Wednesday, April 17, 2013

And Away We Go!!

How Is It Going?

Well this the question I asked myself today at the end of a two day collaborative rubric creation process with my students.  I decided that it was relevant and important to have my students not only understand how to use a rubric to guide their learning and improve their understanding but what goes into developing a rubric!  So the students took a little "pre-test" on what the standards that we were going to accomplish meant and then we discussed what standards are and how teachers use them to drive our lessons.  We then took the two standards that I wanted us to meet and worked collaboratively as a class to create the rubric that would guide the development of their final projects and would be used to give them a final grade for the project.  This was a very productive and empowering process for the students.  They had great insights into how to set high but achievable standards in the time frame given while assuring creative freedom in the process!  I have included a sample rubric below.


Criteria
Pass
Fail
Design
Student builds a project using technology (other than Pearltrees).
Student did not use  technology to build their project.
Academic Program Requirements
Student uses information from Pearltree/checklist to create their project.
Student does not use information from Pearltree/checklist to create project.
Managing Your Learning
Student has project completely done on time, has met all criteria, and project meets the 3-5 minute time requirement.
Student does not turn project in on time or an incomplete project. 
Assessing Progress
Student completes a self-evaluation and a peer has evaluated their project.
Student is missing one or more required evaluations.
Organization
Project is neat, professional, and easily understood.
Project is sloppy and challenging to understand.
Presentation
Student is enthusiastic,  projects their voice, speak clearly, make eye contact, and face the audience.
Student is boring, unclear and does not make eye contact.
Preparedness
Student is able to answer questions about their topic.
Student inadequately answers the questions. 
Comment: Discuss how your project went.

Overall, I really enjoyed working through this process with my students and I expect that due to this process that the students will not only achieve better scores on the project but will have a more clear understanding of how and why we use rubrics in the classroom.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Week 12

Essential Question:
How will I demonstrate impact on student learning as a result of my differentiated lesson?

As I worked through this essential question I felt as if I was back in my first year of teaching and it was a good reminder to always go back to those roots of my practice... standards!  Although as an educator I am always aware of the standards and build my curriculum to "meet" those standards I do not often go directly to those standards to directly align my lessons.  Working through this process again (as I did as a new teacher in my first year of practice) I have been reminded of the importance of revisiting the things that we become so comfortable with over the years.  One of my greatest challenges through this process was not creating a rubric (I use rubrics often) but directly aligning it to specific standards, in fact the first attempt of this was not very successful.  In turn, I decided to take another wrote for the second part of my lesson, I decided to have the students get a better understanding of standards and our goals with our lessons by having them help me develop a rubric for their final product of this project.  How this goes is to be determined! Below are the pre/post "assessment" which is a journal tool and the lesson that will follow.


Read the following standards:

NETS-T Standards

Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS·S.

a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

b. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

Now answer the following questions:

1.    What are standards and what are their purpose?  (IDK is now an appropriate answer please write in complete sentences).



 
2.    Now write in your own words what it would look like for a teacher to create a lesson that met these standards.








3.    Describe how a lesson that met these standards would support your learning.



Post-Secondary Technology Lesson

In this lesson I will have student take a pre-assessment by looking over the standards that I would like us to accomplish and have the students work with me to create an appropriate rubric that will be used by them, a peer and myself to assess their final product.  The standards that will be used are below:

Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS·S.

a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

b. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.


After creating the rubric the students will then be given time to use the research that they have conducted on post-secondary research to create a final product using technology to share information about their top choice from their post-secondary research.  Students will be given the following options but will not be limited to these options if they have another route they would like to take.

Product Options:

PowerPoint
Pod-cast
Movie
Slide-show
Web-page
Other…

Students will have class time to create the final product and then share it with their peers where they will be assessed using the rubric. 

Then they will be given the post assessment.

Here is a sample research Pearltree that the students have already created: