Here I am again...

Here I Am Again

Another action-packed week is almost in the books. And while my head is spinning from all the information, I must say the words assessment and feedback will never leave my brain as long as I live. In class, this week our objectives were to focus on creating, analyzing, and implementing assessments and understanding and implementing feedback. Assessment is general used to judge student understanding of the content they have learned. The data from the assessment can be used to make quality decisions on the direction learning could go. The other aspect of effective assessment is to provide feedback. Feedback is the way in which a teacher communicates the achievement of students' learning back to the student based on rubric, playlist, or checklist of the assignment; both of these actions are the epitome of standard V. Teachers are reflective on their practice. Feedback helps students understand their effectiveness at the assignment and if they reached their goal. You want to make sure the feedback is not criticizing but encouraging and helps the student reflect.

My professional development continued in Frontline with the introduction of “Monitoring student learning” and “Checklist and Rubric: Student Assessment. “I found it intriguing how various teachers where able to establish rubrics and checklist as a culture within their classroom. This shows me another example of teachers knowing the way learning should take place, i.e. Standard IV. The rubrics make clear the information that must be delivered and how the process should take place to insure a successful assessment.  I hope to use these effective learning tools within my future classroom. The difficulty of tracking student learning has been eased back a bit for me after completing the PD on Frontline. This program helped me to understand the effectiveness of formative assessment to track progress. Questioning is an effective way to gauge student learning, and when done properly, it will give the teacher leader a clear picture to where student understanding is. I plan to use the rubric within this lesson as a means to gather understanding of student responses.

Since one of the essential parts of the Frontline PD use on homework, I decided to discuss the information with my lead teacher at work. As stated, it is difficult to ensure that the homework that is to be assigned was completed independently by the student. So, we collaborated on an effective way to do homework this half of the year. We decided to only send home reading assignments; while “homework” is to be completed with me, the TA, during small group time. This is to make sure students complete the work while receiving the appropriate amount of help on the assignment. We will also use this time to practice for benchmarks and the process of district standard testing will occur.

This week, my learning has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities to help my future students learning as well as improve my facilitating of learning as well. Since Standard IV of the NCTCS, clearly states that teachers should provide instruction appropriate to the students’ level. Through the use of checklist and rubrics, I can clearly state the expectations of all the standards to the students as well as parents and administration, and be able to gauge the student’s growth throughout the lesson, unit, or course. By using the rubric, I can also have a basis by which to evaluate all assessments the same and be able to give proper feedback in a timely manner. This also provides evidence that I have knowledge of the content I am providing as required by NCTCS III. The need to make adjustments to rubric will ensure for a class that is inclusive to all students, standard II.

Well, this wraps up week number 4, and we are rolling in EDU 410. Until next time…This is your reporting future candidate

Always Learning, Always Growing;

William B. A. Alspaugh