Readings on Assessment Rubrics -1

Authentic Assessment Rubric, by Joel R. Montgomery, U of Phoenix

Argues that while traditional assessment approaches using multiple choice tests do not accurately measure knowledge, authentic assessment does: it opens up a collaborative approach to assessment that enables teachers and students to interact in the teaching/learning process. He goes to say that frequently rubrics for authentic assessments are provided to support meaningful self-assessment as well as criterion-referenced assessment by teachers. Rubrics assist the student to achieve appropriate performance targets. They can also support continuous assessment of student progress and serve as a collaborative tool to be used for dialogue between students, peers, teachers, administrators and parents.

Discoveries

Un Nouveau Monde

Beginning

 

L'inconnu

Killing Fields, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Witness

Why Schools?

In endeavouring to answer the question: why schools? I had a look at the Provincial Ministry goals, my School District’s vision and my school’s mission statement. In these documents I found key terms and expressions that help me to put my own philosophy into words: high-quality learning experiences, unique needs, life-long learning, rich diversity, engaging, every student, assist the student in the ongoing process of becoming an educated person by providing a nurturing environment.

These may seem like “motherhood” statements that no one would disagree with, that seem obvious. But that is the whole point. The mission statements, goals, and visions that direct our profession are our North Star guiding us as we make decisions about how we will deliver our programmes.

In my practice I tend to put a great amount of focus on trying to make my learning activities engaging. My students perform and behave with much more enthusiasm if they see a point in what they’re doing. Ideally I wouldn’t have to answer the question: why do we have to learn this?, a question that Grade 11 students are prone to ask frequently.

But sometimes I do have to answer that question and if I can ensure that the learning experiences are high-quality ones then hopefully I can inspire the student to see this will make them a better person, in the long run, in the big picture as it where. If my goal is to make my students educated, thoughtful and capable of making independent and informed decisions, then I have to spark the curiosity in my students.

So, why schools? As a Social Studies teacher I am used to the whole idea of producing responsible citizens as a guiding principle. With this as my ultimate goal I hope my teaching will contribute to producing life long learners, curious and caring of the World they live in, and able to make sound decisions and choices based on informed points of view.

Personal Profile (gulp)

I am a veteran teacher, in chronological terms, working in a High School, the same one for the last seventeen years. This means I have attained a certain level of comfort in many areas that beginning teachers have to work harder at, such as classroom management issues, relationships with parents and other members of the stakeholders community, and the general comfort that comes from knowing just about all there is to know about the “mechanics” of my school. I am very comfortable with the curriculum the ministry wants me to teach every year. In this sense I am a veteran.

But I am still very much the same person I was when I began my teaching career. I love working with children: I consider it a huge privilege, perhaps even more so now than when I started out. I am not afraid of trying new ways of doing things, whether that mean using new assessment techniques, new planning systems, or new technologies. I continue to look for better ways to do things, better ways to deliver the curriculum. I am eager to find new and more proficient ways of connecting to students’ and their lives/realities; how can I make the material I teach them more interesting and pertinent? I want to use technology to the extent that it will a) be a “hook” for the students initially, but mainly be a more efficient way of conveying whatever it is I want to convey and b) enhance our (students’ and mine) learning experience.

Learning by doing, a hands on approach, is what comes naturally to me in terms of learning. I learn better if I read the “owner’s manual first” but I still usually read it only after failing at trying it on my own. I used to be called a type 4 learner; the kind that has to be given information in many different ways but always allowed to roll around in it until I’ve figured out what it means. I need variety. I usually meet major learning challenges by rolling up my sleeves and getting to it. I am not afraid to ask for help and with that in mind I like to line up some “people” help i.e.experts in the field that I can consult as I go along. I will usually also refer to a variety of back up learning tools and methods such as online resources, print texts, DVDs, blogs, and so forth.

This has led me to learn many new skills and strategies, particularly becoming familiar with several  new technologies and software. I have learned not to hesitate to ask for help. I have learned that my younger colleagues are often a great source of advice, knowledge, and expertise in many of the new technologies I’m trying to learn. Moreover, having mastered previous challenges, I have developed, built up, and enhanced my confidence (e.g. “if I was able to learn that, I can learn this”). I have learned to ask questions when I don’t know the answer. And sometimes when I do.

What challenges me most is a recurring fear that has been with me since my first years in elementary school and that I suspect every one deals with to one extent or another. This is the fear of not being good enough, that I’m not up to the task, that it’s too foreign, or just to complicated. I don’t mean the very healthy fear that keeps me from trying unsecured tightrope walking above the Grand Canyon: the fear we come with as human beings, designed to keep us alive. I mean that little voice that comes from who knows where, that voice that says you can’t do this, you’re not good enough to do this. I usually deal with this by walking right through the fear and not giving in to it. Thankfully over the years this has become easier but it still surprises me that I have to continue to contend with it.

I work best in an environment where I feel safe in taking risks, voicing opinions or answers that may be wrong or contrary to popular thinking. I respond very well to posititive feedback and criticism. I work well in groups that are learning the same thing or focusing on the same topic. I also work very well alone. Physical well being is very conducive to my learning well and effectively. I must preferably be well rested, well fed, and unstressed. I find that when these conditions are not met my learnign is hindered, slowed down considerably, or sometimes halted altogether. I have to watch out for what I call the arrogance trap: the feeling of “I already do that!” I also have to watch out for the Peter Principle, that posited (my words based on iffy recall) that a person keeps getting better and better at their job until, after five years of doing the same work, they reach a level of incompetence, where they think they don’t have anything left to learn. Another challenge in learning is when I don’t meet with immediate success; this can sometimes discourage me. I can also get angry when technology doesn’t work, or do what it’s supposed to do. These situations are often out of my control but if I’m not careful I can spend too much time thinking about it when I could be doing more productive work.

Finally some of my characteristics as a learner that I feel serve me very well are my inquiring nature, my lack of fear in asking questions and asking for help, and, probably my most valued quality as a learner, my stick-to-it-ness. I will stubbornly keep going until I meet with success because the alternative is just not an option I will envisage. What is the option? Not learning? Even my failures are learning experiences that eventually lead to success in the original learning endeavour. Unless I give up. But my determination to see things through usually ensure that doesn’t happen.

Timely article from NY Times

“Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction”, an article from yesterday’s NY Times; I thought you, especially members of my cohort, might find this interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?emc=eta1

Heading where I’m going and where I want to end up

 

 “Understanding by Design” by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

 As part of North Vancouver focus Group looking at Backward Design, I was first introduced to this book in the fall of 2009. It has helped me to take a look at what I’m doing by suggesting other ways of looking at my practice.

 Wiggins and McTighe argue that “too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning” i.e. what will I, the teacher, require to teach, instead of what will my students need in order to learn. The shift then goes from such questions as “What book will we read?” or “What activities will we do?” to “What should they walk out the door able to understand, regardless of what activities or texts we use?” and “What is the evidence of such ability?”. This appeals to me as being a much more desirable outcome for my students. So how can I go about it?

The authors suggest the solution can be found in Backwards Design with, put in its simplest terms, these three stages:

Step one: identify desired results

Step two: determine acceptable evidence

 Step three: plan learning experiences and instruction

 It sounds simple and straightforward but it posed me more of a challenge than I had expected. To clarify, to put down in writing the exact desired results requires more than just copying down objectives laid down by Ministry guideline. It means I have to have a clear idea of what students will be able to when they reach these objectives.

 The extra time and effort required in identifying these results will make determining the acceptable evidence that much more important. Is the evidence I’m requiring of my students indeed determining what I’ve established in the first step? Is there a clear connection between the two? And if not, in which step of planning does the fault lie, first or second?

 Once the first two steps have been “locked down” I find the guidelines very helpful in determining the actual learning experiences I intend to use in step three of unit/lesson planification. Again, making sure they serve the previous steps ensures I’m staying on task and that the day to day learning in my class is heading where I want it to. It helps me make sure “I’m heading where I’m going and where I want to end up”

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Some of my thoughts on Prensky’s article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”

One of the most compelling reasons for my support of Prensky’s argument is that it connects so closely to my reality and experience. His description of the “immigrants’ accent” was eerily familiar to me. In fact I had to print out his article in order to read it and be able to edit it and add my thoughts and comments: I would have probably happily attempted to edit it on screen except I don’t know how!

I’ve been saying since the early nineties that it’s important to change activities often in the course of a lesson because we were then dealing with the MTV generation that was used to watching and listening to one song at a time, rather than laying back and listening to both sides of a record to get “the full picture” (e.g. Sgt Peppers, Tommy the Who). So with this as the case nearly twenty years ago, it’s hard not to agree with Prensky’s statement that “Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task” or “ they often can’t understand what the immigrants are saying”: do they know what a record is? Why listen to the boring songs in between the good ones? Why not have visual stimulation as well as a an aural experience? They want  information fast, interesting, and varied.

I don’t think Prensky’s arguments are that revolutionary anyway; he suggests that as teachers we (Immigrants) should “keep up” and try to integrate the newest approaches in our practice in order to reach our students (natives). Is this not what good teachers have been doing all along? We constantly strive to make our lesson and unit planning more relevant by using more modern and interesting methods than our predecessors did. The main difference in this case is that the magnitude of the changes are much more important in the case of the N-Gen. Prensky says that they “consitute a singularity…an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back”. In order to deal with this we more seasoned teachers, with one foot firmly planted in the past, will have “to accept that we don’t know so much about this (their?) new world and take advantage of our students’ knowledge to help them learn and integrate”, and help us to join the more current realities of the changes technology has brought.

 



La Primera

As far as first posts go this will not go down in history as being the most original or inspiring but it has inspired me.

My thoughts at this time about inquiry and what it means to me at this point, what I understand about it at this time. The value of inquiry; why have I chosen to join this cohort?

At this early stage I see inquiry as looking at what I’m doing: what I’m doing as a teacher and as a learner. Why do I cho0se the activities and methods that I do choose when teaching my students. How can I use technology to make the learning experience more palatable to my students. More palatable but also more efficient. I hope to try using some new approaches to enact the changes that I want to implement. The first of these will probably be this very blog that I hope to use to reach more students, more quickly, more interestingly, and in a safer, risk free way.

My understanding at this time, although probably naive, is that by having an intentional look at what I’m doing I can begin the process of implementing changes in my practice that will make me a more effective teacher. It is also my intention that these changes should include the use of technology in one form or another, preferably several forms.

I have chosen to join this cohort in order to add the more formal, structured and even perhaps rigourous approach to inquiry as opposed to the more informal approach teachers use on a daily basis, perhaps chatting over coffee or at the proverbial water cooler. This should ensure I make use of the discipline necessary to do the mega cognitive work required to do a better job of inquiry.

The value of inquiry is that it forces me to look at what I’m doing and why I’m doing it? I think the very fact that I have begun this process has already had an effect on my teaching this year; I find myself already asking why this activity, why this reading, why this video? In most cases, much to my relief, the answer is because it is an effective activity/reading/video. But in one instance I found myself putting a video back on the shelf and searching for a more up to date resource on YouTube. And I found one; and it was a success.