As a final project for a novel study in the class I had my practicum in, students made paperbag scrapbooks. It was started before my practicum started but I got to see the creativity of the students as they were finishing them up in the first week. The image below is from pinterest but it follows the same format and style.
Category: Standard #5
Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for students learning and development.
During the November practicum, some of my lessons had very little interaction between the students. It’s something I want to do differently in the final practicum (that starts tomorrow). I’ve been searching up ideas online for engaging students with each other and found a fantastic blog post on “Cult of Pedagogy” that has some great ideas.
Brain Pocket Strategies to Support a Year-Long Writing Program
By Adrienne Gear
I became familiar with this resource during my first practicum. I was in a grade 2/3 split class and my coaching teacher suggested that I follow Adrienne Gear’s writing structure.
In elementary education, assessment should be used as a tool to understand where to go next with what is being taught. When teaching a group of students, it’s important to understand what is being absorbed and understood. If only a handful of students are contributing to a discussion, or no collaborative discussion occurs at all, and it is assumed that what is being taught is understood by all, students that don’t understand the material end up being left behind in the learning process. When the primary assessment method being used is summative and content is not returned to after, the result is major gaps in comprehension. Alternatively, if formative assessments are used throughout the process and encompass all students, the teacher can navigate the current and subsequent lessons based on the understanding of the group. This reduces or eliminates gaps in learning and contributes to mastery of what is being taught. Although it is important to use summative assessments in order to report the overall learning of students, the most important role of assessments in elementary classrooms is to provide feedback to the teacher on whether the students are ready to move forward with new content or if more time is needed to focus on the current concept or material.