Assessment is a common aspect of each and every classroom. In the twenty-first century classroom, assessment for learning is essential to ensure that students are mastering key skills. The video, Assessment for Learning (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., points out key strategies that can be employed in the classroom in order to ensure student success. After watching the video, share your thoughts on the structures and strategies a teacher needs to put into place in order to ensure that an effective classroom environment is created to foster twenty first century learning.
Choose one of the following digital tools to enhance your written response (Smore Utilizing technology in this discussion will further prepare you for the Final Project in Week 6.
Address and include the following:
Key strategies from the video
Your own ideas about both formative and summative assessments
How both sets of ideas could be implemented to create an effective classroom environment
Be sure to include examples to illustrate and support your ideas.
Professor: We speak a great deal about assessment and accountability and how each has an integral role in student achievement. Yet, many are still left with the feeling our current level of testing is too rigid, too demanding, not differentiated………basically a whole bunch of phrases which leaves many with the feeling the current assessments used in schools do not provide the “whole picture”. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007) suggests, “While the current assessment landscape is replete with assessments that measure knowledge of core content areas such as language arts, mathematics, science and social studies, there are a comparative lack of assessments and analyses focused on 21st century skills” (p. 1). Using either the article or your own thoughts and reflections, how should teachers assess 21st Century Learning Skills?
21st Century Skills Assessment
Reference:
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2007). 21st century skills assessment.
Designing effective lessons Without question, one of the key points that make a class successful is having lessons that are engaging and effective. Creating these types of lessons does not happen overnight; planning requires time, focus and a careful eye to ensuring that the needs of each student are met. So, how does a teacher create a rigorous curriculum plan that leads to improved student performance and yet allows them to balance other teacher responsibilities? Where should a teacher begin when thinking about all the parts of a successful instructional plan? Newman (2013) discussed various pitfalls teachers face when developing plans. One is referred to “accidental learning” where emphasis is placed on the activity itself, and less on the concept and/or purpose behind the activity: “students may be fully engaged in and enjoy these activities, but learning occurs only accidentally because the activity focuses on the engagement rather than the meaning” (Newman, 2013, “Accidental Learning”). Another issue that occurs to the best of us is the need to cover a breadth of information, as opposed to focusing on the key concepts students will need to know. Putting in long hours of planning does not equate or always result in solid lesson plans. We organized a table of Kizlik’s (2017) article, “Six Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans” to include common mistakes and how to address them.
A few mistakes to avoid when lesson planning
Accidental learning – don’t get caught focusing your energies on “cool” activities. Just because students are engaged does not mean they are learning. Don;t mistake the two!
Breadth of coverage – often times teachers focus on covering the entire unit or textbook. In the rush to coverage everything the breadth of material is covered often with little depth.
Poor planning and management – putting in long hours of planning does not always equate with solid plans. Remember, to focus on quality of the time planning and not the quantity of time.
Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans
1. The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. Remember, an objective is a description of what a student does that forms the basis for making an inference about learning. Poorly written objectives lead to faulty inferences.
2. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. An assessment in a lesson plan is simply a description of how the teacher will determine whether the objective has been accomplished. It must be based on the same behavior that is incorporated in the objective. Anything else is flawed.
3. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities. This means keep the list of materials in line with what you actually plan to do. Over-killing with materials is not a virtue!
4. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning. Efficiency is a measure that means getting more done with the same amount of effort or the same amount with less effort. With so much to be learned, it should be obvious that instructional efficiency is paramount.
5. The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. Don’t have your students engaged in activities just to keep them busy. Whatever you have your students do should contribute in a direct way to their accomplishing the lesson objective. This article further details the Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and how to avoid them).
Understanding how students organize knowledge
As you think about how teaching and learning SHOULD best occur consider the following questions?
* What is the role of the teacher in the classroom?
* Should the teacher be the “expert” in the classroom?
* What does it mean for students to be actively engaged in the classroom?
* How should a teacher reconcile their own values with different teaching philosophies?
The answers to these questions will certainly help guide how your classroom runs and the way in which teaching and learning occurs. Constructivism Constructivism is a theory that helps us connect the dots between how students learn, and what strategies a teacher might employ in the classroom to engage and access their students’ current and prior knowledge. on constructivism.Building on students’ prior knowledge Students enter the classroom with a range of experiences and knowledge. Being able to access this information is critical to engaging students and connecting learning to their real lives.
Check out this article; “ Are You Tapping into Prior Knowledge Often Enough in Your Classroom?” for excellent advice on tapping into the prior knowledge of your students:
Reference: Kizlik, B. (2017). Six common mistakes in writing lesson plans (and what to do about them). Adprima
Required Resources
Text
Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots (2nd ed.).
Chapter 9: Designing Effective Lessons
This chapter focuses on the specific ways to design and plan effective lesson plans. It introduces the understanding by design lesson planning strategy and examines how a teacher can craft an instructional plan using the backward mapping approach.
Chapter 10: Engaging and Connecting Students to the Learning
This chapter examines how individuals organize information in their brains and how they make meaning of situations and events. It also focuses on the theory of learning called constructivism and looks at the works of Vygotsky and Piaget.
Recommended Resources
Article
Darling-Hammond, L., & Adamson, F. (2010). Beyond basic skills: The role of performance assessment in achieving 21st century standards of learning. Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
This article discusses the key role of accountability measures in education and the role of performance assessments in twenty-first century learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE Standards Teachers.
Text
Popham, W. J. (2010). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
This text discusses the range of topics teachers need to know about assessment.
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