Assessments

Reflection:
Where to begin...I can honestly say I enjoyed making the Student Learning Map. I found it easier to generate the lesson essential questions than the actual overarching unit question. As for the assessments, I think I prefer making alternative forms of assessments. For my SLM my alternate assessment allowed students to expand on their ideas in a blog. The short story I chose for my students to read was, "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe. The blog was used an an alternate assessment of this story short because it enabled students to discover and evaluate what they found in Poe's text. Their blogs focused on the language, structure, setting, and message of the short story. So, students would be able to express their findings in their blogs (which would identify to me what they learned from the unit), but also they could be creative by adding pictures and videos. Creating the rubric for the alternative assessment was not as hard as I thought it was going to be actually. I think this is because I have had prior experience making a rubric for my group teach in Teaching Adolescent Literature. I remember working alongside Nicole, Travis, Bethany, and Arlen designing a rubric. All of us struggled, but with the guidance of Dr. Shannon we were able to make a pretty great rubric in the end. In addition, my objective assessment for my SLM was complied of multiple choice, true or false, and short answers. It was difficult to make multiple choice questions to address the questions I wanted the students to be able to answer at the end of the lesson. This is where I found making the alternate assessment easier to design. In the end, I am not exactly sure if my objective test is the best measurement of student knowledge...well at least for my short story unit, it was not.

Questioning Assessments:
I once had this amazing professor that challenged me to think about assessments in a different way. For example, she asked my class, "Why do students need a grade to determine what they learned?" I'll admit, I struggle with this as well. Shouldn't a student know if they learned something valuable? It is frustrating that teachers determine what students "value" with an objective assessment. Really? Come on, really? Objective tests do not measure what students value. They may measure the background knowledge a student  learned from reading. But, it does not challenge them to critically evaluate the themes and apply the skills they have learned. I hope teachers continue to design alternate assessments which give students choices and freedom of creativity. When assessments become fun and educational, I will no longer question them. :)

Future:
For my future classroom, if I had to design some objective tests to see whether students are reading the material, I will include an alternate blank next to the multiple choice questions. The blank would serve as a space for students to tell me what they do know, if they do not directly know the correct answer of the multiple choice. I am certain that I am a very forgiving teacher and will give students partial credit for their attempts of showing me what they have learned. I will encourage my students to show me what they absorbed from their reading. By accessing prior knowledge of the reading, I hope to help students answer our lesson essential questions with my guidance. Just because they do not know the correct answer on an assessment does not mean they cannot convey that they learned. For example, students may know how Poe uses descriptive language in his short story, but may have trouble explaining how this relates to other forms of Gothic literature. Along with creating alternate assessments, I will strive to provide my students with a comfortable classroom environment. When a teacher provides students with a comfortable learning environment, students tend to have more confidence in their work. Therefore, they are more willing to discuss instead of being afraid they are wrong.




Basically, as a teacher, I want to learn more about my students and not what their brains can memorize.

Playing Ping Pong with a Student in China

This is why I enjoyed coming to class!

Readicide

“Overemphasis on testing is playing a major part in killing off readers in America’s classrooms” (7).

I wanted to begin my blog post with a reflection of one of the first quotes in Readicide. We are overemphasizing the importance of student performance on exams. But, why does the test determine how smart someone is? I can completely relate to this issue. As mentioned I’m a math minor, and being a math minor I still do not score as well as I’d like on exams. This does not though determine how much I have learned from the class. Actually, I think I tend to score worse in math than I do in English because I have a lot of pressure on myself to do well in math. There is either a right or wrong answer, where as in English it is more about your argument for your logic.

I agree with Gallagher when she said, “Authentic interest is generated when students are given the opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea” (10). If we can provide students with the opportunity to stumble upon literature they like, then we will be able to teach with an authentic interest. One way I plan to generate authentic interest in my students is by giving them options to the literature. For example, literature circles are one way to give students options. I observed several classes at Mechanicsburg Middle School like this. The teacher gave the students the option of which book they wanted to read, but all of the focuses centered around culturally diverse literature. Some of the books were focused towards boys too, which would help to create authentic interest. I found that the students were very intrigued with the books they were reading and I was able to listen to some of their "findings" in each group.

Next, I wanted to mention the Michael Phelps anecdote. (Side note- I was surprised to find his name in this book haha). It said, "We put [students] in the 'race' (in this case, high-stakes tests) and ask them to perform well. However, there is a big problem: these student have not been in the 'pool' very much" (30). I believe this statement. Students are pushed to train for these high-stake tests, but because of the pressure many of them are still lacking development. Also, when asked any other information it seems they do not know anything about it. I think if students can discover things through our guidance as teachers they can teach themselves something on their own. Then with our help, students will be able to construct answer to difficult problems they encounter even if we have no specifically showed them the circumstance. 

Lastly, Gallagher says "it always amazes (and depresses) me that grown, educated adults can sit in a room and argue endlessly over whether a student's pants are too baggy or whether a student should be marked tardy if he or she is not yet seated when the bell rings"(31). After reading this quote I felt the same way. I can't believe teachers are arguing at faulty meeting about such small details. Why aren't they discussing the more important topics? To answer this I'd say...maybe sometimes teachers lose their direction. They forget why they began a teacher and need reminded. This is one reason student teachers are a good thing. They are fresh students straight from college with the desire that some teachers lose over years of teaching. Honestly, teachers should be embarrassed to fight about dress code for an entire faculty meeting...especially if student teachers are observing. I would like to attend a faculty meeting in the future and report my findings on my blog to see how they compare to what Gallagher said about them.

            

Introduction

Hello Everyone,

My name is Heather. I am a Secondary English Education Major with a Mathematics Minor. I wanted to introduce myself a little bit to you before I do my blog post. In my free time, I enjoy playing sports. I have played softball and volleyball. (If anyone is every getting a game of volleyball together, I am game). I decided to become a teacher when I was very young. Teachers help other people learn and strive to do their best and that is what I want to do. English is one of my favorite subjects. It is not just because I like to read and write, but also because I really enjoy the critical thinking aspect of the subject. So, you are probably wondering why I have a math minor. I wanted to become a math teacher when I started college. I decided to become an English though because, like I said, English is one of my favorite subjects. I have more strengthens in English than I do math, so I wanted to pursue this. I have a math minor in hopes I can pass the math PRAXIS and teach some middle school math class along with English.

Fast pitch softball

First Place slow pitch tournament

In other news, I am getting married after graduation ! I have been dating my fiance for 7 years now...since I was in 10th grade :) Then I will officially move to Shippensburg after we get married. :)

 One of our Save the Dates tells our story

Students visiting me on the last day of the Summer Camp

Shirts signed by the students and teachers

Lastly, I went to China for an internship this summer. It was a great experience. I taught English as a second language to Chinese students at the elementary and high school level. I highly recommend teaching aboard. The student truly appreciate foreign teachers (especially Americans). I want to use my experience in China as an advantage going into student teaching. I learned a lot about classroom management, planning lessons, and what students are interested in. If you have any questions I am happy to tell you how my experience went. Nice to meet everyone...I am looking forward to this class!

One of my 4 classes

:)