The month of March has been jam packed with learning experiences in Social Studies Methods so far. Although I have learned a lot from my class and the assignments we are participating in, I have gained an immense amount about being a teacher from being in a real live classroom. My clinical placement this semester is in first grade, which is where my heart is at the moment. For Social Studies Methods, we are required to teach an entire lesson plan in our clinical placement. After observing the classroom I was placed in for a good deal of time, my clinical educator and I decided that I would become part of the students literacy centers, and teach my lesson of a course of three days. On my first day of teaching, I was extremely nervous because I have never had the opportunity to teach a real class of elementary students before. Even though a lot of things did not go as expected, and I had to make decisions and changes for my students on the spot, I loved teaching. Teaching to actual six year olds and watching them get excited about what they were learning is what I live for in this major. While I taught, I was able to watch students who were not confident in themselves complete assignments that they didn't know they were capable of. I was also able to see how incredibly smart each child was in some shape or form. I think my biggest takeaway from my time teaching was the fact that each child in that classroom was so smart and had so much potential, but it took something different to get these students to have the "ah-ha" moments that unlock this potential. This connects directly to standard 4, element a, which states that "Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students." As a teacher, it is crucial that I know how each of my students learn in order to provide the strategies and learning experiences that each student needs so that they are able to achieve at their highest potential. The United States Department of Education wrote an article arguing for a more well rounded education said that schools should incorporate the passions that students already have. Although this relates more to students having the opportunity to go to other classes, such as music and art, I believe we can relate this to our classroom as well. If we use interests that students have already developed a passion for to engage them in our lessons, we can help students use the potential they already know they have in one area to bring them confidence in another. The article says "students are discovering their own potential through those experiences beyond just English and math." (Link at bottom)
In my future classroom, I plan to get to know my students and how they learn as quickly and as thoroughly as possible so that I can provide them with the learning experiences they truly need. Differentiation is the key to providing this for students. Each student is smart and has potential, but every student is not able to access this potential in the same way. This relates directly to standard four, element c, which states that "Teachers use a variety of instructional methods." My students deserve for me to provide them with assignments and learning experiences that are tailored to their needs by differentiating for my classroom.
Link to Outside Research: https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/what-school-can-be
Monday, March 26, 2018
Friday, March 2, 2018
Performance Tasks
I have learned so much between my last blog in February and now. I think one of my biggest takeaways from this past month revolves around the unit we are writing. This semester in social studies methods, we are writing a unit plan that is concept based. We have learned that at the end of our unit, we must have a performance task. Before taking this course, I did not know what a performance task was. Of course, I already knew about assessments and how important they are, but I had mostly focused on formative assessments that belong at the end of a small lesson plan. Performance tasks are assessments that belong at the end of a unit. They are summative, and they should require students to portray conceptual knowledge about the unit that has been taught. This project should allow students to be creative and portray their work in various ways while also leading them to exhibit the specific knowledge you are looking for. We also learning that it should follow the GRASPS model. This stands for Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product, performance, and purpose, and Standards and criteria for success. This helps your performance task become a real world, meaningful task for your students. It helps encourage conceptual thought within your task, and makes sure that your performance task exhibits inquiry. Throughout this process, I have learned the difference between a small assessment and a performance task. I believe performance tasks help students to truly show knowledge of their topic while also giving them a real world experience to attach their knowledge to.
In order to implement an adequate performance task, according to Jay McTighe, your task must exhibit certain characteristics. Performance tasks must "call for the application of knowledge and skills, not just recall or recognition." They also must also be open-ended, and they must be "multifaceted". Lastly, the performance task must be evaluated by pre-established standards, such as a rubric, and they should include integration of other subjects and twenty-first century skills (link at bottom). I believe that these characteristics are what set performance tasks apart from regular, fact based assessments. In order for a performance task to be successful for encouraging outside connections and a deeper level of skills, we must make sure that we work hard to establish these characteristics in our performance tasks.
This connects directly to standard 3, element d, which states that "Teachers make instruction relevant to students." By using performance tasks that ensure conceptual knowledge and allow real world experiences to attach the knowledge to, we are making sure our students see the relevance of their learning. Students need to be taught in a way that makes learning important to them, and shows them why they need the knowledge we are giving them. In my future classroom, I plan to use performance tasks at the end of my units in order to help my students gain intrinsic motivation by seeing the connections to their world outside of the four walls of my classroom. I do not want to be a teacher that makes students feel as if school is useless. I want to make sure that my students understand why everything I teach them matters so that they will care about their learning.
The idea of a performance task also connects directly to standard 4, element e, which states that "Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills." Performance tasks tests the knowledge of a students conceptual knowledge through the use of large projects or simulations. Using conceptual knowledge requires a deeper level of thought than testing students on factual content. By using concepts, you are ensuring that students are learning the twenty-first century skills of problem solving and critical thinking. In my future classroom, I hope to promote twenty-first century skills in all aspects of my classroom. One of the ways I plan to promote these skills is through performance tasks.
Link: http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/what-is-a-performance-task
In order to implement an adequate performance task, according to Jay McTighe, your task must exhibit certain characteristics. Performance tasks must "call for the application of knowledge and skills, not just recall or recognition." They also must also be open-ended, and they must be "multifaceted". Lastly, the performance task must be evaluated by pre-established standards, such as a rubric, and they should include integration of other subjects and twenty-first century skills (link at bottom). I believe that these characteristics are what set performance tasks apart from regular, fact based assessments. In order for a performance task to be successful for encouraging outside connections and a deeper level of skills, we must make sure that we work hard to establish these characteristics in our performance tasks.
This connects directly to standard 3, element d, which states that "Teachers make instruction relevant to students." By using performance tasks that ensure conceptual knowledge and allow real world experiences to attach the knowledge to, we are making sure our students see the relevance of their learning. Students need to be taught in a way that makes learning important to them, and shows them why they need the knowledge we are giving them. In my future classroom, I plan to use performance tasks at the end of my units in order to help my students gain intrinsic motivation by seeing the connections to their world outside of the four walls of my classroom. I do not want to be a teacher that makes students feel as if school is useless. I want to make sure that my students understand why everything I teach them matters so that they will care about their learning.
The idea of a performance task also connects directly to standard 4, element e, which states that "Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills." Performance tasks tests the knowledge of a students conceptual knowledge through the use of large projects or simulations. Using conceptual knowledge requires a deeper level of thought than testing students on factual content. By using concepts, you are ensuring that students are learning the twenty-first century skills of problem solving and critical thinking. In my future classroom, I hope to promote twenty-first century skills in all aspects of my classroom. One of the ways I plan to promote these skills is through performance tasks.
Link: http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/what-is-a-performance-task
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