Madison's Blog

What part of planning is coming easy to you?  What part is not as intuitive for you?  Explain. So far with lesson planning, the easiest part has been considering entry tasks and closing tasks. I feel like I have learned about a lot of activities that would be good entry tasks or closing tasks in these classes. I also think that these are where I can get a bit creative and practice good CRP, which is something I am really passionate about. I think that actually creating the lesson part of lesson plans is what I enjoy doing and am having an easier time with, but forming the lessons to standards and explaining how each detail is differentiated instructions, passive engagement, etc are things that are not coming as easy to me. It will take some practice, but those are the more strict aspects of lesson planning that I am still learning. Another thing that is hard for me with these lesson plans is how long they take to complete. I am getting the hang of it though, and it is just t...

What are the pros and cons of the four different kinds of assessments in general? (For example, performance assessments can lead to poor data with a student with performance anxiety, just as a test can have the same impact for a student who struggles with test anxiety).   With the four types of assessment, each has their own pros and cons specific to students and the types of activities that you are teaching. Performance assessments are not great for knowledge mastery, but is great for reasoning proficiency, performance skills, and the ability to create products. Written response are good assessments for creating products, reasoning proficiency, and knowledge mastery, but not a great assessment for performance skills. Selected response assessments are good for knowledge mastery and reasoning proficiency, but are not great for assessing creating products or performance skills. Personal communication assessments can work for knowledge mastery, but will take time to use proper...

What part of deriving a learning target was challenging for you?  What connection does the learning target have with assessment? I thought that taking multiple parts of a standard and breaking it up into multiple learning targets was challenging. It is sometimes hard to not try and combine everything into one big lesson, but I know that it is important to slow everything down so that students gain a better understanding in the end. Learning targets are mainly for the benefit of the student, because when students understand what they are supposed to be learning and where their skills should be by the end of lesson, they are not "flying blind" in their steps in getting to the target. I think that the learning targets are what set students up for assessments, and allows students to understand what they will be assessed on no matter how the assessment is given. 

1.    On a personal level (for example, as a student - in my case, as a parent) how do you feel about standards? Throughout the years I have lots of contradicting opinions about education standards, and with just about everything in the world I believe there are both positives and negatives that go along with them. For the most part, I believe that especially in the education field we need standards to help guide educators and students in the right direction, but I also think that these standards should be a bit more fluid as time continues and as students change. I also do not think they should box in teachers, but regardless they are important in educating our students.  2.  As a future teacher, how do you view content learning standards? I think that content learning standards can be a great help for teachers because they outline what each grade level should be practicing throughout the year. I have looked fairly extensively at the CCSS for English Language...

1.  What do you know about yourself as a learner? I know that as a learner I enjoy structure and visual aids, and if information is scattered or all over the place that I am going to have a hard time collecting my thoughts for assignments.  2.  What has  impacted your life as a learner? When I was a kid I asked a lot of questions, to the point of being annoying. I have realized that as an adult I have an itch for learning, and this was why I did and always will constantly ask questions throughout my life.  3.  What score category did you get on your mindset quiz? My mindset quiz score was 26/30, which means I have a strong growth mindset. 4.  What is the connection between your mindset and your experience as a learner? It makes a lot of sense, because those that want to learn more often have an easier time learning because they enjoy it. I have almost always enjoyed school and learning new things, and will always want to learn more....

Throughout the entirety of this course, the text presentations and the content portfolio project were the most beneficial for me. I have struggled with finding resources for teaching methods in the past because up until this class I have only taken one education course. I thought that presenting in front of other classmates that are going into the education field as well taught me a lot as well. Presenting in a classroom environment where we were all struggling with applications and NES tests, we are in a more open environment than in most classrooms. It takes the pressure off of the public speaking, which I thought helped us as students learn more of the material that was shown. I also really enjoyed the content portfolio project, because I felt that looking back on my past experiences through an educational lens showed me how to be more intentional with every assignment I complete. I thought that the most important concept we learned about throughout this quarter was learning about h...