly attend to supporting students in developing their skills and motivations for becoming themselves networked and sophisticated online learners.
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Are schools going to provide training for teachers so they know how to use all of these PLE tools? I feel I would want to fully understand how to use all of these online tools before I teach my students how to use them.
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We also need to teach our students to think and learn on their own. They are used to being provided with resources, graphic organizers, and other tools to guide their thinking. This is a big shift in processing and responsibility for our students. Because they have never done this in earlier education, some will really struggle to adapt.
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You pose great questions, "are schools going to provide training for teachers so they know how to use all of the PLE tools?" I agree educators will need more training to properly implement PLE's into their classrooms. The statement that teachers are no longer the primary or even the best source of information is a huge shift in thinking. Our jobs as educators will be to support our students on their on learning pathway.
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as an instructor, you can make a webmix quite interactive.
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PLEs place a large amount of responsibility on students and thus requires a high level of self-management and awareness.
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This definitely seems more geared towards middle and high school students. Are their ways to create PLE's in the elementary classroom?
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I read in one of our assigned readings/videos that a PLE sometimes looks like the homescreen on a smart phone. So an elementary student may have a variety of educational games that they have found/been provided that they would use for practice. Other kids' PLE may not involve technology at all, but instead be a manipulative, like counting blocks. I know my own children (by birth) have been practicing multiplication with their Pokemon cards? My first grader couldn't handle using the iPad for sight word practice and had to go back to flash cards. He learned what was acceptable and regained access. While this classroom isn't necessarily PL, I would think the same concept applies?
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We also discussed that as they begin to work in inquiry circles next week and to collaborate on their digital research projects, they can create, publish, and share their topic webmixes with their peers so that they can collaborate and discover information sources through this form of networking/information sharing–I find this possibility exciting for the students, and they seemed impressed by this concept as well.
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This networking in inquiry circles sounds like a wonderful way for students to share their learning. It would also give students a way to have a voice for those you are more hesitant to share in the regular classroom. I have a lot of questions about how it all works. How do we prepare students for this work? Do they have basic grammar structures so their writing makes sense? I am unfamiliar with the websites being used. Do we need to have inservices to get all teachers "up-to-date" on what students will be using? And lastly, what constitutes a finished project? How do students know when they are done?
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we are in a new era where information is abundantly available and professionalism is far more about the effective manipulation– access, evaluation, & application– it only makes sense to reorient learning toward facilitation of students’ “active role in the learning process” and teachers’ provision of the right balance between structured lessons and autonomy; let’s never forget it is an ongoing balancing act.
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It is very clear the teacher and student roles are making a major shift. While we are changing the roles in the process, as educators, we need to have a unified understanding of what the balance needs to be or we will be giving students mixed messages. Students can quickly determine how to access what they need once they are given the tools but evaluation and process will require some lessons for the students AND the teachers.
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you can create tiles that link to challenges, quiz questions, polls, discussion forums, chat pages, and other types of content and media that will facilitate more student involvement and creativity
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Personal learning environments (PLE) are a new approach to personalized learning that allows students to direct and manage their own learning experience while pursuing educational goals.
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Every Wednesday my district has a late start for students while teachers are receiving PD. Just this morning a discussion at my table involved brainstorming how to move students past doing just what's expected of them. How do we get their thinking to move past, "How many paragraphs/sentences do I need to write?" PL could be a tool to develop that independent learner.
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I agree, this will be the hardest step for our students! They are used to the traditional model of education with clear expectations and guidelines always structured and provided for them. We are trying to increase opportunities for students to be independent and accountable for their own learning and many are resistant. They know how to "play the game" of the traditional model of a school, so change can be intimidating.
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Instead of a teacher providing resources that everyone uses, students can utilize their PLE to acquire information using preferred apps and resources such as blogs, YouTube, Pinterest, Ning or Delicious. The development of PLEs represents a shift in focus from teacher centered classrooms to more learner centered classrooms.
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As I have been talking to my kids about PL, I heard (and have feared) someone say, "So we're doing the teacher's job?" I think, like most changes in education, it's going to take some convincing/educating the parents as to what PL is and the role of the teacher. Of course, I feel that it's all about how it's presented. If you get the kids to understand their role and the teacher's role, you may not have these issues.
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This needs to start in elementary for it to be truly effective; I don't think we can expect secondary students who have not been taught how to learn in this environment to suddenly run with personal learning. While many of them think it sounds great, they haven't been conditioned to independence in their learning. They want everything provided for them and often don't know where to start when set off on their own. We need to teach students how to learn in this manner in order for it to be successful.
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those policies are not going to change.
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This is a systematic problem that needs to change in order to make PL work. Restricting access is not the answer, and I believe we'll get there as a society. If we want real life, the students need to understand when it's acceptable to do what. I already know my students will struggle with this issue, but if they're engaged in their PL, they may not need those distractions. As with any classroom management issue, expectations will need to be established and enforced when violated. We read that adults even struggle with using technology appropriately in the workplace, so of course this will need addressed with students.
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On that thought, will our lifting those access restrictions at the elementary through secondary grade levels assist learners beyond the K-12 walls with using technology appropriately? Would it reduce the occurrence of workplace and adult inappropriate use of technology which seems to be sadly common place today?
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We have so many problems with restrictions on our devices. At our school, teachers have the same filters as the students also! They give us no passwords for administrative access or even the WiFi. How can we teach students to think critically when using the web if we simply restrict everything? Especially when it comes to teachers, this seems a bit demeaning. People will always use resources inappropriately. Unfortunately, that's just the way it works. Why restrict everyone due to the poor actions of a few?
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ong have educators, from Aristotle to Dewey to Sizer, called for “learning by doing” and “student as worker,”
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I feel that this is where we are at as educators as well. We need to "learn by doing" because a lot of us are doing a job we were never trained to do...and I'm not even that old! I currently have a student teacher, and she's amazed (and a little scared) at what we're doing with our students with blended learning and also standards based grading. She hasn't even graduated and she knows nothing of either of them! Get ready, honey! :)
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The notion of a PLE for students, grounding them intentionally in an environment of information tools and productive applications, is a great way to seek, develop, and structure that balanced approach.
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Because you can link to an infinite variety of web pages and you can embed media
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The concept of PLE is not a way to replace classroom learning,
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This is an important declarative to use when persuading teammates or administration to support the personal learning environment in your school. Like any differentiation piece, collaboration, individual student consideration of needs, and building a rigorous, yet attainable structure to learning is included with that design. Creating the PL to include technology students are frequenting, motivates students buying in to the idea at first.
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I agree with this statement about not here to replace classroom learning but to enhance it. I also agree with your comment about how it is an important declarative when bringing the topic to co-teachers or administration. Education is always changing and administrators will want to listen if you have a way to enhance student learning.
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parents, email conversations, Facebook posts or even twitter hashtags. These interactions among their learning community reinforces learning and combats the often negative stereotypes associated with traditional learning techniques. Because PLEs are learner controlled, they are easily adapted to the learner’s day-to-day activities and interests both inside and outside of the classroom
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This all sounds great! I could easily believe my students would enjoy these social network interaction learning communities. However, it does form a question connecting to student safety. I'm wondering how districts already implementing PLEs are assuring students they are responsible for will be involved with a secure/safe learning experience?
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my main priority is for students to have a tool they can use to organize their information streams and to create their own topic webmixes, and from what I’ve seen so far, Symbaloo definitely will meet those needs. As we begin venturing into our research the next two weeks and students begin developing their Symbaloo webmixes, I’ll continue to collect feedback from students on how this learning tool is working for them and how they are using it for themselves as well as within their groups–I’m excited to see what will happen.
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ymbaloo EDU
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ruth be told, I could stand to be more savvy in my own organizing of online learning and networking: I’ve been slow to use tools and develop skills for managing online resource, such as the use of vehicles like Symbaloo, Evernote, or Diigo, and I want to take inspiration from the 7th grade student in the video above to move forward in this way and learn and practive better these skills and with these tools.
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I often feel the same - slow to utilize the tools available. It's always well intent, but priority address other items at hand. I'm hoping this evolves as I develop more understanding of PLEs and their use for enhancing learning opportunities of those I instruct.
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Not to mention, once we master one tool...another one pops up! I try to stay current in technology through classes and our PD opportunity, but it is tough to stay on top of things. I think the best way to do this is to stick with one tool and work to know it well. Otherwise we fall into the trap of "jack of all trades, master of none!"
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Learning isn’t germane to structured classroom environments alone; it occurs in both formal and informal settings.
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I think this statement is very important for the heading why PLE's are beneficial. Showing learning can take place in both formal and informal settings. Often with the push to meet the standards and standardized tests teachers feel the need to focus on the formal learning setting, however the informal learning setting can actually prove to be more beneficial in my opinion.
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"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 2 views
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many school district leaders require public school educators to teach a specific curriculum that will be evaluated on standardized tests, while at the same time telling teachers to be innovative and creative within their classrooms
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This is a major concern I have been struggling with in regard to Personalized Learning. The content many elementary teachers have been presented with is very specific - follow the basal or system of information you have been given, present it in the order it is to be taught, in the confines of the time you have to teach it, however, be creative (but don't stray from the plan because you have Standards Based goals to achieve), reach all students with it irregardless of ability or interest (make sure you meet with those groups every day to ensure they learn the content) and get good scores on our standardized tests (but don't teach to the test and you need to show growth). It is a challenge we face but the dream of personalized learning is not an impossible reality. We just have to understand how it can be done.
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I agree and can easily connect with your comment about sticking to the curriculum, yet being creative. This is also a major concern of mine. I often feel that there is so much to fit in and little time. A guaranteed curriculum is important but I believe teachers need to have some freedom within their room to create plans and lesson that can be personalized and meet the standards. Once teachers are better acquainted with personalized learning I believe we will see more and more of it within classrooms across the country.
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I can relate, too. I mentioned earlier that we work in PLCs, so we write curriculum together and then go to our rooms to teach it, share Data later, and learn from each other. I feel like this setup is too restrictive for me to implement PL. Instead of throwing the idea away, we need to experiment with implementing PL small then look at the data and see if we can convince others to go with it. We won't be able to make the full switch in a year, over the summer, or even within a few years until the entire system gets on board and works toward this common goal of implementing PL..
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In a world where we can explore almost every interest or passion in depth on our own or with others, it’s crucially more important to have the dispositions and the skills to create our own educational opportunities, not be trained to wait for opportunities that someone else has selected for delivery.
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As an adult learning individuals, if we want to continue to learn and grow, we need to reach out and ask questions and find the answers rather than waiting for the world to find us. We need to inspire that in our students as well. Motivation and drive with a purpose!
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To instill this drive for learning and seeking one's own understanding seems so important when developing skills in our young students. When we as adults have that drive for learning continuum, modeling that passion, sharing examples on how this is evident in work environments, as well as higher education, should be a skill all students be taught. PLEs could be a great tool to do just that!
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Personal learning entails working with each child to create projects of intellectual discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests. It requires the presence of a caring teacher who knows each child well. Personalized learning entails adjusting the difficulty level of prefabricated skills-based exercises based on students’ test scores. It requires the purchase of software from one of those companies that can afford full-page ads in Education Week.
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Thus, while making sense of ideas is surely personal, it is not exclusively individual because it involves collaboration and takes place in a community.
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Personalization is often used in the ed-tech community to describe a student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace. The only choice a student gets is what box to check on the screen and how quickly to move through the exercises. For many educators that’s not the true meaning of “personalized learning.”
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At the district I teach in we have many computer programs like this. Our lower elementary students (K-4) work on ST math and our upper elementary students (5-6) work on ALEKS. Our district also recently purchased and is going to start implementing Lexia Reading Core5. I personally have not worked with any of these programs, but from what I've heard teachers really like ST Math and ALEKS.
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Our district has also just started implementing Lexia Reading Core 5 this year. I have found it to be engaging for the students, but I have a student who has already passed all levels. At this point there is nothing left for her to do. I think personalization is more than a computer program, however I am a fan of computer programs that are tailored to the students' needs.
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From some of the things I've read in the PL Environment articles, these computer programs are only one part of Personalized Learning. They have a purpose for some students who need it, but shouldn't really be implemented as a "work until you complete the program" type of thing. More of a "you need more practice..go here" type of situation. Until we really embrace PL and truly personalize, we'll continue to encounter these issues. So hard to do!
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“It meets the needs of an individual in a very standardized way, but it doesn’t take into account who that kid is.” For Laufenberg, personalization only comes when students have authentic choice over how to tackle a problem.
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I don't think many teachers and administrators realize this. I think most feel like the computer programs, such as ST Math, ALEKS and Lexia Reading Core5, are personalized because each student is working at their own level. From what I've learned so far in this class is that Personalized Learning takes it a step farther.
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I have felt hesitation from adminastartion with using computer programs for student learning. I'm looking for evidence that supports research in this area. Is it best for certain learning styles? I believe so.
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Ditto! I've tried some pilot computer learning, and students enjoy and stay engaged. Trying to receive support from administration isn't easy - district policy, costs, and balance between classrooms are the constraints I find.
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Personalization comes at the expense of denying students opportunities to learn personally, forming the habits of mind and “network literacies” that will serve them much more effectively than most of the content knowledge that, as we know from experience, never gets applied in real life.
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I agree and disagree with this statement. I think every student in America has asked the question "When am I ever going to use this in real life?" at some point in their educational career. I know I did when I was sitting in Pre-Calc my senior year of high school. On the other hand I cringe every time one of my 5th grade students doesn't know that Iowa is a state. I had to have all of the states and state capitals memorized in 3rd grade! I do feel there are some things every well educated person should know, but the question is how do we decide what is important enough for every person to learn.
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There are definitely basic, foundational skills that need to be learned by all students. For example, since our district has focused less on teaching and grading students on grammar, punctuation, and elements outside of the content of a paper, we have noticed huge gaps in performance. I had to spend an entire class period with my ninth grade students explaining when to capitalize a letter before printing their final papers. I was also able to listen to Richardson speak at my school last year, and he claimed that all math classes would be rendered irrelevant over the course of the next decade due to technology resources; however, he used many graphs and statistics in his presentation. Luckily, I had great math teachers throughout school in order to possess the skills necessary to interpret his presentation data! I would agree that we have to develop certain basic skills in all students before we can set them off to work completely independently. I think it all comes down to your final question...how/who determines those priority skills or standards?
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I completely agree! However, I feel we're just not advanced enough as a system or society to truly see what we're doing work well. The standards are set up to build upon the previous year's standards. Unless everyone is covering his/her standards, it won't work as well. We saw this first hand at my school when our JH/HS started aligning to the core before our elementary did. It was very difficult for our 7th grade teachers to even teach the 7th grade standards because our students were back on the 2nd/3rd grade level according to the standards. We had to back up and teach those skills first in order to get anywhere close to our own standards. However, in the last 4 years I have seen much improvement! Our elementary has begun aligning, and we're not (almost) able to do our own jobs! I have hope!
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But the red light flashes here not just because of the focus on standardized tests but because of the larger preoccupation with data data data data data.
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With being a Title 1 teacher everything I do is based on data. The school I teach at just got done doing the FAST testing for winter and when it was done I sat down with the principal and the other Title 1 teacher and used the student's test scores to determine who was going to be receiving Title 1 services. I am not a huge fan of testing, but when the state requires students who are flagged as "substantially deficient" to be in an intervention and students who are flagged as "at risk" to be progress monitored we have no choice but to be driven by the data. I really like the idea of personal learning, but I don't think school are going to be able to make that switch until the government changes things.
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It is frustrating that this information/research is out there and many teachers want to shift towards learning that is less test-focused, but unfortunately we don't have the power to make those changes! I also wonder how parents would respond to a change from the traditional school format. I know when we even discussed switching to standardized based grading, we got a lot of push back and criticism from parents. I don't know how we start making these changes.
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This is directly connected to the students I serve that are identified as gifted. Testing often displays data that doesn't seem to reflect their total understanding, often posing a picture where students haven't reached that area of one year's growth. This has engaged many debates as to pushing core v. pushing student interests.
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‘We often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization – but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
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But at some point, don't we have to hold students and ourselves accountable for the learning taking place in the classroom? With the requirements of the current education system, there doesn't seem to be much that we as classroom teachers can do here: at some point we have to prove that we have created growth in our students through data. I wish the article would have specified other methods for depicting learning/student achievement rather than simply debunking the current ones. While I am all for personal learning and a change in the way we view student performance, I have yet to see a realistic method presented to ultimately score or evaluate the results of our students in the classroom.
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I agree that it would be nice to have some other specified methods to collect data and show student growth. I do believe what we have now is not a true judgement of our students, they are so much more than a score.
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I think our major hiccup lies in our struggle with producing "proof" of learning. It is important that you state a realistic method of scoring students. In a perfect world, we would have a personalized instruction for each student with a personalized rubric guiding the learning. However, that is not realistically possible, especially if I want them to be authentic and innovative at their own level. As long as I am expected to prove my kids are learning, regardless of the system used, time will play into how personalized the instruction can be.
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Before reading your post, my thinking directed to the time constraint and proving a year's growth in each of our students. This is a major component in our classrooms and often fogs up the importance of addressing individual learning needs. How do teachers with large groups of students realistically find time to implement successful PLEs? I have 40+ students on my roster between two buildings. PLEs could be the answer to providing challenges more than 30--40 minutes 1-2 times per week. That part I am excited about. Assisting with all 40+ PLEs sounds a little overwhelming, but initial skill development in students in designing their own with my assistance seems to be my starting point.
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it implies moving away from the industrialized form of education that pumps out cookie-cutter students with the same knowledge and skills
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Can the Web and laptops, et al., support and expand intrinsic engagement for those parts of the world that interest us? Absolutely! But while a multimedia textbook on an iPad may be more engaging than the dog-eared paper one we’ve been handing out for decades, a textbook is still a textbook. You want to really engage kids? Give them opportunities to learn personally, to create their own texts and courses of study, and to pursue that learning with others in and out of the classroom who share a passion.
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This makes me reflect on the learning we have done about the SAMR model. Because our students recently became 1:1 with iPads in our building, we have done a lot of learning on making technology usage meaningful rather than just "fluff" in the classroom. Here is a link for those of you not familiar with SAMR: http://tinyurl.com/posterV4 As Richardson indicates, we can't simply put technology into the hands of students and call ourselves innovative. It is what we allow our students to do with technology in order to generate new ideas that stimulates innovation and creativity.
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meaningful (and truly personal) learning never requires technology
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I found this statement to be particularly profound; I never thought of it that way!
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Fifth graders in our district are fortunate to have Chrome Books. After working in secondary for the past 4 years, coming back to elementary made things very exciting to know these students would have tech access at their fingertips. After a few weeks working with this age level, I found the tools could be very distracting. Starting with personal understanding to form inquiry and learning proposals allowed for focus on goals. Technology came in next as a great resource, but ending with communicating new learning (sometimes with tech, but often through discussions, writing or small group share.)
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A personalized environment gives students the freedom to follow a meaningful line of inquiry, while building the skills to connect, synthesize and analyze information into original productions.
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This is so hard to really implement correctly! Most of us are in school systems where we are really restricted by required classes, bell schedules, teacher certification, the previously mentioned DATA COLLECTION (!!!), which would look much differently in a true PL classroom. I'm personally struggling with how to implement PL because we work in PLC teams where we have common formative assessments that need to be administered around the same time. That allows very little room for kids to work at their own pace.
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resource rich.
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I have found that finding good resources for English is really hard. There are so many factors when it comes to literature, like readability level, topic, concept, that it's hard for ME to find resources, let alone have my students find them on their own. Unfortunately, if someone develops something that is good, they're going to want money for it making it unattainable for many of us. I was excited to hear about the pilot going on with the AEA Online for students.
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Our kids (and we ourselves) are suddenly walking around with access to the sum of human knowledge in our pockets and connections to literally millions of potential teachers.
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A few problems come to mind. 1) This is why it's important to climb the ladder of Bloom's with our activities and lessons and make them real life. 2) Students don't value knowing the basics because they can just Google them. The part of speech of a word...Google can tell us that, so it isn't important. But it IS important to know when it's applied later, for instance writing complex sentences and identifying clauses/subjects. Or is it?
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Think about how much longer it would take for students to complete seemingly simple aspects of a project or task if they had to look up every single smaller bit of information. It seems that this is where we need to set priority standards in order to determine what basics are most important for students to know in order to complete and take part in personal learning.
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give opportunities for our kids to do personal learning.
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This is it!! This is all we can hope for. Having the perfect school, unit, support, funding, etc. to do this is not anywhere in our near future. If our classroom is set up to give opportunities for our kids to do personalized learning, we're on the right track. I feel it will snowball into more opportunities. Kids will want it, the ever-important test scores will prove it, and schools will slowly jump on the PL train!
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the best thing we can do for kids is empower them to make regular, important, thoughtful decisions about their own learning, what they learn and how they learn it, and to frame our use of language in that larger shift, not simply in the affordances for traditional curriculum delivery that the tools of the moment might bring.
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This is the beginning. Find opportunities for this wherever you can and then let personalized learning grow from there.
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Advanced differentiation conversations often involve the, "how do we develop independent learners?" This shift is dearly needed. Enabling students with PLEs - tool to make the shift?
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as long as he ends up fundamentally similar to everyone else:
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Agreed, but this is what students need to understand when it comes to PL. You don't just get to pretend you're working, you are still held accountable to reach the end target; you can just get there how you want. This is my biggest fear with "setting kids free" in PL. I'm afraid I'll check-in with their progress and they'll have done nothing. What's the consequence? How do you hold them accountable daily (at first) and realize they still have to do something. Hopefully interest level, real life applications, etc will help hold them accountable. They'll be on stage for someone hopefully.
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I have a self-paced system currently in place in my classroom. Often times, I do check in, and they will have done nothing. I have the daily goal for where they should be to be on target to finish on time. My kids have figured out that I will fail them. I akin it to a job. If you do not do the task, the boss will penalize you for it. That said, grades are fluid. I have no problem changing the grade once I receive the work. Normally the work happens after a few angry emails from parents, pulling from study halls, and a little bribing. This morning I sent out an email stating I was still missing fifty papers from students, giving their names. The immediate consequence is failing, with the understanding that once work is shown, failing is not a permanent ultimatum .
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She cautions educators who may be excited about the progressive educational implications for “personalized learning” to make sure everyone they work with is on the same page about what that phrase means.
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I find it interesting that she says everyone we work with needs to be on the same page about the implications of personalized learning. I find, that when I try something new, even if my co workers aren't on board right away, my results speak for themselves. I am not sure it is important that BEFORE I start personalized learning, EVERYONE is onboard.
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As I "pilot" PLEs with some of my students, taking evidence from their experience to share with staff could begin those "on board" conversations and reel teachers towards learning more and trying in their classrooms, as well as sharing with administrators. Many past learning models have sounded wonderful, but without having data to show evidence of success, hesitance exists.
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Our systems and assessments assume that neither content nor access to teachers is widely available, and that we must deliver a proscribed, fairly narrow curriculum to each child because if they don’t have it in their heads when they need it, they will fail at the task.
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I find it interesting that the Web and other pieces of technology have expanded the capabilities of learning, yet our standardized testing and other assessments specify exactly what they "need" to know. I question how, regardless of how the Internet has changed education, we still use the same methods to prove proficiency.
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7 Classroom Screencasting Activities | Screencastify Screen Recorder for Chrome - 0 views
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Implementation in an Elementary Classroom (Articles) - 1 views
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observing or engaging in an event,
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Inquiry-based instruction
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The first thing we do is begin an ‘I see — I wonder’ exercise,”
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Love this idea...seeing what they want to learn and developing activities from there. Very personalized. Great idea
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Each of my students were given a clipboard to do this activity during every field trip. If I was coordinating field trips today I would give choice between writing it out with a clipboard or using a mobile device. The field trip then because a true educational experience with expectations of sharing their experience/learning with classmates, blogs, and/or school social sites.
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one of two key benefits of playing: promoting academic learning. The building of social emotional skills is the other. Play is, after all, the way children are wired to learn
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If only we promoted this more and allowed the littler kids to play and learn and develop at their own pace. Sorting on their own by just playing is great. My daughter does the same thing at 3 years old and I am amazed by things she knows...just from playing and watching...
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Early childhood classrooms usually include a discovery zone. Theme of items are changed out weekly, giving children exposure and ways to manipulate sand, water, snow, etc. It's amazing to watch their understanding of the world around them develop when given opportunities to explore.
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Play time is a great place for kids to also get away from using a device all of the time. They have to think for themselves, learn to communicate and use their imagination. All of the things that they might not be getting at home.
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Start a faculty book club
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I have done this in different ways based on staff choice. Meeting in person once a week (during lunch, prep, or outside of school) with one specific title of a book for fun; professional development book; or everyone sharing about the book they read individually. Some staff have little to no time to meet outside of school so I created a staff book club on Google Classroom.
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A modern educational tool Ms. Moore considers indispensable for effective inquiry-based instruction is the set of graphic organizers known as Thinking Maps, which help children categorize information in visually coherent ways. “Many teachers mistakenly assume kids know how to think,” she say
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Thinking maps are a great way for children and adults to categorize information. I agree with the statement that teachers mistakenly assume that kids know how to think. Thinking is a very complex task that requires practice. Children need guidance in how to stay focused and concentrate on categorizing information.
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And through modeling and scaffolding with students, they will eventually learn how to do this skill more independently.
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“Giving them directions all the time takes away from the creative process and imagination, which a lot of my kids are lacking,” she says, “because they’re so used to being spoon-fed information that they can barely critically think.”
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Incorporating free play, guided play or something in between may require some creativity on the part of educators, but the academic and social emotional learning benefits inherent in play are too vital to overlook.
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Introduce one new tech tool. Digital tools -- such as video cameras, drawing software, or Web applications like Google Earth -- can really expand students' options for learning and showing their knowledge (here's what this looks like at Forest Lake). Pick just one new thing at a time, and experiment with it for yourself before introducing it in class.
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They started small, and they've grown and honed their strategies each year.
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Stay current. Keep the discussion alive with colleagues in your school and in social networks (such as Twitter, Edutopia, and others) to find fresh ideas and avoid stagnating.
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Free or unguided play is the most natural way to forge these connections.
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but opportunities to provide those benefits are on the decline.
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Sad but true. With our school schedule this year, there is no wiggle room for anything like play...other than their 10 minute recess. It's no wonder that I have so many behavior issues (over the silliest things), students haven't learned how to work things out on their own.
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I completely agree! Sometimes the most important skills of collaboration can be practiced and applied in play.
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In 5 minutes you can
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Make a scaffolding toolkit.
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A Stage One PLE is teacher-centered with learner voice and choice
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how to unpack the Common Core State Standards with your learners,
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Expert learners and assessment as learning is the key for learners taking responsibility for their learning.
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In terms of the tenets of inquiry-based instruction, she explains, when she answers students’ questions straightforwardly instead of asking questions to help the students find the answers themselves, she’s actually interfering with the learning process.
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Practice procedures for independent and collaborative work
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Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 0 views
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A successful visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function.
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Color theory examines how various choices psychologically impact users.
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For example, you might want your user to go from logo/brand to a primary positioning statement, next to a punchy image (to give the site personality), then to the main body text, with navigation and a sidebar taking a secondary position in the sequence.
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Generally I find the default value is usually too little spacing
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First of all, white space doesn't need to be white.
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You should rank elements on your website based on your business objective. If you don’t have a specific goal, you can’t know what to prioritize.
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therefore it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.