Assessments

This weeks readings were on classroom assessments.  Two major types of assessments exist: formative and summative.  A formative assessment is ongoing. Formative assessments measure where a student is in relation to the standard during the learning process.  Summative assessments measure what a child has learned at the end of the learning process.  While formative assessments may not always be graded, summative assessments almost always are.

In creating assessments, the first thing a teacher needs to do is to determine what needs to be learned and under what circumstances (Slavin, 2018).  Once the learning objectives are clear, an assessment can be created that measures those objectives.  In general formative assessments are more meaningful than summative assessments because they provide valuable information to students and the teacher on what a student still needs to learn or if a student’s learning should be accelerated.  However, formative assessments are only valuable if the data gleaned from the assessment is used to help a student through immediate and thorough feedback (Slavin, 2019, p. 350). 

Through my teaching career I have found myself either not effectively using the data from assessments or putting so much time and energy into the data that I have little time for anything else.  One thing I have started doing recently is using Kahoot or Quizlet to show me the most commonly missed items by students so that I can correct their understanding immediately.  I find that knowing why the wrong answer is wrong is sometimes more helpful than knowing why the right answer is right.  

I am embarrassed to admit that I have never used a table of specifications before in order to create an assessment.  I certainly have based my assessments on the standard but I have never actually laid out the information so specifically.  My goal for the next school year is to create new summative assessments that are not all multiple choice.  I plant to create a table of specifications based on my standards and to implement fill in the blank and short answer assessment questions based specifically on the verbs used in my standards.

Slavin, R. E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Classroom Management

    This week's readings are about classroom management. Classroom management is setting policies and procedures, being consistent with them, stopping misbehavior before it begins and responding to it appropriately when it does, and keeping students engaged.

"The most effective classroom management is effective instruction" (Slavin, 2018). Keeping students actively engaged in lessons that interest them and with which they can interact will lead to more students on task and fewer disruptions.

 

Starting class on time can reduce disruptions.  When students know that a teacher is serious about teaching and  is ready to get started, they are more likely to get serious about learning.  A slow start to  class may send a message to the students that the teacher is not ready to teach, is unprepared, or doesn't find the work in his/her own classroom important.  It is important to remember that time is valuable, and off-task time at the beginning of time reduces that time that active learning is occurring in a classroom.

Teachers should vary methods of instruction to keep students interest.  Methods of instruction should reduce the amount of time a student is working independently and unsupervised and increase the amount to time a student is collaborating with others.  Allowing students wait time or think-before-you-speak time is another way to keep students engaged.  Posing a question and allowing students to think before calling on a student to answer ensures that they all will attempt to answer the prompt in their head because they do not know if they will be the one called on.

In order to reduce disruptions, transition time should be modeled.  Transitions should include a signal that students understand, a verbal announcement of what the expectation is, and a large group move rather than individual students moving.

When students misbehave, teachers should try to minimize the impact on classroom learning.  A visual acknowledgement (the stink-eye) or simply moving closer to the offending student may help mitigate the problem.  A simple pat on the back may work if visual cues do not.  If a student is still misbehaving, a choice should be presented to him/her.  The choice should include a) working on the lesson or b) suffering the consequences which may be time out, detention, or a phone call home.  It should be handled quickly and quietly.

Teachers should be aware of WHY students are acting out.  It could be from boredom, wanting to gain the teacher's attention, wanting to gain peer attention, and/or wanting to escape work.

My major struggles with classroom management are with transitions and students who act out to get my attention.  I have not actively worked on modeling transitions and have often called individual students to get Chromebooks when I could call groups of students to reduce time and inattentiveness.  This coming school year, I plan to do a much better job of modeling expectations for transitions in hopes that it will reduce time off task.  I also will work on trying to praise students for good behavior rather than allowing the "bad" students to take up so much of my time.  I recognize that I have been negatively reinforcing poor behavior by allowing off-task and disruptive students so much of my time.  This is not fair to me or to the other students in my classroom.

Slavin, R. E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.