Blogs 7b and 7c

Blogs 7B & 7C

7B: 269-274 & 283-287

            The beginning of the chapter talks about the purpose of assessments. We have already talked about assessments and how important they are because they help the teacher see where their students are and how their lesson plan went. There are many ways to go about creating different assessments. The next section of the reading talked about one assessment, which was testing and they talked about cheating. I believe this is another part teachers need to think about. Cheating is something teachers don’t really think about that needs to be looked at. I remember in school, the teachers would either separate us or have the dividers that you would set up creating your own space and cube looking thing.  When creating that testing environment I always thought how intimidating it was and made me feel a little more nervous. As a teacher I feel they should create a safe environment that allows students to feel a little more comfortable. Tests shouldn’t be to long and be clear, so the students don’t get confused, discouraged or restless. I was very interested in how a teacher would determine how much time to give students on a test. I was interested when they talked about allowing students 30-40 minutes to complete a test. Thinking about tests I have taken in the past that is usually how long they take, unless those who needed more time. As a teacher I will use a variety of different assessments and arrange my students in a way to separate them.

7C: PP 288-303

            There was a ton of information in this section of the text talking about different types of assessment items and they give descriptions, examples, guidelines, and advantages and disadvantages. I thought it was super interesting to read. I don’t believe one type of assessment is better or worse than another because they all have both advantages and disadvantages. What I have observed as I take tests a lot of teachers use a variety of these methods such as, multiple choice, matching, short answer, and true-false. I think this is a great way of going about creating tests because it provides a variety of different aspects for the students to think about and complete. I think it also creates the students to not feel intimidated because they may do better on one section rather than another. I feel like I have gone back and forth about doing well with matching, and short answers. I didn’t really do well on true false or multiple choice. I would always and still do second-guess myself, and always picked the wrong answer when I was down to my final two guesses. As a teacher I believe I will use a variety of different strategies on my tests.

6c & 7a

6c: PP 245-265

            This section of the text went further into the elements of a lesson plan. There are many parts of a full descriptive lesson plan and it is beneficial for teachers to create full descriptions of lesson plans especially, for beginner teachers. It gives the teacher a guide and outline of what is to come as well as a place to look if things don’t go right or if you forget something. As a teacher this will be one of the most important things I will do when preparing for a lesson. I have done many different kinds of lesson plans some not so descriptive to really descriptive depending on what the teacher wants. For myself, I need that descriptive lesson plan as a guide, because it helps me be fully prepared and think about how my lesson is going to go and give me some options if things aren’t working the way I planned. It might take more time but it is definitely worth it. I also think as an assessment or another part of an assessment is to have a reflection. One for my students to do on what they learned and thought of the lesson and a reflection for myself of my own lesson and how it went. I really want to be the best teacher I can be and even if feedback can be difficult to take I rather be told what worked and didn’t work then continuing something the students or myself don’t like or learn from.

7A: PP 274-283

The beginning of the chapter talks about assessing students and just as I mentioned in the last entry an assessment I would like to use is reflection. It is really important as a teacher to reflect and assess your students to see what went well or didn’t work and what the students learned. If the students aren’t learning the concept then the teacher needs to change her lesson to meet the common core they are trying to teach. The book mentions many different kinds of assessments such as portfolios, checklist, observations, and rubrics. These are all wonderful examples I would use in my classroom to assess my students. I believe that both the teacher and student are both in learning and teaching a lesson. I really think the students should be involved in their assessments instead of the teacher deciding. I know using one form of assessment or type of lesson plan can be boring so its important for the teacher to change it up. I really enjoy reflections and depending on what we are doing, for example a conference or midterm I would have my students do a portfolio. I would have them pick their best work or work they think they could improve and put it all together to share their thoughts. I would also have individual meetings with students to discuss how they are doing or about different assignments or even as a checkpoint. I also like the idea about giving students a checklist to mark off when completing assignments. Then there area always the quizzes and tests that sometimes we can’t get away from and have to do. This section gave great ideas on different assessments to use, that I would definitely use in my classroom.

Chapter 6a and 6b

Chapter 6a pp. 223-235

            A lot of this part of the chapter was repetitive, of things I have already learned and continue to review in many of my class. It talks about the different learning styles and accommodating students in your classroom. It is really important that teachers are using different teaching strategies in their class to teach the subjects to connect to students learning styles. It can be difficult to get all of them, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners all at the same time. I know as a student I was a kinesthetic learner and needed those hands on experiences to learn best. I feel like this is one of the best ways to teach, giving students the opportunity to have those hands on learning lessons. I feel it is more difficult and does take more time for the teacher to put together, but is beneficial. I also feel that sometimes you can’t always have hands on learning activities and need to do other things besides just lecturing to your students or doing the same strategies over and over again. As the book discusses the delivery and assess mode, there are strengths and weaknesses to every teaching style. That’s why it is important to use multiple strategies. You could use more than one and being aware of how the students best learn, by change the strategies up for students to stay engaged and gather that understanding of what you are trying to teach.  I have learned about Gardner style of learning in few other classes, but it is also brought up in this text that teachers should use these different intelligences. It will help the teacher figure out how the students best learn and can be used in multiple lessons. I want to use multiple strategies in my classroom when I am a teacher such as those hands on learning activity and others for my students to get the most out of every lesson.

Chapter 6b pp. 237-244

           

            This part of the chapter talked about interdisciplinary thematic units. In school I always found it so fascinating and more interesting when teachers would create lessons that connected to things going on in the world or to themes in other lessons. I was shocked by how they did this. I was also more interested and engaged in the content being taught. Planning lessons are very beneficial and help for the teacher, sub, principal, and anyone else who looks at them, especially if they are well filled out including all the necessary information such as objectives, goals, title, grade, procedures, outcomes, etc. I think that the first few years I am a teacher I want to write out my lesson plans and elaborate on them because it will help me in the future and I can always write a shorter version of it. Then if anyone wants to look at why or what I am teaching in depth I would have that. It is also important as the book talked about pace and watching your time, because you don’t want a lesson including thematic units to go on for to long, that the class will get bored and not be engaged. You don’t want to focus on one area for to long and keep the lesson moving. This is also helpful when you have a fully written lesson plan to fall back on if things are not going as planned or things changed you will have options written on your lesson plan to help with these situations. Teachers want to be sure they are planning their lessons correctly to benefit the students and add to their prior knowledge. I think thematic units are awesome and very helpful; I will definitely use them in my classroom, as well as writing out my lesson plan with details.

Chapters 5b and 5c

Chapter 5b: pp. 185 – 202

                  This part of chapter five talked about objectives and how to handle controversial topics in the classroom. As we have learned in our classes here at Bradley, every teacher is different in what they require on a lesson plan. I always say it’s better to do more than less because then you are used to doing more, and will have everything on your lesson plan.  It will all be there organized and clear what your goals, objectives, and final outcomes will be. Even though it may take a little longer I want to make sure that when I am a teacher especially my first few years that I am doing my lesson plans full out. This will make sure I have successful lessons and goals while teaching, and make me prepared. I also thought the part in the chapter about the controversial topics was interesting, because it does come up in classes and teachers do need to be careful how they go about different topics. Sometimes these topics can be important for students to learn about. They don’t want to start this huge debate, fight or hurt anyone’s feelings or dis someone’s beliefs. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but sometimes it is not for the classroom. If you are involving a book or anything that may become a controversial topic it is important the teachers are prepared about how to go about something and keep their opinions out of it.

Chapter 5c: pp. 202 – 220

                  This section talks about syllabi and Blooms Taxonomy. I really like the idea of syllabi in school; it is a great way to get the points across about what class is. I would use this at any age in school. This may sound silly but I don’t think I really understood them or knew of them till college. Thinking back I think I did have a few in high school. I love them, it’s a great way to make sure the students and teacher are on the same page about the objectives, goals, rules, procedures, etc. Blooms Taxonomy has six major categories, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These will help when creating lessons for the students to challenge their higher thinking level, and for making my objectives. In my classroom, I really hope to use Blooms Taxonomy terms to make my objectives strong, and obtainable. I have seen in some of the classrooms I have observed in have showed the students the objectives for doing certain activities, I think it could be a great Idea to do this, so the students can be sure they know what it means and know the importance of the lesson.