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kshadlow

Mind Mapping Online - Bubbl.us - 0 views

bubbl.us

moodle_iowa

shared by kshadlow on 03 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • jennham on 27 Jan 19
     
    This is a great online graphic organizer that can be used in a lot of ways.
benrobison

Article(s): Self- and Peer-Assessment Online - 1 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by benrobison on 17 Apr 20 - No Cached
  • •Can help reduce the ‘free rider’ problem as students are aware that their contribution will be graded by their peers.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Apr 20
       
      This is one of the main reasons that I've tried to implement peer assessment in the past. In group projects, I incorporate some form of peer assessment to encourage students to be motivated and contribute to the group. I hate that I use peer assessment as a carrot to get some students to do the work, but I haven't figured out another alternative yet.
  • •Students will have a tendency to award everyone the same mark.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Apr 20
       
      I have noticed that students will often give the same scores for all group members, even if it was clear during the process of working that not all students participated equally. I think this becomes less of an issue when the students are in groups that don't necessarily include their friends, but can still be hard for students to complete honestly.
  • If assessment criteria for each element are set up and clearly communicated, your role will also change to one of facilitator.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Apr 20
       
      I think this is one of the barriers for teachers to using self or peer assessment in their courses. The main assessments need to be developed ahead of time, and I feel that too often, educators are throwing an assessment together after the instruction has begun. I believe teachers are getting better at this because of UBD and the focus on learning targets, etc. but unless the assessments are ready before starting the unit, it's hard to clearly communicate all of the criteria ahead of time. I see this as a barrier to implementing these types of assessment and a possible explanation as to why we don't see these types as often.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • They were required to submit their self-assessments with the completed work, but their assessments were not graded.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Apr 20
       
      I wonder if this would work as seamlessly with younger students? So many of my students do the work they need to because they assume it is graded and they worry more about grades and less about the actual pursuit of learning. If I asked my students to complete self-assessments and turn them in (but I'm not grading the self-assessment), I question how many of them would take it seriously and actually turn it in. I wonder if I would have to offer participation points for completing it or not, and not actually assign a grade, in order to entice students to complete it.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      These are real concerns. We have to at some point shift from a culture of grades to a culture of learning. Let's strike against grades. Think about, we all get together and delete infinite campus and shout, "Leaning Before Grades..." :)
  • ‘Forcing’ the individual student to assess their own behaviour, as opposed to others is more constructive – it supports the aim of developing collaboration skills, along with the knowledge component.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Apr 20
       
      I like the idea of having students assess themselves in terms of their contributions to their groups. Perhaps if they are asked to evaluate themselves, they will really be honest and learn more in the process about how they function as a member of a group. I also like the point about having the student provide examples of how he or she contributed to the group. In my class we emphasize making claims that are supported with evidence and reasoning, and this would provide another avenue in which students get to practice doing so.
  • frame self-assessment as an opportunity for students to reflect on their own work with the goal of learning more, making the work better, and thereby improving the chances for a good grade. In this paradigm, self-assessment is not the same as self-grading.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 17 Apr 20
       
      I like this way of framing self-assessment as it involves the students in doing some of the heavy lifting, thinking about their work and how they might improve, which helps them develop skills critical for many careers. The partnership created when student insights are used in conjunction with instructor assessments can lead to a much richer experience and deeper learning for the student.
  • students reported that their ability to self-assess depended on knowing what the teacher expected
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 17 Apr 20
       
      We have read in other articles how important clear expectations are for this process to work and others have stressed the advantages of involving the students in the creation of those expectations via rubrics or checklists. I would hope that student participation in this way would help move students thinking away from just what "teachers" expect to thinking more along the lines of what do "I" or "we" expect.
  • my preferred approach. I believe the learner will benefit far more by completing a self evaluation (that is well crafted to include focused self reflection questions) that forces him or her, to examine how he or she contributed [or did not] to the group process. The tool also encourages the student to consider actions that he or she demonstrated to support the team and to estimate what percentage of the work he or she contributed to the project. 
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 17 Apr 20
       
      I would probably lean more towards this approach also as it challenges each person to honestly assess their own contributions and forcing them to put it into a percentage makes it more apparent if there is need for improvement. I am not sure "slackers" would be that motivated to change by a low assessment by their peers.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      At my high school, we are not allowed to give group grades. We must give each student an individual one. This definitely has made me rethink group work. I generally only use it for formative assessment, but I wonder if the grading policies need to be different in an online vs traditional class.
  • The concept of peer review, which leaves for the most part the instructor out of the equation, aligns with the social constructivist learning orientation. There is strong support in constructivist theories for the peer review which is grounded in student-centered learning where students learn as much from the review process itself as from the final grade on an assignment.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 18 Apr 20
       
      I align more with the Social Constructivist learning orientation because I do believe students can learn as much if not more by going through the review process then by a final grade. I do not how ever think that it takes the instructor out of the equation. Instead I think the teacher's role changes. It require that teacher's give more guidance and instruction on the front end so that students have the skills and confidence to do self-assessment well. I also think there are benefits in combining self-assessment and teacher assessment.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 19 Apr 20
       
      I agree with your thinking here for sure! I think students learn so much through the review process and assessing where they are at, making changes, and moving their thinking vs just a final grade. Often times, my students look at a final grade and throw it away (both physically and mentally). They do not process at all how the grade was processed, what they learned, or what they need to do differently. The peer review and self reviews will definitely play a role in learning, along with the teacher feedback and assessment.
  • Effective group collaboration begins with a well defined assignment that has clear goals and expectations. A well written rubric not only helps the facilitator score the assignment but it and can greatly increase the quality and effort put into assignments by giving students a clear expectations with knowledge that must be demonstrated.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 19 Apr 20
       
      I feel like this is super important no matter which of the methods you might choose to do group grading. The expectations should be clear and direct with the project, and maybe even more so with a group project. When you have to get everyone to work towards the common goal, it should be laid out well. Team/group grades are hard for me because of things already mentioned and I have tended to shy away from them in general. I like the peer reviews but group work is so hard for me to grade to make sure it is "accurate" for all members.
  • The successful use of student self assessment depends on three key elements: Goal setting Guided practice with assessment tools Portfolios
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 19 Apr 20
       
      The 3 key elements make this sound so simple. I really like the ideas behind this but I know that there is a lot of front loading that must be done in order to make this successful in my classroom. I have tried portfolios with classes before but I feel like I will go back to this as it is a natural way in my view to move students through the learning progression. This article has some great reminders in the 3 key points that I will refer back to for next school year.
  • •Students are involved in the process and are encouraged to take part ownership of this process.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 19 Apr 20
       
      Hopefully if this is set up well and the students buy into this process, they would take the ownership needed to contribute their part to the common goal. Too often students slack off during a group project unless the topic is a high interest level to them. Knowing peer assessments would take place might motivate them to do the necessary work.
  • Students may be reluctant to make judgements regarding their peers.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 19 Apr 20
       
      I also find this happening as students do not generally want to hurt someone's feelings so they are not comfortable in this situation. It is important to demonstrate how to do this properly and effectively so they can give constructive criticism and know how to handle that on the receiving end.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      I have done better with having students offer qualitative feedback rather than quantitative.
  • Put simply, we see self-assessment as feedback for oneself from oneself.”
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      I think this is the hardest thing. I teach middle school and to be honest, I don't know how productive this would be for my students. I love the idea that students are self reflecting for themselves, but I just have some concerns that it won't work. I almost wonder if cognitively, they aren't ready for that yet. Heck, even as an adult I think this a hard to do at times. I do think that I can begin to move my students in this direction though. Maybe if I was very clear on success criteria and tried some one on one conversations, I could get this to work. I think I would have to really model and scaffold this process. It's like looking into mirror and having a though conversation with yourself. It would be difficult.
  • Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      It is also so important that the teacher model vulnerability and being open to feedback as well. I have also found that making the feedback ungraded helps quite a bit. Students don't tend to like giving each other grades.
  • In addition to checklists and rubrics for specific communication tasks, students can also use broader self-assessment tools to reflect on topics they have studied, skills they have learned, their study habits, and their sense of their overall strengths and weaknesses.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      This all sounds great, but is this task going to be graded? Many teachers are in buildings in which only the academic standards are assessed. I have many students that would benefit from these types of tasks that would simply skip them while working on an assessment. Sadly, these are often the exact students that need to do them the most.
  • Grading is based on a predetermined process, but most commonly it is an average of the marks awarded by members of the group.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      We are not allowed to have students give grades to one another, at least any that are binding. This does not mean that students cannot assess one another, and I have found that students tend to be more motivated if they must present/show their work to their peers.
  • Self evaluation has a risk of being perceived as a process of presenting inflated grades and being unreliable.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      On one hand, it is probably better served in a high school setting to make this either formative or a checklist grade balanced with the teacher grade. That being said, that could harm student motivation for some to take this seriously.
  • Students in this sample reported that their attitudes toward self-assessment became more positive as their experiences with the process accumulated.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 20 Apr 20
       
      This makes me ponder if self-assessment needs to be implemented with younger students so it is normalized, valued, and seen as expected for older students
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 22 Apr 20
       
      Yes, this certainly couldn't hurt to start the process earlier! :)
  • The instructor must explain expectations clearly to them before they begin.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 21 Apr 20
       
      It is hard for peers to assist when they are not given specific information
  • One way to begin the process of introducing students to self-assessment is to create student-teacher contracts. Contracts are written agreements between students and instructors, which commonly involve determining the number and type of assignments that are required for particular grades.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 21 Apr 20
       
      Contracting can be a great way to motivate reluctant students. The structure tells them exactly what the expectations are.
  • Measure each student's achievement while allowing for individual differences between students in a class
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 21 Apr 20
       
      Not all students show their achievement in the same way. Great way to individualize
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 22 Apr 20
       
      I also think it's important to show mastery on one topic in multiple assignments.
  • The student participates in the selection of portfolio content, the development of guidelines for selection, and the definition of criteria for judging merit. Portfolio assessment is a joint process for instructor and student.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 21 Apr 20
       
      Great way to get students involved in their own learning
  • lift the role and status of the student from passive learner to active leaner and assessor
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Apr 20
       
      This is one of the strongest arguments for the use of self and peer assessment, in my opinion. Getting students to think about their learning helps develop them into life-long learners and critical thinkers.
  • Most did not see the larger value of the skill they were developing. Most did not use self-assessment in their other courses.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Apr 20
       
      I think these findings go to show how important it is to have students doing self-assessment in the early grades so that they go throughout their K-12 education with the training that they are "'supposed to" think about what they are learning and how they are progressing with their learning.
  • peer grading lay in the comments
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Apr 20
       
      I am not surprised to see that the quality of comments was a concern. If you think about the amount of learning we've done in this course alone on how to provide a high quality comment that pushes the learner, it's not surprising to see that students would fall short. I think this is where it is important that the teacher model what feedback looks like and provide scaffolds for those that need it to learn to provide better feedback, as this will help them as well.
  • 6)  Learners have a developed set of communication skills
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 21 Apr 20
       
      I would make an argument for adding a seventh condition: when learners are given the opportunity to make adjustments based on the peer assessment (or peer grading, I suppose, but really I like the concept of peer assessment better than peer grading).
  • clear understanding of what they are to look for in their peers' work.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 22 Apr 20
       
      What a great way for the students to become experts on a topic. They can also gather ideas from others to use in their assignment.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 24 Apr 20
       
      This is the part of peer to peer assessment that I need to work on next year. I don't do a great job of explaining and teaching my students on how to do peer assessments. I am working on an entire lesson on how to do peer assessment at the beginning of the year.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 28 Apr 20
       
      I think peer feedback can be an incredibly valuable tool...both to not only help a peer, but also to deepen understanding for the assessor. It can only be quality experience and worth the time if the assessors have clear understandings of what they are looking for!
  • As a group,
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 22 Apr 20
       
      Classic Guided Release Responsibility
  • instructors can use a framework like SMART goals
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 22 Apr 20
       
      I think reflection is also a crucial part of goal setting. With my high schoolers, we are constantly reflecting on our goals and finding ways to improve.
  • Emphasize what students can do
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 22 Apr 20
       
      I like that portfolios include all assignments that students are successful at. This can be a real morale booster for students who don't have confidence.
  • Students can also benefit from using rubrics or checklists to guide their assessments
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      This is beneficial for assessments as well as assignments. Helping students to know what is most important and creating structures for these can help them to apply these structures as they continue to mature.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 28 Apr 20
       
      I would argue that anytime we give students the rubric up-front, they have more success. I know that rings very true for anything I do/did as a student.
  • tell the story of a student's efforts, progress, and achievement in specific areas
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      This is so powerful! Giving a student the decision-making power to showcase their learning journey helps them to be reflective learners and more aware of what works/what doesn't work for them individually.
  • Represent a student's progress over time
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      I also like to try to capture the students thoughts about their progress over time as well. Whether it is by pairing reflections with work or asking for a summary of the experience, it helps to add the personal narrative to the products in the portfolio.
  • helps them control the classroom better by reinforcing their power and expertis
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      I think there is still a belief that exists out there that the teacher is the expert. Even as an instructional coach, my colleagues looked to me to "know." I viewed my role more as a guide and cognitive coach than a "know-it-all." To me, the power is in empowering others.
  • Prior to submitting the assignment, students used these assessment tools to judge their work.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      While I like this idea of checklists and rubrics before turning in work, it may still lead to students worrying too much about what the teacher wants and not so much about their learning process. In addition, I have always been a fan of asking students to rate their level of confidence with certain tasks/parts of the assignment. This reflection helps the learner to see patterns in their own learning process and areas where they might want to improve.
  • teachers share expectations for assignments and define quality. Showing students examples of effective and ineffective pieces of work can help to make those definitions real and relevant.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 22 Apr 20
       
      It is also important to give students practice in evaluating other work to give them more confidence and awareness with the expectations.
  • Rather than assessing whether the student learned from the assignment or not, this method seems geared to identifying any ‘slackers’ or those who sit on the side lines through the entire project, with minimal contributions.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 23 Apr 20
       
      This is a familiar point because that's the main focus of students in group work. To make group work more accepting, we choose to keep this area a focus.
  • I have mixed feelings about peer evaluations, leaning towards not using peer reviews as part of the assessment strategy.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 23 Apr 20
       
      I struggled with these same thoughts mostly because I chose not to take the time to show students how to evaluate each other. The times I have used it, I gave the criteria and altered it to be easy for the students.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 24 Apr 20
       
      I also struggle with this. I like the idea, but I don't spend enough time teaching and showing my students how to do this. I think next year I will make this a priority and stick with it!
  • Even so, the ability to self-assess skills and completed work is important. Moreover, it is an ability acquired with practice and developed with feedback. It seems like the kind of skill that should be addressed in college. And perhaps there is a way.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 23 Apr 20
       
      I like the idea of self-assessments and truly understand it's benefits. The interesting part is why I didn't utilize them more.
  • •Agreed marking criteria means there can be little confusion about assignment outcomes and expectations.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 23 Apr 20
       
      Working with students on a shared outcome makes perfect sense. I have worked with classes before figuring out the shared outcome, but I have not taken to the next step of peer assessing. I like this idea and am excited to try it out.
  • Represent a collaborative approach to assessment
  • •increase student responsibility and autonomy
  • •Encourages student involvement and responsibility.
  • a practice session with it
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 28 Apr 20
       
      In my experience, giving students and exemplar and non-exemplar and assessing them as a group tends to be the most valuable use of time. Students have better understandings of how they should be assessing and giving feedback, AND they have a better understanding of how to correct their own works.
  • peer assessment frequently
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 28 Apr 20
       
      From experience, group work and peer assessment work better the more frequently they are used. If it is out of the norm, it tends to be not very valuable.
  • This kind of practice helps students to be aware of their learning
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 28 Apr 20
       
      I'm guessing this is a lot of front-loading, but the amount of time devoted to this likely decreases significantly over time. This would fit in the dependent - to - independent teaching model!
tkofoot

Article(s): Self- and Peer-Assessment Online - 1 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by tkofoot on 19 Apr 20 - No Cached
  • One of the ways in which students internalize the characteristics of quality work is by evaluating the work of their peers. However, if they are to offer helpful feedback, students must have a clear understanding of what they are to look for in their peers' work. The instructor must explain expectations clearly to them before they begin.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      The whole time I was reading this article, I was thinking, but I never get it to work the way I want it. Then, as I was scrolling, I came back to this beginning statement. I think this is the real key that often gets lost. Every time I have had students do a peer assessment, I don't how clear I was on teaching students how to do it. I'm not sure I was clear enough on the look fors and the expectations.
  • Portfolios are purposeful, organized, systematic collections of student work that tell the story of a student's efforts, progress, and achievement in specific areas. The student participates in the selection of portfolio content, the development of guidelines for selection, and the definition of criteria for judging merit. Portfolio assessment is a joint process for instructor and student.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      I have recently been looking into this idea. I really like the idea of students selecting what they think is their best work and uploading it to a portfolio. Then the student would have to explain how their artifact shows their understanding of the standard. I think it will make students much more invested in their learning, knowing they would have to explain how it matches a standard later. I had a college class where we had to select work and upload it to an online portal and describe how it was evidence of our learning. It made me much more aware of what I was doing, knowing that I had to justify it in the end.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 19 Apr 20
       
      I like this idea. I use to have students create file folder portfolios but an electronic portfolio is very easy. I like the idea of having them write how the artifacts shows their understanding of the standard. We need anything we can to help them CARE and be motivated to learn.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      Student portfolios were a hot topic when I first got into teaching. It was this awesome thing where all of the students work is placed, reflection of learning, and posted for all to see. This is still a great idea... plus I love how it shows the students where you started, all the hard work, and where you are at now.
  • Students may have little exposure to different forms of assessment and so may lack the necessary skills and judgements to effectively manage self and peer assessments. There may also be a perception amongst students that the academic is ‘shirking’ their responsibilities by having students undertaking peer assessments. I
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      I have seen this with my own students. They often don''t like having to self assess as they see it as my responsibility. Like the softchalk lesson says, they have been schooled not to. I think they also don't see the real value. We tend to communicate to students that the work is for a grade not for learning. I think this is a huge cultural shift we need to make. Somehow we need stakeholders in education to understand that it is the learning that matters not the grade. I realize that we all think that, but how do our practices show that belief?
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • “Professors in the trenches tend to hold their monopoly on evaluating their students’ work dearly, since it helps them control the classroom better by reinforcing their power and expertise,”
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 19 Apr 20
       
      So I don't know if this is the best reflection to make here, but when I read this, a thought came to mind. A few years ago I was taking a class taught by Brian Hand (educational researcher). He asked us on day one, who was in charge of the learning in your classroom. Most of us said, we are. His reply (and I don't mean to be crude)"...and that's whats %$#@ wrong with education. You're students are in control of the learning, even if you aren't aware of it or want it that way." It was a bit abrupt. As it was the first time I've ever been sworn at in PD, I always remembered it. I also think that it's spot on. I don't own the learning as I don't chose who actually learns it. For learning to occur, I need to create a culture where students are in control of their learning. I think otherwise the best we can hope for is compliance. Which isn't the same thing.
  • type of evaluation is to give students a practice session with it
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      Always great to practice and model what the students will be doing.
  • students develop trust by forming them into small groups early in the semester and having them work in the same groups throughout the term.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 19 Apr 20
       
      I have to help students build trust because they are nervous to be completely honest. They have a lot of social and confidence issues that can get in the way of great peer editing. If keeping them with the same partners for a given amount of time will help, it makes sense to do it. I will try this next year.
  • It is helpful to introduce students to the concepts and elements of assessment against specified criteria in the first weeks of class when you explain the unit of study outline.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 19 Apr 20
       
      This is easier when we use the Backward Design method to plan our lessons. It should be very easy to share the outcomes and features of the assessments as we teach. I can see how this would be very helpful for the students and their reflections of their learning.
  • The break down in peer grading occurs when the learning environment cannot provide the conditions as mentioned above.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 20 Apr 20
       
      I can see some of these factors are not being met in my classroom when I have peer editing or peer feedback assigned. Some of these factors will be hard to reach which is depressing.I think with practice, explaining expectations, a positive culture for my students we can overcome many of these factors but not all.
  • Over and over again, students rejected their own judgments of their work in favor of guessing how their teacher or professor would grade it.” (p. 168)
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 20 Apr 20
       
      I think this possibly comes from students experiencing many school years of teacher's not valuing their opinions. We have not asked students what they think about their learning near enough.
  • They also recommend that teachers share expectations for assignments and define quality. Showing students examples of effective and ineffective pieces of work can help to make those definitions real and relevant.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 20 Apr 20
       
      I keep seeing this throughout my Ollie and Blended Learning classes! It is important and I will do more of this in my teaching next year.
  • Students do not learn to monitor or assess their learning on their own; they need to be taught strategies for self monitoring and self assessment.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 23 Apr 20
       
      I have this conversation with students so they can self evaluate if they know what their supposed to know. I often find that students are waiting for the teacher to tell them rather than figure it out. So it is one of my goals to design ways that students will self assess on their lessons.
  • lift the role and status of the student from passive learner to active leaner and assessor
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 23 Apr 20
       
      It is important for students to become active in their learning and to not just sit there and be spoon fed by the teacher. If the student is involved in their learning, they will understand it better and have the desire to improve.
  • the loafers— students that cannot provide feedback due to the lack of necessary skills, whether it be education background or language.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 23 Apr 20
       
      Peer grading or assessing would be difficult in a group of students who do not have the skills to provide useful feedback. This could be true at my school which is very diverse in language and culture.
  • Students in this sample reported that their attitudes toward self-assessment became more positive as their experiences with the process accumulated.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 23 Apr 20
       
      It seems obvious to me that as students would become more experienced in the expectations and process of self-assessment, that their attitudes about it would improve.
  • this method seems geared to identifying any ‘slackers’ or those who sit on the side lines through the entire project, with minimal contributions.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 23 Apr 20
       
      I could see where students would use peer evaluation as a means to judge who contributed to the project or not. It doesn't seem too valid. Depending on who's in your group, who you like, or who you don't like; not who helped learn something.
  • once the students have more experience, they can develop them themselves.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 23 Apr 20
       
      I'm excited to get to this point. I can see students having the "buy in" when they help create the rubrics/criteria.
  • Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      Students have to feel safe in the classroom in order for this to work out. If the trust isn't in the classroom this will be a flop.
  • Goal setting is essential because students can evaluate their progress more clearly when they have targets against which to measure their performance
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      I've thought about doing goal setting in the math classroom. Plus this way I could also tell if the student felt confident about the certain concept and I could use the data to better my lessons on that concept.
  • Represent an emphasis on language use and cultural understanding
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      I think it would be awesome for Storm Lake to do a portfolio for all students and a little about them and their background. I think this would be useful for teachers to understand a student a little more.
  • required, and to provide guidance on how to judge their own and others’ contributions.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      Already stated this above, but laying down clear expectations of what is expected when they are doing reviews is key for smooth sailing.
  • majority of students-as-graders are not able to provide quality feedback that can help students develop their writing and critical thinking skills.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 23 Apr 20
       
      I think this statements underestimates our students. I think we have students that are clearly ready to be a student grader and can provide quality feedback.
  • students are looking at their work and judging the degree to which it reflects the goals of the assignment and the assessment criteria the teacher will be using to evaluate the work
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 27 Apr 20
       
      This is important for students to realize they have the role in their learning to improve. I like the idea of having the students use a rubric where they highlight the color they are understanding their objectives at.
  • It seems like the kind of skill that should be addressed in college.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 27 Apr 20
       
      With the Covid 19 Pandemic, I would like to start addressing this with my students during Zooms. If they see they can self-assess to have multiple tries, then they may be more motivated to participate in online learning.
  • saw self-assessment as a vehicle for figuring out the teacher’s expectations.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 27 Apr 20
       
      We need the students to change their view to also realize what their expectations are for themselves.
  • Most did not see the larger value of the skill they were developing
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 27 Apr 20
       
      This is what our goal is. If we give students the ability to self-assess at the beginning and through the course, then we hope they want to keep learning.
  • self-assessment need not necessarily be about self-grading
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 27 Apr 20
       
      This again makes me think of the green, yellow, red rubric style. It is a way to self-improve without attaching a grade. There will be some students that may not want to reach the end result, but most kids will.
leipoldc

ollie-afe-2020: Article: Attributes from Effective Formative Assessment (CCSSO) - 3 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by leipoldc on 12 Apr 20 - No Cached
  • Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 12 Apr 20
       
      Everything we do is to improve student achievement. This helps us going future instruction.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 12 Apr 20
       
      WE hear data driven decisions so often but this is a such a clear definition of why we base instructional decisions on data.
  • Formative assessment is not an adjunct to teaching but, rather, integrated into instruction and learning with teachers and students receiving frequent feedbac
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 12 Apr 20
       
      It is important to do this as students are doing work, having group discussion, and possibly by another adult that can step in the room. One person may observe learning or needs that another cannot.
  • In this type of classroom culture, students will more likely feel they are collaborators with their teacher and peers in the learning process.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 12 Apr 20
       
      This collaboration is important. Students need to feel like they have respect and "own" their learning. I teach Special Ed, so I always give students a way to own their instruction and opportunities to improve.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 13 Apr 20
       
      I agree. Not all kids are risk takers so when they feel supported they are more likely open up with the others in the learning process
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 14 Apr 20
       
      This is the direction I really want to go in my classrooms. It is transitioning my students from passive to more active learners. The part that I have work on is building the class norms and modeling them properly in my class.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 15 Apr 20
       
      A classroom culture where there is collaboration between teacher and students in the learning process would be so exciting. I think it would hold students more accountable when they are part of their own process.
  • ...29 more annotations...
  • Because the formative assessment process helps students achieve intended learning outcomes based on explicit learning progressions, teachers must first identify and then communicate the instructional goal to students
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 12 Apr 20
       
      This is an important statement. Students need to know the instructional goal. I do think this is missed. It is a good reminder for me moving forward. I feel like I do this, but what does that look like?
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 13 Apr 20
       
      Agreed! However, I struggle to find that most students don't "care" about this goal unless you make it relevant to them right now. (And even with this some don't care.) I would love for students to buy in to what we are all doing in our classrooms and understand the bigger pictures, then they would understand the learning progressions.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 14 Apr 20
       
      The communication of the end goal is something that I need to do a better job with. I think I will have better outcomes from my formative assessment when my students see there purpose rather than just me.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      My new curriculum is all about the I Can statements and reviewing it at the end, so this is very helpful. I agree with the comment above- Now to motivate the students to care!
  • Learning progressions describe how concepts and skills build in a domain, and show the trajectory of learning along which students are expected to progress. From a learning progression teachers have the big picture of what students need to learn, as well as sufficient detail for planning instruction to meet short-term goals. They are able to connect formative assessment opportunities to the short-term goals to keep track of how well their students’ learning is moving forward.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 13 Apr 20
       
      I have enjoyed our course work on this. It has made me really think the steps between objection and assessment.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      I agree with you. The Progression diagram that I have made 2 different times has really helped me understand how to break the learning down. Trying to make sure students are achieving at each step is so important to their success.
  • It should help the student answer three basic questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? How can I close the gap?
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 13 Apr 20
       
      I will remember these questions Often feedback is just a general statement of good job. These questions will drive student with specific feedback.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 15 Apr 20
       
      I really like the idea of posing those questions to the students and make them more engaged in their learning and the skill of really knowing where they are in the learning progression.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 16 Apr 20
       
      I imagine the learning progressions posted on the wall and when conferring with students, posing the questions - where are you now? where are you going? how will you get there?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 16 Apr 20
       
      I think posing the questions to students would be a great way to have them do some self-reflection. That would also help the teacher to understand the students' perception of where they are and be able to give appropriate feedback. For example, a teacher might think a student is doing something well because they have evidence of that, but it would help to know if the student felt they knew it well enough so that they could replicate it in the future.
  • student- and peer-assessment should not be used in the formal grading process.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 13 Apr 20
       
      I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 25 Apr 20
       
      I agree. Peer assessment is meant to help both students learn something new and reflect on their learning/work from a non-teacher perspective.
  • Sharing learning goals and criteria for success with students, supporting students as they monitor and take responsibility for their own learning, helping students to provide constructive feedback to each other, and involving students in decisions about how to move learning forward are illustrations of students and teachers working together in the teaching and learning process.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 13 Apr 20
       
      I want to increase this in my classroom so if you have ideas, please do share! :) I want students to feel comfortable with this process and care about the learning progressions we are moving through. I want there to be good peer feedback and not just students "jumping through the hoops" so that they themselves get better at the big ideas and collaboration pieces.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 13 Apr 20
       
      I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.
  • You must also relate your explanation to one of the properties we have been discussing in class to indicate the reason the steps were incorrect.” Again, the students know the goal, where their response differed from the criteria, and how they can improve their explanations.
  • Effective formative assessment involves collecting evidence about how student learning is progressing during the course of instruction so that necessary instructional adjustments can be made to close the gap between students’ current understanding and the desired goals.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 13 Apr 20
       
      These are only effective when teachers/students use them to drive the instruction further. It is not enough to just say that we are doing formative assessments but then disregarding the data that they give us. Changes and adaptions must be made to successfully move all students forward with the material.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 13 Apr 20
       
      I agree. I think this also goes with doing a pretest or pre assessment. What data are you trying to get and what are you actually going to do with that data to enhance your teaching and to adjust your teaching for your students.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      Really packed classrooms of students can make this so difficult!
  • A second important part of the definition is its unequivocal requirement that the formative assessment process involve both teachers and students. The students must be actively involved in the systematic process intended to improve their learning.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 13 Apr 20
       
      So important to build this process in our classrooms so that students take ownership of their learning and want to do better. (I would love tips on how to do this better in my own room if anyone has some!) :)
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 18 Apr 20
       
      Getting students to consistently take ownership of their learning has been one of the most difficult tasks of my career. Intrinsic motivation is key, but by definition, it has to come from within a student There are things a teacher can do, such as offer freedom and choice, but this can be very difficult for students that do not buy in.
  • a process used by teachers and students
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 13 Apr 20
       
      It's important to emphasize that it is a process used both by teachers AND students. I think too often, students don't realize how much informaiton a formative assessment can also provide them and help them with goal-setting for future lessons.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 13 Apr 20
       
      I think that most teachers use formative assessments throughout their lesson plans and teaching without even knowing that they are doing it!
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 14 Apr 20
       
      This is why I liked the learning progression activity. It put the use of formative assessments front and center when creating units. Something I need to do better with.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 25 Apr 20
       
      I agree that teachers have been using the formative assessment process before it was given a name. I think they knew they were doing it and because it is good practice, gave it a name.
  • These range from informal observations and conversations to purposefully planned instructionally embedded techniques designed to elicit evidence of student learning to inform and adjust instruction.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 13 Apr 20
       
      It's always interesting to hear the groans from students if I announce that we are going to have a more formal formative assessment (such as a quick 2-3 question quiz) vs. the simpler formative assessments that I conduct daily in terms of having conversations with students/groups or thumbs up/thumbs down. There's this misconception with students (at least my own) in that if I announce we are having an assessment, it suddenly becomes more important than the daily check-ins.
  • The process requires the teacher to share learning goals with students and provide opportunities for students to monitor their ongoing progress.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 13 Apr 20
       
      In my building we've spent a few professional development sessions on crafting student-friendly learning targets that we regularly communicate to students and that students can communicate back to us. We are working on how we can better have students monitoring their own progress at reaching those learning goals. I think it's critical that the learning targets are student-friendly so that it becomes easier for them to monitor their own progress.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 15 Apr 20
       
      The communication piece is key to pulling teachers and students together for the same purpose. I would love to continue on finding ways for students to understand the formative assessments and how they can help in the student's learning.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 17 Apr 20
       
      Yes, getting students not to push back is key. I find that my students this year, shut down if I attach the word assessment to any thing. I think that they issue is, the educational system has trained students to think with a "for grade" mentality. Somehow we have to shift that focus to a "learning mentality". Is it possible to get parents to and students not to worry about grades and simply worry about the learning that can happen?
  • In peer-assessment, students analyze each others’ work using guidelines or rubrics and provide descriptive feedback that supports continued improvement.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 13 Apr 20
       
      I think the use of peer-assessment can be really effective in helping students think about their learning and make changes. It's helpful for them to hear from their peers, and not always receive feedback from just the teacher. I think this brings up a good point, though. Students have to be explicitly taught how to provide helpful feedback, without it, their comments and feedback are often superficial and won't really help the student make progress.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 14 Apr 20
       
      I really like this as a formative assessment that I need to incorporate more into my units. What I like is the students are now being more involved in the learning process.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 15 Apr 20
       
      Have you had any success doing this. At the middle school level we have started pairing the teams together and we present and give feedback across the two teams. However, it is still not what we want it to be. We made a sheet with look fors and sentence stems to help students. We've even stopped a class of 60 students and told them that we are listening for you to us...(a certain sentence stem), and that helps a little, but it still seems a bit fake. I can't tell if we aren't doing something right or if the idea of it is just so foreign to them. I know that as a student we never did peer feed back and the best feedback I got from a teacher was a, "Wow, your hard work is evident".
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 25 Apr 20
       
      I like the idea of peer-assessment, but think it would probably work best when the students do not know who is providing the feedback nor to whom they provided feedback. It would require discussion and practice, but allows students to do some analysis which should cause more critical thinking of the work they too are completing.
  • process
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 16 Apr 20
       
      I think we still struggle as a system to view formative assessment as a process. Case in point, administrators in my previous buildings would ask teachers to bring their "formative assessments" to our PLC meetings. It became a tangible thing vs. observations, etc.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 17 Apr 20
       
      I am glad that you brought this up. This whole process is supposed to be something that moves student learning forward and deeper and our profession to new heights. That definitely gets lost in translation when it becomes something forced. My administrators have done the same thing. The meaningful process becomes lost when teachers do it just because they are told to, or they are just going through the motions. I think that you are correct when you say it's so much more than a tangible thing, it has to be observational as well. We also have to get educators to see the value of it and using formative assessments to guide our practice.
  • Specific, timely feedback should be based on the learning goal and criteria for success.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 13 Apr 20
       
      "timely feedback" - students don't want formative feedback when they already took their summative assessment. Make the feedback relatable and clear. If you make the feedback irrelevant it is not meaning full to the student.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 14 Apr 20
       
      I do like using the language in the rubric to specify what they did well as well as what needs to be built upon to hit the success criteria.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 15 Apr 20
       
      I also liked that part. I have a hard time with the whole specific, timely feedback. I don't always know how to go about doing it for a 150 students. I think that being more clear on the rubric might really help. Rather than focus on content I could include wording needed that help develop the skills needed to get to or master the content. I still am unsure how to effectively answer the where going, where now, and closing the gap questions. I wonder if students can be given a self assessment with a carefully worded rubric and them I can review those and make changes as needed. What ideas or methods do the rest of you use to meet the needs of the last three questions in this sentence?
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 15 Apr 20
       
      or rather the end of the next sentence, sorry
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 21 Apr 20
       
      YES! This cuts out all of the fluff and gets to the heart of what we want kids to learn! Creating better learning targets makes teaching much more purposeful!
  • To support both self- and peer-assessment, the teacher must provide structure and support so students learn to be reflective of their own work and that of their peers, allowing them to provide meaningful and constructive feedback.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 13 Apr 20
       
      I think this is a great way to incorporate the rubric that would be used to assess the student. Peer feedback is one that could go really well and really bad if the teacher doesn't set the guidelines of what it looks like. This is a teachable moment in it's self.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      I agree with this statement. If a student can successfully self evaluate according to criteria like a rubric then they can have success with peers. Start there.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 18 Apr 20
       
      I have found that if I ask students to give each other a grade, it is basically useless, as they will just give each other an A. But if I ask them to comment and send back for revision, in actually work quite well. Qualitative over quantitative has been key for me.
  • In other words, there is no such thing as “a formative test.” Instead, there are a number of formative assessment strategies that can be implemented during classroom instruction.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 13 Apr 20
       
      Viewing formative assessment as a process rather than any one or a series of discrete assessments is critical in my mind for formative assessment to really do what it is meant to do and that is to inform instruction and improve student learning. Never too many reminders of this fact.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      I think the definition has changed a bit since 2006. I know my administrators include AFTER the instruction as formative assessment such as ticket outs and even quizzes. All still help guide teaching decisions but many occur after.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 21 Apr 20
       
      We use formative assessments in the in-person classroom multiple times within the class period. I have done some formative assessments, realized all of the kids were well past proficient (thanks to great background knowledge), and I moved on. In that sense, there was no test needed.
  • Using the evidence elicited from such tasks connected to the goals of the progression, a teacher could identify the “just right gap” – a growth point in learning that involves a step that is neither too large nor too small – and make adjustments to instruction accordingly.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 13 Apr 20
       
      It is important to identify those "just right gaps" for individual students and for the class as a whole so that time isn't wasted on things they have already mastered nor do some or all of the students feel lost or overwhelmed. Learning progressions in conjunction with ongoing formative assessment help pinpoint where additional instruction or practice may be needed.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 15 Apr 20
       
      This is one of the positive aspects of blended learning. I can figure out who has gaps and bring them in to work on the skills they need to improve.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 16 Apr 20
       
      I hadn't thought about how an additional benefit of a well-written learning target is that it allows a teacher to readily know what the next step of learning is for students and let's them use that knowledge to help give feedback that is alerts the student to next steps in their learning, but that makes absolute sense!
  • teachers must provide the criteria by which learning will be assessed so that students will know whether they are successfully progressing toward the goal. This information should be communicated using language readily understood by students, and may be accompanied by realistic examples of those that meet and do not meet the criteria.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 13 Apr 20
       
      Providing students with user friendly criteria upon which they can self-assess their own progress is critical for optimal learning.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 16 Apr 20
       
      I agree! Too many students aren't able to tell if they are "on track" because they think they have to get in the heads of their teachers. The assessment piece remains a mystery to them.
  • Formative assessment is a process that directly engages both teachers and students.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 13 Apr 20
       
      Student involvement makes the formative assessment process so much richer and teaches students life long skills that will help them think critically when in the workforce. I believe it also helps motivate students to do their best.
  • The teacher might first offer students a paraphrased version of that goal such as, “You will be able to judge the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in the editorials you find in our daily newspapers.” The teacher would discuss the criteria for evaluating arguments and then provide several examples of critiques of political essays. This will provide students with a reasonably clear idea of the analytic skills they are to develop and also provide them with the tools required to assess their own written analyses.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 14 Apr 20
       
      This process really helps you hone in on scaffolding to move learning to your end objective.
  • With this kind of descriptive feedback and collaboration, the teacher clarifies the goal for the student, provides specific information about where the student is in relation to meeting the criteria, and offers enough substantive information to allow the student an opportunity to identify ways to move learning forward.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 14 Apr 20
       
      Feedback throughout the process is so beneficial to the student. I think it is easy for teachers to skip this part or not notice they are giving it during conversations. Written feedback usually happens in those final assessments.
  • Helping students think meta-cognitively about their own learning fosters the idea that learning is their responsibility and that they can take an active role in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own progress.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 14 Apr 20
       
      I think teachers and students need to hear and believe this concept more. Once teachers buy into allowing students more o fa role in their learning, students will take on more responsibility...in the ideal world.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 16 Apr 20
       
      Absolutely! We need to re-structure the classroom environment so that students don't see it as hierarchical. The teacher should be a guide in the room, sitting among his/her students. This way, students may begin to develop more ownership of their learning.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 25 Apr 20
       
      Helping students see that the only way they can truly learn is when they take ownership for their learning is the key. We will never be able to teach someone who does not want to learn.
  • Students can use a rubric to provide feedback to a peer by articulating reasons why a piece of work is at one level and discussing how it could be improved to move it to the next level.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 14 Apr 20
       
      This idea takes some of the worry out for students who don't want to hurt or offend other students in the critique.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      I think this will definitely happen. The more it is done, the better students will be at peer editing.
  • inform instruction and learning during the teaching/learning process
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 14 Apr 20
       
      This is so important to decipher the difference between summative and formative.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 17 Apr 20
       
      I agree! This is for the teacher and the students.
  • particular kind of assessment.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 14 Apr 20
       
      My first year or two, I believed that it was a specific assessment. The confusion between formative and summative for a new teacher is hard to grasp if you haven't been explicitly taught.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 16 Apr 20
       
      I worry that in our district's attempts at the PLC process that teachers have gotten the wrong impression that formative assessment has to be proven through a specific assessment in order to facilitate a data-driven discussion. I believe that data can tell us a great deal about where our students are and how to move them forward, but I don't like the idea of it replacing ongoing feedback about the process.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 18 Apr 20
       
      This is an important point. Any, and potentially all assessments can and should be formative.
  • Students build on this learning in later stages of the progression to develop an understanding that people represent and interpret the past in different ways
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 14 Apr 20
       
      An effective teacher understands that this must be built upon before students can learn new material.
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 18 Apr 20
       
      Looking back at my early days as an educator, I did not do a very good job at this. In hindsight, I really assumed that students knew how to do some things that they obviously did not know how to do. I still find that I have to get myself to slow down and break apart tasks for students. I wonder how many other teachers struggle with this, and may not even be aware of it!
  • However, for students to be actively and successfully involved in their own learning, they must feel that they are bona fide partners in the learning process. This feeling is dependent on a classroom culture characterized by a sense of trust between and among students and their teachers; by norms of respect, transparency, and appreciation of differences; and by a non-threatening environment. Creating such a culture requires teachers to model these behaviors during interactions with students, to actively teach the classroom norms, and to build the students’ skills in constructive self- and peer-assessment.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 15 Apr 20
       
      I think this is so very true. I fully think that we as a system we have to do a better job at promoting learners not students. Students do things for a grade. They follow the rules so they don't get into trouble. They don't follow the rules to get out of work or other outside issue. Learners however, they do the work to learn, even if it were not graded. They come to school to better themselves and they understand that they are there are doing the work for themselves, it's a passion of self improvement. The know the teacher is there to facilitate them and they understand that the person in charge of the learning in the classroom isn't the teacher, it's them, the learner. I hope, that through the formative assessment process, scientists seminars, and norms that I have developed, that I am beginning to foster more learners and less students. It is a journey that has forced me to become less of a teacher and more of learner myself.
  • A teacher needs to have modeled good feedback with students and talked about what acceptable and unacceptable comments look like in order to have created a safe learning environment
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 16 Apr 20
       
      As an instructional coach, this is a step that I frequently saw teacher's skip when they asked students to to self- and peer-feedback. Teachers assumed students knew how to give high quality feedback then were frustrated with the responses with students gave, often coming to the conclusion that self- and peer-feedback were a waste of time because the feedback lacked quality.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 21 Apr 20
       
      I find this the most important piece. If I don't model feedback, how are kids supposed to know what's going on? Without the modeling, this becomes an unimportant time-filler.
  • Effective formative assessment involves collecting evidence about how student learning is progressing during the course of instruction so that necessary instructional adjustments can be made to close the gap between students’ current understanding and the desired goals.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 21 Apr 20
       
      I would say that sometimes PLC work goes too far in this...there is too much data being thrown around, and less attention to actual teaching. Sometimes, the formative assessments are analyzed but the kids don't receive any feedback. If we want our students to be a partner in the learning, the feedback has to be provided to the student, not just for teacher use.
leipoldc

ollie-afe-2020: Building a Better Mousetrap - 2 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by leipoldc on 05 Apr 20 - No Cached
  • a system designed to measure the key qualities (also referred to as “traits” or “dimensions”) vital to the process and/or product of a given assignment,
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 05 Apr 20
       
      I like this comment! It is a nice way to view rubrics instead of always associating the word with tests or grading.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 05 Apr 20
       
      I agree. The use of a rubric could focus on improving learning, not just a score and done.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 09 Apr 20
       
      I agree. I have to admit that I don't think that I have ever viewed rubrics this way. When writing them, I was always focused on how I was going use them for grading. I'm going to have to show this article to my PLC. I think it will really help us move our assessments to new levels.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 10 Apr 20
       
      I like this definition of a rubric, it gives it a much more important role in the process of assessing. I have sometimes in the past used rubrics as a checklist rather than its real purpose which is focusing on improvement.
  • rubrics can help the student with self-assessment; what is most important here is not the final product the students produce, but the habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 05 Apr 20
       
      I have only started focusing on using these at the beginning of tasks instead of only at the end. It helps the student see all the "parts" to the task.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 06 Apr 20
       
      I also agree with this. When I was in college this was a big thing that they pushed is to show and use the rubric at the beginning of the assignment instead of just at the end.
  • The result is many students struggle blindly, especially non-traditional, unsuccessful, or under-prepared students, who tend to miss many of the implied expectations of a college instructor, expectations that better prepared, traditional students readily internalize.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 05 Apr 20
       
      Aww, the guilt...
  • ...48 more annotations...
  • Usually a numerical value is assigned to each point on a scale. You can weight dimensions differently if you feel that one dimension is more important than another.
    • kshadlow
      kshadlow on 05 Apr 20
       
      I like to use weighted criteria in rubrics. I think it tells students which areas they need to focus more time on.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      Do you feel that it leads students to "ignore" the areas that are not weighted as heavily? Just wondering what you have witnessed...
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      I do this often in teaching writing. The area we are targeting is going to be worth more points, but by the end of the year everything should have been taught. It is more balanced.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 10 Apr 20
       
      I do weigh my points on my rubrics, however I feel I could do a better job at giving more points to aspects of the assessment that are more important. I don't tend to use the weight part, but rather more points for more importance. Learning how to do this better, will definitely help me.
  • it is no longer appropriate to assess student knowledge by having students compute answers and apply formulas, because their methods do not reveal the current goals of solving real problems and using statistical reasoning.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 05 Apr 20
       
      I often have these same thoughts when I think about our science standards. So much of the standard is based upon what students can do beyond memorizing content, so it doesn't seem appropriate to assess students in ways that make it more difficult to demonstrate those skills. Rubrics obviously lend themselves to these performance expectations well because of the science and engineering practices within them. However, I think there still has to be a balance because not everything can be assessed with a rubric.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 22 Apr 20
       
      This is also true for mathematics standards. Rubrics help when assessing performance expectations, however, there are still some items that cannot be assessed with a rubric.
  • “scaffolding”—if they are shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment. When instructors plan on grading student thinking and not just student knowledge, they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 05 Apr 20
       
      I've never thought of viewing a rubric as scaffolding before when students are completing assessments. I think that's a more positive way to view rubrics if students are using them as guidelines to complete the task. Even if students have a rubric and know what is expected of them, it doesn't mean that they will automatically score much higher. They may still be lacking understanding/skills that the rubric is being used to assess.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 20
       
      I agree, a rubric can serve as scaffolding for some who have a base knowledge already, but for students who really lack the understanding and skills being assessed in the rubric, a large rubric can be overwhelming and cause that student to shut down.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      I agree with you on this. I have never thought of them this way. If we are creating rubrics as a way to guide student thinking in the best possible way to reach our expectations/standards, they need guidance in order to get there. If the rubric is being used as a facilitation in the process of learning then this would be their tool for self reflection, not an instant guarantee of a higher grade.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      I have found that in middle school anyway- long or too wordy of rubrics are hard for students to attend to. They have a hard time focusing to go through it and really using it. I keep that in mind when I'm creating rubrics.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 10 Apr 20
       
      I really like the idea of using rubrics as a way to build scaffolding into an assessment. A lot of the time I give my students the rubrics when we introduce an assessment, which I need to change. I like the idea of giving the students the rubric at the beginning and designing it to help scaffold the learning while they are progressing toward the end.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 22 Apr 20
       
      I agree that using rubrics to build scaffolding into an assessment is a great use of this tool. If the same document is used (with extra spaces for updated scoring) students will be able to see progress and end product will be of better quality.
  • maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 05 Apr 20
       
      I do like the leverage that rubrics provide students in knowing what is expected of them. It levels the playing field for all students if they have those guidelines ahead of time. I would imagine students also appreciate that they know what the teacher wants from them and isn't using the assessment as something to hold over their heads.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      Yes! I find it so hard with my own kids when they are graded on something that the teacher never touched on and/or told them about. I hope that I am clear with my expectations in my classroom so kids do not feel this way. Having this "guide" would definitely take care of that problem.
  • teachers know deep learning when they see it.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 05 Apr 20
       
      I think that this can become a slippery slope if students attempt to assess without any standard against which to compare the work. Teachers will probably grade things less reliably and it is hard for them to remove inherent bias depending on the student's work being graded. I think rubrics provide an advantage in this way so that teachers are more reliable in assessment practices and can avoid some of the bias.
  • First, you must decide whether you need a rubric.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 05 Apr 20
       
      I agree that this would have to be the first question. Ask if it is really the best way to assess a student's work. I can see where it would be detrimental it a rubric was used all of the time.
  • In short, well-designed rubrics help instructors in all disciplines meaningfully assess the outcomes of the more complicated assignments that are the basis of the problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy replacing the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centered approach in tertiary education.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 05 Apr 20
       
      I highlighted this sentence because it made me laugh and I had to read it several times. It starts out "In short" and then proceeds to use many educational words as possible in one sentence. It understand what it is saying but not right away.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      I agree that it is a lengthy sentence with a lot of educational language but I think the idea is powerful. I am a big proponent of student centered project based learning which can be harder to assess with traditional tests and quizzes. It speaks of "meaningful assessment" which should always be our goal.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 08 Apr 20
       
      Not only does it help instructors, but it helps students as well to see what is expected of them.
  • unfortunately, most state issued rubrics used in secondary school standardized testing are poorly designed rubrics that list specific static elements encouraging students to simply make sure their essays have those features.
    • Val Rosenthal
      Val Rosenthal on 05 Apr 20
       
      Isn't it sad that rubric that are state issued often are poorly designed. I can see where students that are good at playing the numbers game as school and doing what it says will have a difficult time expressing themselves on non-rubric assessments.
    • ravelinga
      ravelinga on 10 Apr 20
       
      I have to admit that I have rubrics that look like this. But it is good that I have started to identify the issues with my rubrics and am planning on improving them to their intended purpose.
  • rubrics are now used similarly by post-secondary educators in all disciplines to assess outcomes in learning situations that require critical thinking and are multidimensional
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 06 Apr 20
       
      Agree. When a teacher does a "complexed" assignment a rubric sets all expectations of students at the same level and can assess the students at the same level too.
  • A rubric that tells students, as a typical example, that they will get an A for writing a 1000 word essay that “cites x number of sources and supports its thesis with at least three arguments” will lead students to perceive writing as a kind of “paint-by-number” endeavor (Mathews).
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 06 Apr 20
       
      You bet! Isn't that just like a job? You do all of these things and this is the outcome. It's life unfortunately and that is how we go about doing our daily lives. But, I do think that when we have a guide of knowing what someone wants in a certain thing, we need these check lists. I know as me being a math teacher, I love those checklists.
  • Revise the rubric and try it out again.
    • bhauswirth
      bhauswirth on 06 Apr 20
       
      This holds true to many aspects of teaching. Revise, revisit and see what you can do to make it better, or even remove it from that assignment.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      I agree. I find different classes are able to view rubrics in a variety of ways for self-assessment.
  • consistently and accurately
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 20
       
      Yes, a well-written rubric can help with consistency and accuracy. In a situation where multiple teachers are teaching the same course, it is also important that those teachers work to ensure inter-rater reliability to ensure that the rubric is being applied consistently and accurately across courses.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      Agreed. This would help with the subjectivity among teachers and across different sections of classes trying to teach to the same standards/expectations.
  • rubrics that are outside of the students “zone of proximal development” are useless to the students.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 20
       
      This goes back to my comment above about how sometimes rubrics can be too overwhelming for students who lack enough understanding or skills to comprehend the rubric, causing them to shut down.
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 14 Apr 20
       
      I AGREE! It kind of sounds like a one rubric for all doesn't work. I'm sure it would completely depend on the assignment/learning target being assessed, but maybe there needs to be multiple rubrics depending on level of learner. That sounds wonderful in theory, but I can't imagine how much more front loading that would be! SO MUCH DIFFERENTIATION!
  • Weighting
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 20
       
      While I see the merits to weighted dimensions (particularly that it helps students to see what is most important in the rubric), I also think that adding point values for each dimension puts the emphasis of the feedback provided as a grade rather than the emphasis of the rubric being the feedback in the dimension that helps the student know how to improve.
  • Can students and parents understand the rubric?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 20
       
      I agree with all of these ideas. In thinking about if the rubric is clear to parents and students, I also think that a good rubric is descriptive enough for students to understand the difference between each performance level, but also concise enough that the user doesn't experience reader's fatigue from trying to process the rubric. To me, this means rubrics for lower reading abilities especially need to be clear and concise.
  • “The instructor’s comments on papers and tests are done after rather than before the writing, so they cannot serve as guidelines, compromising the value of writing comments at all.”
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      I think this applies to all classes on some level. Too often the "final product" whatever that might be only has the feedback on the final version that is turned in and graded. I have given assessments at the beginning of a project for student reference but I need to place more importance along the way for individual reflection using the rubric so it is a tool for them, not just for me in grading.
  • I once gave extra credit to a student who realized that without providing a shred of meaningful content she could meet all the requirements of a state writing rubric he posted in his classroom. As required she used the word “persuade” and two synonyms, composed a clear topic sentence and closing sentence, and made no spelling or grammatical errors. But she did it without saying anything coherent.
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      Sometimes we have good intent, but we really need to step back and analyze what we are directly asking for...not leaving things "implied" vs stated on the rubric.
  • Both types of rubrics benefit the teacher and the student in varying degrees: the teacher who relies on a general rubric does not have to develop a new one for each assignment and the student grows to understand fundamental standards in writing—like form and coherence—exist across the board; meanwhile, the teacher that uses specific rubrics is always composing new descriptions of quality work, but their students have clearer directions for each assignment
    • nkrager
      nkrager on 07 Apr 20
       
      I think that both have a place for me, just as described. A general rubric might apply to overall industry standards, classroom norms/expectations, etc for the teacher while the specific rubric would be individual for specific projects/purposes.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      Yes, I agree. Both types of rubrics have a place in our teaching depending on what the outcome is. Maybe the general rubric is for a final performance task, but smaller rubrics or pieces of the whole rubric are used and as the student builds the smaller skills.
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 22 Apr 20
       
      I agree that both rubrics have a place in assessment and communication with students. The general rubric is best for overall concept understanding, but for unique assignments, a specific rubric would provide better guidance. Again, if used with feedback as a multi-step process.
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental” (Montgomery).
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      Hit and miss learning like sit and get has seen better days. As an instructor I want to get the most learning out of my time with students and the most learning for their efforts and I think letting students know upfront the qualities of thought and expectations of the activity will help accomplish that objective.
  • “In short, explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance.”
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      I usually give verbal examples during lecture but will need to be more intentional about including exemplars for each level on the rubric in an online format as I think this will increase student understanding of expectations
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      Such an important instructional tool to use in really any subject. Having students evaluate different samples and decided where they fit on a rubric, discuss with the class, and then evaluate their own before it is assessed by the teacher is very powerful. They can clearly see how the rubric will help them improve and they can improve!
  • also be linked specifically to classroom instruction.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 08 Apr 20
       
      Unfortunately, many of my language arts colleagues like to throw all aspects of writing on a rubric for every piece. I find that this distracts students with what the true objectives are - what they've been learning about in classroom instruction!
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      Good point! There has to be an area that is stressed and worth more points because that is the skill teachers are working on for that particular writing.
  • student-generated rubrics, they tend to “think more deeply about their learning.
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 08 Apr 20
       
      This is especially true when students also try assessing different models using the rubric they've co-created. Now they see the differences between examples and non-examples!
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 14 Apr 20
       
      I have thought about rubrics for grading but I am glad to see so many more applications, I think a rubric could be highly motivating to a student who needs structure.
  • monitor their own performance.”
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 08 Apr 20
       
      This is why the consolidation of understanding is so important. Make sure that students practice using various models with the rubric and do this with peers in order to have conversations about what they are noticing and ask questions about why/why not certain models fit the criteria.
  • “stylistic voices full of humor and surprises, produced less interesting essays when they followed the rules
    • emilysjohnson
      emilysjohnson on 08 Apr 20
       
      This is the danger when creating a rubric that teachers need to be aware of! We need to incorporate room in rubrics for style and creativity.
  • hose students who had “stylistic voices full of humor and surprises, produced less interesting essays when they followed the rules [as outlined in a rubric]” (Mathews)
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      Sad but I can definitely see this happening. No way do I want to squelch creativity.
  • Rubrics can be designed to measure either product or process or both; and, they can be designed with dimensions describing the different levels of that “deep learning” so valued in WAC programs.
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      Nice! Sounds like teachers, myself included, need to strive for this in our use of rubrics
  • Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being measured? Does it address anything extraneous? […] Does it cover important dimensions of student performance? Do the criteria reflect current conceptions of excellence in the field? […] Are the dimensions and scales well defined? […] Is there a clear basis for assigning scores at each scale point? […] Can different scorers consistently apply the rubric? […]
    • parkerv
      parkerv on 08 Apr 20
       
      This whole paragraph is one I want to keep handy as an everyday guide.
  • undergraduate engineering curriculum at the University of California at Berkley.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 08 Apr 20
       
      We had rubrics in my undergrad experience and it helped with clarifying what was expected. I don't recall if we had them in high school, but percentages were standard back then.
  • increases the likelihood of a quality product.
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 08 Apr 20
       
      I do agree with this statement. It helps give students a "roadmap" of where their assignment should go.
  • “sentence structure follows current conventions” would be better than “sentence structure is good.”
    • mkanost
      mkanost on 08 Apr 20
       
      This was a good example to see. Using descriptive language helps the learner see what is required. However, language needs to purposeful. it also needs to be explicitly pre taught to English Learners.
  • Does it reflect teachable skills or does it address variables over which students and educators have no control
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 09 Apr 20
       
      These areas should not be in a rubric.
  • their institution developed can be used to reliably score the performance-based and problem-solving assignments that now form a significan
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 09 Apr 20
       
      The part that sticks out to me here is the use of rubrics to reliably score... This is always my issue. I know that I need to be more clear with the rubrics I use. I don't always know that they are serving the purpose I want or need them to. I often find myself overthinking the rubric when I go to use them. Either I not writing it correctly or I'm not being clear on the learning targets that I'm trying to assess.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      We have created some rubrics as a team so teachers doing instruction on the same assignment can be consistent with one another.
  • traditional assessment practices used to grade papers, for example, are not helpful to the students struggling to write the paper:
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 09 Apr 20
       
      Until, I read the lessons in the previous section of this course, I didn't think much about how I use rubrics. I always just used them as the end point for grading. I really like the idea of using them as learning tools and providing feedback along the way to enhance learning. I think that can be a really positive way to help students learn and not give up on themselves. I have so many students that look at the rubric and just give up. If I can scaffold the rubric better, break it into parts, and then provide feedback with opportunities to redo, then I think students will embrace and use them more.
  • mitagate both teacher bias and the perception of teacher bias
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 09 Apr 20
       
      I agree here. This is one of the best things about rubrics, if you get them created correctly", they help you to limit bias. There is no, well maybe's, or I think's. Rubrics with details, are fairly clear. I also have seen them useful when students or parents try to argue a grade. Having a rubric that you can point to makes it a lot easier to justify a grade. For the most part, rubrics are fairly black and white as to how students will be assessed. They help keep student and teacher honest and on the same page.
  • see as empowering
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      I think the more kids understand our rubrics, then they do feel empowered. This is a positive for their learning.
  • using rubrics to establish “performance benchmarks” for the “behavioral objectives” appropriate to each year in the program
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      Once these rubrics are established and used yearly, the instruction and learning targets are a lot more clear for the teacher. This is a positive for the engineering program.
  • rubrics are not without their critics
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      I have a daughter that is a critic and I do understand her point. Her English teacher said her theme of a book was incorrect, yet she followed the rubric expectations. As teachers, we need to also listen when there is not a clear way to grade the material.
  • However, for the student to successfully use a rubric this way, the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 11 Apr 20
       
      Clear and understandable jargon stood out to me as this is important if we expect the students to see rubrics as a way to self-assess themselves as they complete work.
  • students’ educational disparities and bring fairness into assessment
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 12 Apr 20
       
      I think we have to realize that there is often a lot of knowledge that educators assume kids have, but do not. This is especially prevalent in students from diverse and less privileged backgrounds. Rubrics can help with this, but we may need to expand on the terminology used in the rubrics with many students.
  • Look at some actual examples of student work to see if you have omitted any important dimensions
    • jessed44
      jessed44 on 12 Apr 20
       
      I have served as a reader for AP, grading essays that students wrote for AP exams. It is interesting to note that their rubrics are not fully-formed until after they receive student work. A first draft is made before, but it is then revised after they receive the essays. I think this is generally good practice, but I wonder if there is an even better way to create these rubrics.
  • Rubrics can be used either for “filtering”—as they are used in placement testing—or for “latticing,” or “scaffolding”—if they are shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 14 Apr 20
       
      I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.
  • Some educators advocate going beyond merely sharing rubrics with students.
    • maryhumke
      maryhumke on 14 Apr 20
       
      I do wonder about this. If life situations are we given this much specific detail for success?
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 14 Apr 20
       
      Conceptually, I've always thought of a rubric as a Standards-Based Grading kind of assessment. In that system, which has kind of taken on a life of it's own in my school, the education has move completely away from teacher-centered learning.
  • had been more expressive in previous writing assignments, wrote poorly when writing, as we might say, to the rubri
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 14 Apr 20
       
      I think the argument being made here is that a clearly-articulated rubric for this particular course took away the creative flow for these students. I understand this point, in the fact that when I give a grading rubric to my PhysEd classes, many of the kids do exactly what is on the rubric, and don't go above/beyond or exert themselves more. That is likely the cause of a poorly written rubric!
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 22 Apr 20
       
      I agree. Some students will look at the minimum work that needs to be done to complete the assignment. It is hopefully something that a better written rubric can help fix and a great reason to re-evaluate rubric each time it is used.
  • Be prepared to evaluate your rubric
    • benrobison
      benrobison on 14 Apr 20
       
      This is the role of the PLC in our school. 90% of our PLC work is focused around this...evaluating the rubric to assess our teaching vs. what the kids are learning and accomplishing.
  • “In short, explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance.”
    • leipoldc
      leipoldc on 22 Apr 20
       
      I really like the idea of having students evaluate samples of work to understand the expectations better. It DOES provide a powerful learning experience and clarify how the rubric will be applied to the work they submit. This knowledge & experience should lead to higher quality work
leipoldc

Iowa Core - 0 views

iowacore.gov

moodle_iowa

shared by leipoldc on 15 Jan 19 - No Cached
  • nealjulie on 15 Jan 19
     
    This site from the Iowa Department of education is a great tool for parents. Parents can see what essentials are offered at each grade level.
  • ewilson_qgorxap on 22 Sep 19
     
    This is a site I visit weekly when planning for the week. I have a tab dedicated to it that always stays open.
kimgrissom

Implementation in Advocacy/Guidanace/Post-Secondary Preparation (Articles) - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20 - No Cached
  • we found that offering options to students also bears risk for the educators.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      Wow. This is a great example of learning with student choice that has incredible value but this risk is real and a reason that many schools would likely shy away from this type of encouragement.
  • They also reached beyond the immediate Graham community to forge partnerships, potentially risking their original plan to unforeseen compromises and adaptations, leaving them-selves open to new opportunities.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      As a parent, community member, and educator, I love this type of authentic learning. But how does this fit into the standards, required curriculum, high-stakes testing education system we have today? Do these partnerships with the community bring more support to schools or do they open up schools to even more criticism if test results aren't a piece of the puzzle?
  • Providing choice risks failure because when we, as teachers, make all the decisions for our students, lessons will proceed predictably in productive directions; however, when we remove the possibility of students choosing, and choosing wrongly, we fail to aid the students in becoming competent, thoughtful risk takers.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      True of the system or district as well...
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • An environment without risk fails to prepare students for life outside the classroom, a world of risk taking. Allowing students to experience measured risks, in a supportive community, models the real-world paradigm where choices naturally entail risk.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      This makes perfect sense to me. It's guided my parenting style and it's a piece of how I have taught as well. It's just a different look at what the can mean.
  • Over 60% of students who eventually dropped out of high school failed at least25% of their credits in the ninth grade, while only 8% of their peers who eventually graduated had similar difficulty.”
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      This is an interesting statistic that makes me wonder how we can be both responsive to students in this situation and proactive in preventing these kinds of situations.
  • The Silent Epidemic estimates that the government would reap $45 billion in extra tax revenues and reduced costs in public health, crime, and welfare payments if the number of high school dropouts among 20-year olds in the U.S. today were cut in half.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      Wow. That is staggering and something I don't think gets talked enough about when it comes to education and finances.
  • It also suggests that educators have not yet found a single approach that comprehensively addresses the needs of all at risk students.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      This is true. I think our schools wants online learning to be the magic bullet, but the truth is that online learning is a really great option for some kids. But not all kids will be successful that way either. We need a variety of options for kids.
  • Instead of challenging students to raise their performance to the level they must reach to be successful, too often credit recovery “solutions” have lowered the bar for passing.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      Yes. This is real
  • It was not that I didn’t want to go to the school; it was that there was nothing for me to go to.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      I'm not sure this is true of all parents, but it's possible that we sell them short based on the little interaction we make possible for parents.
  • The sum of all these experiences was a prelude to his senior year, when he began the process of selecting colleges.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 08 Mar 20
       
      These experiences all sound amazing. But how do they fit into what is required of schools? Is all of this in addition to the learning of "traditional classes"? How does this impact algebra or government class or writing skills? I think it sounds great and would allow students to become well-rounded individuals, but it's hard to understand how a school uses their human and fiscal resources to make this kind of learning available to all students.
jhatcher

Implementation in an Elementary Classroom (Articles) - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by jhatcher on 06 Mar 20 - No Cached
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      This sounds very hard. I wish there were some examples of taking a typical teacher centered lesson and changing it up to include all these features.
  • You will use the model and examples to assist you in establishing a learning goal for this lesson, how to unpack the Common Core State Standards with your learners, design a warm-up activity that will engage specific learners based on the Class Learning Snapshot. You will also universally-design the new vocabulary along with guided and independent activities as the framework of the lesson.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      This seems very difficult to me. I wish there were some exmples of taking a teacher centered lesson and personalizing it as is explained here.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      This sticky note is suppose to be on the first article. Don't know why it shows up here! I can't seem to delete it! Sorry.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • 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
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      So true and hard not to "help" When I taught 5th grade Science it was fun for me in these type of inquiry lessons. It's different when teaching reading but still can be done when questioning vocabulary or evidence. How do you know is a common questions.
  • During this first instructional phase, noise and activity levels sometimes reach eardrum-piercing levels
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      This is hard... as a teacher you may feel the class is out of control and crazy. I would feel a bit anxious during these times that my kids were so loud. This is a struggle even now.
  • each procedure needs to be practiced 28 times to stick.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      I have never seen 28 times for a procedure to stick before. I need to be more patient with my students because I know I expect them to understand quicker than this. I will keep this in mind.
  • lan assignments with choices.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      This is usually fairly easy to do. It seems like most things can be individualized somewhat. I really try to give my students options even if it is small. I think they appreciate it and like the power of some choice.
  • In 5 months you can
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 06 Mar 20
       
      I like this article because it helps you with change as slow or quick as you want it. This is very helpful
tkofoot

Adaptive Learning System Articles - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by tkofoot on 24 Feb 20 - No Cached
  • Most students learn pretty quickly that a Google search will yield some results that aren’t helpful and adjust accordingly.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 24 Feb 20
       
      Sorry, I could resist this sentence. It's okay with me if it doesn't count towards my post, but I have to admit to laughing when I read this one. I'm not sure that most students get this today, I mean I hope they do, but the conversations I've had the past few years when students search things are scary.
  • Adaptive learning technologies are potentially transformative in that they may be able to change the economics of tutoring. Imagine if every student in your class could have a private tutor, available to them at any time for as long as they need.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 24 Feb 20
       
      I think this is the most eye opening factor within adaptive learning. It helps provide equity that is often missing when it comes to education. We know, that for the most part, our low social economic students preform lower than their counterparts. Which makes sense if you need tutoring and can't afford it. Adaptive learning technology has the potential to help schools bridge those gaps. It can help provide an equal opportunity for all. The point of, adaptive technologies acting like tutors, hadn't occurred to me before. As someone who needed tutoring in math as a young student, but came from a home where that wasn't feasible, I can appreciate the usefulness of adaptive technology.
  • Adaptive learning has long been a part of education. The basic concept is simple: Coursework should be adapted to meet the individual needs of each student. Every teacher has experience modifying curriculum in some way to help students access information. Nowadays technology can help make the adaptations easier and more streamlined.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 24 Feb 20
       
      Thinking about this first part and segments from the previous article, I would say that this idea would be a life saver. Sure, I realize that some students need more support than others, and sure I realize ways to give them the support they need, but how do I go about accomplishing such a daunting task? I often feel like that, at times, I'm running around with my head cut off. I can support student A who is struggling with seeing the connection from last weeks lessons to our current ones, but student B is so advanced that he's bored and tired of waiting so he's acting up instead, student C hasn't been to school in 8 days and has no idea where were at, and the list just goes on from there. I try to manage what I can by breaking students into groups, focusing on the larger picture, but I still realize that at many times, I'm falling short. If it can help assist me in meeting the needs of individual students, then I'm all for it. Later in the article it also talks about how it helps limit students from giving up. I think we can all agree, that's a huge bonus. My only unanswered questions are when to use it, how often, and at what point in the learning process? I've never used adaptive learning before, so I have lots to learn.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • n fact, it many strengthen instruction as faculty take on a more supporting, coaching role, with less time devoted to delivery of content, which students may or may not already have mastered, and more time focused on one-to-one student engagement and self-paced guidance through a curriculum.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 24 Feb 20
       
      When I read the first sentence, I was a little offended. I'm glad I kept reading, I like this part a lot. I think that these moments, when students are working independently, are the moments where we truly get to know our students. I often feel like I don't have enough time to talk with my students about their learning. In fact, I often make lists of who I've talked to recently and who I haven't so I can get to them next time. The idea that adaptive learning can help me become an effective facilitator of learning is intriguing.
  • "One of the benefits of adaptive learning is that it frees up faculty members to spend more time with students, to work with them in small groups and individually, essentially flipping the classroom," Johnson said. "We see this [approach] as part of a much bigger pedagogical picture. The technology is a tool that gets us to our goal of rehumanizing our large classes."
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 24 Feb 20
       
      I've already commented on the idea and benefits of time in prior articles. Although I like the idea of having more time to work and actually talk with students, I wondered something a bit different when I read about teacher's time in this article. Along with freeing up teacher time to do the things that, I would think all of us got into education for in the first place, would adaptive technologies also help with teacher burnout? What about the fact that in our state, enrollment in teacher education programs are down at all three regent schools? I can't recall the exact reasons why teachers burn out and quit, but I'm fairly sure that time with actually working students is one of them. I hear from many new teachers say that they didn't realize how hard it was going to be to the meet the needs of every student. I wonder if data would show whether or not these systems would help with getting and retaining teachers.
  • They might help a student get unstuck on a particular step that he hasn’t quite understood.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 28 Feb 20
       
      I have used IXL math with students. I like how it shows students the correct way to complete the program.
  • tools t
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 28 Feb 20
       
      I think the word "tools" is important to point out. It is not instruction, but an additional resource.
  • the notion of adaptive learning technologies can be abused as a kind of magic incantation by the reductionists.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 28 Feb 20
       
      Not only abused without enough extra teaching, but used as a whole education system. There are already teachers that turn students over to programs as a way to teach without any other type of interaction. I am not ready for this as a parent or teacher.
  • work that is not replicable by a machine.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 28 Feb 20
       
      The adaptive learning can help support learning and free up teachers to get around to more students that need individualized instruction.
mpercy

PLE Articles - 3 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by mpercy on 17 Feb 20 - No Cached
  • Write and Store Notes
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      This seems like a tool that would be effective for all of my students. Most of them still take notes in their science notebooks--but a few have dabbled in writing their notes digitally. The problem I see with this is that they write them in separate google documents and then do not find a way to organize them so that they can access them easily when needed. This could be a good tool for them to learn early in their high school career and then carry it on as they get into courses with a larger need for note-taking.
  • The employ of PLEs in the classroom can go horribly wrong if teachers fail to prepare students and set usage parameters.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      This is definitely something that I would worry about with my students initially. Because they are used to having technology, I sometimes take for granted the skills I expect them to have when it comes to using different sites. Moodle has been a bigger learning curve for my students than expected, so I know that I would definitely need to prepare my students for setting up and using PLE first. Which also means that I need to feel comfortable explaining what it is and how it works to my students as well.
  • our work must increasingly attend to supporting students in developing their skills and motivations for becoming themselves networked and sophisticated online learners.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      I find this becoming more and more true the longer I teach. My frustration comes from where to start in supporting students so that they can become more sophisticated in learning online. For example, I use Moodle for my courses rather than Google Classroom and I run into more hesitation and complaints from students than I anticipated because it is "something different." I'm not sure if it is because only a small subset of teachers are currently pushing their students outside of their comfort zones when it comes to online learning and that's where the pushback is, but I feel like we need more teachers to buy into changing the landscape of online learning beyond Google Classroom. I feel like only then will students start to develop those skills and abilities to grow in their capacity as online learners.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Teachers are challenged to provide the appropriate balance between structured lessons and learner autonomy in order to facilitate self-directed learning.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      This is definitely a balance that I am still trying to find within my classroom and even one that I think my students are trying to figure out. There are some days where they would rather take control on their own, but other days when they want to be given more structure and told what to do or how to do something. I think this balance is hard to find depending on the particular student because some really struggle with the autonomy provided in online learning and still need those additional structures in place. Is there a formula to follow in terms of finding that balance? Does the balance vary from class-to-class depending on your students or can it be a one-size-fits-all approach? These are things I know I will figure out in time, but it can be frustrating at first.
  • teachers must pursue training and be knowledgeable of how to utilize PLEs
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 21 Feb 20
       
      I agree with the comment above wholeheartedly. I think this is what caused my genius hour plan to not be what I had hoped a couple years ago. I saw weak projects and kids not very motivated. This is what I want to make sure does not happen again. I just wonder will I really be prepared and confident? Will I have learned enough? Hope so!
  • Symbaloo or NetVibesas a foundation to help learners create and maintain their personal learning environments.
  • Others utilize sites such as
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 21 Feb 20
       
      I use Sybaloo and can definitely see how its use by students as they are creating/ learning in Personalized Learning would be useful.
  • 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.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 23 Feb 20
       
      This is true for a lot of teachers--I think we are often slow to set up our own professional learning tools whether that's joining a professional learning network via an LMS, Twitter, or just tools to help us organize our own resources.
  • Students engaging in networked learning have to learn to be more self-directed than in the typical classroom
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 23 Feb 20
       
      Yes, passive learning doesn't get far in personal learning so we have to find ways to change the narrative and train learners to understand a new set of "success criteria." What used to look like being a good student won't work as well.
  • as an instructor, you can make a webmix quite interactive
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 23 Feb 20
       
      I've used symbaloo as a way to organize myself and I've even put together webmixes on a specific professional development topic before. Reading about Symbaloo in this context makes me rethink how this tool might be helpful in personalized learning. Building in interaction is a really interesting idea I had never considered.
  • Not every student is ready for this responsibility, so teachers need to have strategies in place to guide and support these learner
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 23 Feb 20
       
      What does that look like? Explicit expectations for what learning looks like, encouragement, assistance and tutorials for tools, formative check-ins to see how things are going and offer guidance. There's a lot to think about .
  • A PLE is the method students use to organize their self-directed online learning, including the tools they employ to gather information, conduct research, and present their findings.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      This makes a PLE sound more like an LMS or organizational tool - which I am in desperate need of! We assume students can work through a linear progression, but even adults struggle with that! I know I'm guilty of putting more emphasis and effort into WHAT students will learn rather than HOW they will learn or what the EXPERIENCE will be like.
  • 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. 
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      One thing I also do is forget that students have lives outside of my class. I set what I think is a reasonable amount of time for a task - but neglect to acknowledge that I'm basing that time estimate on my own abilities or on previous experiences in a face-to-face setting where students (and I) could get fairly immediate feedback on the learning (or lack thereof) occurring. While we have to balance between structured lesson and autonomy, we also have to balance between what can feasibly be done by students all alone versus students being actively guided in person.
  • Susan and I loved that students could organize their Netvibes portals in a way that made sense to them and that a page could contain a diverse range of information streams:  a webpage, an embedded document, a RSS feed, a database widget, the link tool that made a webpage “live” within the Netvibes page.  Not only could students organize information, but they could also publish content they were creating through tools like Google Docs and VoiceThread as well as original works, such as artwork and videos.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      Ideally, this sounds a lot like the WIki feature on many LMS. Our school uses PowerSchool, which offers a student Wiki option that allows students the same features. I can see Netvibes being a great alternative if a school doesn't yet have an LMS or uses a not fully featured LMS.
  • What Are the Potential Issues With PLEs?
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 24 Feb 20
       
      An issue i don't see addressed directly below is the issue of students accessing or pulling inappropriate or inaccurate content. Maybe this falls under the "Not every student is ready for the responsibility" category. Depending on the age range, students could so easily get lost in "fake news" or general misinformation, so there would have to be appropriate media and tech literacy lessons provided.
  • The concept of PLE is not a way to replace classroom learning, but to enhance it
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 24 Feb 20
       
      As I have been reading information on the PLE, it often seems like a complete overhaul of the current educational system is necessary. It is good to hear that is not the case but changes can be made to improve the current classroom environment.
  • Some instructors empower students to use their own mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones as a means to create PLEs
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 24 Feb 20
       
      It is really ideal to have students use their smartphones to enhance their learning rather than distracting their learning!
  • PLEs place a large amount of responsibility on students and thus requires a high level of self-management and awareness.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 24 Feb 20
       
      This is a big concern as I see many students that don't display self-motivation and desire to achieve at a high level. Will they be successful in this environment or get left behind?
  • Teachers, she explains, are no longer the primary or even the best source of information available to students,
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 24 Feb 20
       
      The role of teacher has completely changed since I first entered the profession. As we encourage our students to be life long learners, we have the opportunity to show them what that means.
Wendy Arch

"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 2 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by Wendy Arch on 16 Feb 20 - No Cached
  • The tasks have been personalized for kids, not created by them.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 16 Feb 20
       
      At this point in the article, I have many thoughts floating around. One major thought comes to mind. Can we ever fully personalize our classrooms? I get the points given here, but as a functioning society don't we have to conform a little bit? As parents, I think we do this to our children more than most of us would like to admit and certainly our schools follow suit. Also this first line here, isn't this what state standards do? Provide some sort of standardized leaning? Or is it simply saying that kids should be able to design how they will progress through a certain standard? A student chooses his or her own path to the end. However, if is a standard of no interest to me and you make me do it anyway is that truly personal learning? I'm starting to feel like flip flopping politician.
  • folly of believing that everything can and should be reduced to numbers.[7
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 16 Feb 20
       
      This seems to go against our current reality in my school. We're told that everything has to be data driven or evidence based. On the surface that makes sense, but my issue has always been that we are dealing with people not things. We work in a system filled with a multitude of variables and I would agree that there is a folly in believing that everything can be reduced to numbers. The more I read this article, the more I am thinking that we might be looking at turning the traditional school upside down on it's head.
  • 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. It’s a dramatic shift that requires new literacies to navigate all that access and, importantly, new dispositions to take advantage of it for learning.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 16 Feb 20
       
      Yes, our kids today are walking around with infinite knowledge at their finger tips. Yes, they don't know how to use it and when they are provided the opportunity, they don't seem to use it. I'm not saying that they can't or won't. I'm saying that from my experiences, they are trained not to do so. So many students do not realize their own potential for learning. They want to wait for the teacher to tell them what to do, what the correct answer is, or how to go about a particular task. Maybe we trained them too well. I 500% agree that we need to teach this skill. I also know that I have struggled to do this myself. If asked, I would have say, no I don't how to teach these new literacy skills. It's talked about, but I haven't seen any real professional development on the subject. If you know of any, please share.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      I couldn't agree more with your ideas about students not knowing how to use the knowledge. Sometimes they ask me the simplest question and are offended that I don't have the answer for them. To which I ask, how could you find the answer? I feel as though they only take advantage of having that knowledge at their fingertips when it's a direct benefit to them and seems simpler than relying on someone else for the information. I encourage so many of my students to think through investigations for themselves and to try and come up with possible answers first. So many of them want to sit and wait for me to tell them everything and haven't realized how much more power there is in learning it if they put in the cognitive effort first. Coming from the same district, I also don't know how we teach them how to persevere through that when they just want to take the easy route, but there have to be some strategies out there that help to break down that "instant gratification mindset."
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • 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.
    • jnewmanfd
      jnewmanfd on 16 Feb 20
       
      Yikes and ouch. Time for some personal reflection. I would say that I have done exactly this. I'm also fairly sure that personalized learning is what I would have called it. Letting students move at their own pace and not be anchored down by others in the classroom. I agree with most of this article. In fact it sounds like an utopia classroom. Students working on problems in their own way, connecting their own dots, learning new skills so they self progress along their chosen path.... At the end of reading though, I'm right back to my roadblock. How do I even begin to manage this or set it up in the first place? Thinking from the science view, we use a lot of materials and supplies, having to have these items available gives me enough anxiety alone.
  • but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      I often wrestle with these different questions/thoughts from a high school perspective. Personalization seems like a great way to reach each individual students' interests and needs, but the logistics of measuring progress always surface. How do we ensure students are still meeting all of the state standards and critera so that they can earn a credit that is satisfactory for graduation? How do we make sure that things are coded appropriately so that those courses are recognized by post-secondary institutions? How do we allow personalization but don't limit it because of the need to be compliant for some things?
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 21 Feb 20
       
      I really think to implement a system which uses a personalized approach, the whole system by which we operate would need to be changed. High school graduation requirements would need to be adjusted as well as college entrance requirements.
  • 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.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      This sounds like a great opportunity for a lot of my students, but I'm not sure it will also fit every student's needs. The more flexible schedule and choice inherent within it worries me about some of my students who really struggle with staying on task and making progress. I wonder how much structure would need to be embedded for these students and would it alter it to the point that it wouldn't be considered personalized?
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 21 Feb 20
       
      In theory, giving students a choice in what and how they learn would eliminate the need to keep them focused and on track. However, we have students in our classrooms today we know would struggle with this! As with any method of teaching, there would be students that would love it and thrive while others would struggle and need more intervention. Not every individual could learn this way.
  • 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.
    • lwinter14
      lwinter14 on 17 Feb 20
       
      There are certainly some changes that need to happen on a macro level if we want to reach our students in the optimal way. State assessments would need to change, the way that colleges rate students may need to be different and even the way college is taught could have implications. What happens if we are teaching these high schoolers in innovative ways that are truly personalized, but then a students ends up in a freshmen lecture hall with 300 students and is put back into that cookie-cutter scenario? Will they be prepared with the skills to handle that?
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 23 Feb 20
       
      I agree with you. We find ourselves teaching for the standardized tests. We need to find out what the expectations are in college to ensure kids are learning skills that allow them to succeed in all classroom settings.
  • However, in order to navigate the system of accountability in the U.S. educational system, many school district leaders require public school educators to teach a specific curriculum that will be evaluated on standardized tests
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 21 Feb 20
       
      This is a big hurdle to overcome if we are to adopt a personalized learning environment. How can we make sure that students know the curriculum they will be evaluated on before going on to college or other programs after high school. Can they still demonstrate success on these tests?
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 21 Feb 20
       
      My school as adopted EL Reading LA curriculum. It is very scripted and all kids read 4 books through the year. Choice in reading has really taken the backseat. No room for personalized learning here.
  • Technology was strikingly absent from these conversations.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 21 Feb 20
       
      This surprises me as it has been a focus for many districts to become 1:1 with technology. I would think that to become more personalized technology would need to be implemented.
  • After decades of this approach, it is clear that all children don’t learn the same way and personalization seems to honor those differences.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 21 Feb 20
       
      Educators know this and have for a long time. We know our students have changed. I'm so glad to be in this class but I do not feel my administrators will support this because it is not going to fit into their mold- I can statements, success criteria, evaluation. Personalized learing is different!
  • because of the larger preoccupation with data data data data data
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 22 Feb 20
       
      I love Alfie Kohn but this is a scathing assessment of the data-based movement. I get that not all things can and should be reduced to numbers and I tend to agree with his assessment of the dangers of these things being our focus. However, there has to be some way to see if we're making progress other than just individual feelings.
  • One final caveat: in the best student-centered, project-based education, kids spend much of their time learning with and from one another. Thus, while making sense of ideas is surely personal, it is not exclusively individual because it involves collaboration and takes place in a community.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 22 Feb 20
       
      I think this is a very important point as I think about personalized learning and what it might look like. My understanding of personalized doesn't exclude collaboration, but there are models that have the potential to be isolating.
  • We don’t need personalization as much as we need to promote and give opportunities for our kids to do personal learning. And while they come from the same root, those two words are vastly different. “Personalized” learning is something that we do to kids; “personal” learning is something they do for themselves.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 22 Feb 20
       
      To me, this is the most important point in all three of these articles. But this is such a complex issue in schools today. The pressure of all that students must learn and be prepared for has led us to a place where there is far less personal learning in schools. And at the same time, it would probably be more efficient (time-wise) to let project-based, personal learning meet the standards BUT we've also gotten to a place where funding cuts mean it's almost impossible to move away from the industrial model because the more personal project-based model requires more and different human resources. In other words, at the same time that there is more to learn and more concern about students having the engagement and perseverance to get there, we have less money to rebuild a system that currently gets us by with high student to teacher ratio.
  • If we can’t engage our kids in ideas and explorations that require no technology, then we have surely lost our way. Big questions, passion, personal interest are what should drive our use of technology, not the other way around.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 22 Feb 20
       
      Yes. This. So much of this. To me, this is what I love about the Blend/Flip cohort and AIW. Both of these concepts start with the kids and the content and how to engage them in the real ideas at the heart of the matter and then look at the best way of getting students to that goal with or without technology.
  • 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.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 23 Feb 20
       
      This reminds me of the online courses I have observed students complete over the past few years.
  • When that happens, the structures around the classroom leave little room for the kind of authentic, whole-child personalization many teachers dream of offering.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 23 Feb 20
       
      I know it is hard for me to give up structure with my Special Education students. This may be easier in personalized learning with students that have learned the skills to self-regulate and stay on task.
  • truly personalized learning experience requires student choice, is individualized, meaningful and resource rich.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 23 Feb 20
       
      I think we have students that will be successful with this learning. Some students may not be prepared. How do we determine which students can be successful?
  • It’s as if engaging them in learning without technology has become this impossible task.
    • tkofoot
      tkofoot on 23 Feb 20
       
      I do not believe in just the Google classroom. I believe in engaging students with the community, books, and conversation.
  • animates “competency-based progression,” “mastery learning,” and programs that tweak the “delivery of instruction.”
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      Could this also be at the center of the difference between credit recovery online/personalized learning and more robust project-based/personalized learning? If a program's goal is to get students the bare minimum of credits for a basic diploma (ala GED), then this style might make sense. If we're thinking of a broader, system-wide approach, then this attitude it definitely at the heart of a lot of fears about the automatization of education.
  • Simpler strategies, such as having kids choose, read, and discuss real books from the library may be more effective
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      This is what lives at the core of my department's belief in individual reading. Every Friday, students in English 9, English 10, English 11/12, and American Literature read a book of their choice. There are no assignments attached. This "simpler strategy" is based on Kelly Gallahger's work in Readicide.
  • By assigning the lecture at home, we’re still in charge of delivering the curriculum, just at a different time.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      THIS!!!! THIS 1000% times over! It takes twice if not three times as long to prepare a flipped lesson than a live lecture. This is a point most people don't want to talk about. We're still putting in the time and effort -- it just changes to outside of class time -- which puts the onus on us. Instead of completing the majority of my work during the school day, I'm completing the majority of it outside of school in the evenings and weekends.
  • The assumption here is that curriculum can be broken into little pieces, that skills are acquired sequentially and can be assessed with discrete, contrived tests and reductive rubrics.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 23 Feb 20
       
      Is this not what Standards Based/Referenced Grading believes? I am not at a SRG school, so I haven't gone through the process. My experience comes with a testing/data collection software our school is piloting called Performance Matters. All questions are tied to standards and wrapped up nicely-packaged in pretty color-coded data to allow teachers to quickly assess and regroup students based on ability or skill-demonstration. This sounds great - an easy to push students who already know the material and help students who don't - but it is testing actual growth or just test taking ability?
jhatcher

Create a personal learning environment with Symbaloo | Instructional Design Fusions - 0 views

instructionaldesignfusions.wordpress.com/...ning-environment-with-symbaloo

shared by jhatcher on 11 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • webmixes.
    • lkmace
      lkmace on 11 Feb 16
       
      Not familiar with webmixes? I'll need some further understanding with this. I'm excited to have more tech tools to use as my students are connected to their ChromeBooks 24/7.
  • Symbaloo is a visual, social bookmarking tool that makes it easy to access your personal knowledge management tools.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 23 Feb 20
       
      After reading through this information, the designers were very explicit with the how to videos and directions. It seems very simple to use. I think my students could easily use this and create their own board of tiles.
jhatcher

How To Create a Personal Learning Environment to Stay Relevant in 2013 | Online Learnin... - 0 views

onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/...nment-to-stay-relevant-in-2013

shared by jhatcher on 21 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • PLEs will help instructors not only stay relevant in his or her field, but will provide an opportunity to learn how to use tools that will enhance instructional methods and adapt to the changing paradigm.
    • katie50009
      katie50009 on 21 Jul 15
       
      I beleive this is key for all educators---we must all be learning and growing everyday as educators. If we stop growing or looking for ways to improve, or believe that we don't have to, we fall short for our students
  • Create a diagram of the PLE. The purpose of the diagram is to provide a framework for learning goals, identify tools and provide a digital footprint and record of the PLE.
    • lkmace
      lkmace on 10 Feb 16
       
      Wondering if a way to involve students with the design of their PLEs could start here with students creating a diagram that maps their interests and selecting Web 2.0 tools.
  • Our understanding of learning has expanded at a rate that has far outpaced our conceptions of teaching. A growing appreciation for the porous boundaries between the classroom and life experience…has created not only promising changes but also disruptive moments in teaching.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      This is such a key idea in educational technology. Our understanding about how people learn has exploded, thanks to lots of new research about the brain. However, research on teaching isn't quite there yet, so there are a lot of us who aren't sure the best way to implement technology to achieve the highest levels of success for our students.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The Instructor’s role has changed. The learner is moving to the center of the learning and teaching model, and relies upon a variety of sources for learning.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      What makes this harder is that this reality has not made it's way into the minds of many parents. Parents had very traditional experiences and they therefore tend to think and believe that it should still be that way, when in fact, our reality has changed. It's hard when parents make comments to students about what the classroom and teacher should be like....
  • Determine which Web 2.0
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      This can be quite the challenge because there are tons of new Web 2.0 tools coming out each year (seemingly every month!). It's hard to keep on top of and be able to diligently choose which tools will meet the intended need best.
    • jhatcher
      jhatcher on 23 Feb 20
       
      I agree with this! How to keep up? As teachers we have asked for our District to have coaches usher the best new apps to the teachers to try in our classroom. It's too hard to keep up on what we could be using. So far that idea has not really happened. Maybe it just has not happened YET?
jessed44

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www.teachonamission.com/blog

moodle_iowa

shared by jessed44 on 10 Feb 20 - No Cached
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