8Y01 AER Artifact

Teacher Candidate: Laura McClelland     

                                                                                   

DIGITAL PORTFOLIO: ASSESSMENT PAGE AER Strategy Form
Growing Success Principles & Policies	Curated Resources ·      Minimum of 3 sources for each policy	My Professional Learning Goals ·      1 goal for each policy	Strategies for Meeting My Goals ·      1 strategy for each goal
Fundamental Principles
Policy 1 Learning Skills & Work Habits	Self-Regulation Look Fors. Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board. Retrieved from MOE_LookforsChartSelfRegulation.doc Shanker, Stuart. (summer 2012) The Self-Regulating Student. Learn: The Magazine of BC Education, 2. Retrieved from   LearnMagazine_Summer_2012.pdf Schwarz, Jordana. (2014, Sept 22) Putting the ‘Self’ in Self-Regulation. Retrieved from http://www.boomeranghealth.com/blog/occupational-therapy/putting-self-self-regulation/	I would like to become more familiar with the self-regulation learning skill, and how students can improve it, as this is the one I have the least experience with and one some of the students in my placement struggle with.	I will find sources clearly defining self-regulation for me and will work with my associate teacher for ways to assess, evaluate, and improve student self-regulation
Policy 2 Performance Standards: The Achievement Chart	Question Types and the Achievement Charts. Retrieved from teacherweb.com Blooms-Question-Types-and-the-Achievement-Charts.doc. Beckett, Craig. Achievement Chart Activities. Retrieved from achievement_chart.docx. Policy to Practice: Gathering the Evidence. Bluewater District School Board. Retrieved from AL_Section3.pdf	I want to learn more about how to appropriately identify what tasks in the classroom qualify as what category of knowledge and skills e.g. does this component of the presentation relate more to application or thinking?	I will increase my understanding of the different performance standards by learning different types of activities/tasks to do with each of the knowledge types, so it eventually becomes more intuitive to make rubrics.
Policy 3 Assessment FOR Learning & AS Learning	Diagnostic Assessment in Support of Student Learning. Ministry of Education. Retrieved from ppm155.pdf Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind. (2006). Retrieved from rethink.pdf Assessment for Learning Curriculum Insert. (2010). Retrieved from www.etfo.ca http://goo.gl/T6dbMt	My goal is to learn more about effective tools for diagnostic assessment and how I can best use the information I receive from diagnostic assessment activities	I will research different diagnostic assessment activities and discuss them with my associate teacher. I will try out these strategies during my practicum to help inform my unit planning.
Policy 4 Evaluation	Reporting Student Learning: Guidelines for Effective Teacher-Parent-Student Communication. (2010). Retrieved from /Users/lauras/Dropbox/Term 1/8Y01/Reporting+Student+Learning-1.pdf Wolanski, Aimee. The Power of Observation. Peel District School Board. Retrieved from http://eyeonkids.ca/professional-resources/ the_power_of_observation.pdf Heick, Terry. The Question Every Assessment Should Be Able to Answer. Retrieved from http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/assessment/the-most-important-question-every-assessment-should-answer/	I want to learn more about gathering evidence for evaluation. Although I understand collecting student work, I’d like to know more about observation and conversation.	I plan to look at the observational notes my associate teacher and other teachers at my practicum school make, to see if there is a format that I would like to adopt for myself. There is no one perfect way to do things, as long as it makes sense and is able to be used effectively in evaluation.
Policy 5 Reporting Student Achievement	Reporting Student Learning: Guidelines for Effective Teacher-Parent-Student Communication. (2010). Retrieved from /Users/lauras/Dropbox/Term 1/8Y01/Reporting+Student+Learning-1.pdf Workman, John. The Characteristics of a Good Report Card. (2015, 1 May). Ontario Report Cards. Retrieved from http://www.ontarioreportcards.com/ontario-report-card-blog/-the-characteristics-of-a-good-report-card A Guide to Creating Meaningful Report Card Comments. (2009, October). Halton District School Board. Retrieved from Elem Report Guide '09-'10.pdf HWDSB Evidence of Learning Directive. Retrieved from Evidence-of-Learning-Directive.pdf	It’s hard to pick just one learning goal for reporting, because to me, making report cards seems like it would be the most tedious part of being a teacher because there are many different sections that you have to get exactly right, and there are many exceptions to those rules (with IEP, ELL, etc.). I am most interested in learning how to make effective comments on student report cards and to organize my time so I do not go crazy writing report card comments!	I can accomplish this through reading through many of the comment banks available online and through my associate teacher to see the tone and correct language to use when making comments of my own.
Policy 6 Students With Special Education Needs	Differentiated Instruction Educator Package: Facilitator’s Guide—Assessment for Learning. Retrieved from http://edugains.ca/newsite/di/index.html Wormeli, Rick. Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom. (2006). New York: Stenhouse Publishers. Retrieved from fairisntalwaysequal.pdf Learning for All: A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, K to Grade 12. (2013). Ministry of Education. Retrieved from LearningforAll2013.pdf	Special education is of particular interest to me, but if I had to pick one learning goal, it would be to learn how to modify assessment and assignments for students with exceptionalities that helps them celebrate gains they’ve made during the year, however small.	The resources I have compiled will be helpful in accomplishing my goal (especially the Wormeli book, which has been interesting so far). It is also important to immerse myself in experiences with students with exceptionalities so I can learn from students themselves what will make them feel most comfortable in the classroom (because it is different for everyone).
Policy 7 English Language Learners	Learning for All: A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, K to Grade 12. (2013). Ministry of Education. Retrieved from LearningforAll2013.pdf Guidelines for the Assessment of English Language Learners. (2009) www.ets.org Retrieved from ell_guidelines.pdf Assessment Tools and Strategies: Language Proficiency Assessment. (2012) Learn Alberta Retrieved from http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/languageproficiencyassessment.html	I have quite a few ELL students in my practicum classroom, so I would like to learn how to create tasks, assignments, and tests that help push them without overwhelming or alienating them with “bad grades.”	I hope to work with the ELL resource teacher in my practicum class in addition with my associate teacher to gain assessment strategies for ELL students.

8P29 Post 11

I like to hope my tests will be more reasonable than that.
"Math Test Joke on Professor's Door." Retrieved from
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/hilarious-note-posted-maths-teachers-4565393

The more I spend time in the classroom, and attend the math course at Brock, the more I realize how different math class is now from when I was a child, and it is definitely a change for the better. There are far more activities and collaborative work compared to just sitting at your seat and answering textbook questions and there seems to be a greater focus on finding different ways to assess student learning than merely taking tests.

Of course, doing practice questions in the textbook or taking quizzes and tests still have their place in the classroom, and they will still be a reality in my own math class, but those don’t have to be a teacher’s only options anymore. Students should have opportunities to explain their thinking and to develop their metacognition, so that they can start to think about and even refine their problem solving process and figure out what strategies work best for them while problem solving. Students should have opportunities to work on math that is appropriate to their grade level, but also problems that could be applied to multiple grade levels and challenge their reasoning and math skills.

Lucky for educators, we have the internet, and there are a ton of cool resources to help us out with this endeavour. Dr. Khan showed us an example (Challenge 03 Finger Counting) from www.collaborativemath.org, which has a variety of challenge questions posed, but that is only one of many other places that you can find riddles and math problems that will engage and challenge students. Students could work on a difficult question like the Finger Counting over the period of a week or more, and then record their solution and reasoning in a brief video using the app Show Me. This is a way to assess students without having to rely on the traditional test-taking method. I don’t think this should be the main source of assessment material, but it is certainly a way to differentiate based on student interests, skill sets, etc.

 The main form of assessment will be observational notes, which makes a lot of sense. As I’m circulating my placement class and looking over student work, I’m making tabs on who seems to be getting it right out the gates, and who seems to need more practice. It’s important to have those moments so you can help the student build their knowledge before the test or quiz where there’s an achievement level associated with it. As an example from my own experience, I noticed one of the students (we’ll call him Abdul), was mixing up some of the steps when it came to multiplication and regrouping. I spent extra time walking him through the process and in my absence, my associate teacher sent home some additional practice problems for him to work on. When I saw him on my next observation day, there was such a difference! Abdul was solving problems quickly, often figuring out the answer well before many of his classmates and his work was free of error. If that had not been caught in my initial informal assessment, his mistakes may have adversely affected his test scores, and all over errors easily fixed through some addition instruction.

This first math course is nearing completion and I’m starting my practicum within a few weeks. I’ve learned a lot, but I’m sure I will make twenty-five million mistakes and when I think I’m finally getting the hang of it, I’ll make another mistake. But that’s teaching and that’s life. It’s best I just get in there and start trying.    

Here is a link to my digital portfolio, which is a "greatest hits" if you will of math resources compiled over the term: http://8p29digitalmathportfolio.blogspot.ca/

8P29 Post 10

We’re coming to the end of the year in our first math course of teacher’s college and this week we worked on what I’m pretty sure is the last unit we’ll be working on: data management and probability. The next few weeks will be on assessment and lesson/unit planning, or at least that’s my prediction based on what I’ve looked at in the syllabus.

Data management and probability is a relatively short unit compared to some of the other ones, such as number sense and numeration. I think the intention in my placement is for the data management unit to only be 2-3 weeks. Nevertheless, this unit is a great opportunity for your class to let loose and have a little fun, because there are many games you can play to help demonstrate probability concepts.

One such game we did in class on Friday was the horse race game to show the most likely dice rolls when rolling 2 dice. Students have to set up a racetrack (graph) numbering all the possible dice outcomes from 2 to 12. Each number represents a different horse. To make things interesting, have students pick a “horse” they think will win. Students than have to roll the dice and the result is the horse that moves forward e.g. roll an 8, then horse 8 gets a tick on the racetrack. The first horse to get to 7 (or some other agreed-upon number) is the winner. Students will notice that most of the time, 7 will be the winner, or very close to it. From there, you can launch into a lesson demonstrating why this is the case. I am definitely going to use this activity in my placement classroom because I think the students will get really into it.

Anthony92931. "Suffolk Downs Horse Race." August 1 2007.
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_racing#/media/File:Suffolk_Downs_horse_racing.JPG

 Another reason data management and probability is fun is because students get to do surveys and record their collected data. Students can be creative in these activities and make up a survey on anything they’d like to ask their schoolmates about e.g. music tastes, video game, eye colour. It gets them up and moving, which is a welcome reprieve from sitting still in their seats all day.

Something that is important as a mathematics teacher is varying the activities that you do in the classroom. There is a time and place for students to sit and answer practice questions at their desk individually, but there is also a time to see math in action, though games and tasks like the ones mentioned above. I feel very lucky in my placement because the students seem pretty pumped to do math problems each day. I’m not sure if that is unique to this class, or if 9 and 10-year-olds are always this excitable. I really don’t remember cheering after completing math problems as a class, but now I wish that we had done that every year of math, even in high school! That enthusiasm gives me flexibility in what I can do in the classroom.  

"Yay math!"
"Children Cheering." Retrieved from http://goo.gl/DqRu5i

Listen to your Heart (and the Teacher): Developing Student Listening Skills

"Listening to Instructions." Retrieved from
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/276619602089214994/

The above teacher meme is facetious, but nonetheless an accurate portrayal of what happens in many classrooms. Listening is a vital life skill and unfortunately, large amounts of students for a variety of reasons are not strong listeners.  Now I’m not here to speculate about why students may be poor listeners, and I’m certainly not going to give the cop-out excuse of the prevalence of technology because let’s not kid ourselves here, children have been getting distracted long before tablets and smartphones came on the scene. What I am here to do is discuss some suggestions of what we can do to help students become better listeners, and thus better communicators and citizens.

            The article “Let’s Talk about Listening” from The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat on EduGains has some great ideas on activities to help students listening comprehension and ways a teacher can create a listening classroom. I’ve summarized some of the important points below and added some thoughts of my own.

Listening is a Full Body Experience

            It’s not just your student’s ears and mind that should be at work when listening, but their whole body. Teachers mainly in the younger grades (although it is no less important in the higher grades) talk about the concept of “listening bodies,” that is the way your body should look when you’re actually listening to someone. If you’re listening, you usually turned to face the speaker, looking at the speaker, not talking, and if you are moving, you’re making signs that you are hearing the speaker e.g. nodding your head, adjusting your facial expression. Students need to know that this is what they should be doing to help them listen better.

Demonstrate to students what a listening body looks like. Feel free to even get a little silly if that’s what it takes! Ask a student what they did on the weekend, and when he or she starts to talk, turn around and go stare into the corner, Blair Witch style. It’s goofy and exaggerated, but hopefully it will show your students the absurdity of incorrect listening body language.

Pictured: A poor active listener
End of The Blair Witch Project movie still. Retrieved from
http://www.mtv.com/news/1869809/blair-witch-project-15-anniversary/

Mental Checklists

            It takes practice to become good at listening, and it’s an ongoing process. Even the most focused of people sometimes need to check wandering attention if they’re not engaged. Imagine then what it’s like for a student with issues with distractibility or central auditory processing. This is why all listening needs to be taught as a meta-cognitive process. Students should have mental checklists to make sure they’re understand what the speaker is saying. I find with some students who get distracted easily, even a physical checklist can be helpful. If they catch their attention wandering, they put a checkmark down in their notebook.

            Students should also be asking themselves if they understand what’s being said and if they don’t understand, they need to feel free to ask a question. This part is highly dependent on the teacher, because if a teacher shows impatience for questions, then the students will be less encouraged to clarify information with the teacher. What is not acceptable is having to teach the entire lesson all over again because the student wasn’t listening the first time around, but on the whole, questions should not be discouraged. Make sure you establish with your class that you should feel free to ask questions to double-check what they need to do, or to inquire further into a topic they’re interested in.

Model Behaviour

 

"Storybook active listening bodies." Retrieved from
http://www.cwtherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cw19.jpg

           Lead by example. Show students how to be a good listener by listening to them. It doesn’t just have to be through remembering a story they told, or what console they play, but responding to their learning needs in the classroom. Students can be extremely perceptive and they can usually tell right away if you’re someone who cares.

            Listen with your eyes and ears to ensure student understanding of concepts, to figure out if they’re perhaps holding something back or feigning understanding to avoid embarrassment. A teacher who is a good listener will see that and respond accordingly. Little things like that can mean a lot to a struggling student, or any student!

Listening is part of the Oral Communication strand of Literacy in Ontario, but listening skills transfer over into any subject in the classroom, or any interaction the student will have throughout the day. Feel free to do listening activities that are cross-curricular, assessing student listening skills even if what they’re listening to is a social studies podcast.

Apart from the article I mentioned earlier in the post, I also recommend Julian Treasure’s TED talk “5 ways to listen better” if you have 8 minutes to spare (of course you do, don’t lie!). It is an entertaining and direct speech on listening and you can definitely try some of the techniques he suggests with your class.  Learning to listen is a big task, try to have students work on it as much as they can and they will quickly notice the benefits of being more present in the classroom.