Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Classroom Management, Constant Learning, Use of Technology

Recording Process

I recently gained access to the HWDSB app catalogue on our new teacher iPads. I was able to download up to 175 apps and check out the apps I thought would be very helpful for my students. The one app I discovered that I think helps with recording student progress and behaviours in class is the app called idoceo.This app allows for you to walk around with your iPad and keep track of all student work ethics throughout the day. I have started to use the “happy face” symbols that come in four different colours to note the four levels of achievement. This is so helpful because you do not always have to have your mark book out, you now have a portable mark book with easy to use features.

You can also use the “seating plan” section app that helps you chose students at random rather than calling out random students. This keeps all students on their toes and always ready to answer.

You can always show students how they are doing on this app by calling them over to check their process marks in class. I find that I am always so focused on the end product and do not focus enough on the process of my students. With this app in hand, I feel I will be more readily available to record student efforts.

I am very fortunate to be able to have this extra iPad for my class which makes using technology that more accessible.

Mike Beetham Assessment, Celebrating Success, Communication with Parents and Guardians, General, self reflection

Weekly News

I want to share with you an experiment gone really right. Over 2o years ago, a very good friend of mine and I started working with high-risk youth (Grade 6 -8) in our board in the summers. We had developed a program based around adventure-based learning. Our focus was to use the outdoors and physical challenges to assist them in developing social and self-regulation skills that would increase the probability of their success in school. One of the tools we developed was a Daily Newsletter (as we called it at that time) to inform families of their child’s progress as well as provide a summary of the days successes and occasional not so good outcomes. That one teaching tool has evolved over the last twenty years into what is now my Weekly Parent Book.

At the end of each week, at my classroom computer station I sit, look around my room and ask myself the following questions:

  1. How well did I meet the needs of each of my students?
  2. Did I make time to talk with each student on a one-to-one basis to find out how their life is going?
  3. Did I push too hard or not hard enough in moving them along their academic journey?
  4. What did I accomplish this week in literacy, numeracy etc.?
  5. What went well in Room 16 this week?
  6. What did not go well in Room 16 this week?
  7. How will I use that information to make the next week more successful for everyone?

That weekly routine has turned into one of the most rewarding and successful self-reflection tools I have ever had. Its initial, sole intent was to inform parents of what was going on in their child’s classroom. What it has become is a tool that I use to inform families, publish good news stories, share advice on how parents can help their child, updates on school-wide initiatives and most importantly, a tool to reflect on my week’s teaching.

It is a time that I actually use to decompress from the week’s events, look back in order to plan ahead for my next week and set goals of what I need to accomplish the following week (from a curriculum standpoint or what is needed to help specific students move forward). As the year progresses, the content of the weekly news becomes a shared work whereby students start to contribute to its production. That is when this tool becomes a very powerful learning tool for all of us.

Of course being the old school type, every Monday our morning circle starts with the sharing of the past week, goal setting using the feedback on that two-sided sheet of paper and then the ritual of adding it to their Parent Book to go home and be read and signed by an adult in their home. It goes home on Monday and is not due back until the following Monday to accommodate a wide variety of family scenarios and work schedules. The back of the page usually has some photograph that was taken during the week, an advice column, new goals for the class, a funny parent story or some other kind of important read for my families. At the end of the year it turns into a yearbook that can serve as a memory of their year. I still have all of my copies and when I need a little nostalgia fix all I have to do is go back and look through my career, year-by-year.

Weekly News

Tisha Nelson Assessment, General

Product or Process: Reflections on Assessing Thinking

What’s the difference between thinking and understanding? More specifically, how might one distinguish between the activity of thinking and having understanding. Is there even a difference? This got me thinking… How I might invite educators to a conversation about assessment practices using a common understanding of assessment through the lens of Ontario’s standardized assessment rubric, The Achievement Chart. Most of the assessment resources that I usually refer to spoke more about the assessment process and the importance of assessment as, for and of learning, but seldom did I find any descriptions that were specific to using the Achievement Chart as the standard lens for engaging in the assessment of student learning itself. My investigation then lead me to the most basic of resources for determining distinction – the dictionary. Well to be honest, I simply Googled it, but these days, that’s pretty much the same thing. So what did I find out? The word think is a verb. It speaks to the process of using one’s mind to reason about something. On the other hand, understanding is a noun. Is speaks to what one comprehends or the insight one has acquired.

To be fair, simply reading the introduction of any Ontario Curriculum document would immediately highlight this distinction. What I wanted was to first get an unbiased definition that would then be solidified once I referred to the definitions used in the documents. According to the curriculum, language around understanding speaks of having comprehension in subject specific content. Thinking, however, speaks of the uses of planning skills and thinking processes. Eureka! So assessing thinking is actually assessing the process – the series of actions or steps taken. This was the pivotal distinction: The achievement chart calls for teachers to assess the process of thinking and not merely the thought or understanding one arrives at itself.

This revelation may not be new, but surely one that we should be reminded about. We are constantly engaging in the assessment process, however, this conversation (or me at least) highlighted the importance of being more intentional and slowing down the thinking process by scaffolding metacognition. By doing so, students can be more aware of their own thinking when it is happening and demonstrate the process they’ve engaged with when they arrive at their own understanding. This also reminded me of the importance to focus on process as well as product when assessing student learning and as such, the importance of actually teaching students a variety of thinking processes (i.e. creative thinking, critical thinking, design thinking, integrative thinking, etc.). What might this actually look like in terms of assessing student thinking? Perhaps it would be focusing on the process students engage with for writing an essay (ie. the writing process) along with the finished process. It might also mean assessing students strategies for problem solving, in addition to the accuracy of their answers. The most important thing to be mindful of is to value the distinction between engaging in thinking and having an understanding. They are not diametrically opposed, but rather are complementary and in knowing so, students can then be invited to see the distinction which will affirm the importance that is placed on both the process and the product.

Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Start of the year

Assessing Student Work

Adding onto my last post about the excellent book I read, “Creative Schools”, I would like to expand on an idea from Sir Ken Robinson. He spoke of a program called “Fresh Grade” where you would take pictures of student’s work and you would store that online. These are online student portfolios where you directly take photos of their work and comment on these photos. You can set up parents to be the eyes of the account so that each day or week, depending on the time you would like to take to update this, your parents will see the work of their children. Sir Ken talks about not including marks on these tasks as we have become too mark orientated as a whole generation. I have included comments on students work and I have made sure to include next steps for the parents to see. I hope to continue using this program “Fresh Grade”.

My next step is to contact parents asking permission to email them the portfolio that goes with their child’s work. The letter I will create to go with the portfolio is yet to be created and I would love advice of how to create that letter! I hope to attach the parent’s email to their child’s account so the communication of student work is always ongoing!

I cannot wait to see the reaction from parents and I hope that this app interests them.

Mike Beetham Assessment, Before School Starts, Combined Grade Classes, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Integration, Learning About Your Students

Tortoise Brained Learning and Students

In my last post I focussed on the philosophical belief that quality vs quantity of professional learning is a more effective way of enhancing pedagogical practice. What does that mean for my classroom instruction? As I grow to understand the presence of different learning styles in my class, the presence of multiple intelligences and the wide variety of learning rates it forces me to re-examine both the long term and short term planning that I set up.

In the earlier part of my career my long-range plans were reflective of an efficient way to ensure that all of the curricula was covered. This I now refer to as curriculum planning and not student centred planning. As my understanding of differentiated learning and assessment grew, so did the need to adjust the way my planning unfolded. What I had experienced was a short-term understanding of content and when that topic was revisited months later there seemed to be a regression in the level of understanding of my students. That forced me to ask myself as to how well they had really learned the content in the first place.

Through years of experimenting with both my long range planning and unit design there arose two aha moments for me. The first was the need to revisit big ideas (overall expectations) through a spiralling curriculum. This means that I would chunk the content into more manageable pieces and revisit the content several times over the course of the year (quality vs quantity).

The second profound understanding was in time management and how do I accomplish the ability to revisit overall expectations with so many demands on the school day. Thus came the desire to increase my skill set in integrating learning across a variety of curricula. The following is a direct reference from the 2006 Ontario Language Curriculum:

In cross-curricular learning, students are provided with opportunities to learn and use related content and/or skills in two or more subjects. For example, teachers can use social studies reading material in their language lessons, and incorporate instruction in how to read non-fiction materials into their social studies lessons. In mathematics, students learn to identify the relevant information in a word problem in order to clarify what is being asked. In science and technology, they build subject-specific vocabulary, interpret diagrams and charts, and read instructions relating to investigations and procedures. All subjects require that students communicate what they have learned, orally and in writing. Their studies in the different subject areas help students develop their language skills, providing them with authentic purposes for reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representing.

Needless to say, this is a spiralling learning experience for me as I continue to help my students consolidate the learning that they are a part of each and every day.

Photo of Lisa Taylor
Lisa.Taylor Assessment, Before School Starts, Communication Tools, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Math, Resources

Bulletin Boards – Teaching Tool, Art Gallery, or Wallpaper?

Every classroom has bulletin boards, some have one, some have 10! It all depends on the space you have and how you plan to use it. It is easy to set something up with plans for it to change or evolve, only to find that 4 months later you haven’t touched it, taught to it, or even referenced it!!

In my experience, Bulletin Boards end up falling into 1 of 3 categories: Teaching Tool, Art Gallery, or Wallpaper. Some bulletin boards are a blend of two or even all three of these categories. It is important to make the most of the space you have on your walls, while being cognisant of the fact that many children find too much stuff on the walls to be distracting.

When planning your walls, make sure you check with health and safety regulation, as many school boards have a maximum percentage of walls space that can be covered to stay within the fire regulation. So before you hit pinterest for some great ideas, make sure you are even able to cover the space! In my classroom, I have 5 large boards that cover almost every space that isn’t blackboard, windows or doors. The space that the bulletin boards cover is actually above the maximum percentage I can have covered in paper!! So I can’t paper back my boards as it is a fire hazard.

Many teachers like to paint their boards so they look crisp and clean all year. Again, double check with health and safety, as it is often an issue as it adds weight to the board which might not have been considered when mounting it. Especially if you are the 10th person in the classroom to paint them because the previous colours didn’t suit anyone’s decor!

Once you have established what your health and safety guidelines are, you can start to think about what is going on the walls. Ask yourself a few questions before you put something up there.

1. How will this help the students? While a Word Wall CAN help students, if you slap it all up before school starts and casually refer to it from time to time, it is not a useful tool and it is just wallpaper. Make sure you teach to it. Make it with the class and do it organically!

2. Is this something we need up for more than just today? If you only need it for the immediate future, don’t make a whole board of it. If you want to show off student work, I find the hallway is the best place for this type of thing. It gets more “traffic” from other teachers/students/parents, and it isn’t a distraction to learning. If you do need it for more than just today, you may want to ask a few more questions before you decide where to put it!

3. Do I need to put it all up right away and on my own? As teachers, we hate to look or feel like we aren’t organized, prepared, and ready to go! I recall as a young teacher, putting up bulletin boards before the first day of school. Yes, sometimes I taught to them, but generally they were just wallpaper. Many of us are guilty of putting up the whole word wall kit the day we get it! It just looks so pretty when it is done! Put it up gradually, and with the class! This will make it a more meaningful teaching tool. As teachers, we like everything to look complete and not “in progress” – but having the word wall with just 3-4 words up in September is what your students need!

4. Am I done with this? If you aren’t using it anymore, and the kids aren’t, take a picture of it and take it down! The more “stuff” you have on your walls, the harder it is for students to find what they are looking for. If you don’t need it anymore, take it down!

5. Are the kids using this? Even when you read the research, do the work, cut, past, laminate, and put up a beautiful board, the kids may not respond to it and it may not be useful to them. If you put up a board for math showing single digit addition strategies to start off the year, if they have all mastered it by December, they probably aren’t using it anymore. We have a tendency to keep things up in lieu of blank space to avoid looking like we aren’t accomplishing anything as a class! If they aren’t using it, take it down, or teach to it more, modify it, model how to use it. If after teaching to it more, they still aren’t using it – TAKE IT DOWN!!

There are thousands of blog posts and pinterest boards dedicated to amazing bulletin board ideas. Before you put one up, make sure it is actually something you need, that will get used, and that you install it in such a way that the students know how to access it.

There are great blog posts about what to do with your bulletin boards when you are done. My personal favourite is to snap a picture and create a bulletin board binder. That way, if there is still one of two children in the class that still need that bulletin board, they can go to the binder and look at it all year long! It will also serve as a nice reminder of how they looked if you end up needing to recreate it another year!

Alison.Board Assessment, Differentiated Instruction, Inquiry

Assessment for Inquiry Projects

Alison_BoardTeachers are encouraged to use inquiry in all subject areas. Using inquiry is not necessarily a set of steps to follow or instruct, but an approach to guide student learning. It usually results in greater engagement and can easily be differentiated to individuals and groups. What is often the biggest challenge for teachers is the assessment piece.

Here are a few ways to support your assessment:

  • determine check-ins with students as they complete specific stages of the process, such as planning, research/recording observations, interpreting and communicating (use rubrics for these stages as provided in curriculum document – Continuum for Scientific Inquiry)
  • use mini-lessons to teach skills and content to the whole class that support the Inquiry subject area
  • use whole-class discussions or small group discussions to make observations about student knowledge and understanding (this also builds knowledge among the larger group)
  • provide access to a computer for each group or a notebook to record their questions and plans and stay accountable. Communicate with them to further their thinking and provide next steps (Google Docs works well for this)
  • Keep observations sheets handy to make notes and take photos
  • Inquiry work provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the learning skills
  • Provide students with a checklist to ensure specific learning, such as “Show impact on environment” or “Determine best solution for power generation at our school” – when assessing effectiveness of final task/project that students may present in a variety of ways (poster, video, website, etc.)

There are some great project based learning guidelines and assessment tips/strategies on the website http://www.edutopia.org/ or follow edutopia on Twitter.

Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Inquiry, Students as Teachers

Inquiry and science

When talking about inquiry, teachers are always challenged with what to do to guide students in the right direction or to even give them any type of direction. I thought back to my university courses this time last year and thought about the way my peers and I presented a topic. We were allowed to choose a topic,choose our groups and then choose how to present it. This way we planned our own route to success and found topics that interested us.

I decided to present this approach to my class with our current flight unit. I gave them the choice of curriculum expectations and then they chose how to teach a lesson to the class with any methods they desired to use. My students just need to involve the audience and create a handout for students to refer to after the presentations. So far I have seen students creating paper airplanes, making websites, making pontoon, making videos, interviewing different people and creating exciting and engaging lessons for their class.

I did use the rubric from the growing success document but I feel that assessing my student’s projects are more than that rubric. So for me, the challenge is finding out how to assess these authentic student tasks. I wish that it was simple but I am finding that I do not know how to figure out the best way to “mark” my grade sixes.

Photo of Tammy Axt
Tammy Axt Assessment, Differentiated Instruction, General

How to Run a Recorder Karate Program

recorder belts

A very common program that is run by many junior music teachers is called Recorder Karate.  The program is a series of songs that the kids learn on the recorder that get progressively more difficult. After each song that they have completed correctly, they receive a “karate belt” with a corresponding colour.

Recorder Karate is a program that encourages student growth and allows for a highly differentiated music class. Every student is working at their own level and receiving consistent, specific feedback about their progress.  You can buy the program online through Music K-8.

The program looks like this in my classroom:

5 minutes- Warm-up/hand out recorders (either a student or I lead a quick warm-up)

10 minutes- Sight reading/song practice (we work together on difficult spots within the songs)

20 minute- Independent practice and testing of students

5 minutes- Sharing/clean-up ( I invite anyone who wants to share to come to the front and be a shining star)

After running this program for a few years,  I have learned from some of the mistakes that I have made. I hope some of these ideas will help you with your recorder karate program.

I have learned:

  1. Never start the program without taking a period to do an activity on building community. When I first starting doing the program, I used to dive right in as I felt that I had such limited time with the students. However, during the program, inevitably someone received a belt before someone else and another student struggled to get through the first song. I learned that if we took the time to do activities that talked about “put-ups” instead of put-downs, this encouraged positive language and the class was less competitive. Now most students will high five each other every time someone passes, no matter what level they are at.
  2. Feedback needs to be quick and easy for students to understand. I used to give elaborate feedback to students on pages and pages of paper and I realized that all that writing took up too much class time. Also, the students never read it and it was not helpful in moving the students forward. Now I have a simple chart that they refer to regularly and I can see at a moment’s notice where the student is having trouble. Also, I want to get through at least ten students in a period. This requires my assessment to be quick, specific and to the point. (I have attached the template that I use for my assessment tracking.)
  3. There is only one of me in the room. I have learned to accept the fact that I see my students for 40 minutes and I cannot help everyone every period. I have learned to stress to the class that we are a big recorder learning team and we need to work together. Sometimes I assign people to help others, and other times I do a mini lesson with one group while another group is being led by another student. What I have seen is that for students, sometimes helping another student to improve solidifies their own learning.
  4. Recorder karate is great to run with one grade while you are prepping your other classes for performances or concerts. Once Recorder Karate is up and running, there is very little preparation for each period. This can be SO helpful when preparing concerts, choirs and all the other performances your students will do throughout the year.

Overall, my students have had a lot of success with recorder karate and it is a program that I would recommend to junior music teachers.

Karate Belts and Scores sheet

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Assessment, Before School Starts, General, Learning in a Real Life Context, Planning, Student Ownership

Zipper Club

I truly admire and hold deep appreciation for all of you who teach Kindergarten or Junior Kindergarten. You establish the foundations that will support a child’s academic life and that will allow the rest of us to build upon.  I had to share this great concept that I watched evolve from one of my colleagues who teaches Kindergarten. It is called the Zipper Club. The premise is that he is trying to develop and foster independence in his children (which can be transferred to all aspects of school life).

As his children grow from an academic, developmental and gross motor standpoint they are provided with success that fosters a belief of “I can do anything’. So as each child masters the famous jacket or hoodie zipper, he posts their picture in a public display in the hallway. This is then shared with our school so that all can see and celebrate. His students start to feel all grown up and this new found independence fosters many additional side benefits to his class such as less time dressing equates to more on task time.

I have adapted this style of setting targets and working toward those targets with exemplars of what success looks like, sounds like and/or feels like. To this point I have enjoyed many types of both individual and group success. By far the most beneficial has been in my understanding of how important targets and success criteria is.