1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes- Essential Questions & Objectives
One of the most important things that I have in my classroom are my learning goals and objectives. This took form in different ways depending on the environment that I taught in. The first example is set in a 6th grade social studies classroom that uses 'Essential Questions' and 'Learning Objectives' to post every day learning goals. It was the learning objective for the day and I used it as a formative assessment at the end of the class period to gauge student learning, usually in the form of an Exit ticket or verbal summary.
The second example is from a 2nd grade classroom that uses 'Learning Intentions' and 'Success Criteria' to convey learning goals. These were addressed at the beginning of the week and were referenced throughout the week as a means to guide instruction, for both the teacher and students. |
1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources- American Revolution QR Code Centers
Technology integration is a key element in my classroom. This is showcased in one of my favorite activities which happened during my American Revolution unit. At the end of the unit, students had expressed interest on learning more about 3 topics that I had not planned on covering in-depth. Then interest arose about some of the more obscure battles during the Revolution and I was stuck. With such a broad range of topics in so little time I thought a centers activity would be appropriate.
When setting up the centers, I wanted to incorporate technology that students might be unfamiliar with. I chose to use the QR codes to disperse the information that they needed in a creative but informational way. I found at least 2-4 multi-media sources for each of the 4 topics (Women, African-Americans, Foreign Aid, Battles) and converted each of their HTML links into QR codes. I duplicated each unique QR code and put them in an envelope. I labeled each envelope with a specific code to correspond with a specific topic. The first number signifies the topic, 1= Women, 2= African Americans, 3= Battles, 4= Foreign Aid. The second number on each envelope signifies the multi-media information source. Example. 1.2 = the second source that pertains to women in the revolution 3.1= the first source that pertains to battles during the revolution I placed the envelopes around the room to incorporate movement into the activity, in scavenger hunt fashion. Students were then tasked with exploring at least 1 source for each topic. Then they were to write at least 4 key pieces of information, which could consist of quotes, statements, questions they had, and/or pictures. |
1f: Designing Student Assessments- 'Create a Colony' Project Rubric
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While I believe tests/quizzes have their place, I much prefer project based assessments. This example is from a 6th grade Social Studies classroom in which I was assessing students' knowledge of the 13 original colonies. Students were to create their own '14th original colony' using what they learned about the original 13. They needed to include climate of the colony, settlement patterns, and physical features that made the colony unique (or similar to other colonies). Then students were to draw a map of their colony along with a detailed written explanation explaining the in's-and-out's of their colony. This project was unique in that it was used as a summative assessment of 2 units, 1) knowledge of colonies and 2) application of map skills.
While creating this assessment I had to be mindful of my students and their class placement. During this placement, I taught both the General 6th grade Social Studies and the Advanced 6th grade Social Studies classes and as such I had to differentiate the rubrics to accommodate each class's ability level. For the Advanced class I required a longer written explanation-- 3-4 paragraphs, versus the 5-6 sentences I required for the General class while keeping the requirements for the draw map the same. |