Ryan- Self Reflection

I have found through working with my group on this project I have encountered many new and interesting methods of assessment and evaluation I would have never thought of.  At first the idea of creating a blog seemed quite daunting for someone who is not at all technologically savvy, but it has definitely opened my mind and introduced me to ways that technology can be a huge benefit to the classroom.  I enjoyed looking into ways that Art and Drama could be used in other subject areas to help a student better understand topics like Geometry or History.  Creating a base that I can refer back to  get ideas from my fellow peers on methods of assessment has been quite valuable not only in my past placement but in looking towards future teaching goals for myself. 


http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&module=Rubistar&rubric_id=2618000&

Student Suspension and Keeping Students Academically Engaged

 My views remain mixed on what the role of the teacher should be if a student is suspended from school for an extended amount of time.  I believe firmly the concept that no child should be left behind and as someone who hopes to someday be educating my own students this leaves me to wonder about what can be done to make sure students are still being engaged and required to complete assignments and projects. Although a student is provided with the proper class material if their suspension is under five days what do we do if this student misses vital test review or in class presentation.   Can certain accomodations be made without putting the entire class behind and should we allow students to write missed tests for reasons such as bad behavior?

Teachers, adminstrators and  staff  need to work to find a way of  insuring that  students understand they are on vacation.Suspension or bad behavior should not be awarded with time away from school and the classroom environment.  Arranging designated times for them to write the test and making sure to be aware of assignment completion,  therefore is the responsibility of both the student and teacher and must be handled in an appropriate manner.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Various School Assessment Methods

With each type of method of testing, the knowledge of disadvantages often overshadows the benefits it carries. 

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-different-types-of-test-questions/

http://ar.cetl.hku.hk/am_mcq.htm

Multiple-choice questions
Advantages

• Quick for teachers to score. Can be done electronically
• Can cover a wide range of material
• Used to cover material from lower to higher thinking development.

Disadvantages

• Often test literacy skills: “if the student reads the question carefully, the answer is easy to recognize even if the student knows little about the subject” (p. 194)
• Provide unprepared students the opportunity to guess, and with guesses that are right, they get credit for things they don’t know
• Expose students to misinformation that can influence subsequent thinking about the content
• Take time and skill to construct (especially good questions).

True and False

Advantages-

• Quick
• Encourages students to read the question carefully as one vital point could make the entire answer wrong.

Disadvantages

• Unreliable, students can guess if they do not know an answer not a true representation of what the student has learned.

Creative Entry/ Short Answer

Advantages

• Students are required to follow instructions and use past knowledge as a method of further expanding on thoughts and ideas, possible consequences, Cause and Effect and creative output .
• strengthens writing skills as well as creativity while incorporating the elements being assessed.

Disadvantages

• Students who are not strong readers/ writers will struggle with this type of testing. 
• Leaves room for interpretation and less for testing of content area material.

Integrating Arts Into the School Curriculum

The arts have long been a vital piece for both a culturally rich and academically strong education.  Arts integration works well in creating a dialogue which allows students to articulate their sense of deep thinking through artistic application.  Arts integration have proven to accentuate more culturally diverse elements in a school or classroom which can show to have an even more widespread effect as seen with the Integrated Arts Academy project at H.O Wheeler, an elementary school in Burlington, Vermont that aims to reduce the amount of poverty and socio-economic inbalance through the development of a program which integrates art more fully into other subject areas.

Aspects and goals found in the arts curriculum need to be valued as much as in the Math and Science or Literacy subject areas.  Using them to compliment eachother and weave ideas together, working off one another to keep material relevant and relatable to all your students.  For teachers who are more traditionalist in their teaching methods or who may not see themselves as creative individuals or talented in a given arts focus the idea of incorporating something like Music or Drama into their school day lessons is a scary thing.  Collaborating with your fellow teachers and keeping yourself to date with current ideas and styles of learning through workshops or additional courses can help bridge that gap. 

Discovering lesson ideas in which you can combine both arts and non arts content together into one concrete idea challenges the thinking of the students and helps the teacher learn as well into the thought process of their students.  Using Dramatic elements to create a historical play or scene, students not only use their creative writing skills they are applying knowledge of historical information and strengthening communication and group collaboration activity.


http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/01/13/how-integrating-arts-into-other-subjects-makes-learning-come-alive/

Making Accomodations

Tests are often a stressful time for students and can feel quite overwhelming when one considers it as a culminating summary to everything you have learned in one unit.  A Student may perform well on assignments and quizzes so relying on a test at the end of the term to determine the overall mark may not represent an accurate picture of what the student truly knows and understands.  A student who struggles with reading or writing may require a scribe to dictate the information to orally. Allowing the student to write their tests or exams in a quiet environment that is not overly stimulating, taking the extra time needed and ensuring all students understand the rules explained at the beginning.
The overall impacts of assessment accommodation have remained unknown.

Several federally-funded research efforts are currently underway to investigate the impact of accommodations on test validity and reliability. Until we know more about the impact of assessment accommodations on test results, students with disabilities should be provided needed accommodations. The only alternative to this is to exclude students who need accommodations. In doing so, school districts and states are left with no data on these students. It is better to include and accommodate and look for ways to report test scores than to exclude students (NCEO, Policy Directions 8, Reporting Educational Results for Students with Disabilities).

Types of assessing such as Criterion-Referenced Testing could appear beneficial to those students who require accomodations as this method of testing looks specifically at a set criteria and examines if the student knows and understands the set goals or point of focus.

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/measeval/crnmref.html

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/NCEO/onlinepubs/archive/Policy/Policy7.html

Inquiry Based Learning and. Critical Thinking

is rote memorization and high stakes testing the best way to assess if we are engaging students in higher-order thinking? Encouraging students to participate in activities that strengthen skills of analysis and self-regulation should be incorporated more into the classroom at earlier stages of development. Students not only are engaging in methods of critical thinking but they also learn how to use Inquiry Based style learning effectively. Learning to hypothesize, question, infer and draw upon their own conclusions through their own process of deductive reasoning

   in the following article, Overtly Teaching Critical Thinking and Inquiry Based Learning, Zoeller et.al  claims a foundation or baseline must be laid for the Critical Thinking process to continue in future learning. A baseline can be defined as being derived from motivation and an intention .  Simple activities can be designed to engage students from a young age to get them more excited about the idea if Inquiry Based learning. helping the student through scaffolding to discover a way in which they can relate the information to something in their lives helps to strengthen the sense of interest and overall willingness to engage in active learning.

http://blog.heidisongs.com/2014/06/how-to-teach-critical-thinking-skills-to-young-children.html


http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-concept-of-critical-thinking/411


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqGHqC_IqhM


http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ839873.pdf

Relating Learning Goals to Classroom Activity

From the perspective of  someone hoping to go into the world of teaching someday soon, the idea of following a strict set of Curriculum Expectations and Learning Goals can appear quite daunting.  As anyone who has worked as a teacher or in an environment conducive to learning we know that every child in the classroom is different is unique.  While Learning Goals aid a teacher to maintain a sense of direction, achieving these for the students require aa fine balance, following the documents assigned by the ministry and making the necessary accomodations for the students in your classroom.

During my last placement in relating Learning Goals to my students it became apparent to me that learning vocabulary in a specific unit area would require a stronger development of Literacy Skills, which many of my students were struggling with.  Some of the students spoke English as a second language which made the use of conventional teaching strategies often confusing or irrelevant. Taking the opportunity to take a few extra steps to reach your end goal can be both mutually beneficial to the teacher in finding new creative learning techniques and the student.



















Making sure to go over Learning Goals and how you intend to achieve, which would be the Success Criteria demonstrated by the completion of various activities, assignments and tests throughout the unit will give student a point of reference to assess the relevance of what they are learning.  Students will be more motivated to learn if they can see how it will benefit them and what they can use the knowledge for in their everyday lives.  Going over Learning Goals with the class and keeping them on the board for reference allows me to make note of what elements have been covered and the material that needs to be further expanded upon.  It has also helped shape the direction of my lessons and given me motivation to find new activities and exercises that can be used to further ensure students will meet their Success Criteria requirements and take away meaningful knowledge with them.

Should we not be Enforcing More Inclusiveness??

Canada has the 9th highest rate of bullying in the 13-years-olds category on a scale of 35 countries¹
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/45838.html

http://www.activebeat.co/your-health/children/10-indications-that-your-child-is-being-bullied/8/


With Bullying and Suicide rates in our schools steadily increasing, as educators I believe it is important to address the issue bluntly and without the chance of further sidelining the issue.  Bullying and taunting occurs everyday in our classrooms whether we choose to acknowledge it as we should or "pretend" we did not hear it, because after all- admitting we feel helpless and unequipped is not what anyone wants to hear from an educator, but dealing with bullies in the classroom can leave the teacher feeling like a victim as well.  Being in a position of wanting to care and encourage your students how do you put blinders on and tell yourself " things will get better, everyone has hardships."  Finding ways to be more proactive is essential, Bully role-playing workshops, class discussions and talking with parents if you know something may be wrong. Taking on an awareness and implementing strict codes of conduct - calling out wrong behavior publicly, however harsh or controversial.  Once the bully senses that humiliation is not tolerated or deserved by anyone and that consequence is real and accountability is a skill we must all learn perhaps we can strive for a safer and supportive environment where diversity can truly thrive. When a child is not taking care of themselves properly at home and participating in an active healthy lifestyle that is vital to their physical and emotional well-being the effects will, in only a matter of time be evident in the classroom. These elements effect Assessment and Evaluation because when a child lives only in fear and isolation from the outside world, the last thing on their minds is coming to school or participating in the learning experience.  As teachers, parents, educators it is in all our best interests to work together with Teaching Administrators, parents and teachers to become aware of the challenges facing us before it is too late.  With  a background in Drama and the Theatre I enjoy bringing role- play skits into the classroom where students are given the opportunity to understand the perspectives of bullies, the bullied and the bystander.  When students find themselves in the role of the Bystander it is often difficult- perhaps for fear of becoming bullied themselves, to take a stand, but it is necessary and as educators we need to make sure how to enforce these steps so everyone in the school can contribute to a safe learning environment, where students are truly free to learn. 

Am I Being Helpful or Promoting Helplessness?

As a student teacher working with younger elementary level children, orchestrating lesson plans as well as having the opportunity to scribe for students during test times I have gained an understanding of some of the accommodations crucial to effective learning for all the students in a class.  The necessity to promote a student's own sense of discovery rather than simply drilling facts and words through rote practice and expecting that "lightbulb" moment to occur is not aiding the student in making connections for themselves and progressing through stages of deeper learning.  We are not able to properly assess understanding by simply observing how well a student can memorize a word or fact. Asking direct questions, gently guiding the students to the right path of focus without bombarding them with facts and abstract questioning. While providing more open ended questions for students in senior grades can provide a nice challenge and  potential for teachers to truly evaluate if a student is progressing smoothly to a stage of Formal Operational Learning, as we have learned from Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, through elementary school assessment it is vital to strengthen Concrete Development and ensure your class is seeing every step of their path, rather than attempting to take larger strides and miss some important points of the learning process.

Assignment Do-Overs

Through my student teacher placements and my own sense of self-reflection I have become much more sensitive and accepting towards different modes of teaching and assessing.  Naturally we do not all learn the same and so it is only reasonable as teachers we find ways to accommodate for all of our students so no child is left feeling that they have simply been overlooked.  Having the opportunity to teach my own elementary level classes I do believe that often times high levels of stress play an important aspect in distorting the results of a student's actual comprehension level of certain unit material.  A student should be given the opportunity for one "Do-Over" attempt on the test or assignment knowing the highest grade level they can achieve is ninety percent of the original total. Both grades received are then averaged together for a more accurate and fair grading system. This method provides students with more motivation knowing that they have an extra chance if needed and less stress on the first initial attempt. Through the opportunity to redo and learn through constructive criticism by the teacher the student is learning through scaffolding. The teacher is using the prior knowledge  the student has contributed on their first try. The student is guided to further learning through the teacher's guidance, but inevitably the student makes the final connections.