Assignment #8: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 8: Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback.
ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE READ THE NOTE BELOW!!!
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 D to the blog. We’re trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. 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).
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?)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Chapter 8: Setting objectives and providing feedback
When talking about setting goals in the classroom I feel that I do not have a lot of room for “being flexible”. I do not want to blame the curriculum, the grade level or the school but it is a reality that we need to face as teachers; we have goals we want our students to meet in order to be successful in the state/district assessments. It is imperative that students meet the goals set by the district and/or the state in order to make adequate progress. Besides, schools are rated based on the performance of the students in these tests. We know as teachers that poor scores reflect poor teaching which is translated in low rating among other schools. In this time of economical crisis we cannot afford not having the financial aid we require because of not adequate progress.
The goals that my students have to meet are very clear and specific to me but they are not flexible (unless a student has an IEP in place). I always let my students and their parents know the benchmarks they need to accomplish at the end of their grade level at conferences. The students do not set their goals, they are mostly “informed” of the goals but they realize these goals are a way to measure their learning process. I have to say that the goals are, besides clear, very realistic. The expectations are related directly to the grade level and the cognitive development of the student. In a bilingual classroom students have a very rigorous curriculum, therefore the goals they have to meet are as rigid as the complexity of the concepts.
I monitor my students’ progress every two weeks by testing their reading, math and language skills. We have diverse evaluative tools that we administer to the students and that are scientifically proven such as DIBELS/IDEL tests, district math assessments and ELPA language test too. I let parents know when the tests are going to take place so that they can help students review their concepts. After the tests are done I inform the students and their parents of the results. I do believe that corrective feedback is necessary. To me, the feedback I give to my students becomes the compass they need in order to know if their learning process is going in the right direction. I also believe that as a first grade teacher I have the important mission of instilling in my students how testing and its seriousness will affect them throughout their lives as students.
I really like the generic rubric presented in this chapter I am thinking about adapting it into my teaching. I also want to encourage my students to use it in order for them to become more critical of their learning process.
Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback: Throughout reading the chapter I was reminded of many things and felt encouraged to try different things. I was reminded to use a KWL chart which can be a great way for students to learn and teachers to plan a unit. I began to wonder how students would benefit if you told them the lesson objective at the beginning of a lesson. Certain types of students could really benefit from being able to know what the goal of the lesson was and give them an area to focus on. My school requires us to have goals, but they are not strict that has to be stated at the beginning of the lesson. I know some schools that each student must know the objective for each lesson and could possibly be asked what it was by an administrator. Objectives are good for teachers to have because it helps them better focus on the lesson at hand. As the book was saying, goals should be flexible enough for students to personalize. I believe it would be beneficial to have a very general goal and then depending where a student is at they can make the goal more personal to them. I would like to try this at some point this year.
As I reflect on Figure 8.3 I can see the effect of various types of feedback. I can even see these in my own classroom. If I just give a student a paper back without any feedback they are less apt to understand a concept. When I explain why something is wrong and we work on the assignment together they are able to better grasp the concept. There was one assignment this year that students did not understand and after we retaught the concept students could easily correct their answers. Students usually don’t like having to correct their answers but it has been proven to me time and time again how beneficial it is for a student.
I monitor student’s understanding in various ways. Many times it depends on the subject and how we have talked about this subject depends on how I know if they are learning objectives. I like having the flexibility to come up with various ways to make sure students are learning what they are supposed to learn. I appreciate the two rubrics that the book shows about providing feedback. This would be a great way to help parents know how their student is doing in a subject. Using this as communication with parents I think would be very beneficial in being able to track how their student is doing.
This chapter brings about many good topics for reflection and many great resources.
Liliana, I would still say it's important for students to have some choice and participation in setting goals. Perhaps there might be a way develop social, behavioral or personal goals at the beginning of the year or each term.
Karissa, I would agree that students absolutely would benefit from knowing the goal of the lesson before beginning the work.
Post a Comment