Assessment- Chapter 15

WHAT

Assessment is such an important part of teaching. I never really thought of it as a vital part of learning. As a student I have had classes where you never new what you should study for a test and when asked the teacher says "Review everything". When you, as a student, don't know what you are working towards, how can you succeed.

Assesments must be aligned with what is being taught. Alignment is saying what you are going to teach, teaching it, and assessing what you have taught. It is also important to assess at the level that material is taught. For example, you can't teach a student to do simple addition and then test them on college algebra.

Assessments can be formative or summative. A formative assessment is a way to find out how the students are learning as you go. This can be homework assignments or quizzes or simply a class discussion to gauge what the students know. It can be a formal or informal assessment. A summative assessment is used usually at the end of a unit or year. It is the overall learning of the student. It can, however, be used as a pretest for the next unit as well.

Assessment can tell you so many things about not only the student's understanding, but also about how effecient you are as a teacher. It is used as feedback to tell the students how they are doing in certain areas. The students success or failure can also be a product of your teaching style. When doing assessements you have to ask yourself, "Are the students understanding and learning what I want them to learn?"

Assessments are a great way to find out what students are having problems with so that you can address those problems and improve them. They should give students a chance to review, practice, and apply what they have learned. Assessments help students learn how to assess themselves and become more efficient students. They should allow students to take risks and make mistakes while they learn.

SO WHAT

I believe that great assessment is part of what makes a great teacher. Knowing ways to assess my students, my class, and myself will help me be effective as a teacher and make my class one that is useful to students. Through assesment I will be able to find areas where I can improve as a teacher and know what individual classes and students need. I will be able to help the students reach their goals.


NOW WHAT

As a future teacher I will be using assessments everyday. As I teach I will be watching and listening to my students for continual feedback (fomative assessment). My students will be working on bettering themselves, not competing with anyone else. In PE there are so many ways to test fitness and health levels. I want to assess in a way that is beneficial to my students, I don't want them to dread asssessments. It is so important that my students improve their health and achieve their goals that they set in my class and I believe that great assessments will help them. There is so much more that I need to learn about assessment. I am glad that we cover this topic so thoroughly.

Brain Learning Log

WHAT

It is amazing that our brains can do so much in such a small area. I am always amazed when I learn about the brain how each part "controls" something different and yet all of the areas work together and can compensate for each other. I will describe the major parts of the brain and give a brief definition.

• The frontal lobe which is located in the front of the brain is in charge of planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality, behavior, and emotion. Any injury to the frontal lobe can damage any of these functions. It can change personality, thinking ability, and emotions.
• The temporal lobes are located on each side of the brain. The temporal lobe controls the ability to tell one smell or sound from another. It helps sort new info and controls short term memory. Damage can cause short term memory loss and make it harder to remember faces or understand words.
• The parietal lobe which sits behind the frontal bone controls sensation. When damages it can cause visio-spatial deficits and damage the ability to understand spoken or written language.
• The occipital lobe is in the back of the brain and processess visual information and causes vision problems if damaged.
• The Cerrebellum is located at the back of the brain above the brain stem. It controls movement and moscle coordination. When damaged there can be a loss of balance and muscle control
• The Brainstem is where the brain connects to the spinal cord. It controls neorological functions such as breathing, and survival and arousal functions. If damaged there can be difficulty breathing, swallowing, and sleeping.

In class we also learned about how the brain develops (connecting synapses). In adolescents the brain works much differently than it does in an adult. Adults are more balanced between being ruled by emotions, hormones, motivation and judgment. The judgement area of a teenagers brain has not fully developed, so they are more ruled by emotion and motivation. That is why many teenagers don't make good decisions.

One thing that really caught my attention in class was talking about exercise and how it relates so psychology. As a PE major I am always looking for new things that will help motivate people to exercise.

SO WHAT

It is important to know how the brain works to learn how to understand teenagers. I sometimes have a hard time with teenagers because I don't understand the decisions that they make sometimes. Learning about the development of their brains and knowing that everything they do is not entirely their fault, helps me have a little more compassion for them.

NOW WHAT

As a teacher I will be dealing directly with the teenage brain. Learning about different ways to teach that will work better for the specific mind of students will be a great help. I need to learn a lot more and go deeper into the research, especially that of exercise and psychology.

Educational Research

WHAT?

Who knew there was so much to know about educational research. I learned that through the four types of educational research you can usually find out what you need to know so that you can improve your classroom. The four types of research that we learned about are descriptive, correlative, experimental, and action research. They are all different but work well together.

• A descriptive study is used to describe a situation. It is the what, how or why something is happening. "How many students in the class have brown hair? There are 12 students in the class with brown hair".
• A correlation study compares two different things and tries to find relationship between the two. "Is there a connection between hair color and reading level? There is a numerical connection between hair color and reading level".
• An experimental study is done to find out if one variable causes the other. "Does having brown hair increase reading level? Brown hair does not increase reading level".
• Action research is research done by a teacher or school representative after observing a situation or problem in their classroom/school and coming up with a new plan to fix those problems and analyzing the results.

SO WHAT?

Research is very important in education. It must be constantly changing to meet the needs of the students, teachers, and community. What works well for one school or area may not work as well in another. Using different types of research can help improve education in general and also help in your own students.

NOW WHAT?

I need to learn more about the educational research that I have access to and also who the lead researchers are in my content area. Knowing what I have to work with and learning what research I need to do on my own will help me a lot. As a teacher I will use educational research in my classroom. I will find research that has been done on areas I am concerned about. I will also use it as a base to help me set up my classroom. I think that as a teacher I will mostly use an action research study method to improve not only my teaching ability but also the understanding and success of my students.

Course Contract/Hidden Assignment

*List 2-3 specific goals you have for this course.

1. Pass the class
2. Understand the material that is being taught
3. Feel good about my performance in the class

*Describe your weekly preparation plan. Be specific. What will you do each day of the week to prepare for this course.

I will go over what we learned in class on Thursday night so that it is still fresh in my mind. I will do any chapter reading and study guide on Friday, so that I have the study guides completed to look over before class the next week. I will make sure that all blogs and assignments are finished before Wednesday so that I don't have to do any last minute, rushed work. I will review class notes and study guides on Wednesday night so that I am prepared to participate in class on Thursday.

*Outline the study strategies that you will use to understand the material.

I will find a place to do my homework (at school and at home) where I can concentrate and wont be distracted by outside things. I will focus on one thing at a time so that I am not distracted by my own thoughts. I will make sure that my homework or reading is done early so that it will not be rushed or sloppy and so that I will get the most out of this class and my time.

*Explain the process you will follow if you do not understand a topic.

If I do not understand a topic I will search for the answer, if I can't find one I will ask a friend, if we can't come up with anything I will ask Dr. Cox

*Complete the following statement:

I will reach my goals in this course by following my preparation plan, and by making sure that I understand the course material before moving on to something else. I will reach my goals by not being afraid to ask for help. I will make each assignment worthwhile and will find the meaning in all that we learn and do in this class.

Motivation Blog

1. Why are you here?

When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher and a coach. Somewhere along the way I got off track and found myself with a degree I didn't really need for a job I didn't like. Two years ago I started coaching softball at Springville High and I loved it. I decided my original career plan was the right one! When I found out that UVU had a teaching program that could potentially get me teaching in about a year, I jumped at the opportunity.

2. What motivates you?

I think the thing that motivates me the most right now is the hope or excitement of something better. I am motivated by the feeling I know I get when I accomplish something and succeed. I am motivated by security and stability.

3. Why do you succeed?

I succeed because I am smart, and I can do anything I put my mind to. I have a great support system to help me reach my potential. When I am motivated toward a goal I succeed.

4. Why do you fail?

I fail when I let self doubt and discouragement overcome my confidence. I fail when I give up or don't try. I fail when I am unmotivated or I don't have the right mindset to reach my goal.

5. How do you need to change your motivations and mindset for this class in order to become a great teacher?

I need to change my mind set from that of a student, to that of a teacher. I feel to comfortable sitting quietly in class listening to the discussion going on around me. I need to become more involved in discussions and more comfortable having the attention on me because as a teacher it will hopefully be on me a lot. In class I need to focus on understanding the material to help me as a teacher and not just on getting an A on the assignment. To keep me motivated, I need to remember that everything we do in this class will help me to be a great teacher and make my life better.