Digital Badge #J

Involving Students in learning and Assessment:

Learning is a complex process. It entails not only what students know but what they can do with what they know; it involves not only knowledge and abilities but values, attitudes, and habits of mind that affect both academic success and performance beyond the classroom. Assessment should reflect these understandings I think by employing a diverse array of methods including those that call for actual performance, using them over time so as to reveal change, growth, and increasing degrees of integration. Such an approach aims for a more complete and accurate picture of learning, and therefore firmer bases for improving our students' educational experience. Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also an equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes. Information about outcomes is of high importance; where students "end up" matters greatly I think speaking as a parent. But to improve outcomes, we need to know about student experience along the way about the curricula, teaching, and kind of student effort that lead to particular outcomes. Assessment can help understand which students learn best under what conditions; with such knowledge comes the capacity to improve the whole of their learning. I have seen the theory of this come to life at my children school for the past seven years. My children have student led conferences that the student led the parents into and it also shows a reflection of their work for the entire quarter along with the objectives. I have seen samples of all their work and grades for every report card this is a requirement the school set in place to not only involve the students, but also the parents. My daughter is now in fifth grade and this has been in place since she started in the pre-K with Tropic Isles Elementary School. This schools motto says Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time. This way they show what they have said.   

Portfolios and Reflection:

I personally have an interest in this subject so I choose this area not knowing a lot about portfolios and reflections. I have done portfolios for classes however; I have not done any to show my accomplishments for career reflection this is where I would like to know more information about since this is my last semester of general education classes before I begin classes within my career focus. I have experience in the field of education but, I still have not put anything together to set me aside from other candidate’s coming into the field of education with no experience. I would like to learn how to put together a portfolio for this purpose. Portfolio contains samples of the learner's work and shows growth over time. An important keyword is reflection: By reflection on their own work, learners begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their own work (self-assessment). The weaknesses then become improvement goals. In portfolio assessment it is the quality that counts, not the quantity. I know different schools may create different forms of portfolios. Some schools create portfolios that are a representative sample of the learners' work, while other schools use the portfolios as an assessment tool that can be an alternative to classical classroom tests and standardized teacher evaluation. I personally have an interest in Reflections portfolio assessment the learners reflect on their own work. The reflections should say something about why the learners have made the choices they have made in the portfolio, and describe the method used to arrive at the final result. If two learners submit the same work for assessment, the individual reflections may make the difference. Even if a learner has failed with the content presented in the assessment portfolio to a certain degree, he or she might be rewarded for mature reflections on the work. I learned I my career preparation class that this is how employer’s select candidate’s in the world of Business for jobs. Portfolios look better than resumes sometimes there are your resume.

Revealing Misconceptions:

Students do not come to school as blank slates to be filled with instruction. Rather, they come to school with considerable knowledge, some correct and some not. Either way, that knowledge is based on intuition, every-day experience, as well as what they have been taught in other settings. Since a considerable amount of our knowledge is organized by subject matter (mathematics, science, etc.), so too are our preconceptions when it comes to building on concepts learned I think. Before beginning instruction on any new topic, teachers need to know their students’ preconceptions because learning, and therefore instruction itself, varies depending on whether students’ preconceptions agree with the concepts being taught or contradict those concepts. I see this a lot with my son he builds new concepts on how his teachers has taught him to do different subject such as math if it’s not said to him similar to the way the teacher taught the lesson to him in class he becomes confused, and will say I’ll ask my teacher when I go back to school or he will say that’s not the way we did it in class mommy. So it is sometimes hard for me to teach him when I do not know how the lesson was taught in class. I think when teachers can see where the misconceptions are happening student learning and achievement can increase when teachers better understand their students’ thinking about a concept. Furthermore, when teachers listen to and comprehend student thinking, it can expand their understanding of the subject matter, change their beliefs on how to teach, modify their practices and contribute to their professional growth. I know this works it happened for me in the college prep math lab on campus and my professor Ms. Eggleston took me from college prep math all the way to college math by learning the way I learned and helped me to pass not only college prep math but also college math.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc


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