Weekly Coaching Communication
Make it a great day -- every day!
14 -- 18 March 2016
On the Standards Front . . .
Dr. Judy Willis provides "5 Assessment Forms That Promote Content Retention" (17 March 2014) from Edutopia Blogs.
Dr. Willis is a medical doctor specializing in neuroscience turned teacher. She has spoken at several conferences, performed TED Talks, and authored or co-authored several books, chapters, articles and blog postings.
Although this blog posting is from 2014, it provided a fresh look at assessment and caters toward more of the student-centered approach to assessments by using student-generated questions or assessments. Dr. Willis affirms thoughts on reassessment strategies and techniques, but also points out their vitality to student learning.
Outlined below are the 5 forms she offered in her article:
A variety of assessment modalities and some student choice in assessment type can bring students to the assessment with less anxiety, increasing the positive learning experience as well as providing the opportunity for them to demonstrate what they know -- not simply what they memorized, forgot or never learned.
The First 3 Assessment Forms
- Tests Where Notes or Textbooks are Permitted
- Take-Home Tests
- Student-Made Tests
- students prepare the assessment and the teacher can alter questions so that the answers are not just memorized;
- when the teacher rewrites the question, it could prompt more analysis and executive function connections
4. Projects Pre-Approved by the Teacher
- can include skits, posters, oral presentations, debates, papers or demonstrations that assess understanding apart from rote knowledge;
- can become the packaging that connects the newly learned patterns of knowledge to related, previously stored knowledge;
- can be done in pairs or groups, as long as there is a means of assessing each individual student's participation in the final product through verbal interviews with students individually after the completion or presentation of the project
5. Revision and Retests to Build Skillsets*
- students benefit most from the ongoing assessments that provide corrective feedback and opportunities to use this information, allowing their brains to construct accurate memories;
- instead of just a retest, if students first respond to prompts on a test correction sheet, they gain metacognition as well as memory
- can be done by asking students to identify similar problems, skills, or content from their practice, followed by a written description of where the error occurred (calculation, misunderstanding a part of speech, confusing two parts of a model, etc.);
- can be done by asking students to construct a plan of what they will do to learn the material or skill (can use the first three types of tests/assessments offered)
*This process shows students how to review text examples to study for future tests, and gives them confidence in their ability to work through challenging problems on their own with the textbook as a resource. The result is a reduction in test anxiety and learned helplessness. They are motivated to do the test correction sheets because they know it is their key to being able to take a retest.
Quick Clicks
Website (Tools to Use or Peruse)
Free, ready-to-use classroom resources designed to help educators understand and implement the Common Core and other college and career ready standards.
Readings and lesson plans available for ELA, Literacy, and Math. Create an account and use the tools to help you plan lessons to see the connections among standards and gaps in student learning.
Suggested Reading
Mind Shift: How We Will Learn presents an article,"20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners," by Katrina Schwartz (03 March 2016). The focus of the article is Kathy Perez how she makes the classroom engaging and motivating to all students, even the most reluctant learners. Much of what Perez offers is for a Primary or Intermediate classroom, but most are adaptable to the secondary level. Some of the strategies will mirror Paula Kluth's strategies that you may have already used; however, the key is to always be thinking of how you can reach more students. Give this article a skim and find at least one strategy you have used and one strategy that will be new to use. I'd love to hear how your implementation changes and if you think you're reaching more learners.
Trending Tweets
Mr. Evans @mrevansclass Mar 9
I think this applies to classroom management too! @ToddWhitaker @BrianMendler #iaedchat #edchat
27 retweets 17 likes
Quotation of the Week . . .
All educators and administrators are faced with what seems to be unfavorable, or worse yet, insurmountable situations that they may or may not have chosen -- in education, the situation often chooses us. However, the reaction to adverse or unfavorable situations is where the power lies with educators and administrators.
It is easy to pass blame and find fault in a top-down decision, but the honorable and productive choice is to move forward. If you choose to just "move on," you're allowing the process to make choices for you. To "move forward" means you are making the choice to make things happen for the betterment of not only yourself, but the situation and all of those it may affect. #makethechoice #moveforward #bebetternotbitter
Coaching Schedule -- see Google Calendar for specific "Busy" times **schedule subject to change**
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME BEGINS @2 AM -- SPRING AHEAD ONE HOUR!!!!!
Sunday 13 March -- NHS Ceremony 6:30-9:30 @ HS
Monday, 14 March
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Classroom Observations
- Research & Resources
Tuesday, 15 March
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Classroom Observations
- Research & Resources
Wednesday, 16 March -- Data Teams -- Late Start
- "Better Practice" Webinar 1:00 PM
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Classroom Observations
- Research & Resources
Thursday, 17 March
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Classroom Observations
- Research & Resources
Friday, 18 March -- Principal/ IC Meeting w/ Libolt 7:30AM
- IC Team Meeting
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Classroom Observations
- Research & Resources
Click on the link to access prior weekly communications.
Contact Information
Center Point - Urbana CSD
Email: epopenhagen@cpuschools.org
Phone: 319-849-1102+91015
Twitter: @Epopenhagen