Kelsi Anderson ELEC 316

  Alignment:  During this week, we discussed the importance of alignment. It is a way of keeping all components which include standards, curriculum, assessments, and instruction all able to be in line with each other to accomplish any goals in the classroom. If any of these components are out of line, these will all fail to work together. Teachers will struggle to teach the lesson or the students will struggle with assessing if the teacher struggles with the objectives and lessons. All these components need to world together in order to be successful in the classroom. I think this visual below accurately shows how students and teachers can be affected if the components are not aligned.  Backward Design:  This is a way of creating objectives and lesson plans by starting off thinking about the end goal of what you want your students to be able to do at the end of the learning process. You want to know the end goal then you will begin to find ways how you plan to assess...

  The ABCD Method is a method that is used to identify what students are able to do and gives a clear picture of what students need to do to be successful. These are also known as objectives.  Audience:   who is this objective obtained to  Behavior:   describes what the student is able to do; must be observable and measurable Condition:   any resources, limitations, or materials given while completing objective  Degree:   the level or criteria student succeeds; to what degree of mastery  ABCD Example:  Given four examples of ABCD instructional objectives, ELEC 316 students will work in groups of 2-3 to accurately identify the audience, behavior, condition, and degree of each example. This visual above is also important to keep in mind when creating objectives with the ABCD Method. The object must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based in order to be a clear objective for students to understand. If it’s missing ...

Bloom’s Taxonomy   Bloom’s Taxonomy is a visual that provides a set of levels ranging from simple to complex that students will work on moving up on while learning content. There are verbs on each level that describes what students are going to be able to master. These 6 levels include: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.  Webb’s Depth of Knowledge  Webb’s Depth of Knowledge is also a model with levels that you would use in a classroom to show that students will apply their learning. This model has 4 levels which include: Recalling & Reproduction, Skills & concepts, Strategic Thinking, and Extended Thinking. The big difference between the DOK and Bloom’s taxonomy is that DOK has no hierarchical levels. Each level doesn’t have to happen in order necessarily.  While in the classroom, both of these methods are something that I would really focus my lesson plans on when creating lessons based on the standards. I would have a...

  Documentation: During this week, we continued our discussion on documentation which is a way of recording a child’s progress with their academics, behaviors, child’s discussions and ideas, and their ideas. There are different types of documentation: Panels and Portfolios.  Panels:  The purpose of this type of documentation is to show what the students in the classroom are learning. The panels may include pieces of work from a child, multiple stages of completion of an activity, voices written by what students are saying, and any other ways to show what students are doing in class. This is good for students to have the opportunity to revisit what they have been learning in their classes. The most important part about this type of documentation is that the children’s learning is visible to everyone.  Portfolios:  The purpose of this documentation is to systematically collect evidence of children’s work and knowledge over time with demonstrations of a child’s eff...

  As a class, we dove deep into learning more about observations in a classroom. When you are observing, you are looking for: levels of engagement, children's interactions, behaviors, successes, evidence of higher-order thinking, learning climate, and classroom management.  The purpose of observing is to find any patterns in learning or behaviors, help teachers plan based on students’ knowledge, see thinking processes, and give evidence to support evaluations for children.  Objective vs subjective:  Subjective : based on interpretation based on feelings, emotions, opinions Objective : based on facts and observable behaviors; quantifiable/measurable  Ways to Record observations:  Running Records  Anecdotal records  Time sampling Event sampling  Checklist  Rating scales  Implementing observation techniques in the classroom:  In my classroom, I want to provide multiple ways of observing. I am aware that all students work and expr...

During the first week of class, I learned that there are different kinds and ways to assess children. While breaking this down, The first important part of understanding is the difference between formal and informal assessments. Formal assessments are standardized, collect statistical data, compare student performance, and can assess the effectiveness of programs or schools. Informal assessments are more focused on individual performance, allow teachers to see strengths and weaknesses, and help teachers plan accordingly.  Assessment vs Evaluation:  These both can be interchangeable but we need to understand that they aren’t the exact same.  Assessment: Gather information about students learning  Evaluation: Process of examining information about assessing.  Cycle of Assessment :  Teaching/learning, gathering evidence, giving feedback, reflecting/plan This cycle will continuously repeat  5 types of Educational assessments :  Diagnostic assessments...