“Less ranking, more evaluating.” Reading Elbow’s paper made me realize in a deeper sense how important and complicated assessment is. In reading Elbow’s article I could feel his passionate attempt to have his readers focus more on evaluation. In the first pages of his article he stated the three problems of ranking; it is unreliable, it does not give substantive feedback, and creating a negative notion and atmosphere for teaching and learning. Further on he provides examples of how to grade without giving a letter grade or ranking.
Elbow also mentions different ways and examples of how to else a teacher and assess. When reading these examples, it reminds me of all my courses in this program and how my professors grade. Instead of grading a test we are assigned projects, portfolios, blogs, and work to share with our classmates. It is through this work that we are evaluated by content and quality as opposed to just looking for the one correct answer. When assessing a project, profolio, etc. it is highly possible that grading on a rubric, or evaluation rubric. Routman sends a disclaimer of how rubrics are like checklists "can disrupt the flow of teaching and learning." page 242.
As an educator I will keep in mind how emotional and sensitive grading can be. Through my undergrad years I remember writing my papers and answering questions that would cater to the teacher’s preferences. In my own classroom I will try to keep an open mind and accept all points of view, and if I question the answers of a student I would ask them one-on-one what their intent was. Perhaps if they did not understand I should not see that as their failure, but take responsibility and realize that I may be partly at fault.
I remember my 4th grade teacher did that with one of my friends. She had trouble putting her thoughts on paper as well as other classmates. My teacher gave the option of talking to her to justify your answers. At the end of the week we would have silent work time, where students had the opportunity to meet with her one-on-one. During this time we were allowed to talk to her about our grades and discuss with her why we did not deserve the grades that we received. I loved having this option as we all felt that she really did care about us and our thoughts.
No matter how we grade our students the one of the most important issues that we have to remember are encouraging students to do their best and to keep them motivate. It is our goal, as teachers to do so.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
6 traits
I decided to write about 6 traits after class because I wanted to see what other people thought about it. I was relieved when I found out that there are some people that felt the same way I do. I had a hard time reading the article as I had horrible memories of my 4th grade teacher as she drilled these traits (and more) into our minds, and that we would be good writers is if we had followed all the traits when writing a paper. It was a rubric, we would only be graded on how it flowed according to the 6 traits. However her teaching method was the complete opposite from my 5th grade teacher who only cared about grammar, spelling, and punctuation, making it hard for me to write, especially since I had lost my voice. My junior high years were a mess as I was uncertain how to write, do I follow what my 4th or 5th grade teacher had taught? What ever happened to just writing?
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I felt I had a teacher that understood my writing and how hard it was for me to express myself on paper. He could tell that I was confused especially after the second paper that I wrote in his class and told me that it was too dry. That he could tell that I only paid attention to grammar and writing and that he wanted more “personality” or voice in it. He approached me and stated that he was worried about me and my future. I told him about my confusion and he insisted that it was okay to break the rules, write fragment sentences and to always include who I am in my paper because that always makes a paper more fascinating.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I felt I had a teacher that understood my writing and how hard it was for me to express myself on paper. He could tell that I was confused especially after the second paper that I wrote in his class and told me that it was too dry. That he could tell that I only paid attention to grammar and writing and that he wanted more “personality” or voice in it. He approached me and stated that he was worried about me and my future. I told him about my confusion and he insisted that it was okay to break the rules, write fragment sentences and to always include who I am in my paper because that always makes a paper more fascinating.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Brown's article
Brown’s article was not only entertaining to read, but made me understand the optimal learning model that was stated in Routman, a bit more. I especially was thrilled to see examples of Brenda and Linda’s work with Travis, Shamika, and Patrick. As I was reading each description of each child I could easily imagine a student from both my main placement and dyad. With each student I will share an observation or interaction between that student and my master teacher or myself.
Travis: Linda began using simple predictable books during small group time in which Travis was in. Before Linda reads the book she has them look through the book and make predictions, then explains to them that they will encounter several important high-frequency words. Than she reads the book aloud and models how to track the print and stopping to ask student what they had learned. Than she had the students to share the readings as she demonstrated and lastly, working on their own time with reading. What Linda had done in this case reminds me of what I will be doing for my observation. I will be reading with a small group of students (who have learning disabilities), and first I will start reading, then take turns with another student, than finally have the students read to each other with myself as the facilitator and asking questions to assess comprehension, then work independently in by either reading the story again silently or working in their packets if they feel that they understand the story. I have also observed my dyad teacher perform the same technique.
Shamika: I have a student like her in my main placement, one that seems far advance for her age, and since she is new to the school it is hard to find records of files of her growth and notes from last year. Although I don’t remember my master teaching “breaking the code” for this student I do remember my master teacher teaching some of her students on blending sounds, and once she proved that she had mastered that stage she moved to chucking and identifying spelling patterns when reading unfamiliar words, as Brown calls it, decoding by analogy. One day the class was learning words in the –in family. One of the examples on the board was the word chin, many of the students assumed that it was pronounced, /c/ /h/ /in/ sounding out the first two letters, however the student similar to Shamika, knew better she knew that ch made a /ch/ sound therefore she came up with the correct answer. When she was asked how she knew that she indicated that she just broke the word, or chucked it.
Patrick: Patrick actually reminds me of a girl in my dyad placement, the one that loves to do everything but read, however she above the line of an average reader. I was surprised that when it came to choice time, all her of her friends would choose to silent read while she would rather draw or paint by herself. I always wondered how to reel the students that seemed uninterested in reading to realize their potential to develop to become better students. It wasn’t that this student know what she was reading, she just did not have the desire to read. So my master teacher looked for books that could be characterized as easy reader texts, specifically the Arthur books, challenging as it has more texts than others but at the same time engages the student with sight words that students are assumed to know.
Travis, Shamika, and Patrick are obviously not on the same page when it comes to reading and text, but it is through Brenda and Linda’s scaffolding procedures they are able to learn how to read at their own pace, not face, not slow, just right. In the past weeks I was unsure if I had seen the Optimal Model in use during my class periods, but after reading Brown's examples I have concluded that not only have I noticed it in class, I will be doing the same thing concept in my dyad observation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCvyl_Sb2Z0
Travis: Linda began using simple predictable books during small group time in which Travis was in. Before Linda reads the book she has them look through the book and make predictions, then explains to them that they will encounter several important high-frequency words. Than she reads the book aloud and models how to track the print and stopping to ask student what they had learned. Than she had the students to share the readings as she demonstrated and lastly, working on their own time with reading. What Linda had done in this case reminds me of what I will be doing for my observation. I will be reading with a small group of students (who have learning disabilities), and first I will start reading, then take turns with another student, than finally have the students read to each other with myself as the facilitator and asking questions to assess comprehension, then work independently in by either reading the story again silently or working in their packets if they feel that they understand the story. I have also observed my dyad teacher perform the same technique.
Shamika: I have a student like her in my main placement, one that seems far advance for her age, and since she is new to the school it is hard to find records of files of her growth and notes from last year. Although I don’t remember my master teaching “breaking the code” for this student I do remember my master teacher teaching some of her students on blending sounds, and once she proved that she had mastered that stage she moved to chucking and identifying spelling patterns when reading unfamiliar words, as Brown calls it, decoding by analogy. One day the class was learning words in the –in family. One of the examples on the board was the word chin, many of the students assumed that it was pronounced, /c/ /h/ /in/ sounding out the first two letters, however the student similar to Shamika, knew better she knew that ch made a /ch/ sound therefore she came up with the correct answer. When she was asked how she knew that she indicated that she just broke the word, or chucked it.
Patrick: Patrick actually reminds me of a girl in my dyad placement, the one that loves to do everything but read, however she above the line of an average reader. I was surprised that when it came to choice time, all her of her friends would choose to silent read while she would rather draw or paint by herself. I always wondered how to reel the students that seemed uninterested in reading to realize their potential to develop to become better students. It wasn’t that this student know what she was reading, she just did not have the desire to read. So my master teacher looked for books that could be characterized as easy reader texts, specifically the Arthur books, challenging as it has more texts than others but at the same time engages the student with sight words that students are assumed to know.
Travis, Shamika, and Patrick are obviously not on the same page when it comes to reading and text, but it is through Brenda and Linda’s scaffolding procedures they are able to learn how to read at their own pace, not face, not slow, just right. In the past weeks I was unsure if I had seen the Optimal Model in use during my class periods, but after reading Brown's examples I have concluded that not only have I noticed it in class, I will be doing the same thing concept in my dyad observation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCvyl_Sb2Z0
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