Chapter 1: Setting objectives or goals...this is done daily within the classroom. It is recommended that goals are flexible, that students have a say in the goals, goals should be communicated, and a contract with students might be a possibility. I think using the KWL chart to help students set goals is ideal. It lends itself to making connections, builds on background knowledge, tracks what students know, what they want to learn, and what they ultimately do learn. Having step-by-step directions from our book study on how to create the KWL chart makes this teacher friendly. Inspiration is another great tool which is at our fingertips. I think we sometimes forget about it, but it could actually be used for many lessons including goal setting. I like the use of surveys too; what an easy tool. I can see taking a class to the computer lab to take a survey about objectives/goals or using it as a pre-assessment. I used Survey Monkey for our school staff song; it is free and very user friendly. I think students would enjoy using it too. This chapter has so much useful information; I have to comment on the blog and rubric sections of the chapter as well. These tie in directly with our Building Improvement Plan and Professional Development Plan.
Chapter 2: Providing Feedback...is "the most powerful single innovation that enhances achievement." I believe feedback is critical and that it needs to be timely. I love the Microsoft Word tools, the readability scale and insert comments features, for feedback. I think students could use the comments feature to peer-edit documents that are saved on the G drive. Another item that we already have is clickers which allows for 100% student engagement. I have seen great instructional and assessment lessons in our building using the clickers!
In chapter 1 there were many resources which makes it user friendly. I have personally used Rubistar and Survey Monkey in the past.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 2, I liked the Microsoft word Readability Statistics. I think this would be a good way to track student progress in writing because it gives the number of words, paragraphs, and sentences. It also tells the grade level it is written on. Student work samples could be compared for growth in writing.
I never thought of using an electronic KWHL chart and emailing it to parents. That would make the students accountable! We could use inspiration on the smartboard and set goals as a class. I've used Rubistar but would like to check out other sites too. I did have a question. I understood that emailing students was not allowed. Is that right? If not I would still be worried about it.
ReplyDeleteI need to do something with the clickers. I have a review coming up. That would be a good time for me to at least try it out. It would sure let them know what they knew and what they didn't. I looked up some of the blogs, but they were dated. I thougt the idea of IMing a government staff member would be great. What a great idea.
Chapter 1: I have used Survey Monkey before with parents, but hadn't thought of using it for my classes. I also have set up a blog and am going to attempt to use it for my current events this year, we will see how that works.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2: I was completely unaware of the microsoft editing tools, this is definitly something I will use in the future, what a cool idea. I also like the idea of using clickers. I have already thought of a "game" I want to play using them. I am also going to look into BrainPOP and BBC Skillswise. I am always looking for new ways to teach a lesson.
Chapter 1: I have used Rubistar before, but I am interested in trying out some of the websites listed in the book. I would also like to work on making the music blog more student-interactive...maybe posting challenge questions, interesting music websites, or assignments up on the blog for students to check out.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2: I visited www.iknowthat.com and it has a very cool "music-maker". Students can compose music and play it back with all kinds of instruments. It also has some noteworthy classical pieces already programmed in so students can listen. Students can also save and print their work on the site.
Chapter 1: I like the idea of using KWHL charts, especially for units that pervious students had difficulty with. I liked the resources for rubrics that are already created. This is helpful for someone technologically challenged like me. Steve questioned the use of emails with students...I am not comfortable with this. I do like sending electronic newsletters and other pertinent information through email as we are already doing.
ReplyDeleteChp.2: Yes, I agree with the quick feedback. We learn from our mistakes! I like the use of the clickers in the classroom. I plan on using clickers on math vocabulary quizzes that go along with my math content related word wall. The math websites listed in this chapter have provided me with additional resources that I can utilize in my classroom. This book study has been very resourceful for me in the fact that it has information that directly pertains to my content area and beyond.
In chapter one I was very excited to learn about the KWHL along with the survey monkey and other survey websites. I think these will be great tools to use for pre assesment for our units. It will help give me a good idea of how much the students know about a sport or recreation activity. They will also be very useful in nutrition, muscles and bones.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2: I like the idea of clickers and would really like to try them out in our nutrition unit. I think it would be a great learning tool when it comes to the many different aspect of nutrition. I also like how the chapter discussed student feedback. I liked the four generalizatons it listed and made me think of how I can use feedback in a more productive matter.
I really enjoyed the ideas and information presented in these two chapters. I know we have had access, or currently have access, to many of these resources, but sometimes it is difficult to find time to come up with ways to use them. These chapters gave specific examples to try and how to find them in their respective places.
ReplyDeleteI also thought about our use of the clickers as I read Ch.2. Our students definitely respond to immediate feedback and they enjoy the use of any type of technology.
Overall, I found these two chapters very useful and full of content I can use. I am glad that I have heard of most of the resources mentioned, as that makes them easier to use without having to learn something for the first time! :)
Chapter 1: I liked the ideas in this chapter - lots of underlining. The KWHL charts electronically are a great idea. I have used them on paper often - but electronically engages students and allows them to be emailed home. Great idea. Using web rubrics is also a great resource to us. It is good to have somewhere you can go to for help. I love the idea of emailing the newsletters. I hope we can do that next year. If we kept the same schedule, parents would get an email newsletter every 2 weeks. We don't want to send them so much that they don't read in the information!
ReplyDeleteChapter 2: Feedback. I feel that I constantly give feedback. It is much easier to do with smaller classes. I need to work with my students to have them give their own feedback. This is much more difficult. I liked many of the ideas. I have used the readability scales and word counts for my own use, but never thought about it encouraging students to increase their own levels of writing. I have several websites highlighted that I want to try with students. I wasn't excited about the teacher emailing parents on the long weekend with compositions for students to correct and return. I want parents to be 'in the loop' and feedback to be given quickly - but we still all need a break some times - teachers, parents, and students.
I really like the way Chapter one gave specific how to instructions. They are very helpful to those of us who are technically challenged. I don't have the time or the patience to attempt such programs on my own. Chapter Two addresses important points about feedback. I often get caught up in teaching objectives and getting assignments graded. I forget that there is more to feedback than students receiving a letter grade. Feedback can be an important component of instruction. Chapter Two shows many practical ways to accomplish feedback effectively.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how valuable to me it is to hear what everyone has to say about these chapters--very valuable in my new capacity next year!
ReplyDeleteOne of the tools I in which I was most interested from Chapter 1 is wikis. I think that this would be a great tool not only for students but for teachers to build banks of content that can be used across a grade level in a particular subject. There are so many tools out that that teachers can share and I think this would be a great way to store and and discuss them.
The discussion of email in Chapter 2 was interesting to me because I feel like this is still a big weakness in our district. I think that it is so important that we begin to teach kids how to responsibly handle this tool so that they have the ability to manipulate and move data to others.
I like how this book gives examples and resources to various activities and sites. We have used several of the rubric sites to help us with our team activity assignments. I'm anxious to try out some of the web games for CA. I have created a lesson for the clickers. I just need to work it into my schedule and hope that my smart board is working on that day.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that this book has a lot a great information in it. I do have concerns on time and the availability of the computer lab.
I have used KWL charts before in my class and it does show what they already know and what they think about the topic. It is always interesting to see where they are coming from and the background knowledge that they have.
ReplyDeleteInspiration is also a great tool to help students organize their ideas. I have used it in class and for myself when trying to do presentations. I really like how you can teach the students how to personalize it and also attach connections with it in regards to.
The surveys I have not thought about using in class. I have tought about using this as staff resources on Professional Developement. It is short and easy to read.
Blogs are becoming something that I would like to use in my rooster reading class. I think that the students would like to comment through blogs instead of just doing a written summary. They could express feelings, share ideas, and answer questions about the books read.
I think that it is also important to give students a scoring guide to let them know what is expected. We all get a heads up of what is being expected before we dive into our work.
I also think that it is very important to give instant feedback to students. I have noticed this year that the students haven't been doing as well in my class since I haven't given back the things we have went over in class as fast. I will be interested to see how well they do this quarter compared to last. The clickers are a great way for them to see this and it takes minimal time for me to grade their work. The time is spent on making the questions. This is a one time thing unless you need to revise after a post test.
I enjoyed the user friendly way this book presents the material. I was familiar with many of the sites that they were using throughout these sections. The clickers are something that I am tackling this next week and am anxious to use them as a pre-assessment and a post-assessment for my new unit. I know the students will enjoy using them. I also plan on using inspiration (which I just learned about a couple months ago) as a prior knowledge tool on the same unit. The only difficulty I can see in this is the use of the computer lab. For instance, I have it scheduled for this Thursday and cannot use it at this time. It is getting booked to the point that it is hard to find a place to stick it in.
ReplyDeleteChapt 1: I was somewhat proud of myself and my team because a lot of the tools mentioned in this chapter we have been implementing already. I also like the way the chapter was laid out. It was user friendly and I liked that it had the web sites available to check them out. It was also cool that they gave examples of why or why not some sites were better then others.
ReplyDeleteChapter. 2 I think that for my subject, the best source of feed back from students to teacher, would be through the blog sites. But my favorite thing that I read was the BrainPOP.com and BBS Skillswise I think that this might be fun to link to the blog and ask the students for imput. BrainPop just has a catchy name that would excite the kids and then to get to watch a video to review might be more engaging to the students. When you see over 200 students, personal contact between the students would be really nice. I feel like I hardly know my fifth graders, and to get the opportunity to read their thoughts and comprehension on the topics we cover in class would be really nice. This chapter made me think of ways to connect with my students in new ways.
I liked the idea of the KWHL chart. It's great to make the kids accountable for their learning by asking them to explain how they'd like to acquire knowledge. This year I'm having my students set personal reading goals each quarter and sign contracts with me. I must say, I was a little discouraged when the end of first quarter rolled around and probably one-fourth of my students had not met their goals. On the other hand, when we set new goals for second quarter, many students commented that they realized they needed to work harder this quarter so they would meet their goals.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of our new clickers! I've used them many times already, and I love how much time it saves me on grading. The fact that students get immediate feedback is a definite bonus. It also makes the usual assignments automatically more exciting. It's like I'm tricking them into thinking...
In the Introduction I learned quite a bit about how to catagorize the types of applications. This will help me understand which applications I can pull for certain operations.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 1 the idea of using the KWHL template appealed to me. The way it utilizes the graphic organizer I always use will lend continuity across the core area teaching.
In Chapter 2, I thought I might use the 'clickers' to help implement the formative feedback on a previous day's note taking or whatnot.
I find that the idea of Blogging may be another way that feedback of all kinds can be implemented and utilized. I will start looking for training oportunities that will help me make this happen.
From the introduction of Using Technology, we were able to access Witchita School District for Map Practice in math. Technology definitely impacts student learning. It makes them definitely excited learners. I have adopted for my math pull out group the four questions from page 10. The questions are: What will students learn? Which strategies provide evidence of student learning? Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning? Which strategies wil help students practice, review, and apply learning?
ReplyDeleteFrom chp. 1, the idea of using web resources to set objectives appealed to me. I am currently using Witchita Smart Board Math Activities for my math pull out group. We have completed their measurement conversions.
In Chp. 2, I was reminded about the importance of timely feedback. I will use the clickers we have to create a test with immediate feedback.
Creating this Blog gives ideas of how the students can summarize material we are studying.
I also am able to use e-mail for parents and students to get immediate feedback. This would be a great addition for our math club.
Chapter 1: I have used inspiration at my previous job for word webs and such for writing projects. I have participated with Survey Monkey, but would love to give the kids a reading interest inventory with that. I am looking forward to creating my own blog for rooster reading.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2: Giving Feedback is so important and to fifth graders (and parents) they want to know as soon as possible. With the eInstruction clickers, the possibilities are endless and the feedback is AWESOME. I would eventually love to make homework multiple choice too, so they can get that back as quickly without us having to take class time to grade it for immediate feedback. I also think that blogs would support immediate feedback at a much higher level and help with those constructed response and developing the students ability to apply their knowledge.
I thought that the chapters were very informative. They offered such an array of techonologies that can be utilized in setting objectives and providing feedback. I especially liked the examples and step-by-step directions that were given. I often found myself stopping midway to look at some of the websites and I have made a mental note of a couple that I would like to use with my curriculum.
ReplyDeleteCh. 1
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of using Kid/Inspiartion for the KWHL chart. The organization leads to more brainstorming. I also had never thought of using a survey website to create a pre-assessment. The book gave some very helpful websites to use.
Regarding the rubric websites, I have been familiah and have made use of RubiStar for quite a few years. It is sometimes a bit cumbersome, but once rubrics are created, they can be saved and edited.
Ch. 2
Who would have thought that we could check readability with Word? Pretty neat. Once again Brain Pop was mentioned as a great resouce. Hopefully funds can be found to subsrcibe to make this available for use.
Ch. 1
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using KWHL in my classroom bc talking about ancient civilizations isn't the easiest for my students to grasp. You could also maybe tie in Kagan structure with the KWHL and have partners or groups work together to create one and then transfer onto a poster. I have not used the Survey Monkey, but would like to use it in a lesson to get my students talking and having their own opinion. Steve, if you need help with the clickers, I can help ya buddy!
Ch. 2
I have been using the clickers once a week for my SS quizzes. It has been very helpful in that I can do a quick check of what questions were missed and talk about them immediately and make sure they understand what and why they missed the question. I agree with Megan on the students getting excited about using the clickers. Most times when a student hears the word test or quiz they get that test anxiety that every student seems to have now days. The clickers have a little bit of a calming effect on my students. So if you haven't used the clickers, you should jump in and try them, they are easy to use, except when the server is down.
Chapter 1 talks about setting objectives but i was more interested in the how to create a template and the site for creating a rubric. I know in my class we talk about goals/ objectives frequently (kind of have to) but when we have to address them my students have great difficulty in understanding what a goal or objective is and how to relate to it. They often see it as chore to do rather than something to achieve.
ReplyDeleteChapter 2 Feedback I really enjoye dthis chapter. it lead me to try some different things in class this year. Student have used word & excel to create charts and graphs to publish their Facts practice results. We've been developing our class blog. (have not posted anything yet) the students seem to be trilled.
Chp1. I liked that chapter one dealt with objectives with some of the things I use in my classroom. Like blogs for example in how you can use it for several different ways like the teacher who used it for differentiated learning. Which is somewhat the same but different in how I use my own classroom blog.
ReplyDeleteChp2. This one was good for me in that it allowed me to kind of think about how I can better get the info the kids need back to them. That way they know what they can do better and how they can do better.
I like the similarities and differences and will do the Smart Board Venn Diagram to compare Commutative Property and Associative Property.
ReplyDeleteDuring team time, we will do a Analogy of the Day Puzzle in Microsoft Word. I will also use Microsoft Word Boxes to reinforce my folables about Identity, Distributive, Associative, and Commutative Properties.
We will use the Internet for graphs and frequency tables and actually use Google. This will definitely help master Data Skills needed in math.
After Map Testing, we will do a research project on Famous Mathematicians. The students can do a power point, a regular report, or a movie. I loved the idea in Chp. 10