Today I participated in my first professional development day! We met in the music room for the first 2 hours to talk about assessment and how we need to "assess for learning."
Some ideas that I noted down for future reference:
1. "Desperation leads to Inspiration." To give students practice reading outloud, and reading more quickly, you can have students in pairs play this game. One student reads the book while the other student has a foam mat and 2 dice. The reader will read as much as they can until the dice roller rolls doubles (it must be on the mat, if it falls off it doesn't count!) When doubles are rolled, the players switch. This could be good because the dice roller usually becomes so focused on trying to roll doubles that they aren't focusing on how well the reader is reading, and there's less pressure on the reader who may be weak. In this exercise, the focus is clearly not on accuracy, but more on speed. Maybe there's a way to adapt the game so accuracy can be the focus?
2. Blindfold one person in a team of 3 or 4, and then place a target on the ground anywhere. The blindfolded person is given a hacky sack to throw on the target, with descriptive feedback from team members to guide the way. When I was blindfolded, my TA and 2 other teachers decided to try and give me feedback like they do on report cards, so after I tossed the first try, they told me that was about a "3." My response was...what does that mean??? haha This raised the question of how helpful numbers and marks are to student learning. After tossing a few more times a neighbouring team gave me the descriptive feedback of "just drop it straight down." The target was placed at my feet! That last piece of feedback was clear and easy to understand and helped me become successful in hitting my target. Having students do this activity would help them practice peer assessing skills. They'll improve the feedback they give to their teammates gradually. This is a much more entertaining way to practice peer assessment than marking written work.
3. Report cards and reporting methods is a topic of great debate amongst educators! Should it be wholistic reporting using numbers or letters to represent grades and how students are doing? Should they move towards outcome based reporting which provides some more meaningful feedback?
4. Lexia- a program that is being introduced to the grade 4s and 5s which will hopefully get them up to their target reading level quicker than before. It seems fun and effective!
Another great day full of learning :) I have a lot of planning to do all weekend...in addition to finishing my assessment portfolio. I'm really excited though! I may be a little too ambitious with the novel study I'm planning (incorporating some art, introducing Japanese language and culture, some poetry & writing...) I feel like there is a huge cloud around my head full of ideas but it's all condensing and starting to come together into some very concrete ambitions and plans!
Teaching is an e
Some ideas that I noted down for future reference:
1. "Desperation leads to Inspiration." To give students practice reading outloud, and reading more quickly, you can have students in pairs play this game. One student reads the book while the other student has a foam mat and 2 dice. The reader will read as much as they can until the dice roller rolls doubles (it must be on the mat, if it falls off it doesn't count!) When doubles are rolled, the players switch. This could be good because the dice roller usually becomes so focused on trying to roll doubles that they aren't focusing on how well the reader is reading, and there's less pressure on the reader who may be weak. In this exercise, the focus is clearly not on accuracy, but more on speed. Maybe there's a way to adapt the game so accuracy can be the focus?
2. Blindfold one person in a team of 3 or 4, and then place a target on the ground anywhere. The blindfolded person is given a hacky sack to throw on the target, with descriptive feedback from team members to guide the way. When I was blindfolded, my TA and 2 other teachers decided to try and give me feedback like they do on report cards, so after I tossed the first try, they told me that was about a "3." My response was...what does that mean??? haha This raised the question of how helpful numbers and marks are to student learning. After tossing a few more times a neighbouring team gave me the descriptive feedback of "just drop it straight down." The target was placed at my feet! That last piece of feedback was clear and easy to understand and helped me become successful in hitting my target. Having students do this activity would help them practice peer assessing skills. They'll improve the feedback they give to their teammates gradually. This is a much more entertaining way to practice peer assessment than marking written work.
3. Report cards and reporting methods is a topic of great debate amongst educators! Should it be wholistic reporting using numbers or letters to represent grades and how students are doing? Should they move towards outcome based reporting which provides some more meaningful feedback?
4. Lexia- a program that is being introduced to the grade 4s and 5s which will hopefully get them up to their target reading level quicker than before. It seems fun and effective!
Another great day full of learning :) I have a lot of planning to do all weekend...in addition to finishing my assessment portfolio. I'm really excited though! I may be a little too ambitious with the novel study I'm planning (incorporating some art, introducing Japanese language and culture, some poetry & writing...) I feel like there is a huge cloud around my head full of ideas but it's all condensing and starting to come together into some very concrete ambitions and plans!
Teaching is an e