Assignment #8: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 8: Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback.
Remember: Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategy of Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment.
• What is your purpose when you set objectives and/or feedback in your classroom?
• How do you set objectives in your current classroom instruction?
• When and how do you communicate classroom objectives to your students?
• What kind of feedback do you provide for your students?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 8 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to try out with your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Eight: Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback. Click on the “comment” link below.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/prompts to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Eight: Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• The generalizations related to setting objectives explain that goals should be clear and specific, but also flexible enough for students to personalize the goals. Consider the objectives you are expected to use, that is, those provided by your school, district, or state. To what extent do you feel they meet the criteria of clarity, specificity, and flexibility?
• How does the information in Figure 8.3 about "Corrective Feedback" shed light on your own experiences with giving and receiving feedback? For example, does it surprise you that research indicates that simply telling students whether an answer is right or wrong can have a negative effect on their achievement?
• How might you change how you communicate objectives to students and parents?
• How will you monitor how well students are meeting their learning objectives?
• How will you engage students in the feedback process (consider use of rubrics)?
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C. Practice
A strategy from this chapter that I want to try is having students write their own personal goals that accompany my general goals for the units in United States History. I liked the discussion around the need for the teacher’s goals to be specific yet general enough to allow students to write their own personal goals from, like state and national standards are. This idea prompted me to download the national social studies standards for U.S. History 5-12. Even though unit and chapter goals in textbooks are often based on national standards, they are much more focused or narrowed than national standards. I like the idea of having students begin by seeing the really big picture, national standards, and then involving them in the process of creating personal learning goals from them. Part of their unit grade could be based on how well they defined and met their goals. I could require students to keep a notebook that has the national US History standards listed with a personal goal of their own written under a couple of sub-points for the 10 Eras. They could be required to keep notes showing progress in meeting their goals. I could create a general rubric around identifying and meeting goals and assess each student’s notebook as we work through the unit, making sure I provide feedback to everyone by the end of the unit. I could also have students share what they’ve learned in small groups and assess each other’s progress using a rubric.
D. Final Strategy Reflection
There were a number of ideas from this chapter that influenced my thinking. The research on feedback was surprising. I would not have thought that merely providing students with information about whether an answer is right or wrong can negatively effect achievement. It made me think about how I discus test results which, I’m not proud to admit, often just involves handing back the corrected test. I now realize the importance of talking about why certain responses are right and others are wrong. I need to figure out a way to do this that would allow prompt feedback for students who have taken the test but wouldn’t give away unfair amounts of information about the test to students who haven’t yet taken it.
As both a teacher and a learner I appreciate the idea that the best feedback tells students where they stand in relationship to gaining proficiency on specific targeted knowledge. The traditional grading system tends to tell students where they stand in relationship to other students. I worked five years for standards based districts in Alaska where students were placed at knowledge levels rather than grade levels. We assessed students on individual standards at a designated level . Students had to demonstrate proficiency on all the standards at a particular level to advance to the next level. In such a model, students could look at their assessments and know exactly what they were proficient in and what they needed additional help with. Students were able to take more ownership in their educational process. Rubrics can provide that kind of clarity for students about how they perform on the specific targets of knowledge being assessed. Since working in the standards based districts, I have often incorporated rubrics as assessment tools. It’s important for students to think about what it will mean to be successful. Sometimes it’s good to involve students in the creation of the rubric.
One change I want to make is to involve students more in monitoring how well they are meeting their learning objectives. The fact that feedback is the most powerful single modification to my teaching that I can make to enhance student achievement means that I need to make sure I’m providing plenty of opportunities for good feedback to be given.
Assignment #8
Part C:
This coming school year, I am going to be lucky enough to have a daily chunk of time during which I will be able to conference and work with students individually. During this time, I plan to set personal goals with students. I will use the idea from the text of presenting first the main objectives of my unit, and then allowing students to create more personal goals for that unit either on their own or with my help. I also plan to provide specific feedback to students during this time period on tests, projects, and assignments. I am excited to be able to provide for them a more individual and verbal opportunity for feedback, as I know that this will help students to set meaningful goals and to be more successful.
Part D:
Currently, I feel that the learning objectives set by my district are very specific, and clarity of the objectives and flexibility for students is not always present. However, I feel that I can remedy this situation as a classroom teacher by making greater learning goals very clear for students, as well as allowing them the opportunity to set personal goals, as I mentioned above.
The discussion of Corrective Feedback served to remind me of what I know; all feedback should begin with a positive, and then the discussion of errors and a plan to remedy them should follow. This seems to be a basic idea, as I am sure that no one would like the feeling of completely negative feedback. Due to this, it does not surprise me that simply a “correct or incorrect” style of feedback creates a negative response for students. I feel that if a student does not receive any praise on positive aspects of their work, then no pride in their achievement has been inspired, thus halting any further desire to achieve. A negative response is defeating and provides no information regarding how to improve.
Overall, I would like to more consistently tell students the main goal of a unit or activity. I think that all too often we tell students things like, “We are going to learn about exploration!” without giving them any idea that we really want them to learn something more deep or specific (i.e. How did European Exploration change the world?). I think that to post the overall learning objective of a unit would be immensely beneficial for students, as well as the inclusion of these goals in my weekly newsletter home to families so that they are kept aware of what their child will be learning.
I plan to monitor student achievement and work towards learning goals through conference times and discussion of what they are doing to work toward their goals. I will also continue to use formative assessment methods to help drive my instruction so that I can ensure that students have the opportunities necessary to reach their goals. I also plan to utilize self-monitoring and scoring of work by students. For example, in many of my writing units, I will be asking students to score their own writing, or the writing of a peer, using the state scoring guide. Rubrics will help facilitate this in other subject areas, as mentioned in the text.
The above mentioned practice of partner and self scoring of work will help students to become more engaged in the feedback process. Not only will students need to score their work and the work of others, but they will need to be able to justify the assessment that they have given. In doing this, I think that students will have to take a hard look at their work in a way that they have not previously done. I also plan to engage them in feedback via conferences with me regarding homework, project, and test scores.
Colleen - I agree that all too often, test feedback can take on the form of simply passing it back to students. It is a great deal of work to give specific feedback to all students for all tests, even though we know it to be most beneficial. For me, I think that to provide a higher level of feedback, it will need to take on the form of individual conferencing, small group conferencing, whole group discussion, and even some written feedback.
Cassandra:
Good luck with your individual conferencing. I agree that that's a wonderful way to motivate students with feedback. It's great that you have time set aside daily for that to happen. I really liked what you said about always starting with a positive when giving feedback. I agree that everyone is more open to hearing what they can still improve on if they first hear about something they've done well.
Thanks for your comments Colleen and Cassandra. Colleen – what a great idea to have students choose personal goals within your more broad goals within a given unit of study. Isn’t it scary when you actually download the state standards within a curriculum area and actually realize how impossible it would be to actually teach each of these standards well?!?! Your idea of having kids “jigsaw” their learning will at least give students exposure to learning in areas outside of their own area of expertise. Cassandra – are you familiar with The Sisters and their CAFÉ Menu? If you are planning to confer and set reading goals with your students, they by far have the best system that I’ve come across yet. Check out their book, The Daily Café. I think you will definitely see lots of benefits from using the Partner and Self Scoring of work….the problem is always finding the time and balance for everything!
Chuck Camp
Assignment #8
C.
Allowing the students to make personal goals is a great way to help them gain a sense of ownership in their learning. I often remind my students that need to assume part of the responsibility for their learning, instead of being a passive learner, and having them create their own goals fits in perfectly with this. The sentence stems would also help them to get started and the list could grow with each new unit until they are creating their own sentence stems. I usually have a check off list for the different units so they can keep track of their progress and be aware of what they still need to finish but I think I can have places on this list where they can write their personal goals too. Then everything is together and they will be reminded of their own goals and not just what they still need to do.
D.
I’m not sure when I began sliding off giving consistent feedback but I need to have that personal goal in large red letters so I’m reminded to not let papers to be corrected begin to pile up to where my comments become fewer and tend to be about what’s wrong. It’s very easy to fall into that hole and blame it on not having enough time. Plus, I’ve been a right or wrong teacher too often. So, I’m going to make enough time, make it a priority, and look more at what’s done correctly so my comments have a better balance to them. As I read this part of the chapter it all came back to me from the college days, when I absolutely hated getting back papers with only a grade, because I was always hungry for the comments especially those with praise on them for what I did well. On written pieces my students have to get someone else to do a last check on their editing, but I like the idea of another student writing feedback to another student.
With each of the major projects that culminate a unit, my students get a scoring sheet, listing each part of the assignment they needed to finish, plus they score themselves on effort, neatness, on-time, editing, etc. They turn this into me and I’m always surprised at how brutally honest they are, and then they take the work home and have a parent do the same thing. Then we sit down individually and looking at their score, their parent’s score, and the work itself we determine their grade together. There is a value range for each item so they know what score they can get. The comments sent in from parents are always interesting for me and the student. Most parents tend to stay in touch with me more often through the year so our communication is open and active.
I haven’t used Rubrics very often, like in the text, but I can see the benefits because it provides more clarity as to the expectations for the student. What I hope to do is somehow combine the scoring sheets I use with the rubrics.
Chapter 8:
Part C:
The one strategy that I will try out this year is for students to set goals for themselves. I think this could be very beneficial for students in many areas. I think I will set up contract for students to put their goals on. I am thinking the contracts may vary from student to student depending on what they need to accomplish. For example, I have a student who has trouble turning homework in so his contract will have to do with turning homework in. Another one may not know his times tables and so that might be his goals. If I have a student struggling in an area of reading like reading with expression then that might be his goal. I want students to have ownership of what goals they will set but also I will make sure they are goals that can be accomplished and are worthwhile. I want to weave their goals into the goals I have which are the goals the state and district wants them to meet.
Part D:
I feel that the objectives provided by the district are very clear and specific. I do think that there is a lot that we have to teach and not enough time. I think the district objectives are much more clear and paint a better picture for me of what I need to teach be than the states, which can be a little unclear at times. Figure 8.3 did surprise me and it made me start to think of how I need to give feedback. My goal this year is to give feedback more timely and for it to have some sort of an explanation. The feedback that I usually is based upon the district standards on the report cards but I need to add more comments that have explanation, not just, "good job" or "way to go."
I think that one thing I need to do this fall is before any type of unit or project I need to be more clear and specific in the objectives that I have so both the student and parents understand what I want. Using rubrics more often may help me be more clear in what the learning objectives are.
C. I like the idea of the use of contracts for goal setting for students. Especially at the high school level, kids seem to really appreciate the opportunity to work at their own pace and have as much autonomy in their learning as possible. In the past, I have used contracts in my higher-level French classes to provide students an independent way to work through reviewing the various grammatical tenses. They were given review packets and a checklist of tenses. Then they had to take a quiz on each tense and could not move on until they had received a 95% on each quiz. The students responded very well to this and it seemed to increase their confidence going into IB exam preparation time. I will probably do this again now that I’m teaching IB French this year.
D. I think that at my new school our objectives will be fairly easy for our students to personalize their goals. Goal setting is a priority at our school for everyone from the administration to the students. We are expected to personalize the school wide goals into our own goals each year. No, I wasn’t surprised that giving kids meaningful feedback was key to student learning. I try to give my students constructive feedback, although I know that I could do a better job with it. Providing feedback in a timely fashion is also a challenge given the increasingly busy nature of schools. I provide my students and their parents with clear guidelines and objectives at the beginning of the year. I could improve that by communicating more regularly with them during the rest of the school year via email, newsletters, etc. Monitoring student objectives is important and one way to do that is to hold mini-conferences with students on a regular basis. This is something that I have done in the past, but could be done more consistently. I use rubrics regularly, but one thing that I could do more of is having students provide more of their own feedback. I like the idea of kids being able to regularly chart their improvement and I could see where that could be very motivating for them.
Chuck,
I sympathize completely with your comments about papers piling up to be marked and only focusing on the negative. I think that is a challenge shared by most teachers(including me) and is something that we need to constantly remind ourselves to do. My goal this year is to try to be do marking in smaller chunks and right away so that it doesn't pile up and become overwhelming.
C.
The classroom practice that I would like to focus on in my classroom is in the area of providing feedback. I have been working on using rubrics in my classroom. More specifically, next year, I will be using a rubric to let my students know how they are doing on their reading responses. My rubric includes expectations for length of entry, use of a variety of comprehension strategies, understanding of text, proper us of grammar, paragraph organization, and percent of entries completed. I also plan to include one or two specific sentences that will help students better understand what they did correctly or need to improve on. By collecting and scoring responses frequently, I hope to provide students useful feedback.
D.
Timely corrective feedback is something I struggle with in my own class. Part of my frustration with my struggle to give timely feedback is that I know as a student myself how much I value and appreciate feedback. Yet, I still find it very difficult to find the time to give my own students timely feedback. My frustration is part of why I am altering my curriculum. I will be adding time to conference (hopefully frequently) with my students about their reading and writing. This should better help me monitor my students’ learning. Also, I am going to be using rubrics, like I said above. The rubrics should help me better communicate my objectives to both students and parent. Having students score themselves with rubrics is something I am interested in trying. Hopefully changes to my curriculum approach and using rubrics will help me stay up with all of the grading, which should make giving feedback less overwhelming, hopefully.
Well, I am pleased to report that my school year has officially begun. I had my first day with the kids, 6th, 7th & 8th graders in classes for theatre arts, drama, and technical theatre and production.
You know I spent the past two weeks with my new colleagues here and they are some of the best teachers and people I’ve met in general. But perhaps because I am a formerly very poor elementary and middle school student, I have to admit I get that old sort of itchy, anxious feeling when all I get to do is talk to teachers. To be sure, I make them feel the same. I guess my point is I don’t really relax, have fun and get motivated until my little learning partners, the students arrive, and gosh, what a nice group of kids.
These guys come from all over the world, from no less than 52 different countries. Some of them are rail car maintenance foremen’s children, others’ parents work for the oil industry and still others are local kids whose parents have pulled themselves up by their boot straps to become successful business owners.
My point is I find the whole idea that I am the ‘teacher’ and they are the ‘students’ a bit silly. For me to sit and pontificate would just be goofy. These guys have lived more places and know more culture than I ever could. They have seen more types of theatre, and all forms of entertainment, western and otherwise then I probably ever will.
Sure I have read Aristotle’s Poetics and they haven’t and I can spout what makes Brecht, well, Brechtian, but what is humbling is what they bring to it when I give them the rough outlines for this stuff that I would and most probably couldn’t.
They have a much better idea of how these revolutionary thinkers will serve to help them be sublime when they act, write or direct for the stage someday. So I am pleased to say that what I started them out doing today is writing their own rules of thumb, rules for performance, rules for drama with a capital D and drama with a little d.
Yeah, they have to put it in the language of theatre traditions like Greek or Noh or Sanskrit; but at the end of the day they will leave my class with having identified how they think you can be and choose work that is, above all, stage worthy.
part 2
To give an example, years ago my students and I talked about ensemble work in my drama class after acting lab work with Commedia Dell’Arte improv from Italy. I posed them a question, “How do you know when something was just good practice while you were playing around during improv practice with the others and when you had hit pay dirt? Found something you’d like to put on stage and could even charge money for? “
One girl thinks about it and says,” It’s like when you go to the circus. The Trapeze performers go out there and take a huge risk and make like a big deal when the net is removed and then, try something that has only every been attempted with the safety of a net. Then they do it again without a net and everyone loves them for taking this huge risk to entertain them.”
Then the clowns come out, dressed like fools, set up their tight rope with a net and all but like two inches off the floor. Then they copy the trick and then do it again only after making a big deal about removing their net that was actually resting on the floor which, by the way, got hooked up on the tight rope itself. Of course they do the trick with other clowns helping them and everyone howls with laughter and loves them for that just as much as the trapeze artists.
Why should the audience love them and consider their little super safe show so stage worthy, so funny?
The answer is they took the risk of playing the fool and letting everyone laugh at them and feel superior to them.
And that’s my tight rope principle of stage worthiness. People love it when you go out there and risk all for them and so they can have a good time!
If a kid is out on stage and trying to play it safe, I have been calling it the “Tight Rope Principle” ever since.
All my actors know what I mean when I say, “ Come on, where’s your tight rope?”
So this year all my students will be asked how they know when they have a chance at reaching the sublime with their entrances and exits, with their scenery designs and costume designs and with their acting and writing. They should all leave my class with a quote from themselves they can scrawl back stage in the green room to inspire others in years to come.
Hi all...just wanted to let you know that I've been reading your responses on my Iphone...but I do not have Internet access on my computer (we're on vacation on Florida for 2 weeks). I've been reading blog on phone and responding in a word document on computer, which I'll post this Friday 8/20 :)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects! Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects! Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects! Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects! Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects! Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
Thanks Chuck, Rhett, Gina, Heidi, and Jeff for your comments. I’m sorry for the delayed response, but I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks and have been using my Iphone to read all of your comments and responding to them in a word document to post when I get back…no internet service here. Chuck – I love the idea of students adding on to their sentence stems list with each unit, as well as monitoring their own progress towards their goals. I think the biggest piece to grading student work is making sure that what we’re asking them to put time and effort into doing is work our time and effort in scoring and grading. What great way to build community between school and home by having parents be a part of your grading process on your major projects! Rhett – I love the idea of setting up contracts for student goals…you may even want to take a spin off Chuck’s idea and get the parents involved. You are lucky that your district standards are clear, as with many districts, ours are a muddy mess. Best of luck this year as you try out using rubrics with some of your projects!
Gina – You are right, by this stage of the game, autonomy takes on a huge importance. Kids are preparing themselves to be independent contributors to society…individual goal setting is a necessity for them, and conferring along the way is a perfect way to ensure they get there with your support. Heidi – I think using rubrics to assess students reading responses (ie. Reading Response Notebook) is a great idea. You might want to let students know that you will assess one time a month (collect ¼ of class each week) so that it doesn’t get overwhelming. I also suggest keeping the rubric generic so that it applies to each of your units throughout the year…I worked with one teacher last year, and she felt strongly about individualizing for each unit of study, but I think students benefit from consistency. ??? I firmly believe that conferencing with your students, or even checking in during small strategy groups, that you will be able to support students towards achieving their goals!!! Jeff – Wow!!! You started already – congrats…I’m glad you are geared up for the time spent with your new “learning partners” (love that phrase by the way). How exciting to be able to participate in such an exciting learning environment (for both you and the students)…have a great journey together. Let me also just say, that I have always shied away from the “theater” groups…but you sure make it sound interesting:)
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