I keep making promises about writing more on this blog, and I really do wish I was better at keeping up with it all. However, life just gets ahead of me and I'm amazed by how one week merges into the next and before I know it, I'm at the end of the year again!
The last couple of days I have been starting to make plans for the next school year. I always tend to do this before the previous year has actually ended - as once the holidays start, I need some enthusiasm and direction in order to get school plans under way! One of my great frustrations has been my search for ONE iPad app that will do everything I want! I'd like to be able to record audio, video, pictures and notes about students and email these to parents. I'd also like it to have tagging, so that I can tag an item with more than one student name or learning area. The best solution I've come up with so far is Evernote, and I think that is a good option given I already have an account and am familiar with it. On the down side, I'm not sure how much I will be uploading and I don't really want to start up a subscription. I've also looked into Easy Portfolio, and for $1.99 it's probably not a bad option to try. The professional looking interface would be great for sharing with parents at parent/teacher interviews. On the down side, it doesn't have the tagging option.
What do others think? Have you found a solution that works well for you? Have you tried either of these with any measure of success? Or are you like me, with evidence scattered all over the place when it comes to report writing!
Showing posts with label authentic assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authentic assessment. Show all posts
Friday, November 30, 2012
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Space Spectacular #3
Week 4 and 5 - More Finding Out and Sorting Out
The activities in these weeks were designed to provide opportunities for students to find out about space and sort their ideas in a range of forms. Students typically "found out" through books, videos, websites, songs and experiments. They "sorted out" using writing, diagrams, reports and art.
Science
One of the focus questions for this unit is: "What are the relationships between distance and apparent size of objects to an observer?" My first thought was, "Huh?" closely followed by "Hmmmm." The models we made in weeks 2 and 3 touched on this but didn't really EXPLAIN anything or help students to make these deductions. I found an explanation of Emmert's Law on Wikipedia, but it was still too confusing for Year 4 students to really grasp. Somewhere along the way I thought about the funny photos you can take that play with this concept. Like this one by Andy Hay:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyhay/ / CC BY 2.0
I found a bunch of these at 100+ Funny Photos Taken At Unusual Angles and pulled out some appropriate ones to use with my class. (WARNING: Some are inappropriate, so do not use this site uncensored with your students.)
We looked at these at the start of the lesson and discussed the concept about apparent size and distance. I compared this to the apparent sizes of the sun and moon from Earth. I then gave students two different sized balls which they took outside and had to space apart in such a way that they looked the same size when viewed through the camera. Students then glued these pictures into their books and wrote an explanation of what they did and what they learnt. Those who finished early had time to create their own funny photos using their creativity.
Integrating with Literacy
Writing an Information Report
We needed to assess students' writing in preparation for end of year progress reports, so we decided to have students research and write about the sun. Information was provided through:
Students took notes while we explored these together. We watched the videos twice each and I demonstrated how I would take notes and add to them during the second viewing. Students then had the rest of the session to begin sorting through their notes to determine which ideas could be grouped together and to consider paragraph headings.
In the following session students began writing their report and drawing a diagram. In our next session students will review their work. You can see a copy of the Assessment Booklet below:
Integrating with Art
Nebula Watercolour Paintings
Having just explored the lifecycle of a star together, I showed students some photographic images of nebulas and super novas. We discussed the range of colours and the shapes and lines that were used. We then looked at these watercolour paintings by Ken Bandaruk. I gave students a large sheet of paper and some watercolours and left them to their own creativity to make nebula watercolours of their own. Once the painting was complete, students used a bamboo skewer and some white paint to add a layer of stars. Students who finished early went on to create super nova paintings using crayons and watercolours.
One Point Perspective
Building further on the concept from Emmert's Law, I taught students how to draw with one point perspective using these step-by-step instructions. Now that students have the basics, they are going to take it further, creating scenes of their own.
If you enjoyed this post, why not check out previous posts in the Space Spectacular Series.
The activities in these weeks were designed to provide opportunities for students to find out about space and sort their ideas in a range of forms. Students typically "found out" through books, videos, websites, songs and experiments. They "sorted out" using writing, diagrams, reports and art.
Science
One of the focus questions for this unit is: "What are the relationships between distance and apparent size of objects to an observer?" My first thought was, "Huh?" closely followed by "Hmmmm." The models we made in weeks 2 and 3 touched on this but didn't really EXPLAIN anything or help students to make these deductions. I found an explanation of Emmert's Law on Wikipedia, but it was still too confusing for Year 4 students to really grasp. Somewhere along the way I thought about the funny photos you can take that play with this concept. Like this one by Andy Hay:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyhay/ / CC BY 2.0
I found a bunch of these at 100+ Funny Photos Taken At Unusual Angles and pulled out some appropriate ones to use with my class. (WARNING: Some are inappropriate, so do not use this site uncensored with your students.)
We looked at these at the start of the lesson and discussed the concept about apparent size and distance. I compared this to the apparent sizes of the sun and moon from Earth. I then gave students two different sized balls which they took outside and had to space apart in such a way that they looked the same size when viewed through the camera. Students then glued these pictures into their books and wrote an explanation of what they did and what they learnt. Those who finished early had time to create their own funny photos using their creativity.
Integrating with Literacy
Writing an Information Report
We needed to assess students' writing in preparation for end of year progress reports, so we decided to have students research and write about the sun. Information was provided through:
- a double-page spread from a book about space (including a diagram)
- this NASA diagram of the sun
- this Space School video on the sun
- and the following 'music video'
Students took notes while we explored these together. We watched the videos twice each and I demonstrated how I would take notes and add to them during the second viewing. Students then had the rest of the session to begin sorting through their notes to determine which ideas could be grouped together and to consider paragraph headings.
In the following session students began writing their report and drawing a diagram. In our next session students will review their work. You can see a copy of the Assessment Booklet below:
An Information Report About The Sun
View more documents from pennyryder.
Integrating with Art
Nebula Watercolour Paintings
Having just explored the lifecycle of a star together, I showed students some photographic images of nebulas and super novas. We discussed the range of colours and the shapes and lines that were used. We then looked at these watercolour paintings by Ken Bandaruk. I gave students a large sheet of paper and some watercolours and left them to their own creativity to make nebula watercolours of their own. Once the painting was complete, students used a bamboo skewer and some white paint to add a layer of stars. Students who finished early went on to create super nova paintings using crayons and watercolours.
One Point Perspective
Building further on the concept from Emmert's Law, I taught students how to draw with one point perspective using these step-by-step instructions. Now that students have the basics, they are going to take it further, creating scenes of their own.
If you enjoyed this post, why not check out previous posts in the Space Spectacular Series.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Quality Teaching Model
I spent the best part of today learning about the Quality Teaching Model and how to utilize it in my school, classroom and practice. We began the day by discussing words we think of to describe "quality teaching". Words and phrases I came up with (after group discussion) were: meaningful, inspiring, engaging, catering for needs (and not rehashing material students already know), providing tools for lifelong learning, and stretching students' brains.
We learnt the history behind the Quality Teaching Model, beginning with it's roots in the work on authentic teaching and assessment by Fred Newmann. Fred Newmann was involved in research in Chicago where they looked at cognitive activity of adults who worked successfully in a variety of occupations. 
From this research they determined three broad criteria for authentic work:
- Construction of Knowledge
- Disciplined Inquiry
- Value Beyond School
See here for more information on this research.
From what I understand, QLD kicked off the research and application of this in Australia. NSW then conducted a study on the Systematic Implications of Pedagogy and Achievement (SIPA) and introduced the Quality Teaching Model. The ACT has now adopted the Quality Teaching Model as well.
This model involves pedagogy that:
- promotes high levels of intellectual quality
- promotes a quality learning environment
- develops and makes explicit to students the significance of their work
Each of these dimensions are broken down into 6 elements which teachers can include in their programming, teaching and assessment.
After learning about the research and examining an example lesson, we teachers discussed the benefits we could see with using the Quality Teaching Model and any concerns we had about it's implementation. We felt that it would be a useful tool for teachers to use to reflect upon their practice and engage in professional dialogue with other teachers. It gives some direction for planning and programming and helps teachers to consider best practice. Some concerns that people had were with the use of the coding system - we don't particularly want people assessing our teaching using the coding, particularly if this will impact upon our pay (which is not the case at this stage).
My first thoughts for implementing this are to:
- find a way to use the model in everyday routines - spelling, classroom management, maths mentals etc.
- create authentic tasks to assess student learning
- refer to the model when planning Integrated Inquiry units
It will be interesting to see how things progress with this new model. As was pointed out at the session today, it's not really 'new' material, it's just setting things out in a way that's more accessible. If you've had any experience with the Quality Teaching Model or authentic teaching and assessment, please share your thoughts in a comment below.
Update: Just in from my PLN, the Queensland model that paved the way in Australia is the Productive Pedagogies Model. You can find out more here.
6/9/09 This link will take you to an overview of the dimensions and elements of the Quality Teaching Model.
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