Assessment, Curriculum, etc.

The article on assessment is something I really found interesting and helpful. I wish more of my teachers in middle and high school had given me rubrics before I was to hand in a project. I think a rubric will help hold a student accountable. They can not say they did not know something was to be included in their project or assignment if they were given the rubric ahead of time. A rubric needs to be specific, and if it is detailed enough, it will assist in saving a teacher time in grading because they too can just follow the rubric. I also think rubrics help teachers be less bias in their grading. I think “self-assessments” are very useful tools for the classroom for both students and teachers. A teacher can know where their students are and if they understand what it is they are supposed to comprehend. I also think it is a way for students to reflect on what they are doing and be honest with themselves about their progress/success.

In the article on curriculum, I found myself underlining the announcement to “anticipate obstacles.” As I have learned from working in Radford these past few weeks, there is never going to be that perfect day where all of your plans go exactly as you have them written out. We are all human, and a teacher needs to be flexible to problems and extenuating circumstances. A teacher must remind him/herself that there are going to be times when plans will have to change and resources will not always be available. I also think it is extremely important that instructors periodically remind students of what they are trying to accomplish in the ‘long run.’ (Recursive teaching, where the instructor circles back around to make sure students understand and are achieving the objectives. 262) Index cards for reflection/questions at the end of a class are also a very useful tool to understanding how a student is doing/what they’ve done for the day. I agree that when we plan, “we must include time to dream and time to master, time to study and time to learn.”

In the M&M reading, I found myself again thinking about group work and its effectiveness in the classroom. I found the five important features that a teacher must consider when making groups/group work to be very helpful. Those five components being: size, stability, selection, roles, and self-consciousness (37). For me, roles are very crucial to a group’s success because there is always going to be a student that does not want to do anything. Roles make sure all group members are responsible for something, and that without their contribution, the group would not be as successful. Learning is very much a social experience, yet it can also be an individual activity. I liked working on individual projects because it gave me more freedom to express myself. Individual projects also gave me the liberty of working at my own pace and going about a project the way I wanted to. I liked the idea Nancy Johnson suggested on page 41 about silent dialogue, sketch to stretch, and also the Quaker read. I want to use all three in my teaching. I really like students responding to other students in a very non-threatening, yet meaningful and stimulating, way.