Benchmark 1
Deadline = July 16 Chapters 1
& 2
Key Questions:
There are four key questions to
answer for each assignment. Please post your response to each of the four
questions. Remember to post your responses and respond to at least
one other member by each deadline.
FOUR QUESTIONS:
- What was new for you in these chapters?
- What did you read that you know is true and can relate
to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
- Did something interest you that you would like to research
further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
- How will this change what you do daily or how can you
implement what you learned from these chapters?
What was new for you in these chapters? Promoting a collaborative learning culture through the formative walkthrough process was new for me. So many times we focus on the checklists and trying to meet expectations when we should be focusing on our own self assessment and regulating our classroom practice. We should be using it as tool for self reflection.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator? Something that I read about and felt I have experienced as a educator is the collaborative inquiry. This is something I try to promote in my classroom by modeling good discussions with questions and allowing students an opportunity to discuss and ask questions. I also believe in the short term goals and working aiming to achieve those goals to meet the long term goals.
ReplyDeleteDid something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding? In chapter 2, the author mentions that "formative walkthroughs are formative- they have professional learning and school wide improvement as their core purpose and student achievement as both their primary goal and source of evidence." This makes perfect sense in that the school wants what is best for the students. It is not about how elaborate the lesson is for that day, but are the students aware of what the expectation is of their learning and how they are going to get there.
ReplyDeleteJulie, I completely agree. The most important thing is that students are achieving. This process highlights that and works toward further student achievement. It's a collaborative idea instead of an evaluative idea, and I like that so much.
DeleteHow will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters? In chapter two, I enjoyed reading the part about "sitting in the student's seat." It really gave me some perspective about what I am I asking students to learn in my classroom. I also enjoyed the seven key learning processes of a formative walkthrough (Figure 2.1). I will keep this out when I am planning lessons.
ReplyDeleteJulie, the sitting in the student's seat section was definitely one that hit me as well. It's such a simple question that many of us just don't think about. I also will be keeping Figure 2.1 in mind and out in front of me as I plan lessons. It breaks down the targets in a very practical way.
Delete1. These first two chapters had numerous items that were new to me. While the concepts of collaborative learning and improving student learning are not new, the process of formative walkthroughs and the specific learning processes were. I think that the self-reflection that is built in throughout this process will definitely make me a better educator. I’m looking forward to reading more!
ReplyDelete2. The idea that student achievement and learning is built upon worthwhile lessons is so true. I have seen so many teachers ¬create lessons that are like the example listed about Macchu Picchu and don’t really think and process the end goal and student learning objectives. It is vital to keep the learning target at the forefront and create worthwhile lessons that lead to learning targets that actually help students improve their learning.
3. I am definitely interested in reading Ch. 4-10 that explain each concept in greater detail. I think I’ll have a much better idea about the overall process of formative walkthroughs with more details about each area.
4. I think the biggest takeaway for me was making the connection that the authors made on page 22…”If I did everything the teacher asked me to do as a student during this lesson, what would I actually learn?” If I really look at and answer that question before presenting lessons, then I can better shape student learning targets and help students understand what they should be learning each time they walk in the classroom.
I agree Kari, I am interested in reading Chapters 4-10 that highlight the formative assessment process to enhance learning.
DeleteKari, the story on page 22 about the principal who was sitting in at a chemistry class that was learning how to balance equations really hit home to me. I loved how he just put it out there that after the entire lesson he still didn't know anything about balancing equations. How many times in the last year have I unconsciously asked "any questions?" or "do I need to slow down" when I should have asked a student to do something to show me that learning was taking place.
DeleteI am enjoying reading your comments. This book helped me formulate my thoughts in a more constructive manner, and the book brought together pieces of knowledge from other areas. To me, everything is a puzzle and now pieces from different puzzles are fitting into the puzzle this book created for me.
ReplyDelete1. What was new for you in these chapters?
ReplyDeleteActually, the idea of formative walkthroughs, at least formally, was new. I’ve of course had evaluative walkthroughs, and sometimes formative walkthroughs, but I can’t remember formative walkthroughs in this process. We do peer observations, but the observed teacher rarely gets feedback.
2. What did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
A lot of these two chapters rang true for me. The section on putting yourself “in the student’s seat’ seemed true. You don’t’ necessarily know if learning is happening until you actually try to learn as the student. It may seem like all the right stuff is happening—all the right strategies—but if the students aren’t learning it doesn’t matter.
3. Did something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
On p. 15 I marked that I’d like to research statistics on how much formative classroom walkthroughs changes student achievement.
4. How will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters?
I plan to use the questions in the chart on p. 26, Overview of the Seven Key Learning Processes of a Formative Walkthrough as I’m planning lessons and as I’m teaching the lessons. I think these questions are great reminders of what we should be striving for in the students’ learning, and I think having these questions will help keep me focused.
I agree with your comment of putting yourself in the 'students' seat'. Some activities that teachers seem to do or share at meetings have been done year after year. The lesson seems to be good on the surface so other colleagues implement the lesson without even trying it out first.
DeleteI also love conducting a class discussion and taking an empty student desk and participating with the students as they talk about the novel/poem/topic. Some kids look at me surprised that I am sitting with them- which, makes me wonder why we don't naturally sit with them to discover the curriculum?
FOUR QUESTIONS: Chapters 1/2
ReplyDelete1 What was new for you in these chapters?
That “SMART goals are useless unless they are also the right goals.” It really makes me self reflect over the past year on the goals that I created with my principal for the year. It also makes me vary aware that this year the goals need to be more fine tuned.
2 What did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
The references made in chapters 2 of all the myths are spot on to our current evaluation process that currently occurs. Especially when it was mentioned that, “feedback is minimal, and most of what is shared with teachers centers on practice the observer saw or did not see in order to make teachers aware of what is missing from their classrooms. Chapter 2” Many a year the evaluator has commented when using the current system that discipline in the classroom was not seen so ‘I will assume’ you have steps in place. OR given very general feedback about the lesson and what the students were doing – not learning or discovering.
3 Did something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
I am already researching the idea and movement of ‘creating cultures of thinking’ in which the classroom becomes a place filled with discoveries and curriculum is driven by students’ curiosity in the subject matter. NOT teacher created and formulated questions with specifically looked for answers.
4 How will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters?
Lesson plans will definitely be reworked and in some cases thrown out altogether. By teaching middle school ELA, I think I have a lot of room to improve lessons that create multiple visible learning opportunities that are relevant to the world around us.
A great deal of information in these first two chapters were new to me! In fact, I really feel the need to keep reading because I have so many questions floating around in my head. Lots of the critical ideas that formative assessment seem to be based on such as collaborative conversations and quality learning tasks are familiar to me and I know lead to student learning (more on that in the next paragraph), however the big picture idea of formative assessment being a non-evaluative assessment seems foreign to me as an educator. I think I have just been subjected to too many years of evaluative walkthroughs with the checks of what the evaluator sees and the evaluative summative meetings to at this point in reading the book to really understand what this Formative Assessment stuff is REALLY all about.
ReplyDeleteOne part of the reading that I know to be true is the Formative Learning Cycle on pages 28 and 29. I think of it as the learning cycle. Lots of times teachers in what I can guess is the effort to try to make what they think is the most engaging lesson for students, they have lost sight of the real learning target the lesson was supposed to help the student attain.
I don’t think there is one particular thing that I want to spend some more time researching. I just need to keep reading to further understand how Formative Assessment can work in a school. School leaders are very busy and thinking about them coaching by meeting with teachers and helping the teachers formulate a learning target and then reading over lessons that the teacher creates before teaching the lessons (this process is mentioned on page 34) seems like it would be next to impossible. Reading on will help clarify this in my head, I am sure.
I loved the planning reflective questions of: Where am I headed? Where am I now? What strategy or strategies will help me close the gap between where I am where I need to go? I will be using these next year. I think I have “sat in the student’s seat” for years since I worked with students who had serious trouble learning how to read so I got in the habit of looking at where might be the pitfalls or wasted energy that I didn’t intend to bog the learning down. I think this is really important to think of in the atmosphere of the library because we do things on a daily bases (such as use the online catalog or use different online resources) that we forget how many clicks it takes to get to where the student needs to go to access the information and it is confusing to some students!
Karen Harrell. Joan, I agree that most of my evaluations have been based on a check list and we always had a lesson that included everything an evaluator was looking for in a lesson. This book has made me realize that some of the best lessons don't include all of the "activities."
DeleteKaren Harrell. What was new to me in these chapters was the idea of looking at student learning during formative walk throughs. Most teachers have a "dog and pony" show ready to go, but these chapters focused not on the activity being done, but the learning and engagement of the students. It changes how you look at instruction by looking at student learning first, not the activities of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked putting yourself in the students seat - think from their viewpoint as you take apart your lesson. In reading this, I think if you have a good discussion about a lesson, then you would improve student learning. As a librarian I have the benefit to usually co-teach with a classroom teacher. After a lesson, we will usually break things apart to see what needs to be altered (especially if there is a follow through), after reading these chapters it goes along with the collaborative culture. I realize that as librarians we have the benefit of critiquing our lessons often with the teachers we work with. I will continue to work with teachers and perhaps do more follow through after the lesson to check in on how well students retained what they learned. My targets will be to make sure I have a high quality of student engagement. Questions/questioning strategies will also be a focus. Many times because we are on a time line, we squelch the questions - this tells me that listening to student questions will help me critique the effectiveness of the lesson. I want to focus on students being more than receivers...I will work harder to have intentional learning and getting students to think past the basic idea.