"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." -Abraham Lincoln
What we learned this week:
Last circle discussion for Anne Davies' Making Assessment Work. I felt a little sad knowing that this was the last time our group would come together to discuss the recent chapters. Part of me liked that we were finally through with the reading, but I also enjoyed our discussions. This whole experience proved to me how invaluable it is to learn from each other. As the we conclude this segment of the course, I am happy to assess that our group has shown constant improvement and willingness to connect with the book and to personal applications. We may have struggled with attendance at the beginning, but most of us stuck around and made it work. I would definitely give us an "insightful" this week as well. We delegated tasks equally and contributed to every discussion. I also thought that we were very organized and communicated well. We discussed that we would keep our shared document of notes to look back on and listen to how we conversed. All in all, I enjoyed my time with the circle made up of Rebekah, Jada, Jozelle, and Angela (who only just received her copy of the book!). This week, we came up with the following notes:
Making learning possible is not a one person job; we need the students, parents, and other people involved.
Students collect and demonstrate their learning, and audiences respond with feedback.
Create a student-generated newsletter. How would you design your newsletter?
What are other ways to demonstrate learning to parents?
Is there really enough time for parent conferences? Is 10-15 mins ideal?
I can think of a few drawbacks with learning centers.
Two stars, one wish
Evaluation happens when the learning is paused.
Four important questions:
What does the student know, what is she or he able to do, and what can he or she articulate?
What areas require further attention or development?
In what ways can the student’s learning be supported?
How is the student progressing in relation to the standards or development for students in a similar age range?
We wish it could be objective, but it is inherently subjective.
Totaling scores???
I wish teachers would actually make the effort to explain to students why they got what they got.
Traditional grades lead to less impressive learning, less interest in learning, and less desire for challenging learning.
Learning circles. Ask colleagues for help. Start a club.
How to use this book.
As a student...
I am being completely honest when I say that I do not revise my papers enough ever since I started university. I started believing that the best I can come up with is what I originally wrote, and this is definitely a flaw. In avoiding the improvements I could've made, I give up on "the best." In high school, they heavily encouraged "draft" and revising. In particular, I was in French immersion, and we'd have to write a yearly "concours d'art oratoire." We couldn't move on to submitting our final paper without getting peer corrections and self-assessment.
I revised my dialogue paper for ECS 401. I definitely saw areas for improvement and am glad that we have additional time for honing this paper. I would have liked to receive a peer's feedback, but they were out of the country. I also would have liked to read someone else's paper too. Fortunately, a fellow education friend of mine was willing to provide some feedback for me.
As a future teacher...
I've recently done a miscue analysis in an ELNG class, and I personally found it quite challenging and distressing. The first one did not mark hesitation because sometimes students need a second to think before they speak. This is something that I mulled over when we did this for ECS 401. This time around, we were noting when students hesitated. I always thought it was mean to mark the errors only, but researching more about miscue analysis made me feel lighter. I learned about the purpose of this assessment, not just what I had to experience in class briefly.
Here's a lovely document that I read about miscue analysis:
I also want to talk about the fishbone diagram. This was my first time seeing this form, but it made a lot of sense. I thought that this was another way to organize expectations/descriptions for rubrics and stuff. The way we identified the main topic or subjects and then added the subtopics and examples reminded me of the process of creating rubrics. I am particularly interested in using this type of diagram in different subject areas.
My symbol for this week is
fish. I'm sure the reason is quite evident. Evidence of learning
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