Assessments help teachers to monitor the progress of our students but also give us a feedback about our own instruction. Either we receive a positive response or need to address some possible changes on the process of our lesson.
As I work on my lesson plan ("Calendar", foreign language) , I consider the information that we received on Monday's conference and methods of assessment. Understanding how our brains work and how we can help our students retain information was fascinating. Assessments as applied to my "Calendar" unit will be active participation during instruction time. This will help to engage students on the lesson, it will give me an idea of the student's abilities, and where they are in terms of skills required to effectively participate on the unit.
Also working in small groups, I can use oral methods such as accountable talk where students interact with each other and teacher will be able to evaluate if a lesson is being understood.
Learning a foreign language can be frustrating for many students, small groups will allow me to be attentive to facial expressions and body language. Smaller group allows for more questions to be asked, without fear. And, my lesson can easily be "chunked" because when we work on calendar time, students already were introduced to concepts of numbers, months and days of the week.
Having this calendar time in this structure help students to practice day by day.
This brings me to the quote "What we learn to do we learn by doing" (Aristotle), which I have applied to my lesson plan. When working in small groups Spanish students get more comfortable as we practice the calendar components day by day. This could be a year around activity, where students can master many concepts taught during the school year.
As adults we know that is our nature, we learn by doing. Everyday needs to be a learning experience where we can identify what we did right or wrong and later integrate our experiences, guiding them to a personal and professional growth.
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3 comments:
I really identified with your emphasis on working in small groups. It would be so much more effective in the format that you mentioned but also in most situations. I want to remind myself to use the small group example as much as possible when I get into the classroom. Also, you should send in your inspirational quote to Hallmark: "Everyday needs to be a learning experience." Awesome!
Has it been mentioned yet that we can learn wrong by doing it wrong?
That's why I like your points about 'accountable talk" and reading facial expressions. You're assessing during the lesson and redirecting students before it's too late. I'm just worried about having enough time in the school day to fit enough of these wonderful strategies in.
Great title, Ady! I also really like this developing thread exploring the notion that assessment provides as much feedback for us on ourselves and our own growth and development as it gives us regarding our students.
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