How do we know that students understand and are learning what we intend in our classrooms? When do we adjust our instructional sequence or delivery of content to meet student needs? To answer these questions, we first must answer this question: What is the role of formative assessment in our classrooms?
Category: Instruction
Using calendars in preschool, why or why not?
Walk into a circle time in preschool in September and in June when the teacher is “doing calendar.” It’s Wednesday. The teacher asks the children, “If yesterday was Tuesday, today is……?” The cacophony from the children includes the answers, “Saturday,” “Friday,” “Monday,” and pretty much any other day of the week. It doesn’t change whether it is the beginning or end of the year. Why? Preschoolers are not developmentally grounded in past and future. For the most part, they still live in the now. Days of the week do not make sense-no matter how many times the activity is repeated. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are not solid concepts for three, four and five year olds.
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It’s all about the questioning!
This is the third in a series of instructional articles to support teachers in implementing the 8 Effective Teaching Practices outlined in the book Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. This article discusses teaching practice 5: Pose Purposeful Questions.
Close reading with text-dependent questions: conducting a text investigation
Making meaning of a complex text is itself a complex process. When students flex their literacy muscles to read something that is challenging for them, they grow as readers, as thinkers, and as writers. Helping students develop stamina and supporting a productive struggle with challenging texts through routine practices provides the foundation for strong writing skills.
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Feedback: A Valuable Teaching Strategy for Health Education and Physical Education, Part 2
The health education and physical education article focused last month’s Content Corner instructional improvement article on student feedback. This month’s article examines student feedback to the teacher. There are many sources for feedback about a teacher’s instructional practices. Administrators, peers and students can all provide valuable feedback to teachers that benefits all by responding to specific prompts for actionable feedback. Honest feedback from students can help improve teaching effectiveness. Teaching students the principles of constructive feedback is a beneficial lifetime skill and necessary to providing teachers will helpful feedback. Feedback needs to focus on teaching strategies such as class structure, usefulness of activities/assignments/homework and not personal characteristics or qualities. There are a number of online tools available such as the Great Schools Partnership resources found at info@iwalkthrough.org and “Ten Tools to Try” available at http://www.georgebrown.ca/staffdevelopment/Student_Feedback/tentools.html#one. Teachers may also choose to develop their own Google forms for student feedback.
Individual assessment in the large group ensemble
You can’t enter a school in Maine today without hearing conversations about proficiency-based diplomas and standards-based grading. Given this focus, arts educators have an interest in ensuring that they are using standards-based assessments to evaluate a student’s growth and development. The information gathered through assessment should be used to determine whether or not students understand and can apply content, and this process is perhaps the most critical aspect of the learning process for teachers. However, arts teachers nation-wide tend to lean towards assessing non-achievement criteria such as behavior, effort, participation, and attendance.
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Personalized learning: voices from the field
Maine educators shared their stories about personalizing learning at the New England Secondary Schools Consortium conference in March. The recording of this presentation is available for Maine educators interested in listening to these powerful accounts.
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MLTI technology updates bring benefits to schools and students
The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is updating many of the technology solutions in classrooms this year in order to bring districts the features or budget savings they have been requesting, while improving support strategies for teachers and schools.
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Maine school featured for effective, learner-centered instruction
Hall-Dale Middle and High School was one of 18 high-performing schools selected to present at the Ignite ’16 School Showcase in February. Ignite is hosted annually by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Center for Secondary School Redesign. The national showcase convenes school leaders, teachers, and students from the nation’s top middle and high schools to discuss effective practices, programs and strategies with colleagues from across the country.
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WeatherBlur – Call for schools to participate
The Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA) is seeking elementary and middle schools centered around the northeast, mid-coast and Portland areas to become part of its WeatherBlur program for the next two school years.
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Maine DOE Newsroom 