Month: February 2019

I have lived in the Richmond area for almost 34 years now and can honestly say that I had no idea of the educational resources offered by the VMFA.

Growing up in Chesterfield County, field trips to the VMFA were fairly frequent. I have fond memories of walking through the galleries with either my teacher or a tour guide and hearing about various works of art. One thing I don’t remember, however, is interpreting the pieces. I want to say if we had, I would remember it as the interpretation gives more meaning to the piece and creates a memorable experience.

 

 

Tests give me anxiety. Thinking about creating tests, gives me anxiety. Maybe it’s because I had so many bad experiences with tests, I don’t know.  Throughout this program, I’ve been thankful for the heavy emphasis on formative assessments. I even had a recent class in which we spend the entire class discussing authentic assessments and their effectiveness.  The time spent discussing and emphasizing the importance of formative assessments gives me hope and has opened my eyes to a way of measuring knowledge in a way that can be successful for most students, relatively speaking.

While I’m grateful that so much time was spent on the dos and don’ts of creating a typical summative, I can’t help but groan when I think about that type of test. I understand students have to have exposure to typical tests, especially in this day of testing, but how much is enough? Could I get away with just giving the ones issued by the county to ensure they’re ready for the darned SOL tests, or do these types of tests need to be regular practice?

I don’t really know what else to say because my mind is spinning with so many questions, the biggest being: if we are moving toward project based learning and have the VQCRT, why are we still talking traditional summatives?

I guess I just fear making a child anxious and giving negative feelings about school through the anxiety one of these traditional tests can cause.  I also hate the necessary evil of giving these tests only to ensure the student does well on the SOL. Don’t get me wrong, I want them to do well but I just prefer project based ways of measuring knowledge.

 

(I’m sorry if these seems a bit jumbled or doesn’t make sense in some areas. I totally get testing to ensure that the students do well on the SOL, I really do. I guess it just finally hit me that while we can do all of these amazing formatives, we still have to teach to a test…to a degree.

I’ll be fine, I promise 😉 )

First let me say, I am all about some front-loading. Definitely team “Front-load information” over here. With that being said, I’m reluctant to admit that while I understand the need for it, have read the research supporting it, and have every intention of including it in lesson plans, I’ve never really seen such a clear example of it’s effectiveness or how it is done. That is, until my observation last week and then again with the super fab Ms. Wicket.

I always thought to front-load information was to basically just verbally go over things. I’m not sure why my mind went there, but I just didn’t really make the connection to actual instruction during this part. (I’m not a doofus, I promise haha). I think the reason being is because I never had to create a lesson plan in which it was necessary. I always selected an SOL and started from the beginning. I wrote as if this was the first time students would be exposed to this plan. Herein lies one of my complaints about being an education student-writing lessons not knowing your students, or audience, but it’s the norm and to be expected. (insert one of the reasons I am super excited for student teaching! Can I get a woohoo for real living breathing kiddos? woohoo!

Anyways…I’m not quite sure of the technical name of what she did, but I’m going to call it sandwiching (sort, powerpoint, read-aloud, back to the sort. The sorts are the bread, the rest are the toppings/meat). I loved how she incorporated so many different types of assessments (pre- with the sort, think pair share, thumbs up/down, etc) all before she even got to the main point of her lesson. Even more so, the sandwiching! (food analogies for the win). By coming back to the sort, the students understood the purpose of the activity. They were able to make sense of all of the information and (hopefully) put together all of those pieces floating around in their head.

I am a bit anxious about being how, as a new teacher, I may look if I am unable to keep up with pacing guides due to time spent on front-loading? One would hope it would all work itself out by the end of the year but who knows. Only time will tell!

Not gonna lie, I was definitely team “how is this effective?” when “I say, you say, and so…” was first introduced. Now, after the 3rd class, I totally see just how impactful it can be toward full understanding of a concept.

What I found interesting was that when the strategy was snuck into the lesson, no one thought anything of it. We all went with it and dissected it as it should be when properly executed. I don’t know about the rest of the class, but I definitely had an “a-ha” moment when I found out Lynne’s intention behind the progression chart activity. That leads me to wonder just how much we should conceal from students to allow them to think openly. I mean, how differently would that activity had gone if we knew it was an “I say, you say, and so” given our attitudes toward that strategy? Anyways, thank you Lynne for making a believer out of me!:)

I also had another “A-ha” moment toward the end of class. When I first looked over the progression chart, I noticed a lot of things, but given my inquisitive personality, I instantly had more “I wonder” thoughts/questions. One was how a kindergartener could possibly compare people, places, and things, given their limited understanding of the world at the age of 5/6. After completing the George Washington/King George activity, I realized just how easily this could be accomplished. I tend to overthink things, but this activity allowed me to see just how basic that activity could be to appeal to that age group and allow them to be successful in completing the task at hand.

I’m super excited and can’t wait to try these activities and strategies in my classroom. I really hope I’m able to do the “connecting the pieces/observing primary sources” activity at some point in my teaching career!

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I may actually be excited to teach Social Studies. 🙂