This week I thought the articles, Building on the Common Core, The Many
Meanings of “Multiple Measures”, Data-Driven Decision Making and
Assessment-Driven Improvements in Middle School Students’ Writing did a
great job of making the overwhelming task of assessment seem manageable. Being a physical educator, I am
expected to assess my students on the cognitive, affective and psychomotor
domains. Only seeing these
students sometimes once a week makes this task seems unrealistic. During my internship I had as many as
75 1st graders in my gymnasium at one time. I tried my hardest to assess my
students in each domain but it was difficult. It took me almost my whole internship but by the end I was
able to assess all of my students in each domain, but it was no easy task! These articles give me hope that
assessment is possible and there are effective ways of helping our students
learn.
As some students struggle with
dividing fractions, other students struggle with learning to kick a ball. How can I expect to give a student a
grade for physical education class just based on if they are able to complete a
skill or not. “In educational
settings, a decision or characterization that will have major impact on a
student should not be made on the basis of a single test score. Other relevant information should be
taken into account if it will enhance the overall validity of the decision”
(Brookhart, 2009, p. 247). When
assessing my students during my internship I took into account not only their
performance of the skill but their ability to understand the skill and their
behavior. I would ask my younger
students to circle the correct form for kicking a soccer ball to make sure that
if they were unable to complete the task they still understood the proper technique. I had my older students do a little
more writing. They would be asked
to list five key elements to kicking a soccer ball. I was amazed to see how much they listened and understood
the material.
As far as assessing my students in
the affective domain I used a lot of peer and self-assessments. “Peer and self-assessments are key
elements in formative assessment, because they involve students in thinking
about the quality of their own and each others’ work, rather than relying on
their teachers as the sole source of evaluative judgment” (Andrade et al, 2009,
p. 269). Having a lot of students in
my gymnasium at one time led me to develop a lot of group activities. At the end of my classes I left time
for my students to fill out an assessment sheet about how well their group
worked together as well as how well they personally worked within the
group. My younger students would
be asked to draw smiley faces while my older students either used a rating
system or wrote out a few sentences.
It was great to see how my students thought they were doing. They took this assessment very
seriously and I saw an improvement in their behavior while working in their
groups. It was also a great way for them to share any issues with me that they
might have not wanted to talk about during class.
These assessments took a great deal
of time to come up with and it was a lot of trail and error but It was worth it
all to know that my students were understanding what I was teaching them. It made me feel like it wasn’t just a
gym class, it was a physical education class and they would be able to take the
information with them and use it at another time in their life.
Assessing our students is a key part
of their education. It is up to
the teachers to make sure their students understand the material that is being
presented. If teachers do not take
the time to make effective assessments they are wasting their time even
teaching the lesson. When I
develop my lesson plans it is with the purpose to teach my students new
information that they can use later on in life. If I do not check for their understanding and show them the
importance of the material why would they remember the information? One of my proudest moments thus far in
my very short teaching career was when I got a phone call from one my student’s
parents telling me their daughter came home from school and gave their family a
lesson on how to throw the proper way.
I was overwhelmed with joy that this 2nd grader was able to
remember the skills we had worked on during our throwing and catching
unit. It made all the sweat and
tears of planning lessons and assessments worth it.
This course has allowed me to get a
better understanding of how much time, effort and thought goes into developing
an effective classroom. Teaching
is not just about being prepared for the day. It is about taking our students education to the next level
and really understanding how we can make sure we are reaching our students and
giving them the best opportunity to succeed.
As our class comes to an end I also
want to speak about some theories, theorist and my overall experience with this
course. Having the chance to learn
about famous educational theories and theorists and relating them to my own
experiences was extremely helpful and eye opening. It is hard to believe that these theorist ideas, which were
developed many years, are still shaping how we are educating our youth today.
Although I find each theorist and their theories to be extremely important to the
education world a couple stick out to me as the most influential in education
as well as relate to my beliefs on education. Even though I am a recent graduate and have not found a
teaching job yet I am still able to relate these theories to my time spent in
my internship as well as my time spent as a swimming instructor.
I find Howard Gardner’s theory of
Multiple Intelligences a vital part of our educational system. From my first education class as an
undergrad I remember my professor telling the class that all of us are different
and she is going to figure out our intelligences. I sat there and thought this lady was crazy! What is she
talking about, our intelligences?
I understood that we were all different but I didn’t understand what she
meant by intelligences. I thought
I would just sit in class, she would lecture to us about teaching and we would
leave. I was very wrong.
My professor took Gardner’s theory
of Multiple Intelligences to a whole different level. She took a simple lesson but taught it in eight different
ways, showing us the eight different types of intelligences. She asked us to rank the lessons based
on how well we understood and related to the information that was taught. It was amazing to see the amount of
effort and time she spent on each lesson.
After we ranked the lessons she shared the results with the class,
showing us that we all related to different lessons and were different
learners. I was amazed at how many
different rankings we had in the class.
Our teacher did one final
lesson. She made a lesson that
encompassed three or four of the different intelligences. It was amazing to see how many students
you could reach in one lesson if you took the time to plan and think about your
students on a personal level.
I find that Gardner’s theory
relates to my beliefs as an educator.
I truly feel that it is a gift that every person is different and that
we all learn in different ways. I
love getting to know my students or swimmers and trying different techniques to
reach them. I think that more
educators need to take the time at the start of the school year to get to know
their students. It is time
consuming, but worth the educational growth of the students.
For instance, at the day camp where
I teach swim lessons I have a group of five and six year old girls. While teaching them lessons I have
learned that some of my swimmers respond to verbal demonstrations, some need me
to visual demonstrate the lessons, while others need to be kinesthetically
involved to understand my lessons.
To help all of my swimmers I try and structure my daily lessons around
all three types of intelligences.
It is amazing to see the “light blub” click on when I explain the lesson
in terms that my individual students understand.
Amy, my kinesthetic learner sits
with a confused look on her face while I verbally and visually explain the
stroke of the day to the class.
When I finally ask my swimmers to stand up and physically demonstrate
the stroke outside of the water I she her “light blub” click on. Moving around and practicing the stroke
allows Amy to make a connection that the visual and verbal cues don’t help her
with. Discovering this information
out about Amy’s learning style really helped me design my lessons.
While my beliefs on education most
closely relate to Howard Gardner and his theory on multiple intelligences, I
find B.F. Skinner and his theories on behaviorism most influential thought out
time. Skinner’s theories stating that peoples behaviors are acquired through
conditioning and these behaviors work with rewards and punishment in order to
develop a desired behavior is something that I believe as educators we see everyday in our classrooms.
“The consequences of behavior
determine the probability that the behavior will occur again”. This quote from Skinner himself shows
that as educators we must reward our students for their positive behavior while
giving them consequences for negative behaviors. From the start of time parents have been giving rewards and
punishments to their children. I
remember back when I was young and my dad telling me if I completed my homework
for the whole week I would receive a reward of going out for ice cream on
Friday. However, if I did not
complete my homework for the week I wouldn’t be allowed to watch TV for the
whole weekend on top of no ice cream. At first I tested the water and missed a
few homework assignments. My dad
stuck to the consequences and I wasn’t allowed to watch TV all weekend. I thought this couldn’t last, but it
did. I began to complete my
homework every week and received my reward. My dad performed operant conditioning on me, he showed me
that with positive behavior I would be rewarded and with negative behavior I would have
a negative consequence. After this
I never missed a homework assignment again, I realized the reward of completing
my homework, even if there is no ice cream involved.
I believe this theorist and his
theories to be extremely important in the education world. Educators need to reward their students
for positive behaviors while giving consequences for negative. Educators must follow through with the
consequences in order to change the negative behaviors. I have seen too many teachers give
empty threats, causing their students to test the waters and push their limits
with negative behaviors.
During my internship I watched a 5th grade teacher
threaten to take recess time away from her students daily. She always said, “if you do that one
more time no recess”. At first
this seemed like a fair punishment because the students loved their recess time;
however I became aware that she was always telling her students “if you do that
one more time”. She never took
their recess time away. Her
students began to realize she was not following through with the punishment and
began to act out even more. It was
very hard to watch her students take advantage of her, but she brought the
behavior on herself by not following through with the punishment.
I can honestly say this course was
tremendously helpful, informational and fun! Even though this is an online course I feel connected to all
of my classmates by reading their weekly blogs and responding to their
posts. I thought the best part of
this course was the weekly blogs and responses.
I found it really helpful to read other peoples thoughts on the weekly
readings. It gave me a chance to catch
material I missed while I was reading.
It also gave me a great perspective on how these theories and ideas
are working in a classroom setting. It
gave me hope that when I have my own classroom I will be able to implement
these strategies into my class. My
favorite assignment was the "what motivates me" assignment. It was fun to see pictures of everyone’s families and learn
more about each other. It is
awesome to be able to put a face with the name of my classmates. I also couldn’t be happier with the
support of my classmates. The
positive comments I received from my classmates about my job search was
overwhelming thoughtful. I
personally find online classes very difficult but it is great to know I have
the support of my classmates along the way.
References
Brookhart, S.M. (2009). The
Many Meanings of “Multiple Measures”, p. 6-12
Cauley, K.M., & Pannozzo, G.M. (Eds.). (2013). Annual Editions: Educational Psychology
12/13 (27th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Conley, D.T. (2009). Building
on the Common Core, p. 17-20
Donhost, M.J & Anfara Jr., V. A. (2010). Data-Driven Decision Making, p. 56-63
Andrade, H. et al. (2009). Assessment-Driven Improvements in Middle School Students’ Writing, p.
4-12
Links:
http://www.examiner.com/article/learning-theory-and-classroom-applications
( Theories)
http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html (Gardner)
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html (Skinner)
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html (three domains)
http://www.pecentral.org/assessment/assessment.html (
Physical Education assessments)
Below are examples of an affective, cognitive and psychmotor assessment that I used during my internship.
NAME________________________________________ DATE_________________________
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Name
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Circle
all that apply to the person
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Cooperative
Communication
Leader
Productive
Responsible
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Cooperative
Communication
Leader
Productive
Responsible
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Cooperative
Communication
Leader
Productive
Responsible
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Cooperative
Communication
Leader
Productive
Responsible
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Cooperative
Communication
Leader
Productive
Responsible
|
Students filled out the name of their group member on each line and circled the word or words that appled to the behavior of their group members.
Below is an example of quiz I gave for my jump rope unit with a focus on the five components of fitness.
NAME: DATE:
Answer the questions below to the best of your
knowledge from the information we went over from the start of class.
1.
What is body composition?
A.
Fat vs. Height
B.
Fat vs. fat-free mass
C.
Fat free mass vs. weight
D.
Fat free mass vs. age
2.
How can you measure body composition?
A.
Height and Age
B.
How many times you work out in a week
C.
Underwater body
fat test, the BodPod, and DEXA Scan
D.
Age and Weight
3.
True or False
If a person has a high
body fat percentage they are unhealthy?
The students where instructed to fill out this card using crayons, drawing a green line in the correct box of the skill they could complete and drawing a red line in the box if they needed improvement in a skill.
NAME:
DATE:
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Skill
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Basic
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Advanced
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Example
Chart-Student will fill out the name of the skill from the skill card then
place the proper drawing in either the basic column or advanced column
according to the skill.
“Praise is intricately connected to
how students view their intelligence” (Dweck, 2007, p. 189).