Reading Reflection #5

The first thing I wanted to pull from this chapter was the quote on page 96, "When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative." This was very interesting to me and really outline the meanings of each type of assessment. A different way to look at assessment was "Authentic Assessment," I did not actually understand what Darling-Hammond meant by this? I appreciated that the chapter had a lot of information and ideas to offer to future teachers. It's important to keep our assessment creative and exciting! There are more ways to assess than just a written exam. (That stresses us all out) The section on Selecting Project Assignments and Performance Tasks was very important because it game a lot of examples of project based learning and gave pointers on how to keep the project on task and educational. But also have that fun and exciting side to learning! Jerome Burg had his students create a comic book out of scenes, quotes and visual symbols from Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. He let them take complete control of the characters and elements of the book. This allowed them to understand the content of the book rather than just facts about what they had read. Burg decided to do this rather than take the test that was sent with the book, which was multiple choice and only assessed them on facts. They would not actually need to understand the novel.

Reading Reflection 5

Discussion on planning for a summative assessment: 1. Keep the end in mind- "Once you have the end in mind, you can circle back to project planning and imagine the kinds of activities students would need to engage in across the arc of the project to acquire these new concepts, skills, and dispositions. 2. Objectives- What will students learn through this project? 3. Evidence- What would they need to demonstrate to show they learned? 4. Activities- What approaches might they take to go from not knowing to knowing? Discussion on options for summative assessments: -"PBL teachers often grade a culminating product, such as the public testimony students presented in the social studies example, or other expression of their work, such as a mock defense, a consumer manual, or a creative dramatization" (100). Plan for a formative assessment: -"...Planning ways to tap in to students' progress during the project" (112). -Set milestones- "They 'chunk' the work into manageable parts and help students pace their efforts. Also important, they mark for the teacher stages in the project that warrant attention. Milestones indicate opportunities to check in and correct, redirect, or reteach at pivotal moments to shape learning" (13). -Plan check-ins- "Check-ins are brief meetings or written updates to discuss learning, skills, and processes" (114). -Look for other progress markers- "For instance, instead of having students write a reflection, have partners interview or dictate to one another" (115). What I learned from chapter 5 is how important it is to assess children's learning. This not only shows what the children are retaining and what needs to be gone over again, but it also shows how effective the teaching was for that particular subject.

Reading Reflection 5

Assessment is a very important part of project-based learning. With planning ahead of time and lots of practice, you can take advantage of assessment opportunities throughout the project and not just at the end. Formative assessment will allow you to create more opportunities to know what your students are thinking and understanding so that you can better facilitate successful learning. Paying attention to different types of assessment will also broaden your thoughts on how exactly it is this project works. A complex project requires multiple assessment methods, ranging from formal to informal evaluations.

 Technology can be a great way to support a wide range of assessment activities. The project planning stage will give you an opportunity to design tools to help assess student progress, such as a rubric. Scoring rubrics help you focus on specific categories including content knowledge, discrete skills, or dispositions. They also help you focus your attention on desired outcomes and help communicate learning goals and levels of accomplishment to students. Effective project management involves minimizing risks, but also maximizing opportunities.  

Reading Reflection 3 & 4

Chapter 3 Things that should be considered when finding the big idea for a project are, "Scan the tables of contents of your teaching guides. Review the curriculum standards for your subjects, along with the Common Core standards for math and language arts. Ask yourself and ask your colleagues: What do these add up to?" (63). When you look for the big idea of a project you want to incorporate all of what the students are learning, not just focus on a minute detail. Chapter 4 Potential pitfalls in project design include (81-83): -Long on activity, short on learning outcomes -Technology layered over traditional practice -Trivial thematic units -Overly scripted with many, many steps -Not enough focus on formative assessment -Assessment that doesn't feel authentic Features of a good project include (87-88): -Loosely designed with the possibility of different learning paths -Are generative, causing students to construct meaning -Center on a driving question or are otherwise structured for inquiry -Capture student interest through complex and compelling real-life or simulated experiences -Are realistic, and therefore cross multiple disciplines -Reach beyond school to involve others -Tap rich date or primary sources -Structured so students learn with and from each other -Call for iterative work with cycles of feedback, reflection, and revision -Have students working as inquiring experts might -Get at digital-age skills and literacies, including communication, project management, and technology use

Reading Reflections 3 & 4

Reading Reflection 3

    Every school no matter what grade or subject focus on a variety of big ideas, and so does everything that is happening in the world around us. This chapter talks about how sometimes it can be difficult to find the big idea of a subject because of the wide range of aspects to one concept. It is important to think about who cares about a certain idea and who does it touch. Although attitudes, important skills and habits are the major objectives there are also some other things to think about. Analyzing, evaluating and creating have become very relevant when dealing with project based learning. There are 8 essential learning functions-ubiquity, deep learning, making things visible, expressing ourselves, collaboration, research, project management and reflection. All of the functions work together to make learning work. A couple of the features of a good project included being realistic, being structured so students can learn from another and are generative.

Reading Reflection 4

There are a few pitfalls to look out for when working in the project design world. The long on activity, short on outcome pitfall occurs when you realize the project was a waste of time and that the students could learn more in a brief lecture than the busy, long project. The technology layered over traditional practice pitfall is when technology is over-used or insignificant. The trivial thematic pitfall can happen when you don’t create a theme that connects their learning.

Reflection #3

On page 73 there is a section titled "Keep Your Students in Mind." The title alone truly grabs my attention. We are instructed to replace the word project with passion and to imagine what passion based learning would look like... We discussed with our speaker, Mark, about how important it was to make sure the students are engaged and actually want to be there. Yes, we can do this with technology but we can also do this on our own. We need to combine our activities, technology, energy and all of our other tools into a 50 minute lesson to ensure that our students are getting 150% from us; they deserve nothing but our absolute best.

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