...when I start thinking about how to do things better next year. I still have about 12 weeks left in this school year and I'm already thinking about Day 1 for next year...ughh!!! But, I think all good teachers probably do this!
Tonight, I've been perusing my twitter PLN, browsing old hashtags I used to frequent and came across @shareski and a tweet that really intrigued me...
Tonight, I've been perusing my twitter PLN, browsing old hashtags I used to frequent and came across @shareski and a tweet that really intrigued me...
If students own the learning the only assessment that matters is "What have you learned?" Our job is to help them articulate the answer.
— Dean Shareski (@shareski) March 1, 2013
This tweet led me to another and eventually to a blog post about assessment by Bill Ferriter...more specifically having students assess their own learning.
Students can and should be doing more assessment of themselves. Ask @plugusin shareski.ca/y/27d
— Dean Shareski (@shareski) March 5, 2013
Something I've implemented lately is a unit test reflection. My students go back through their math test identifying if they missed a problem due to a simple mistake (which they can fix on their own) or a lack of knowledge (and need more instruction). I then set up structured tutorials based around the concepts students have identified that they need more instruction for. In addition to identifying areas for improvement, students also identify their successes. You can download a copy of the document I've been using here.
Bill Ferriter has a very similar form he uses after tests which can be found on his blog here. I love his form and will probably change a few things about mine based on the sample Dean has provided.
This is a great reactive approach, but I've been trying to be more proactive in my approach to supporting students. Well, Dean has an answer for that too! I love his Unit Overview Sheet which can be found here! His students refer to this page at the beginning of most lessons to to focus on the objective for the day and then again at the end of a lesson to evaluate where they are in terms of mastery of the objective. He encourages students to update their position of mastery as they learn more and become more confident with the material.
I can't wait to try it out myself in my math class. I just spent an hour developing one for an upcoming 7th grade math unit on 3D geometry. Here's a little preview...
And you can download the full document here. Now that it's made, Bill has left me some insight to making it work!
You should definitely head over to Bill's Blog to check out his thoughts.
This is a great reactive approach, but I've been trying to be more proactive in my approach to supporting students. Well, Dean has an answer for that too! I love his Unit Overview Sheet which can be found here! His students refer to this page at the beginning of most lessons to to focus on the objective for the day and then again at the end of a lesson to evaluate where they are in terms of mastery of the objective. He encourages students to update their position of mastery as they learn more and become more confident with the material.
I can't wait to try it out myself in my math class. I just spent an hour developing one for an upcoming 7th grade math unit on 3D geometry. Here's a little preview...
@kdhoward2 : I love it!Well done.Now the key is giving the kids chances to refer back to the document on a regular basis.
— Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) March 6, 2013
Just stumbled onto your blog and the first post I see is this! Love it- I try to stuff like this but I like the idea of STARTING with this.
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