Week 3
The key words that kept popping up as I read this week were "clear targets." This idea makes so much sense to me as a teacher, but also outside of teaching as well. I am far more likely to be successful with something if a clear target is set for me. This idea can be seen in the classroom when students have clear targets set for them and they know in what direction their learning is headed in from the very beginning.
In order to reach these targets, assessment should happen along the way. This week's article stated that students were successful when they "received feedback on their work that helped them understand where they were with respect to the desired learning target" (2005: 40). Sometimes standards that we expect students to master by the end of a grade level take the entire year to work on and achieve. This means that along the way, feedback is necessary to keep students on track. I also liked the point made in this article about the importance of evaluative feedback over descriptive feedback. The difference would be instead of simply writing "good job!" on a student's paper, a teacher could write something specific that the student did well on that assignment. This gives students detailed information on what progress they are making towards their goal.
Another big idea from this week's reading was allowing students to have time to self-reflect. Again, this is something that is powerful for adults and can be just as powerful for a student. When given time to reflect on their own progress, students are able to see how far they have come and determine how far they have left to go to achieve a goal. Portfolios were discussed in the article. This is a tool that we use at my school. Students begin building a portfolio in kindergarten and that same portfolio follows them through fifth grade. The primary purpose of this portfolio is for students to self-reflect on different products throughout the year. They can determine any strengths and weaknesses they have along with reflecting on the things they have learned along the way.
Because we just went back to school and I teach kindergarten, I feel that I have seen lots of recent examples of students not having clear targets. Of course this is on a more short-term basis, but it has really made me aware of being very clear with my explanations. For example, just telling students what the end product should be is not enough. They need to know what that end product will be in a very detailed way. Sometimes that means examples as well. We have been working on writing in my class a lot lately and I have seen clear targets be a really positive thing for my students. For example, I can explain to students how to construct a sentence with all of the correct parts. Along with this, I can show them examples. I can sit with them and model what this looks like. After this happens, students know exactly what the expectation is and exactly what they are working towards. They can self-reflect and use my feedback during writing conferences to make progress towards their goal.
As a college student, I can say that there have been times when I have had clear targets and other times when I didn't feel that was the case. Even as an adult, I feel that clear targets are important in making sure that we know the end goals that we are working towards. A syllabus written out with assignments and projects that will happen throughout the course are effective. A professor telling the class what they should be able to do at the end of the course is also effective. Once clear targets are laid out, work can begin towards that target. Through specific feedback and reflection along the way, students are more likely to achieve the goals set out for them in the beginning.
In order to reach these targets, assessment should happen along the way. This week's article stated that students were successful when they "received feedback on their work that helped them understand where they were with respect to the desired learning target" (2005: 40). Sometimes standards that we expect students to master by the end of a grade level take the entire year to work on and achieve. This means that along the way, feedback is necessary to keep students on track. I also liked the point made in this article about the importance of evaluative feedback over descriptive feedback. The difference would be instead of simply writing "good job!" on a student's paper, a teacher could write something specific that the student did well on that assignment. This gives students detailed information on what progress they are making towards their goal.
Another big idea from this week's reading was allowing students to have time to self-reflect. Again, this is something that is powerful for adults and can be just as powerful for a student. When given time to reflect on their own progress, students are able to see how far they have come and determine how far they have left to go to achieve a goal. Portfolios were discussed in the article. This is a tool that we use at my school. Students begin building a portfolio in kindergarten and that same portfolio follows them through fifth grade. The primary purpose of this portfolio is for students to self-reflect on different products throughout the year. They can determine any strengths and weaknesses they have along with reflecting on the things they have learned along the way.
Because we just went back to school and I teach kindergarten, I feel that I have seen lots of recent examples of students not having clear targets. Of course this is on a more short-term basis, but it has really made me aware of being very clear with my explanations. For example, just telling students what the end product should be is not enough. They need to know what that end product will be in a very detailed way. Sometimes that means examples as well. We have been working on writing in my class a lot lately and I have seen clear targets be a really positive thing for my students. For example, I can explain to students how to construct a sentence with all of the correct parts. Along with this, I can show them examples. I can sit with them and model what this looks like. After this happens, students know exactly what the expectation is and exactly what they are working towards. They can self-reflect and use my feedback during writing conferences to make progress towards their goal.
As a college student, I can say that there have been times when I have had clear targets and other times when I didn't feel that was the case. Even as an adult, I feel that clear targets are important in making sure that we know the end goals that we are working towards. A syllabus written out with assignments and projects that will happen throughout the course are effective. A professor telling the class what they should be able to do at the end of the course is also effective. Once clear targets are laid out, work can begin towards that target. Through specific feedback and reflection along the way, students are more likely to achieve the goals set out for them in the beginning.
This is a fabulous reflective post, however, make sure the format is following the requirements of the rubric.
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