Module 6: Planning Part 2

Formative Assessment
In this section we looked at some of the "throw-away" phrases that are often used in school and replaced them with our own useful phrases.


Parents as Partners

I loved all of the resources provided in this chapter. I am a huge believer of parents as partners in education.

In my own junior classroom, I might provide several avenues for parent involvement including:

1. Start of year package including: class calendar, student information form, and volunteer form.

2. Weekly digital newsletter including photos, a re-cap of the previous week, a look ahead to the following week, and helpful tips on helping the student with specific curriculum tasks.

3. Monthly Student Newsletter: students will work together to create this newsletter including samples of their month's work, articles on their achievements, and photos.

Activity

For this assignment, I created a homework policy for the classroom. In retrospect, the 5 mark penalty for late assignments is way to high.

The following is the letter I might send home to parents:

Homework Policy

Dear Parents and Guardians,
With the start of the school year quickly approaching, I am writing to inform you of my homework policies for this year. It is important that you read and understand these policies, as well as discuss them with your child.

Why do I assign homework? I believe homework is important because it is a valuable tool that helps students make most of their experience in school. Homework helps reinforce what has been learned in class, prepares students for upcoming lessons, teaches responsibility and helps students develop positive study habits. Homework is also helpful for parents and guardians as it provides them with a window into the daily classroom.

When will homework be assigned? Homework is assigned on a daily basis. Students will likely have small assignments to complete each evening. Larger projects and tests will be scheduled with ample notice. Each student will be instructed that they must record their homework in their agenda book every day. There is a month at a glace calendar for an overview of due dates and events.

What are your child’s homework responsibilities? I expect students to do their best on each homework assignment. I expect homework to be carefully done. All written work must be completed in ink (blue, black, or blue-black) or be computer generated. I also expect homework to be completely finished by the due date.

What are my responsibilities? I will check all homework assignments and record them in my grade book. I will support good homework habits by giving praise and other incentives.

What are parents’/guardians’ homework responsibilities? Parents/guardians are the key to making homework a positive experience for their children. Therefore, I ask that you make homework a top priority at home, provide necessary supplies and a quiet homework environment, set aside a time everyday when homework should be done, provide praise and support, and contact me if you notice any consistent problems.

What will happen if a student does not complete their homework assignments? If a student chooses to not do their homework, they will be asked to complete it and they will lose 5 marks for each day on their end product. After three late or incomplete assignments, the student will serve a detention, and a phone call will be made home. If this problem becomes persistent, the parent or guardian will be notified and avenues of support for the students will be discussed to ensure this problem does not continue. All late or incomplete assignments must be signed by a parent and returned to the teacher.

What about legitimate reasons for a student not completing a homework assignment? If there is a legitimate reason why a student is unable to finish the assignment, please send a note to me on or before the date the homework is due stating the reason it will not be or was not completed. The signature of the parent or guardian must be present in order for the excuse to be accepted.

What material is my child responsible for if he or she is away from school? If your child is healthy enough to do schoolwork, he or she is responsible for calling a homework buddy to get the day’s homework. On the first day of school, students will be assigned homework buddies. They will come home with a note in their agenda book listing the name of their homework buddy, along with their phone number.

What materials will be needed to complete homework? Many students will bring home the necessary materials for their homework assignments, however; it might be prudent to have the following supplies at home just in case: pencils, paper, glue, scissors, tape, staples, white out, markers, pencil crayons, calculator, ruler, geometry set, folders, highlighters, hole puncher, cue cards, and paperclips.


I hope this letter has provided you with the information you require to help your child succeed this school year. I look forward to a healthy parent/teacher partnership and I thank you in advance for your help and support.

Sincerely,
Ms. Albert

Module 5: Planning Part 1

The End
In anticipation for the completion of the course, we looked at assessment and evaluation for this module. After reading some articles about types of evaluation, we were asked to answer the following:

What is your belief about traditional and alternative assessment?

I absolutely believe in both traditional and alternative assessments. As a student, I remember thinking how useless it seemed to write tests that focused on regurgitation of the material. To this day, if I attempt to memorize something for a certain period of time, I can only retain it as long as I need it before it completely leaves my brain.

It's important for educators to be able to gauge their students' understanding of the material being taught. Sometimes the best way to do this is through a test or a quiz. In math, for example, to ensure the students know the formula being taught, they must answer questions using that formula and show their work. This type of knowledge is expressed more clearly in a traditional test, rather than through alternative assessments such as journals or presentations. A benefit of traditional assessment for educators is that they require less time to mark.

Alternative assessments are great for many curriculum areas. For example, if a language arts educator would like to gauge students' understanding of grammar, it might be more creative to assign a journal entry rather than a test. The teacher could assess the entry in terms of grammatical correctness. This type of assignment allows the teacher to gauge student understanding in a practical manner, and also gives students the chance to be more creative. Alternative assessments in general allow for more creativity and more connections to every day life. A downfall of alternative assessments is that they are also more time consuming to plan, for students to create, and to assess.

How can teachers use assessment for learning?

Assessment and evaluation of my own work is very valuable in improving my professional practise. Following a lesson, it is important to reflect on what worked well, what did not, what should be altered next time, and what needs to be touched upon again. Constant assessment provides situations for learning about your beliefs and practises, and thus the improvement of your skills.

For students, allowing them to assess the work of their peers provides them with information they may not have known, as well as the opportunity to teach information to others. They learn the value of constructive criticism and explore their communication skills. Assessing their own work teaches them how best to improve next time.

As well, we completed a culminating task activity where we planned a possible final project for a given unit.

Subject: Integrated Language Arts
Grade: 6
Unit of Study: Holocaust Narratives
Timeline: 4 weeks (1 hour per day, five days per week)
Texts: Maus (Graphic Novels), Paperclips (Documentary), Chaim Guri poem Inheritance, Song "Legacy" by unknown artist.
Culminating Task: Mini Graphic Novel
Handouts: Graphic Techniques Handout
Instructions: A shorter version of a graphic novel, this project is between a minimum of 5 pages to a maximum of 10 pages, with 2-6 panels per page. Your focus must be on a story or episode that can be clearly communicated in 5-10 pages. You can depict a segment of the story from Maus, from Paperclips, from Chaim Guri’s poem, from the song Legacy, from another story or book, from your own imagination, or based on a personal account. You can create the graphic series by hand (with pencil, paper, etc.), though you could also use computers to design your pages. You must utilize the graphic techniques discussed in class, as well as on the Graphic Techniques Handout. Here are some websites that may be a good starting point for the computer-assisted creation of graphics:

http://mainada.net/comicssketch/edit_strip/new

http://comiqs.com/index.html

http://pixton.com/ca/

http://bitstrips.ca/


What assessment tool am I going to use?
The assessment tool I’ll be using is a rubric.

Who will create it?
The teacher will create the rubric.

What am I going to do if a student does not hand it in?
If a student does not submit his or her project, he or she will receive a “Not Prepared”. After three “Not Prepared”, the student has to serve a detention and a letter goes home to the parents.

What am I going to do if a student has demonstrated throughout the unit that they understand the information, yet do poorly on the summative task?
Due to the creative nature of the assignment, it will be very difficult for a student to do poorly on the task. If they feel uncomfortable with their artistic skills, they have the option of using the computer to create their mini graphic novel. There will also be modification and accommodations available for those students with special needs or exceptionalities.
There will be journal entries and small homework assignments throughout the unit, which might also help ensure the student understands the material.

Is the summative task really the end of the unit, or am I planning a follow-up reflection time with my students?
There will be a class where students can explore each other’s mini graphic novels and provide peer reviews for each student. Mini graphic novels will be displayed on the school website for parents to see.

Diagnostics
Following the reading of the document on diagnostic assessments compiled by Ann McClure, we were asked to respond to the following:

Strategies for engaging in diagnostic assessment:
I'm a pretty big fan of diagnostic assessments, especially at the start of term. Diagnostic assessments should occur at the beginning of the year or unit in order to be most effective. By constantly altering the tool being used for diagnostic purposes, students will experience varying opportunities to display their knowledge and the assessment will not become routine and thus defeat the purpose of the assessment.


Tools for recording diagnostic assessment
• Graphic organizers
• Journal entries
• Word wall
• Literature circles
• Group conferences
• Myth busters
• At the end of each unit/term/year students can create quizzes about the material covered during a specific period, to be completed by themselves at the start of the next unit/term/year.


How to use the results of diagnostic assessment
Compiling the results of the diagnostic assessments of all students in a class can give the teacher a good idea of what information needs to be touched upon again. These assessments are not entirely reliable because they often occur at the start of the year when students may have forgotten much of the material they acquired the previous year. The assessments may show very little retention, but the students may just need a refresher.

Module 4: The Curriculum

For this module, we explored ministry documents, integrated learning, learning centres, and technologies.

Integration
The task in this section was to plan a field trip with connections to curriculum expectations. I was asked to take photos for the school newsletter which I have attached to this posting. I blurred the faces of the students.

The following is a field trip that I supervised on Thursday at the private school where I currently work. I was not involved in the planning of the trip, but I discussed the details with the adminsitrator who was.

Curriculum Area: Language Arts
Program Location: Toronto Jewish Book Fair
Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue, 55 Yeomans Road
Program Dates: October 23rd- October 31st 2010
Description: The Toronto Jewish Book Fair, established in 1976, is one of the largest Jewish Book Fairs in North America. The week-long event features sales of a wide range of books of Jewish interest, and over 25 international and Canadian authors who explore contemporary Jewish life, big ideas, politics, and current affairs. The Toronto Jewish Book Fair is presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

Participants: Grade five and six students (80), supervisory staff (8)

Special Consideration: There were several students on this trip with varying exceptionalities. Teachers were asked to pay special attention to one student with diabetes, one blind student, and several students with behavioural issues, especially while on the bus to and from the location.

Schedule:
• 12:30pm: Depart from school
• 1:00pm: Arrival at location
• 1:00pm-1:30pm: Students browse books
• 1:30pm-2:30pm: Speaker Kathy Kacer (Author of Secret of Gabi's Dresser, Night Spies, Clara's War, The Diary of Laura's Twin, Whispers from the Ghettos, Whispers from the Camps, and Whispers in Hiding)
• 2:30pm-3:00pm: Student browse books
• 3:00pm: Depart from fair
• 3:30pm: Arrive back at school
Transportation: TTC
Program Cost: Included in tuition (bus fare and entry to fair)
Curriculum Expectations:
1. Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
2. Recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
3. Use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
4. Reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.
Connections: Grade six students have been involved in a unit on Fairness using the text Literacy in Action. Students have worked on examining biographies and the text features and stylistic elements they involve. Students were required to reference established biographies to inform their own creations on someone who exemplifies fairness. Students have been creating charts on fairness in families, the community, and abroad.

The speaker for the event, Kathy Kacer discussed her latest novel Whispers in Hiding. One of the short stories she mentioned was about Claire Baum, a Holocaust survivor who managed to escape the fate of others like her at the time by being hidden with a non-Jew. Present at the event was Claire Baum herself, who described her experiences first hand. When students were given the chance to ask Claire questions, many of them revolved around how it felt to be treated so unfairly.

Module 3: Literacy/Numeracy

Literacy
We did a lot of reading in the module on the wonderful eworkshop.ca website. The following are some "aha" moments that came from those readings.

1. Guided Reading: Picture Walk

As a secondary teacher I've had very little opportunity to facilitate this kind of activity. Visual learners will gain a better understanding by watching other students act out the story. Kinesthetic learners will gain a greater understanding by participating in the story hands-on. I wonder if this type of activity could be modified for older students or if they would just find it silly.

2. Independent Reading: Word Solving Strategies

I thought the word solving strategies were wonderful for beginning readers. I believe experienced readers also do this, but without formally going through the steps. It's always interesting when I ask my students to guess the meaning of a word before they look it up. These strategies might be helpful reminders for them to have up in the classroom.

3. Shared Reading: Think, Pair, Share

I practise this technique often in my teaching but have never heard it called this before. Also, I often don't give them much time to think individually before they pair up. Especially with the younger students, I think it's important to give them time to formulate their thoughts before they have to share them with others.

My Wish:

I have used literature circles before but learned some new roles for students through the videos on the eworkshop site. I would like to know more about other options for roles in the literature circles. I would like to know more about the purpose of the artful artist (as mentioned in the Independent Reading section under Fluent readers in the Literacy Modules for K-3), as well as the literary luminary(as seen in Segment Four of Active Learning- Literature Circles for Literacy Modules Grades 4-6). I am unclear as to the relevance of the artful artist in certain situations and wonder if that role might be eliminated in certain curricula. The second role, the literary luminary, was not defined in the video and thus I am unclear as to what his or her purpose is.

Numeracy

This was a really helpful section for me because it focused on math which is a subject I am not as comfortable with. Our task was to create a professional plan to guide us in leading a division meeting discussion and presentation on the eworkshop site and fractions — how learning supports the students’ understanding of Big Ideas.

Click here to view my presentation.

Module 2: The Learning Environment

Introduction
The second module took us straight into the world of the junior teacher. We delved into the physical attributes of an effective classroom and worked with scheduling and timetables.


Setting Up
For this section we looked at what kinds of items we would like in our classrooms. We also explored creating timetables. My timetable was created for the private school where I work. They do not need to follow the publicly funded schools in Ontario government mandates and so it may not work for everyone.

In creating my timetable I decided to focus on what I might use should I secure a full-time position in the school where I am currently an educational aide. This school is a private Jewish day school and thus requires the students take a double curriculum. In a grade five classroom, the morning half of the school day is for Judaic Studies while the afternoon is for General Studies. Each classroom thus has two teachers, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Most teachers teach two grades as the schedule is reversed for each grade, allowing a teacher to for example teach grade four general studies in the morning, and grade five general studies in the afternoon. Subjects with other teachers including Physical Education, Visual Arts, Music, and French are interspersed throughout the days at varying times according to the subjects’ teachers’ schedules. These subjects are more often scheduled during Judaic studies in the mornings, however, they each appear once per week in the afternoon. The most challenging part of creating this schedule is ensuring there is enough time to cover all necessary material.



The Classroom
After reading the article, Setting the stage for success: Assessing the instructional environment, by Susan Stewart and William Evans, we were asked to answer some questions.

If you were changing the checklist from Stewart and Evans' article to better reflect the Standards of Practice for teachers in Ontario what would you add or delete from the checklist?

If I was to change the checklist from Stewart and Evans' article to better reflect the Standards of Practice for teachers in Ontario I would not delete anything. Each of the factors listed are valuable in creating an environment conducive to learning and appropriate behaviour.

I would consider adding to the checklist that teachers must be committed to ongoing professional development in order to be well informed of new techniques, technologies and developments in the field that might enhance their classroom environment.

I might also add an element about communication between teachers, parents, students, other teachers, administration, and support staff. The classroom teacher must consider any exceptionalities or special circumstances in maintaining an effective learning environment and must keep the lines of communication open in order to assess any changes or strategies.

If you had to rate the aspects of a classroom environment from most important to least important, what would your list look like and why?

I would create three lists. One list for the first day of school which would include all of the categories included by Stewart and Evans. One list for day-to-day and one list for the end of the week.

My first day of school list would begin with Stewart and Evans' section on Teacher Effectiveness. Most importantly an educator should enjoy what they do. Without enjoyment there is no passion, and without passion there surely cannot be success. I consider Teacher Effectiveness to be the general impression you get from a teacher when you enter the classroom. It is imperative that students not only feel comfortable with their physical space, but with their teacher as well, who is in loco parentis for approximately six hours each weekday.

The next section on my first day of school checklist would be the Physical Environment. Once establishing that the teacher suits the classroom, we must establish that the classroom suits the student.

Following would be the Behaviour Management section, ensuring that each student is aware of the classroom rules and consequences. And lastly would be the Time/Instructional Management Section. On the first day of school, or even the first week, although it is important to establish routine, there is some "give". I feel that it is more important to ensure the student is in an appropriate environment and that he or she is comfortable there and is aware of his or her expectations first.

A day-to-day checklist would not include physical environment. After the first few weeks of school the physical environment should be established, and any changes have become routine. The purpose of this checklist is to ensure that what you have planned for the day is well organized and detailed, and to allow you to make sure you've taken all factors into consideration.

A weekly checklist would be more of a professional assessment and evaluation tool. This checklist would include all categories listed by Stewart and Evans. The order is irrelevant, but it might be helpful to have the Physical Environment section last to ensure that the teacher has tidied up or refreshed classroom displays, desk arrangements, learning centres, etc. The teacher might use this to make notes on how to improve or enhance his or her practice for the following week.

Activity
For the final activity we were asked to design our own classroom space.

Module 1: The Junior Learner

Introduction

This module was an overall introduction to the course and the age group. We began with a sort of diagnostic assessment activity to determine what we think we know about the junior learner. The following T-chart includes both pre-taskwriting and post-taskwriting, completed at different points in the module. Click to enlarge.

Theorists
For our next task, we utilized a webquest to explore learning theorists and link their theories to our belief statements about teaching.














Developmental Phases
I really enjoyed perusing the resources in the developmental phases section. The videos at http://www.learner.org/resources/series172.html
Although they were a little contrived, when focusing on the strategies and the actual practice, they were quite insightful. A questions that I pondered based on the resources were:
Question: How do we as educators ensure that each of our students finds relevance and therefore interest and value in what they are learning? With students of varying skills and needs, is it possible to point out relevance to each and every student?

Inclusion
Our next task was exploring inclusion through the article, What Makes a Classroom Environment Welcoming to New Canadian Students: Lessons Learned from the Alternative Teacher Accreditation Programme for Internationally Trained Teachers (ATAPTIE) by Susan Lloyd and Nancy Mark. We then posted inclusion ideas that could be used in the junior classroom. Here is an updated version of my posting:

Activity
We had a choice in this final section and I chose to create a developmental timeline for the junior learner. Looking back with all the knowledge I've acquired since then, I feel this could have been more detailed.