Reflection #9

1.)           One way to find out what students already know about what we are trying to teach them is to assess them through formative assessment.  This is often done before you start a new project/unit as an informative tool for us to guide our instruction and make certain students are ready to handle the tasks.  An example of a formative assessment beforehand can be as simple as a class discussion or a KWL chart where you tell students that we are only brainstorming at this point in order to assess their readiness level for the project.  Often we give students quizzes or tests, but they do not have to be formal tests that are graded, rather they are only a tool to see what students know about the content which will be given to students again at the end of the project to see what they have learned as a graded quiz/test, similar to our Profiler Pro Evaluation.  The strategies each teacher may use to assess student's readiness levels depends on what we are trying to teach them and our teaching styles.

2.)           Using "anchors" such as a KWL chart is a wonderful resource to know where your students are starting out and how they have grown in the end as they are working towards their learning goals.  All students are different and have different starting points, therefore we need to be cognizant that each students growth may differ as well.  As teachers, our responsibility is to understand that it is all about each student's individual growth.  Anchors are a great tool to guide assessment because they allow us to observe prior knowledge and what students have learned in the end.   

3.)           There are many different ways to track what our students will be learning throughout their projects.  Therefore, it is most important to offer various styles of assessments.  Rubrics are a great way to assess students and help them understand the criteria by which their work will be evaluated.  Another great way to assess what students have learned is to use an online grade book that allows for ongoing feedback and meaningful data about the skills and abilities of a student from several categories, rather than taking away from a letter grade because an assignment is turned in late.  Another way is to write, illustrate, and publish a book, or you can have students write a report on their topic to promote their writing skills to assess their knowledge.  Videotaping interviews with students at the end of a project allows for students to share their reflections about how their project helped them learn.  You can have students make presentations about their topic to improve social skills and have them even evaluated by a panel of experts.  If student's projects/presentations are excellent you can have them even enter a contest or submit their work for publication to connect with their community and receive additional assessment and/or recognition.  Sometimes, we even need to allow students to create something on their own to show off what they have learned.   

4.)           This chapter directly relates to our project and us because it shares great information on how we need to design the assessment for our project that will be used to grade our students, in order to help our them meet their maximum growth as individual learners.  It further helps us understand that when we design assessment for our students we need to take into consideration the individual grading needs of students' assignments and final projects.  In order to guide our instruction on creating a Weather Forecast/Broadcast for our students, we need to use a form of assessment, preferably informal that allows us to understand what students already know about weather.  Anchors will be a great resource for this.  In fact, our project in the setting the stage phase incorporates anchors, such as KWL-activities.  Students are assessed by how well they will design and present a weather forecast on their own based on what they have learned and with the help of a rubric.  This can be a final formal assessment. 

Reflection 9

1.  Description of a method of understanding prior-knowledge of students.

Elise Mueller, an elementary school teacher explains, "I talk to my kids about this all the time. I tell them they can be consumers or they can be producers. It's better to be a producer. That means you're creating something that brings our learning to the next level. That the goal--the global goal--with Web 2.0. There's no point in just being a consumer anymore." Students must be actively thinking throughout the entire project process, from beginning to end. In a well designed project, students know they are taking on a particular task and how it leads to them toward important learning goals. They also know what success looks like when finished with the project, and they understand the various categories by which their performance will be measured.

2.  Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.

By establishing anchors in the project process, teachers gain a sense of where their students are starting, and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals. To help with the idea of establishing anchors, teachers should keep track of his/her students projects so that way they can actually establish this anchor.

3.  Description of several ways to assess what students learned during the project.

There are several different ways that teachers can assess their students on what they learned from doing a project. Rubrics are always helpful because the student will get to see feedback written on the rubric of what they did good and what they need to work on. Online grade books are also a good idea. Video taping interviews with students at the end of the project, which allowed the students to be reflective and honest about how their project helped them learn. Teachers may also ask students to create something new that asks them to summarize what they have learned.

4.  Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

This chapter helps a lot with our project because it gave us different ways to create assessments for our students after the project. It also gave us a sense of how we can keep track of students learning throughout the project process. 

Reading Reflection #9

1.) One method that can be used to gain an understanding of students' prior-knowledge is using a formative assessment. A type of formative assessment that could be used is a non-graded quiz. Be sure to let the students know that they won't be given a grade for the quiz, so they don't freak out. This is an excellent way to see how much your students already know about the topic you're about to teach on. There are many different types of formative assessments, but the overall goal is to determine what your students already know and then use this information to shape your lessons.


2.) Establishing "anchors" for a project is very important! There's no doubt that most of your students will begin the project at different levels of understanding. By using "anchors" such as a KWL chart, you're able to understand where each one of your students stands on the topic, and where they want to end up at the end of the project. The book says "By establishing 'anchors,' you gain a sense of where students are starting and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals." If you take the time to establish "anchors" for your project, you're setting the project up for success!


3.) There are so many different ways to assess how much your students learned during the project. One way is to have the students simply type up a report on their topic. This isn't an interactive way to assess the student's newly acquired knowledge, but it's a method that will help work on their writing skills. Another way to assess your students' learning is by having them do a presentation. They can either make a poster and explain it to the class, or even create a PowerPoint to present to the class. Either way, both of these methods help improve students' social skills. Another excellent way to assess student learning is to have them branch out of the classroom by entering a contest or submitting their work for publication. Both of these options help students connect with the broader community and feel special.


4.) A lot of the information in this chapter directly relates to the group project that we're currently working on. Before beginning our project on "Creating a Weather Forecast," it's crucial that we first understand how much our students already know about weather. This will help us shape our project. Also, it's important for us to establish "anchors" for our project. As far as assessing our students on what they've learned, we plan on having our students create a weather forecast of their own, which they will then be showing to local people in the community. This chapter is definitely a helpful resource to help us finalize our project.


References

• Boss, Suzie, and Jane Krauss. Reinventing Project-based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-world Projects in the Digital Age. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education, 2007. Print.

Reading Reflection 9

1.) One way to determine the prior knowledge of what your students know is through assessment. Assessment can be very helpful in times that a teacher needs to know exactly what her students know. Sometimes you need to assess your students before beginning a project to ensure that they are prepared to handle the new task. We don't want to assign projects in situations where the students are not prepared to handle the work and because of this we can assess them beforehand to guarantee their readiness. Assessment does not mean that you have to give your students a common multiple choice test, instead you can assess them using different strategies, sometimes a simple group discussion will get the job done. Types of assessment will vary depending on what the specific teacher is hoping to learn about her students through the assessment.

2.) Using "anchors" such as KWL charts are a great resource to use when you want to track where your students are starting and how far they've come to reach their learning goals. Not all students will start at the same place, so it is important to realize that not all students will end at the same place either. As a teacher it is important to remind ourselves that we are looking at the overall development for each student and the progress they have made individually. Using anchors is the best way to track this information that when it comes time for assessment you are aware of where all the students began and all the students left off.

3.) There are many different ways to track what your students learned during their project and the best way to do it is by offering many different styles of assessment. Not all students learn the same so it would be unfair to grade them on what they took from the project the same way. In this chapter, Paul Curtis talked about how he developed a new system of grading that tracked a lot more than the traditional grading scale would. Instead of giving the students one flat grade he analyzed their capabilities on several different letters. Instead of saying "David gets a D because he didn't write the paper on the book," Curtis would say "David might deserve a D for not writing the paper, but he did a spectacular job on his podcast". This type of assessment shows that there are many different levels to a students understanding about what they've learned. Ideas like this are what help us as teachers to come to recognize that we need work on creating multiple different ideas for tracking our students progress.

4.) The information in this chapter is directly related to what we are doing in class because it shows us how we need to design the assessment on which we are grading our students on. We want learn how to recognize the progress of the students in our class, but it also gets us thinking about how we plan to grade our students on their final end project. My group has our class presenting a weather broadcast and it is important that we take into consideration the different elements that are going to be in the grading process and how effective our assessment is.

Reflection 8

1. Digital tools make it easy for students to share their work and exchange ideas with diverse audiences, including family members and peers, local community members, and even the much wider world. Involving technology in projects allows students to reach out to an authentic audience. Digital aged projects offer almost unlimited opportunities for branching out from the classroom. Students might decide to talk to experts in the course of researching a particular topic. Teachers can design projects that his/her students can communicate with fellow learners, in other classrooms or outside of the classroom.

2. EAST stands for Environmental and Spatial Technologies. For over a dozen years different schools have been demonstrating the benefits of using technology for a real purpose - to solve problems and make improvements in their communities. Projects make use of geospatial technologies and multimedia tools that are more commonly found in professional labs or design studios. EAST students master these sophisticated tools and applications in context while solving community problems that interest them.

3. Once comfortable with project based learning, students will start to be more capable of leading their own projects by starting with generating a project idea they care about. Teachers should allow students to take learning to a different level and the way they want the learning to be done. The book gives the example of doing a project relating to your own life, something the students are passionate about so they can actually enjoy the project they are doing.

4. This chapter relates to our projects in class because in our project we allow our “students” to take over the project and let them do what they believe will work best. We discuss the benefits of technology in the classroom. We are also designing a handful of digital tools that help in our project process.

Reflection #8

1.      Some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom:

Blogs are a great way for students to connect with real audiences to reflect about what they are learning.  They can be used to find and talk with content experts to find answers to questions or receive feedback.  By allowing students to connect with real audiences or experts, not only in their own school, city, state, or country, but other countries with appropriate digital tools, such as video exchanges, wikis, blog entries, podcasts, and Skype, we are allowing them to expand their learning circle and have other people look at their project(s) and progress.  This in turn will motivate students to take more pride in their work and assume more responsibility, as well as provide them with authentic assessment.  As teachers, we can find experts in parents or people they know by putting out the word on our class website or blogs and create a list of willing experts and contacts.  However, if these experts are not available in person, we need to teach students how to locate these experts through research online and communicate with them efficiently to find the answers they are seeking.

 

2.      The EAST Initiative Model:

The EAST Initiative Model is the Environmental and Spatial Technologies Initiative network of 260 schools (2^nd grade to post-secondary) in seven states that focuses on the benefits of using geospatial technologies and multimedia tools for real purposes to solve problems and make improvements in their communities.  This allows kids to be hooked on significant projects and the community to support them, such as partners from industry and academia.  It is based on four essential ideas:

1)      Student-driven learning. Students need to be responsible for their own learning.

2)      Authentic project-based learning:  Students should be engaged in solving real problems in their communities.

3)      Technology as tools:  Students need access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems.

4)      Collaboration:  When students collaborate in teams to pursue authentic projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation.

It is critical that teachers receive training and support as facilitators to work with student teams that mainly teach and learn from each other with the help of technology (which they take the lead on when learning about them) to work on authentic projects that are presented at the end of the year to showcase what they have learned .  This model supports student interests by offering technical training led by professionals, along with online courses on specific applications, similarly to our professor offering technical training to us or tutorials.  Overall, the project focuses on collaboration to design a project, implementation and asking questions about what is working and how problems can be solved, as well as real-world issues that students may encounter.   

3.      Some reasons to let students “lead” their projects:

Students will be more passionate about a project if the issue they are tackling connects to their own lives in a meaningful way, such as a disability, their own heritage, or community, etc.  If students can generate their own project ideas they care about, they will feel good about communicating and collaborating with other students and experts that will help them find answers to their issues/questions.  This can be achieved with the help of digital tools, such as blogs, etc.  If students lead their own projects, they are able take charge of their own learning and think about what information they want to share and how they want to present their final presentation/project that reflects their interests, ideas, and what matters to them. 

4.      How do concepts in this chapter relate to our topic/project:

This chapter gives us ideas of how to create a learning environment that supports rigorous, community-based learning which focuses on student-driven learning, real-world problems, using modern and relevant technologies such as blogs, and collaborating with a bigger audience, such as other students and content experts. We are learning that project-based learning is a way for students to connect with real audiences and experts that can be in person, or online in their own classroom or school, or across the globe.  For our project, we are having students communicate and collaborate with students in Sochi, Russia via Skype video chat to exchange and compare information about weather conditions.  We are creating a blog for our students so they can communicate about their ideas and brainstorm about what they are learning.  The chapter directly relates to me writing this blog right now, which I will be posting as a tool for receiving authentic feedback and assessment from an authentic audience, such as you (my peers).  It is a tool to help us evaluate ourselves, as well as our projects.    

References

• Boss, Suzie, and Jane Krauss. Reinventing Project-based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-world Projects in the Digital Age. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education, 2007. Print.

Reading Reflection #8

1.) Extending the learning experience beyond the classroom is something that will definitely benefit the students! One excellent way to do this is by blogging. Blogs provide the students with a space where their voices can be heard. On blogs, students are able to communicate different thoughts and ideas with other students and even teachers. Blogs can also be used by students to connect with content experts, to reflect on their own learning, and to engage in global conversations that would not otherwise take place. Often students will be more motivated to put in hard work when they know that other people will be observing their work. One way that the students can connect with a real audience is by creating a digital story. As I mentioned before, connecting students with experts is a great way for your students to branch out beyond the classroom. As teachers, it's important that we prepare our students before they communicate with experts. Connecting students with other students across the globe is another great way to branch out your students beyond the classroom. They can do this by means of a blog or maybe even a Skype video call; these are both excellent ways that your students can collaborate with students from far away.


2.) The EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technologies) Initiative is composed of a network of schools that have been demonstrating the benefits of using technology for a real purpose...to solve problems and make actual improvements in their communities. The projects that EAST students work on make use of geospatial technologies and multimedia tools that are often found in professional labs, but yet the students are able to operate them. EAST students are often familiar using tools technologies such as GIS, GPS, & CAD.
The EAST model is built on four essential ideas, all of which were part of the original design:
1. Student-driven learning: Students need to be responsible for their own learning.
2. Authentic project-based learning: Students should be engaged in solving real problems in their communities.
3. Technology as tools: Students need access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems.
4. Collaboration: When students collaborate in teams to pursue authentic projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation.


3.) There are several good reasons as to why you should occasionally let your students "lead" their projects. One reason is that they will most likely pick a topic that they're really interested in. By choosing a topic that really interests them, they will probably put in more work than they normally would for a teacher assigned project. Allowing your students to do work on a topic that they're passionate about will benefit both you and the student. Another benefit to letting the students "lead" their project is that you, as a teacher, won't have to micromanage each individual project. By letting students "lead" their own projects, they have a chance to take on their own learning; as teachers, it's important that we're still there to support them every step of the way.


4.) This chapter directly relates to our group project. The number one thing that sticks out is the title of the chapter: "Expanding Your Circle." For our project, we're having our students communicate with another class of students in Sochi, Russia. Our plans are to have them communicate with each other via Skype video chat. This will give them an excellent opportunity to experience what it's like to collaborate with others from across the globe. Also, we are going to create a blog for our student. This will give them a space where they can talk about important concepts and explain new ideas with other students in the class. Overall, this chapter is a very helpful resource for our group project.

References

• Boss, Suzie, and Jane Krauss. Reinventing Project-based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-world Projects in the Digital Age. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education, 2007. Print.