Types of Assessment

As a future educator, I know that I understand the purpose and need for grading objectively. To grade every student on the same basis, by the same standards, and to have them strive to meet the same goals is what I assume to be the “right” way to grade. With that said, I’ve always wondered – What about the things that have to be graded subjectively? To write a paper, give a speech or… write a blog post are all activities that lend themselves to subjective grading.

The different types and methods of assessment explained in Chapter 9 of Flint were very helpful. I especially enjoyed learning about Code Breaking & Text Participant as forms of assessment. Code Breaking describes how to assess learners on their abilities to decode, spell and understand patterns in the text. With this, it is obvious that knowledge and skills are being assessed and measured. From these measurements, teachers can grasp what level their students are on, and therefore determine how to best move forward. Text Participant, on the other hand, allows students to have multiple correct answers, or strategies for interacting with a text. I really like the excerpt from the text on page 283 that says “a more productive way to think about comprehension and students’ understandings of text is to consider the plausibility of a reader’s interpretation.” I think this is a great resource for assessing students and their work.

Parachutes

The parachute experiment at Haw River far exceeded the Bubble Activity from our previous visit. When performing the activity with the parachutes, out students were able to collect data that reinforced and helped to teach a concept. They were able to look at their parachutes as they fell to the ground, and gain a better understanding of how increased surface area slows an object as it falls.

The students we worked with this time were motivated and excited and that was great to see. They were definitely able to control this excitement though, as they were well behaved and more than willing to follow directions and instructions.

I found our students to be inquisitive and thoughtful. They readily offered hypotheses, possible cause and effect reactions, and activated their prior knowledge of observing parachutes. Though I find that this enthusiasm and excitement was the same in both the bubble and the parachute activities, during the latter, I observed a stronger, focused enthusiasm. These students seemed excited to be learning about parachutes, as opposed to being excited to play with bubbles.

Flint - Chapter 5

In my first grade class, I am currently observing Writer’s Workshop. In addition, I am observing and participating with conferences with these young writers. With this said, this chapter from Flint was a Godsend. I cannot tell you how unsure I felt and how many questions I had about how the workshops were set up, exactly what feedback to give my students, and how this connected to their emerging literacy. I was especially interested with the Sharing piece of a Writer’s Workshop. I see so many students get discouraged during the day. They don’t know how to spell a word, can’t find it in the dictionary, and their neighbors do not have the knowledge to help them. By giving them the chance to share their work at the end of WW though, I see students come alive. That may sound corny, but their eyes light up, they get excited, and the frustration of the activity seems to melt away.

The text draws in the fact that this shows how students interact with texts. This is something I have not seen, but will be looking to observe in the future. By understanding and listening to how a student interacts with a text they have created, I think that a teacher should be able to gain a general understanding of how this particular student interacts with many other texts. This is knowledge that can be used to a teacher’s advantage in helping a student excel.

ELL Observation

For my observation task, I observed an ESL teacher. I am placed in an ESL cluster class with 7 native Spanish speakers totaling a third of our classroom population. They receive ESL services for an hour a day, and the ESL teacher comes into the room, in lieu of having pull out services. What really astounded me during this observation may seem trivial, but I was absolutely amazed that the teacher spoke to the students in English almost the whole time! When I imagine ESL or ELL services, I picture a teacher speaking in a student’s native language, and using this language to teach them English.

Though this is my own personal assumption, I can’t help but imagine a teacher having a lesson on, say, birds. I imagine this teacher teaching the entire lesson in the student’s native language, and then translating what they have learned into English. Now that I think about and articulate this though, it seems ridiculous. That creates so much extra work for a specialist. Preparing a lesson and then translating information after a student has learned it seems illogical and redundant.

I was excited and pleased to see the ELL specialist working with the students on basic vocabulary words. They were performing exercises with flash cards and pictures. Each card had a picture on the front, and when flipped over, had the word in English. Underneath the English vocabulary word, very small, was the word in Spanish. It was interesting to see how many different words and explanations the students could come up with about one small picture on a card.

I can’t critique the tasks that I observed, but I can definitely praise them. I feel that I gained valuable information and practices for use as a future teacher. Who would have thought that flashcards on a pipe cleaner (twisted into a circle. WAY cheaper than buying metal rings)would have had such a great response from and impact on students.

Top to Bottom - Literacy Reflection

The Bottom-Up theory of literacy and the Top-Down theory of literacy are both blatantly obvious in their differences, and the fact that they are opposites of each other led me first to my belief that either one or the other may be employed in a classroom. The more I think about it though; I find that both of these models can be used in conjunction with one another in a classroom.

I think that many educators, myself included, when they plan the process for their students to learn to read immediately go to the Bottom-Up view. Literacy is associated with learning the letters of the alphabet, learning their sounds, how to sound out words and then, later, how to understand what the words that they are reading actually mean. I know that in my own schooling experience, a phonics based approach, like this one, was how I was taught to read. Even now, when I try to read a new word, I think of how to sound it out and once I have figured out how to read it, I will assign meaning to the word.

The Top-Down view, conversely, looks as the learner first. It tries to access their previous knowledge, their personal learning styles, their lives outside of the classroom and what fits a leaner’s needs best. It seems to me that students who learn in using the Top-Down process may learn to write more efficiently than those taught using Bottom-Up methods. They are exposed to many different types of literature and understand the semantics and syntax that goes into reading and writing.

I can see how these two strategies could easily fit together. All readers need to understand the alphabetic principle and have phonemic awareness. Additionally, all readers need to have their own learning styles and previous knowledge accessed. By combining these two processes together, I can see a student having a successful and positive learning experience.

Knowing Our Students - Kidwatching

I love finding ideas or concepts in our textbooks that reinforce our own thoughts and practices. It is almost like our classes are saying “Yes! You’ve got it! That’s a great way to do it.” In this Chapter 3 of Literate Lives, particularly, I am talking about the reference to Kidwatching, and its impact on how we, as teachers, can connect with and understand our students and their learning styles. I think that learning about your students will always be beneficial to their education. Not only is it more likely that they will understand the material better if it is geared towards them, their interests and their learning styles, but their excitement level will be raised and they will be more engaged.

I had a camper this summer who was obsessed with trains. You might think that “obsessed” is a little over dramatic, or an exaggeration. It isn’t. This kid constantly talked about coal trains, freight trains, locomotives, commuter trains, passenger trains, trams, monorails – you name it. Obviously, as a teacher, this would be an easy observation. Not all aspects of Kidwatching are in-depth or difficult. My camper was really upset one day because someone told him they didn’t like trains because they were bad for the environment, and he couldn’t understand why. So, he and I talked about how the smoke from some trains hurts the air – which would be the same as someone taking part of a track off of the ground. The train wouldn’t run as well. So if smoke hurts our air, the air can’t be used as much or as well as we would like it. This is just one of many examples of “teachable moments” that I believe are facilitated and helped by Kidwatching.

Kidwatching can help incorporate a student’s interests, their culture, their hobbies --- just about anything. To not take into account their interests, learning styles and other relevant information would really be doing them a disservice.