Benchmark 3
Deadline = July 30 Chapters 5 & 6
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?
Chapter 5: A learning target is not a just a statement that a teacher writes on the board. This book underscores the idea that if students are not aiming for it and intentionally self-regulating and self-assessing in order to reach it, a lesson might have a learning intention but not a learning target. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI agree that students need to understand what it is they are aiming to learn. Often lessons have good intentions, but the students are unable to understand what it is they need to get out of the lesson. They need to know what it is they are learning and they why. I really like the model on p, 74 (Figure 5.1) Yesterday we learned… Today we will learn….
DeleteJust like the examples throughout chapter 5, without a target for students to aim for and look-fors that allow them to self-assess, the learning becomes unknown to the students, and while it may be a learning intention, it can't be a target. In order to be truly effective for students, learning has to have a known target otherwise students can never aim for anything.
DeleteI really like that the chapter focuses on the importance of a learning target but more specifically the 'I can' portion of the statement. It really gives the student ownership of the material needed to be learned. In a way, holding the student accountable for the information that the teacher is helping to unlock. So by the end of the lesson/target, the student is able to self-assess their ability and move to ask for help/tutoring or be confident that they are able to complete the task. Thus creating life long learners that are able to drive their own learning.
DeleteChapter 6: Without having descriptions of high-quality look-fors in their work, students may be engaged in a fun activity, but they are not engaged in a performance of understanding. How does that distinction help you weigh the effectiveness of a lesson?
ReplyDeleteThis distinction definitely helps me weigh the effectiveness of a lesson because when creating the look-fors, you really see what the learning target is and can redefine the target and/or look fors to ensure that your lesson is truly effective and focused in the right direction.
DeleteLook-Fors are tricky and I am looking forward to reading more about them in Chapter 7. I think that look-fors are rather tricky for new teachers or teachers who are teaching a new subject matter. Even though a teacher "sits in a student's seat," sometimes an important look-for might be missed. This is why I hope in chapter 7 this is covered. This said, I think they are very important and can really help a teacher even in the middle of a lesson to redirect the learning if for some reason a look-for isn't being seen.
DeleteWhat was new for you in these chapters? I feel that these two chapters were great reminders that when we plan lessons it is important to focus on the learning target (what students are aiming to learn) and providing them things to look for in their work that describes the quality of their learning and helps them self assess. I really enjoyed the charts provided as well. The I can statements really stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteThe I can statements really made me stop and think also! I think I can statements would help me in my learning. It made we wonder a little about why the authors didn't incorporate a couple of I can statements at the beginning of each chapter.
DeleteWhat did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator? I was able to relate to many things in Chapters 5 and 6. One thing that stuck with me is the chart Figure 5.1 on page 74. This is something I will keep in my lesson plans or up in my classroom so students understand the expectations in the lesson. I like the vocabulary and feel that it something my 5th grade students can understand to help their learning grow.
ReplyDeleteDid something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding? This year, we have a complete new team. I would love to share the models provided in these two chapters so that all students will know and understand the expectations in their learning. These models would have been very helpful many years ago when I first started teaching. It just makes sense!
ReplyDeleteJulie, I truly wish I had known these models and ideas when I first started teaching. I know that I have some bad habits to break, but I am excited to start reworking lessons and units to create solid learning trajectories, performances of understanding rather than activities, and student look-fors. You're right, the models make sense and I look forward to seeing how my students better understand expectations and the learning target.
DeleteHow will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters? One thing I will do is to make sure my students truly understand what it is we are looking for in our learning. I can do this by providing a checklist and keeping on the white board. I can relate to the teacher about the multiplying fractions. When she focused on the "drawing the process" she stressed the importance of precise, equal parts. Students become more focused on making equal parts that they did not truly understand what it was they were actually looking for in the lesson. I have had this happen to me in my classroom. Checking for understanding throughout the lesson helps me see that my children our staying focused on the learning target or helps me tweak the lesson as well.
ReplyDelete1. While not new, it was very refreshing to read about providing students with not only a learning target, but also look-fors in detail. Too often I think that teachers assume students understand what they should be learning with “teacher speak” objectives and activities. Providing students with the ability to self-assess, as presented in these chapters, creates students who know the target to shoot for and know where they are in the process. Rather than students who are unsure of what to do or how to get there, students can become more confident and independent knowing that they have guidelines for success to model after.
ReplyDelete2. I think that so many teachers simply put up an “I Can…” statement or objective and assume that this becomes the learning target. I really enjoyed seeing the remodeled lesson on pages 108-109 that show a lesson with an objective versus the same lesson with an actual learning target (or series of learning targets). I think that the remodeled lesson is something good teachers shoot for, but may not know how to get to. These chapters really made me think about my own lessons and how I can reframe them to provide students with real learning targets and look-fors.
3. While I don’t really want to research anything from this section, I really look forward to going through lessons that I teach and putting them to the test with the questions the author poses…What will students be able to do when I finish today’s lesson? What is important for them to learn and understand so they can use this information to do it? How will they be asked to show that they can do this? And How well will they have to do it? These questions will definitely help me tweak my lessons to make sure I am actually guiding students to learning rather than simply completing activities.
4. One of the pieces that has been missing from my lessons previously is student look-fors. Explaining these look-fors or providing them in a handout prior to the students working on the performance of understanding will help them by giving them concrete exemplars to shoot for as they work. While this will take time and definite thought, I think taking the time to do this for the lessons I teach will truly benefit the students and better solidify their learning.
1 What was new for you in these chapters?
ReplyDeleteI think one of the new ideas or ‘well duh’ moments was in the examples that were provided. I really try to make middle school ELA interesting and after reading some examples, I pack way too much into one lesson. On the positive, the lesson can still be used just chunked more yet, on the other hand, I lost so many students by having a too packed lesson that only lead to frustration for all.
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?
I can really relate to having an observation in which the students are just ‘doing’ and not, “ everything the students do, say, make, or write should make the learning target visible and translate it into action for them.” The chapters really had me thinking about my past lessons and analyzing them. For some of the lessons, a simple tweak is all that is needed however other lessons look very similar to the example about the cookie making. I thought is was a great lesson however there was too many other ‘targets’ that muddled the true learning objective.
3 Did something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
I really like the power of pronouns that the learning target produces. That shift from ‘The Learner will..’ to ‘I can’ is very empowering for not only the students but for the teacher as well. Educators are very proud when one of their students graduates to the next grade level and is able to express to the new teacher what they can specifically accomplish with a given concept. By giving the learning power to the students in ‘I can’ statements also allows the student to show off their abilities and be proud of what they can do. What a great environment of learners our classrooms would be when everyone is engaged and responsible for the material!
4 How will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters?
This will definitely change the way I plan lessons. With the help of the great charts, I think that many learning targets will become clearer thus allowing me to be a more effective teacher. I also think that with the use of the charts, the ability to differentiate the curriculum for all students will become more concrete.
Karen Harrell. These chapters made me really do some thinking. Had to really think about the difference in an objective and a learning target. After reading these chapters I think I need to focus more on the learning target, as that will effect student learning much more. On pg. 89 I enjoyed reading about observable strategies that provide evidence that students are aiming for a learning target. I thought about my PGP lessons as I read that page - I really need to spend more time having the students put the lessons in their own words. That will be something that I work on this school year. I realize that I should close one days lesson with a thought for the next days lesson - I can do that with PGP as I see the students several days a week. I really need to focus on the purpose of the learning target and the activities that are planned - are they engaged because it is fun or are they engaged because they are learning? Will be looking for ways to use graphic organizers to help see evidence of what students have learned.
ReplyDeleteThe information that was new to me in these chapters was the specific distinction between an objective and a learning target. On page 79 when the authors explain the difference between an objective being a series of lessons and the learning target as one lesson in that learning trajectory, it makes perfect sense and I wish I would have known about this a long time ago. Identifying the learning target would really help teachers to think about what they are doing in their classrooms each day. Loved the four column learning target framework on page 74! All this said, it seems like thinking this through for each lesson would be very time consuming. Seems like some of it could be done by the people who are the curriculum writers in the district and then teachers could tweak learning targets to meet specific class needs.
ReplyDeleteThe part in this section of the reading that I know to be true from my past experience is the about how the student needs to show evidence of their learning and how it needs to take place at school in a classroom with a teacher and not for homework or in a study hall environment. Also the performance of understanding should match what was intended to be taught. We have all seen lessons much like the one described where the teacher wanted the students to be able to explain the causes of the War of 1812 but none of his assigned performance activities actually had the students explain the causes. I think this goes on a lot in classrooms and I think that many teachers honestly think students can or perhaps should make the connection but I think the truth is that the students don’t make the connections or the transfer of the knowledge that the teacher intended them to make. It needs to more concrete for most students.
I think for this section of the book the reflective questions 3 & 4 are jumbled for me. Learning Targets are something I want to think more about, learn about and use more. This will help me to be clearer in my lessons and will help the students to focus on what they will be able to do at the end of the time they have at the library on that particular day. I think utilizing the format in figure 5.1 would help me in my planning.
I was really interested in the chapter on learning targets. This idea was new-ish for me. It reminded me of objectives, but it seemed to have more depth than that. I was particularly interested in the idea that students interact with the learning target and they self-regulate based on the target. I liked that the learning target causes the students to constantly analyze what they are learning and how they are learning it—as if they are giving themselves constant feedback.
ReplyDeleteI intend to add learning targets as I’m planning lessons in the library. I’ve always had objectives, but I like that learning targets feature kid-friendly language and they are written from the students’ point of view. I’ve marked a few of the charts to refer to when planning this year.