Group items tagged

This is important. I can see myself creating a screencastomatic video as an intro to each of my classes in order to meet this criteria.

Moodle_iowa This is a good one. I have always known the "course syllabus" in my head, but especially next year, it would be super helpful to give a course syllabus to families. In the case that we do have to move online for a period of time, families could see where we are going like a roadmap to help their children achieve success.

moodle_iowa I agree, Jill! It gives families a roadmap, and if we have to suddenly switch modes, it is already in place. It will take some time, but the preloading should help in the long run.

This is something that I need to do a better job with in all my classes. This summer I have been working on updating and improving my class syllabus to be a much better overview of the class and showing what is expected of them throughout the course.

I need to be better about posting and discussing learning outcomes before every lesson I teach.

Identifying the objectives can be easy for a teacher to do but the communication piece is more difficult. Students need to see what does that objective mean and what should it look like.

This is where teaching online can sometimes be beneficial as long as you provide various ways to learn--videos, text, using text speak, etc.

Agreed! This is super important to meet the needs of all of our students!

moodle_iowa Yes! I think it calls for collaboration with specialist teachers to be sure we are providing the accommodations needed.

Visual graphics and videos for visual and auditory learners. Checking in with and offering office hours and extra support for students who may need this. Accommodations for students with disabilities or other needs.

I think this is very important in the classroom and online. When students collaborate they can share knowledge and learn from one another.

Allowing students to do their own PowerPoint presentations of lesson material. Always letting students ask questions which are answered during Zoom meetings.

I feel this is the part that can be missing in online learning. How do you get collaboration and provide a safe environment. As the instructor, do you need to be involved in every interaction between students? Yes when you are dealing with younger students. I am still looking for tools that allow collaboration with adult supervision.

In order to make an attempt to combat "cheating" in an online course, developing authentic assessments is crucial.

Just as in a F2F classroom, a variety of assessments should drive instruction. Assessment is important for both teacher and students.

The OLLIE courses are perfect for this!!!

Exactly what I was thinking!

I feel that all four of these sub-standards are critical to the professional growth of any teacher who is teaching an online course. Teachers need to stay current with technology, network with peers, and apply learned knowledge and skills to improve best practices.

This is essential!!!! I wanted my students to still know and feel like I was their teacher and I think it is important for any teacher to do this. Students still need to know we care and want to help them become better learners. I believe keeping in touch with my students daily/weekly was vital in their success this spring.

In our Zoom classrooms I always try to greet each student as they enter, to check in how they are doing and whether or not I can hear them and they can hear me.

Students need interact with their peers as well as their teachers. Teachers should provide opportunities for students to interact, as is appropriate. Weekly class meetings give the students a chance to see each other and to catch up.. This was very important--especially to our littlest learners during the spring 2020 shut down.

Teachers must be able to set up a course online successfully using the necessary tools. It seems that some think you can just a F2F class and put it online. There is a lot of prep work that goes into doing this successfully and knowing what resources/tools are out there is vital for success.

Definitely. I am feeling more and more unprepared as I learn what is needed to make online course work and all the resources available.

If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting.

It is so important to be knowledgeable and have the ability to use computer programs required in online learning! This is exactly why I am taking this course! I need to be more knowledgeable.

If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting. on 2020-06-19

Hopefully this takes on the same importance as it does in a F2F classroom. Our assessments should align with the content we are teaching and finding ways to best assess this is critical.

This is so important in the online world. We want our students to know that we are "with them" and paying attention to them, just as we would be in a F2F class. This can actually be more time consuming as we may need to address each student individually to motivate, prompt, encourage, guide, etc and it will take longer than it would in a F2F setting. Feedback is so important in all settings!

This is something I need to improve on

This is something that assessments, quick checks and tickets out the door will allow us to check what the students know and what I need to do to make sure they will understand later.

This is an effective strategy for any teaching style. Sometimes when students are not understanding the content, the teacher needs to look back at how the content was taught and make a change. Also, if an instructional strategy is not effective there should be reteaching as well.

This is essential to online and classroom instruction. It is always important to use data to drive instruction. By looking at data one can see if the students are understanding what is being taught.

I think this is important and something I do

I think a teacher should always want to learn and become better.

This is what I've been saying all along. Teachers need to continue to learn in order to continue to provide the best practices for students

Learning is social. Collaboration and interaction help examine own understanding including misconceptions and deepen the knowledge and skill.

moodle_iowa This is definitely an area that we use in face-to-face teaching, so I would expect that it would be included and important to online teaching. It is good for students, and teachers, to know the expectations that are needed for an assignment, assessment or project. It is a guideline to follow until you reach the desired product or learning objective.

Communication within online courses is more difficult. It can be difficult to share in detail the expectations and answer many questions as you can in a face-to-face classroom. Clearly stating assessment criteria and providing some kind of framework. like a rubric, is important to a successful learning experience.

It is equally important whether we are teaching F2F or online. A teacher is a lead learner. We set the example, we learn, we reflect, we improve our practice. The key here is to incorporate the new learning. We simply cannot afford to attend PD sessions and never put new learning into practice. That would be malpractice!

I believe teachers are lifelong learners. This standard is something that teachers will continue to do when their online/blended courses develop.

I stated this above that data from formative assessments need to drive instruction. Then you adjust to enhance student learning.

This should be a given with online teaching and is exactly why I am taking this class, to grow my tech skills and knowledge. This field changes so quickly , one must always be growing and adding skills to stay effective.

This is interesting because in our brick and mortar classrooms we can often have other teachers that work with some of our students due to special education needs, physical needs, or language needs, but in an online classroom you are the only teacher. Makes me wonder if online teachers ever have these types of people as resources.

I know that networking with others involved in online education is vital for me because I am so new to online learning.

It is important for a teacher to use data to drive their instruction. This way the teacher can pin point where the student needs help.

Throughout the courses I thought this was something that only face to face courses need to provide, but that is not true. It's crazy how much being personable and providing that safe environment on and offline.

Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?

Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?

Standards set up ahead of time are very important. This gives students upfront knowledge of what is expected.

In reading the other articles, this affirms the importance of showing examples of what quality work looks like with lots of feedback. Moodle_iowa

This is a good question we should ask before each assessment! Why are we assessing this? What will we do as a result?

Yes, and the answer to the question of why we do assessment can't be "because we have to".

Or because I have to enter something in a LMS system

Great question. I think we often assess because we feel we should and we always do; it's just part of a routine. This question forces more of a big-picture plan for assessment.

I believe that this statement is so true.  The teacher and students must have a clear picture of why the assessment is happening.  I am afraid that many times it is because the curriculum says that it is time for a particular test or the district has said it is time.  But, then the assessments are only being used to give a letter grade or to get stats for a certain audience like the school board.

I completely agree. We can't let pacing guides dictate when an assessment is necessary or what we use it for.

I know there is never enough time to get everything done but if we are not providing timely feedback, then it was a waste of time to give the assignment in the first place.

Using results in a timely fashion is so important!

This statement really ties into what we learned in unit 1 about rubrics. Having a rubric helps you to be able to give specific descriptive feedback that make continuous improvemnt more likely.

I agree. This is really a biggie. Tmely, specific feedback that is linked to specific learning goals is so important. It takes time, but it sure has an impact on learning.

In starting to teach a course online for the first time this fall being able to easily provide written feedback to each and every student has been a positive of the online format. Yes, it takes time and I don't know exactly how soon the students view the comments that I make but it has the potential to make a real impact on student performance and learning. 

This is a challenge for many of us with the new Iowa Core which has process and content targets. Knowing how to assess processes is new to many of us.

It also requires deep understanding of the curriculum.

For me, as an art teacher, I have had experience assessing the process.  However, I don't always include it in the final assessment like I should.  It is always interesting to hear the student's perspective in the process they went through when learning.  

Teachers often rely on text book published assessment tools that may or may not reflect the intended learning needs of the teacher.

This statement made me think about the LMS some schools have that make formative assessment a challenge. They tend to require grades for weekly reports to parents that may not be reflective of the process of learning.

This works for some subjects, but not all.  I don't know that I would give my students in drawing a written test.  The written test is a product in my case. 

Kristina, The way I read this is that it wouldn't have to be a written test for the students but that we as instructors should have a written plan that shows how our assessments are assessing the various learning targets we are trying to hit.

While in the classroom this was a constant struggle when working with many of the assessments that we were being asked to give to students.  Often we as teachers were not sure of the purpose of the assessments we were being asked to give.  While this did not mean that the assessments were not worthwhile, the lack of communication and development of teacher understanding was a big problem.  On some levels I think we are currently seeing similar miscommunication in schools that are for the first time implementing FAST or another DE approved assessment with their students.  I have spoken with teachers that have little or no context to the different tests within the FAST program and therefore are unaware of the purpose.  This does not mean that they are poor assessments or not worth the time - we know differently.  However, without a clear purpose the information gained from the assessment might easily be lost.

This is another area of confusion that I have experienced in the classroom.  As schools started to implement IDM, then RTI, and now MTSS many assessments and interventions started popping up at the elementary level.  Often there was confusion as to what the results of these assessments and interventions would mean, and who would make the decisions.  Having a clear understanding of who will be making the decisions and insuring that those individuals have the background knowledge and understanding to make these decisions is crucial.

This is another area of confusion that I have experienced in the classroom.  As schools started to implement IDM, then RTI, and now MTSS many assessments and interventions started popping up at the elementary level.  Often there was confusion as to what the results of these assessments and interventions would mean, and who would make the decisions.  Having a clear understanding of who will be making the decisions and insuring that those individuals have the background knowledge and understanding to make these decisions is crucial.

Our Social Studies department at our school requested the Social Studies test data from lasts years Iowa Tests from our district.  We were told that even though all of our students had taken the test that we would not be given any breakdown of the data.  Needless to say we were more than a little frustrated by this decision. Unfortunately, even though all of our students took the test it costs money to get a breakdown of the data and the district wasn't willing to pay for that at this time. Why give the assessment if you aren't going to use the data from it to try to improve?? 

I see this directly relating to higher order thinking skills where are students are being encouraged to think at a much deeper level and not settle for a single answer. We need to be questioning how and why certain things take place and this would be one way that students are being held accountable for their own learning.

The performance skill target provides students with another way to be demonstrate/share their understanding of a specific concept instead of a written test.

These type of assessment and targets are the key to know if students have understood the material that has been presented to them! moodle_iowa

What a great way to differeniate instruction. Learning styles vary and its important to provide students with multiple options in completing an assignment.

I agree with you. Giving students choice in how to express what they have learned is so important. That's a key component in Universal Design for Learning.

I absolutely agree:   balanced systems for assessing learning with assessment-literate users.  When a district has many teachers, an implementation plan on how to have all teachers assessment-literate is crucial.  Then how is a district going to measure the success?  It needs to be included in the teacher evaluation process. (Lynn

Many schools are using DuFour's PLC framework to drive teacher collaboration around data points. Wonderful work!

The assessment methods utilized by teachers in the classrooms can have the greatest impact on student learning IF the teachers know how to use assessments to impact instruction. Hence, the need for good professional development concerning assessment. (Lynn)

You raise an interesting point Lynn, "the need for good professional development concerning assessment" (Helmke, L. 2014). I wonder how such a professional development would be received- both at the different building levels (elementary, middle and high schools) as well as looking at different parts of the state.

The teacher is the most powerful player when it comes to assessment. The teacher who sees that child day after day has a more accurate understanding of the performance of the student than a standardized test. This should be a taken into consideration more than the standardized test.

Just giving an assessment isn't helping improve student achievement, its' what you do with the information you get from the assessment.

This is a component of assessments that I think has flown under the radar for too long.  In my experience in the classroom, we were often inundated with mounds of data that we had been given very little training or time to understand what it could or could not tell us about our students.   Rather than data bing used for decisions for which they were not suited, it was more common for the data to be collected and never used.

This was something that we often struggled with as classroom teachers.  We were collecting more and more data that had the potential to tell us great things about our students, however, the format or system in place did not allow great opportunities to communicate this information with parents.  If we had better system processes in place I think that many of the parents in the community would have been thrilled with the work we were doing.  However, some of our systems limited the communication of results in a timely manner.  While the teachers saw the connection to learning, their were times where I felt the parents did not understand the work we had been doing with their students.

Since I'm about a week late, I've read through most of these points and my "notes" that I was going to post have all been addressed. This is the one that was most important as a take home to me. I think that assessing without feedback is a huge issue in education. I understand that as teachers, we get busy. But what is the point of giving a grade if there is no learning behind why the grade was assigned?

moodle_iowa This would be extremely important to have in the proposed standard because we are required to align with the Iowa Core. We need to be able to add content, activities and assessments that support those objectives, and accommodate different learning abilities.