Assessing students is a very important part of validating and refining our teaching practices. In ET 620, in a small group, we designed an interactive learning and assessment experience for students. Using Power Point and specific VBA commands, our groups designed a self-paced lesson for 2nd graders to learn or brush up on money skills. Following the lessons there are mini quizzes that assess what they have just seen. After all of the lessons are complete, there is a larger quiz to check the understanding of the students. The quiz features a printable page that students would print and turn into the teacher. It could easily be seen how well students did, what items needed re-teaching, and what items students have shown mastery with.
In the spring of 2011, my Kindergarten class began learning about insects. The unit turned out to be very exciting and engaging for my class. At the end of the unit I decided to try using a student response system to check their understanding of basic facts about insects. This was a new technology for both my students and me, so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I was able to assign names to each clicker number, so when I passed out the clickers I had to be sure that each student received the correct clicker. The program that I used allows me to look at how each student did on each question or to look at just the overall results. The results show that my students overall did very well with facts about insects.
In March of 2012, my Kindergarten class did a STEMish type project. I want to use STEM loosely, because we didn’t attempt to solve any real-world problems, our objective was to catch a Leprechaun. The STEM part of it was evident in our process rather than the reality of the project. After reading a variety of books about Leprechauns, my class had learned that they love gold, they eat dandelion greens, and typically wear green. As a class, we brainstormed materials in the classroom that could be useful to make a trap. Students also discussed how the materials could be used. The next step was to create collaborative groups. For this, I allowed the students to create groups of 4 independently (I typically choose pairs and groups, so this was BIG). After groups were created, the students spent time discussing their ideas with their group. They had to take turns listening to each other and compromising in order to move on to the next step. Next, each group was given large paper in order to draw their plans. It was evident that each group had their own ideas of what would work best. I enjoyed listening to their collaboration and watching their ideas start to take shape on paper.
In the afternoon, we began the next phase- building! This was one of the most exciting steps. Many groups were able to us classroom materials to build according to their drawn plan. We left the ‘traps’ set up over night to see if we could catch any of those tricky little people. Secretly I had printed little leprechaun images and placed them in the traps after the students left. I figured they would have called my bluff, but one student declared “They left pictures of themselves, very tricky!” The project was a success- our class invited other classes in to see our projects. My students took time to explain their work to the other classes.
After all of our work was complete, it was time to head to the computer lab. I uploaded photos from the project and a Power Point template into my ‘Hand-Out’ folder on our school computers. We reviewed and discussed the different steps that we took throughout the project. I walked the students through accessing the photos for their group and how to drag it onto the Power Point slide. They did a great job! I was impressed that my Kindergarten students were able to create a Power Point- I think the Tech teacher was even impressed with their work. After printing their Power Point projects, we completed a writing piece.
One major goal of Kindergarten use of technology is to learn how to log-in to their school account independently. Being the classroom teacher, helping the students learn their log-in information was not my primary job, but I felt it was important to support our technologies teachers with this goal.
I took 3 observational data points on this in December, March, and May of the 2011-2012 school year. For students who were still having difficulty with logging- in on their own, I provided time for them in the classroom to practice. Although it is difficult for the students that hardly know their letters or numbers to learn their log-in credentials, with enough practice, all of my students were able to at least log-in using their information cards (which is a big success).
Assessment Planning
A. Assessment with Technology
Assessing students is a very important part of validating and refining our teaching practices. In ET 620, in a small group, we designed an interactive learning and assessment experience for students. Using Power Point and specific VBA commands, our groups designed a self-paced lesson for 2nd graders to learn or brush up on money skills. Following the lessons there are mini quizzes that assess what they have just seen. After all of the lessons are complete, there is a larger quiz to check the understanding of the students. The quiz features a printable page that students would print and turn into the teacher. It could easily be seen how well students did, what items needed re-teaching, and what items students have shown mastery with.
In the spring of 2011, my Kindergarten class began learning about insects. The unit turned out to be very exciting and engaging for my class. At the end of the unit I decided to try using a student response system to check their understanding of basic facts about insects. This was a new technology for both my students and me, so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I was able to assign names to each clicker number, so when I passed out the clickers I had to be sure that each student received the correct clicker. The program that I used allows me to look at how each student did on each question or to look at just the overall results. The results show that my students overall did very well with facts about insects.
B. Assessment of Technology
In March of 2012, my Kindergarten class did a STEMish type project. I want to use STEM loosely, because we didn’t attempt to solve any real-world problems, our objective was to catch a Leprechaun. The STEM part of it was evident in our process rather than the reality of the project. After reading a variety of books about Leprechauns, my class had learned that they love gold, they eat dandelion greens, and typically wear green. As a class, we brainstormed materials in the classroom that could be useful to make a trap. Students also discussed how the materials could be used. The next step was to create collaborative groups. For this, I allowed the students to create groups of 4 independently (I typically choose pairs and groups, so this was BIG). After groups were created, the students spent time discussing their ideas with their group. They had to take turns listening to each other and compromising in order to move on to the next step. Next, each group was given large paper in order to draw their plans. It was evident that each group had their own ideas of what would work best. I enjoyed listening to their collaboration and watching their ideas start to take shape on paper.
In the afternoon, we began the next phase- building! This was one of the most exciting steps. Many groups were able to us classroom materials to build according to their drawn plan. We left the ‘traps’ set up over night to see if we could catch any of those tricky little people. Secretly I had printed little leprechaun images and placed them in the traps after the students left. I figured they would have called my bluff, but one student declared “They left pictures of themselves, very tricky!” The project was a success- our class invited other classes in to see our projects. My students took time to explain their work to the other classes.
After all of our work was complete, it was time to head to the computer lab. I uploaded photos from the project and a Power Point template into my ‘Hand-Out’ folder on our school computers. We reviewed and discussed the different steps that we took throughout the project. I walked the students through accessing the photos for their group and how to drag it onto the Power Point slide. They did a great job! I was impressed that my Kindergarten students were able to create a Power Point- I think the Tech teacher was even impressed with their work. After printing their Power Point projects, we completed a writing piece.
NEW
*NEW*
One major goal of Kindergarten use of technology is to learn how to log-in to their school account independently. Being the classroom teacher, helping the students learn their log-in information was not my primary job, but I felt it was important to support our technologies teachers with this goal.
I took 3 observational data points on this in December, March, and May of the 2011-2012 school year. For students who were still having difficulty with logging- in on their own, I provided time for them in the classroom to practice. Although it is difficult for the students that hardly know their letters or numbers to learn their log-in credentials, with enough practice, all of my students were able to at least log-in using their information cards (which is a big success).