Double Entry Journal #11

1. Formative assessment is responses, comments, and or feedback given to students instead of an actual score or grade.

2. The central purpose of formative assessment is student learning and understanding.

3. You can use low stake writing assignments to institute a formative assessment.  By having students write about different topics and giving them feedback and comments on their papers without assigning points and grades is a research based strategy that is a formative assessment.

4.  The example that it gives in this article is using a rubric that lists criteria for evaluating writing and it can be used for a formative assessment by giving students feedback and information on what is expected and can be used for summative assessment by assigning a grade.

5.  Students have a writing notebook in which they do short stories in daily.  At the end of each week the teacher collects them and reads through the entries to see the direction in which students are writing.  She gives the students feedback and then allows them to pick one of the articles that they liked the best, has them make corrections and then they resubmit that one paper for a grade. 

6.  A way to make formative assessment more effective is to provide students with detailed feedback on specific areas of strength instead of a general praise of their abilities or talents.

7.  For students it can offer an increased feeling of confidence and control among other benefits and for teachers it can help identify students who are struggling with specific tasks or operating under misconceptions.

8.  Being able to distinguish between high-quality formative assessment and assessment that is under-conceptualized or not fully developed is the most challenging aspect or idea for teachers to understand.  Practices such as comment only marking and peer evaluation are good ways to help implement high quality assessments.

Double Entry Journal #10

Why is it the responsibility of all teachers to provide writing instruction for their students?

            If students are going to be successful in school then they must be able to read and write.  Throughout every subject students will encounter some form or type of reading and writing.  If students need to know how to read and write for all curriculum areas, then why shouldn’t all curriculum areas be responsible for increases those reading and writing skills?  As it states in this article “reading and writing across the curriculum are essential to learning.”  The more students’ practice reading and writing the better their skills will become, and the best way to ensure this is to implement a little in every subject

Name and describe four research-based strategies to support writing instruction for students.
 1.  Use low-stakes writing assignments: Asking a student to write does not always mean assigning long papers and essays.  Use short answer writing assignments such as summarizing or outlining
  2.  Provide multiple forms of feedback: Teachers should stress about giving feedback on everything students write.  Allow students time to look at and critique their own writing as well as each others.

 3.  Employ variety in texts and their presentation: Reading materials need to be varied in many different ways.  Students should have a variety of things to read about and not just the normal text book.  Reading should also include all materials and not just books, such as newspapers, magazines, comics, etc.  Provide a variety to keep students interested and wanting to read more.
 4.  Employ a variety of levels of reading difficulty: Students read at a variety of different levels therefore teachers need to have materials available for every student.  Materials need to range in difficulty therefore all students can learn at their own level.  

Web Quest Changes/Modifications

The Web Quest that Tricia and I chose, deals with several different aspects.  Students are asked to plan a trip to the zoo.  They must carefully plan the entire day including cost and schedules.  Although the Web Quest is very interesting and overall a really good idea, there are several corrections that need to be made and a few items that we just want to change or adjust.  We are going to change the overall appearance, because there are no graphics, and the background is basic and not eye catching at all.  We are planning to change the situation and the tasks students have to complete.  The original Web Quest has the entire class researching the same zoo.  We are going to change this and each group will research a different zoo, and in the end the entire class will have to look at the information and decide which zoo is more travel and cost efficient.  They will also have to decide (based on information given) which zoo has the best accommodations and overall attractions.  In our new Web Quest students will have to use maps and other materials to determine the distance and time it will take to travel to and from their assigned zoo.  (This is not covered or asked in the original Web Quest, but we think it is a good idea for students to find the location of their zoo, and it is a good way to integrate social studies into the activity)  Overall I think this is going to be a really good Web Quest, and although there are several things we want to change and adjust the original (aside from many grammar errors) is really good.

Possible CSO's
 (for Reading/Language Arts) RLA.O.4.1.16 
use reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of information resources to support literacy learning (e.g., written directions, captions, electronic resources, labels, information texts).
(for Science) SC.O.4.2.2 
associate the behaviors of living organisms to external and internal influences (e.g., hunger, climate, or seasons)
( for Math) M.O.4.1.7 
add and subtract whole numbers(up to five –digit number) and decimals to the 1000th place, multiply (up to three digits by two-digits, and divide(up to a three digit number with a one and two-digit number).