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"High school history has a tremendous obstacle to learning — getting students enthusiastic about reading difficult texts. When I teach World History to my 9th graders, I have come up with a list of 6 common challenges I face when trying teach reading comprehension. Here’s a glimpse into how I meet these 6 challenges and help my students win!"
Beth Dichter's insight:
Vicki Davis shares her insights in working with students on informational text, specifically in history (but applicable to other subjects). The infographic located in this posts looks at six challenges that students may face, and provides insights that you may use to meet them with your students.They six challenges are listed below, with additional detail found in the post. 1. Did the student read the text? 2. Did the student comprehend the text? 3. Where does the student struggle? 4. How can you give meaningful feedback to the students? 5. How can you get meaningful data to help your whole class? 6. How do I align this with standards? Then Davis raises an important question: "So now, how do we meet these challenges and teach nonfiction text, put questions in the text, improve the questions, personalize learning AND align with standards?" She provides the answer by introducing a website that is new to me, Actively Learn. Davis provides a great review of the site and shares what she sees and pros and cons. There is a freemium version and a paid version, so you may choose to try it out and see how it works. 
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"Testing is a major challenge in education. Agreeing on what’s to be tested and how it’s to be administered is a matter of much debate. It’s also a big business... [Common Core testing may include] adaptive computer-based testing to the existing assessments forms, which in many states include short-written responses. While efforts like these continue, there remains a chasm between the progressive vision of a 21st century learning environment, and a decidedly 20th century assessment style.
Beth Dichter's insight:
If the goal in education is to graduate students whom are 21st century ready (a century we are already 14 years into) the question of appropriate testing comes up. This post explores this issue and shares what may be taking place in a classroom and how it is not necessarily testable with paper and pencil. Therefore as educators we need to "promote self-initiated transfer." The post is split into three sections. The first section looks at testing today. The second section provides "a picture of 21st century learning." The third section explores the challenge, the fact that in theory we are teaching one way and assessing a different way (and as they refer to it in the post, we may be teaching 21st century but we are using an assessment tool that is 20th century). The final section explores one possible solution. There is much to ponder on in this post which may lead you to think of ways to help students take ownership of learning how to effectively transfer knowlege.
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"There’s a certain class of mistakes that all educators can eliminate with conscious effort, and in this post we outline 11 of them. They range from habits of practice to habits of thought, but all of them have one important thing in common: they make your job harder."
Beth Dichter's insight:
For many of us this school year has come to an end or will shortly. Perhaps it is time to reflect on our year and consider habits that might need to be changed. This post looks at 11 habits. A few are listed below. * Not learning from colleagues. This seems simple, but given how busy our day is it is tough to find time to observe another teacher, or have someone tape you and ask others to provide you with feedback. * Assuming a lesson taught is a lesson learned. Have you asked yourself how many times you have repeated a portion of a lesson? With the range of students in our classrooms the need to rephrase, review, reteach key points may be more necessary than we think. * Failing to establish relevance. At times this may seem difficult to do, but for our students to learn we need to make our topic relevant to them. When you are successful with this share your ideas with others! Click through to the post to see 8 additional habits that you may want to change.
Rosemary Tyrrell, Ed.D.'s curator insight,
June 14, 2014 11:15 AM
#11 - Not getting to know your students. I think this is the most important tip -- but they're all good.
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"What started last year as a Self Assessment Guide, has been reworked into a more general tool for assessment. This new guide is suitable for teacher, peer or self assessment and also offers a visual map of what we want students to learn (with highlighting of which concepts are most important). Although still ICT specific, this guide could be adapted to any subject by changing the attributes and keywords."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out this revised assessment tool from Ross Parker. In the post he shares his experience with using this for a year and the awareness that the tool was not as functional as he had hoped. In brief, he has made four shifts. 1. Taking a tool designed for self assessment and realizing that the same time used throughout the year gets old quickly. Therefore, it is redesigned to "more general, useful for teachers and peers to use." 2. A shift from strands (high level learning outcomes), to attributes (which allows the tool to be used by students over many years as their knowledge and skills grow). 3. A move away from levels or grades to a focus on ways of learning. 4. Allowing students to determine levels rather than assigning them based on personal view. Last year this tool was well received and this new version brings it up to a new level. Consider using this with students and perhaps have them keep a copy of it asking them to review it later on in the school year. You can download a pdf version of the tool from the website.
SueFoS's curator insight,
June 1, 2014 8:47 PM
Interesting way to approach self-assessment in vocational areas. Could be adapted easily
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Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are looking for a chart that shares 8 ways to do formative assessment look no further. Keep it close at hand to use with your students.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
This infographic has many ThingLinked activities and resources. To get to them click through to the post. The infographic includes five pieces of support material, including over 60 SAMR examples and resources. There are also four questions that may help you determine if the technology is an enhancement or transformative. One is below. * Does the technology/tool allow for collaboration (e.g. within a school, district, state, nation, globe, experts, PLN)? This post is chock full of information as well as introducing the new acronym SASSY (see infographic above).
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Non-traditional tests, like Aaron Brock's 8th gr. history poster project, can help inner-city students build evaluative skills needed for new state assessments.
Beth Dichter's insight:
As the Common Core testing approaches and academic rigor is stressed it is great to have alternative ways to assess our students and that is teaching them skills that will be required in Common Core testing. This post provides a detailed look at how one teacher crafted a poster to assignment that required their students compare and contrast two leaders (unit Early American Leaders), exlaining whom they believed was the best leader and the worst leader, and providing a ranking for each level (explaining their ranking) as well as information from the text to support this. Many more details are provided in this post and you might also allow students to expand on the resources they utilized (as the Common Core will require that students look at more than one resource on a topic and then craft an answer to a problem). You might also have students create an infographic out of this work if you want to engage them online.
Kate Erricker's curator insight,
January 24, 2014 5:18 AM
Could this approach also work for comparative poetry analysis and Literature study?
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"Mid-year or more frequently, I ask students to complete an evaluation form. I craft the questions carefully so simple answers are hard to write. Instead, I try to create specific, complex questions that cover the material, the classroom activities and the students—peers and the individual. Many teachers shake their heads and avoid these exercises. They scoff that students would actually take the forms seriously or that the students will say anything useful. But I find the nature of the questions often elicits a straight answer—short, but helpful."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post provides a number of strategies that may help you receive better feedback from your students. The author, Jane Healey, suggests that you formulate "inquiries specific to a task." She has had students write an exemplary comment about another student (receiving "fabulous point-of-view descriptions") and then have the student write one for themselves. Additional questions you might ask are also provided for research projects and class discussions.
Mary Cunningham's curator insight,
January 5, 2014 7:35 PM
This is a great blog post on feedback and the importance of asking and listening to our students. 
Darleana McHenry's curator insight,
January 6, 2014 12:07 PM
Would you allow your students to evaluate you as a teacher? I think that you would learn a lot. 
macksayers's curator insight,
January 6, 2014 1:07 PM
Listening to our students through asking thoughtful questions and providing descriptive feedback to their peer and self assessments.
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"Education is all about the numbers these days. My personal preference is just the opposite. I have this fantasy where I toss grades in the garbage. In this dream, I let everyone redo things and have conferences to discuss improvement."
Beth Dichter's insight:
As teachers must is expected from us daily and more and more we are asked to do assessments. Many of us think of testing as soon as we hear assessment. This post discusses assessment stating "assessment isn’t always employed correctly. It sometimes gets over, under, or misused. Assessment should work seamlessly into the classroom routine. The traditional test can be intrusive and stressful. True assessment flows into the lessons and gives a constant pulse on student learning." The author then provides links to five Learnist boards that focus on assessment, specifically: * Simple Ways to Monitor Student Progress * Assessment * Exemplar Rubrics for Assessment * Socrative Response Systems * Metryx The first three boards have seven to ten resources. The last two links are on a board that is called 21st Century Assessment - Digital Documentation and additional resources are also found here.
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"Are you a forward-thinking educator interested in starting an innovative K-12 next generation learning program, initiative, or school…or moving your current program to the next level? If you are, you have probably been looking for that one-stop resource to help you start the planning and designing process. Well, look no further!"
Beth Dichter's insight:
iNACOL (the International Association for K-12 Online Learning) and NGLC (Next Generation Learning Center) have partnered and published a resource that will help you: * Understand what next generation learning is * Gain a working knowledge to help you design an approach that will work for your school * Understand how to insure quality and have continued improvements Why design a new toolkit? "To be prepared for life and work today, students need their learning to be personalized, flexible, interactive, engaging, relevant, self-paced, constantly-informed, collaborative, responsive, supportive, challenging but achievable, and available." The link above will take you to a page that provides a great overview (and to a website that has additional information you may want to explore). To go directly to the pdf file to download click on this link: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NGT1303.pdf.
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If you're not convinced that standardized testing is the best way to measure knowledge, try critical assessment techniques.
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post notes that cricial assessment techniques (CAT) fall into two major categories. They may be " be used to empower students by encouraging them to share their perspectives." CATs that fall into this category include: * Student generated questions * Student report groups * Suggestion boxes The second category "promote comprehension and long-term retention." Examples include: * One-minute papers * Chain notes * Peer reviews To learn more about CATs and find some additional resources click through to the post.
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"Over the past two decades there has been a lot written, and much discussion, around the use effective use of assessment in the classroom. Unfortunately many educators, particularly at the secondary school level, continue to cling tenaciously to “traditional” practices which are, at best ineffective and at worst, counterproductive to the goals of modern education. Here are six common misconceptions about assessment and evaluation that we could stand to rethink."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Read the list below and see if you find yourself in one or more of these misunderstandings...and for more information on each click through to the post. 1. Assessment and evaluation are the same. 2. Most assessment is summative. 3. Assessment is one way communication, the teacher gives feedback on student work. 4. Assessment is for grading purposes. 5. Student work should be given a grade or a mark. 6. If assignments are late, a teacher should deduct points.
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"...this year I have been dedicated to using the 21st Century four Cs. The four Cs are a rubric of sorts that help align lessons to more reality-based learning and assessing. As I design a lesson or assessment, I ask myself if what I've designed, or what the students must master, correlates to the important skills of: * Collaboration * Communication * Critical Thinking
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post looks not only at the four Cs but also at four elements that Dr. Carol Tomlinson uses when discussing differentation: * Process * Environment * Content * Product Wolpert-Gawron states "I think about these two lists in a way to ensure that I am hitting as many learners as possible -- with the wall up of rigor necessary to help prepare them for what we can predict they might need for their future." The post goes on to discuss how she uses TED Talks as a way to teach argumentative writing (as required in the Common Core). A quick overview of her projects includes students watching TED Talks, brainstorming advocacy isssues, researching (in small groups), creating a Problem Statement, developing background information, guiding questions and more. This is one teachers take on how to create a deeper learning environment in her classroom, and provides many ideas that you may want to adapt to your classroom.
Willem Kuypers's curator insight,
May 20, 2015 1:59 AM
Mes objectifs pour l'année académique prochaine : collaboration, communication, pensée critique et créativité. |
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Teacher feedback must be informative and encouraging for students to fully understand whether they're learning and what they can do to improve the learning process.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Do you know how to provide meaningful feedback to your students. This post in Edutopia provides five suggestions, all of which are included in the illustration above (located here). What are the suggestions? * Be as specific as possible * The sooner the better * Address the learner's advancement toward a goal * Present feedback carefully * Involve learners in the process Additional information on these five suggestions are in the post.
Mary Starry's curator insight,
September 14, 2014 7:38 PM
The role of immediate, meaningful feedback must also be incorporated into the active learning environment.
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Over the last few months I have worked with a number of high schools and middle schools where the grading and assessment practices simply do not work in a world of standards. The schools are not ma...
Beth Dichter's insight:
As many schools move to Common Core the question of rigor is a key issue. States that have tested with Common Core have seen significant drops in scores. Why? The Common Core tests are more difficult than most local tests. Grant Wiggins states "to significantly raise local standards of performance seems to mean we have to lower student grades." Most schools do not want to do this (and certainly most parents do not want to see lower grades). He continues to explore this issue looking at rigor, and noting that rigor is currently defined by 3 elements:
However, he notes that many schools/districts do not get past #1. Why? "The problem of fair/normed grading!" Wiggins then goes on to the final section of this post, called "Solution: avoid thoughtless calculations based on false equivalencies." However, there is one more section that provides two helpful pieces of information that may help you create better assessments. It includes Webb's Depth of Knowledge Wheel as well as audit matrix that looks at the Assessment Format (Task Complexity and Context) and Cognitive Demand (Depth and Fluency of Thinking). (See image above). Additionally, he has included an appendix that has text from Webb for levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 for Math, Reading and Writing. These are great resources to share with teachers in your district as we move to Common Core.
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We have an early look at some of the interesting data coming out of a larger report on teacher attitudes around the use of games in the classroom. The numbers hint at wider use of games in the classroom and indicate teachers see the real benefit of games in helping low-performing students.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Do you think games have a place in your classroom? This newly released data is from a survey of 694 K-8 teachers in the U.S. that the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted in 2013 to see how teachers are using digital games in their classrooms. * 74% of teachers are using games in their classroom * 55% of students play games at least once a week * 72% of students access games on a PC or a Mac, and 41% of teachers use a white board to share games * The two greatest barriers are the time it takes to implement games (45%) and the cost of the games (44%) This post from Games and Learning provides the current data in both a visual and written form. There is much more to be found on the website. You may also want to check out the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. They have also published an article on this which may be found at http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/2014/06/09/digital-games-in-the-classroom-a-national-surevy/
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"It’s tempting to say that no matter how much technology pushes on education, every teacher will always need to know iconic teacher practices like assessment, curriculum design, classroom management, and cognitive coaching. This may end up being true...Below are 15 tasks that are less skill-based. and a bit more conceptual, collectively representing how teaching is changing."
Beth Dichter's insight:
I suspect that every teacher has seen major change over the last few years. This post provides a look at changes that have happened, or are in the process. The first seven provide the change and a look at the old, the new, the difference and a short summary. One example from the post is quoted below. Personalization The Old: Administer assessment, evaluate performance, report performance, then–maybe–make crude adjustments the best you can The New: Identifying, prioritizing, and evaluating data for each student individually–in real time The Difference: Precision For more information click through to the post.
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"As we’ve discussed 7 myths about rigor, and the characteristics of rigor in curriculum, the final component is rigorous assessment. There are (at least) three aspects of rigorous assessments."
Beth Dichter's insight:
The three aspects that are discussed in this post are: * Appropriate * Purposeful * Promotes understanding The discussion on 'Appropriate' includes a variety of suggestions that help demonstrate how rigor is embedded in the assessment. In some cases the assessment is also related to each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. What does 'Purposeful' mean? Reflect on the standards you are teaching. What type of thinking are you asking your students to do? What is the final product that will demonstrate their understanding? 'Promotes understanding' ties into all the areas but also consider how to make this an authentic learning experience as you design a rigorous assessment. Several examples are included.
Rosemary Tyrrell, Ed.D.'s curator insight,
February 8, 2014 1:16 PM
We've been talking a lot lately about "authentic" assessment. Here are the three statements discussed in this post. 1. The Assessment Is Appropriate 2. The Assignment Is Purposeful 3. The Assessment Promotes Understanding 
Ness Crouch's curator insight,
February 8, 2014 5:53 PM
Rigourous curriculum and assessment is important. These three points are ones that we are continuously focus on. A good read, 
Daniel Rimmereid's curator insight,
March 25, 2014 8:35 PM
This is a great resource that really describes clearly and concisely what makes a great assessment but it took it one step further by talking about rigor. The first point is that good assessments need to be appropriate. This talks about how the assessment needs to be about what students learned but more importantly it needs to talk about and address what the students learned in a challenging way. If the assessment is too easy then students will not be truly assessed on the material and thus the assessment will be weak. The second point is that assessment needs to be purposeful. It is good for your students to finish an assessment and for them to clearly see what they have produced from that assessment. The third point is that the assessment should allow students to come away with some deeper form of understanding on the topic. I think something that I have taken away from this article is that assessment can be a great tool for deepening students understanding and really giving them something to be able to look back and know that they have accomplished something.
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This past weekend, my step-daughter Emily, who works in the field of non-profit fundraising, asked me out of the blue, "Do you you ever teach your students about infographics?" I beamed with pride as I showed off my students' hard work.
Beth Dichter's insight:
In this post learn how a teacher took a project where students created an infographic on a non-fiction book and took it from being a "nice digital poster" and observed students whom had finished early poll their classmates and create infographics that included their new results. To quote from the post "These students had made a leap of understanding I hadn’t asked for: the images on an infographic were meant to convey data and information with the powerful impact of visual design." Read the post to learn about the process that followed and how you might have your students create infographic in your classroom for an assessment.
The Rice Process's curator insight,
January 25, 2014 11:50 AM
Infographics can be an effective assesment across the board.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Are you interested in flipping part of your class and would like to know some tools that would also allow you to add assessments to videos. Richard Byrne has three suggestions and all are free! *eduCanon - Quoting from the post "eduCanon allows teachers to build flipped lessons using YouTube and Vimeo videos, create questions about the videos, then assign lessons to their students." *Teachem uses the TED-Ed model. Choose videos that are hosted on YouTube. Add questions and comments. Videos may be public or private. *Knowmia is a website and iPad app and their website has over 17,000 videos that you may use. You may also create your own. Knowmia has been designed for teachers and students and provides an Assignmen Wizard and is adding additional features. If you looking for a tool that allows you to flip a lesson and also include an assessment these three provide a variety of options. Have fun exploring and finding the one that will work best for you.
Charlotte Lovie's curator insight,
March 9, 2014 6:43 AM
Some more ways of adding learning content to video.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
I have posted a number of resources from Ross Parker and this one requires a bit of time to understand…and yes, I think it is worth the time. The directions he provides in the upper right hand corner describe how a student should use this visual, as a tool to “steer & assess your own learning.” Our students need to learn how to self-reflect and this tool has the potential to engage students and assist them in reflecting on their work regarding topics studied in technology. You may download this visual as a png, pdf or pages document on the website. Take some time to check it out and see what you think.
Mary Cunningham's curator insight,
October 26, 2013 12:26 PM
A cool self reflecting tool for ways to steer our learning!
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"The difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning is a crucial one, in many ways indicative of an important shift in education. Traditionally, tests have told teachers and parents how a student “does,” then offers a very accessible point of data (usually percentage correct and subsequent letter grade) that is reported to parents as a performance indicator."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Does traditional testing work? Or is it time for us to rethink why we assess? This post suggest that we look at why current assessments are based on past tense and consider looking at assessments using the five items in the image above: * Shared learning expectations * Eliciting evidence * Feedback * Self assessment * Peer assessment Why? The author states "This approach to assessment outlines the systematic approach to measuring understanding, including self-assessment and peer-assessment, feedback for learning, and clear communication of performance criteria. These strategies hint at the organic, dynamic, and iterative feel any modern system of assessment should realize." Assessment for learning, assessment that can help the teacher answer the question "What now?" - is this the type of assessment that we would like to bring into our classrooms and schools? What are your thoughts?
Jeffrey Burk's curator insight,
September 30, 2013 9:29 AM
Interesting article on assessment strategies. 
Aunty Alice's curator insight,
October 6, 2013 8:40 PM
I have practiced a system that covers four of the 5 key strategies for many years starting at five years of age. I would not teach any other way. With this kind of assessment students after seven years of age can lead parent teacher conferences with ease and confidence. Had a dad in tears once who confessed it was the first time his son had talked meaningfully to him about his learning. Then I was in tears too....
Aunty Alice's curator insight,
November 21, 2013 8:03 PM
A good little diagram but it does not address the issue of how to do it..it requires modelling, first by the teacher, then slowly devolving the responsibility to the learner, and focus on one subject area at a time e.g. Literacy . In my experience it also requires set aside time with each student to assess together, recording what has been discussed so it is not forgotten. I am talking about elementary learners here..
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"As teachers, it is essential that we make the process of providing feedback a positive, or at least a neutral, learning experience for the student. So what exactly is feedback? Feedback is any response from a teacher in regard to a student’s performance or behavior. It can be verbal, written or gestural. The purpose of feedback in the learning process is to improve a student’s performance- definitely not put a damper on it. The ultimate goal of feedback is to provide students with an “I can do this” attitude."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Providing feedback to our students is critical to their learning, and this post provides 20 tips on how to provide feedback that will help move improve a student's performance. Three of the tips are listed below. For more information on those three, plus 17 more, click through to the post. (Text below is quoted from the post.) * Feedback should be educative in nature. Providing feedback means giving students an explanation of what they are doing correctly AND incorrectly. However, the focus of the feedback should be based essentially on what the students is doing right. * Ask the four questions. Providing answers to the following four questions on a regular basis will help provide quality feedback. These four questions are also helpful when providing feedback to parents: What can the student do? What can’t the student do? How does the student’s work compare with that of others? How can the student do better? * Concentrate on one ability. It makes a far greater impact on the student when only one skill is critiqued versus the entire paper being the focus of everything that is wrong.
Nick Allsopp's curator insight,
June 11, 2013 5:26 PM
this is based in higher education, are there points that are transferable to other sectors of education? 
Liza Zamboglou's curator insight,
June 12, 2013 9:37 AM
Good post outlining 20 tips on how to provide feedback that will help improve a student's performance. 
ColbyccSSS's curator insight,
June 17, 2013 11:15 AM
Valuable information for new instructors like myself
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Beth Dichter's insight:
There are many learning models that we may explore, and this one is presented a bit differently than others I have seen. Quoting from the post "The goal of the model is simple enough–not pure academic proficiency, but instead authentic self-knowledge, diverse local and global interdependence, adaptive critical thinking, and adaptive media literacy." There are nine domains in this model (listed below) and the post provides additional information. * Five Learning Actuators * Changing Habits * Transparency * Self-Initiated Transfer * Mentoring and Community * Changing Roles * Climate of Assessment * Thought and Abstraction * Expanding Literacies
maite collados's curator insight,
May 10, 2013 8:56 AM
Las características reflejadas en el esquema y explicadas en el artículo sobre el modelo de enseñanza en el siglo XXI, están íntimamente ligadas a la tendencia BYOD, como se refleja en el rol que videojuegos, la curación de contenidos, el cambio de papel de "estudiante receptor" a "estudiante creador de conocimiento", implicación en la enseñanza de todos los entornos del estudiante o la actuación del profesor como curador y guía en el conocimiento-aprendizaje de los alumnos. 
Pilar Castro's curator insight,
May 21, 2013 11:49 AM
Criterios importantes para diseñar nuevos modelos de aprendizaje.
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"SimCity As game-based learning gains momentum in education circles, teachers increasingly want substantive proof that games are helpful for learning...GlassLab is working with commercial game companies, assessment experts, and those versed in digital classrooms to build SimCityEDU, a downloadable game designed for sixth graders."
Beth Dichter's insight:
When you ask a middle school student what computers are good for they often reply "playing games." SimCity is going to be releasing a SimCity EDU version in the fall of this year. This new version "grew out of research conducted by the MacArthur foundation on how gaming can mirror formative assessments [PDF] – measuring understanding regularly along the learning path, rather than occasionally or at the end of a unit, as is most common. Their research found that games gather data about the player as he or she makes choices within the game, affecting the outcome. In games, players “level-up,” moving on to higher levels when they’ve mastered the necessary skills; similarly teachers scaffold lessons to deepen understanding as a student grasps the easier concepts." The post also notes that there are those who question if assessment belongs in games. That is a topic that will continued to be debated.
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Looks like a sales site but has some good background info.
Reading comprehension is so important. There are so many children who can decode brilliantly but have difficulty with comprehending...an essential part of reading. Good tips.