Spring+of+2013+Discussion+Page

__Bethany - Online Facilitation Discussion 1__
In the article, "Learning and Transfer" the author says there are two types of learning tendencies. Performance oriented or learning oriented. "Students who are learning oriented like new challenges; those who are performance oriented are more worried about making errors than about learning". What does your students' learning tendencies look like? Are they more performance oriented or learning oriented? What can we do, as teachers, to help the performance oriented students with the fear of making mistakes? What learning tendency do you lean more toward?

My classes are very opposite. Most of my classes are learning oriented. They are willing to try new things and possibly fail. These students know that they are not going to fail the activity or assignment if they do not complete it correctly AS LONG AS they realize what did not work. I often times allow students that took a different approach to do alternative assignments. The students that take a step outside of the box usually get graded differently for that. However, most of my advanced students are more performance oriented. If I show/teach them a technique, they want to model exactly what I did. What I do to help performance-oriented students step out of their comfort zones is to use specific questioning. I question them to the point that they can see a difference in completing the task. I often give more praise to the student that is learning oriented. Once other students see that not all projects are the same, often times others are more willing to try different techniques to achieve the end result. As for what one do I lean toward, probably learning oriented. However, this results me putting my foot in my mouth more often than not. **- Greg**

I would say that most of my students come to 5th grade performance oriented. My students seem very eager to please and want to do everything correct. At that age, most students will still seem very upset if they do poorly on a test. Throughout the year, I try to help my students become more learning oriented. I will encourage my students to learn from their mistakes and also really play up the motto, mistakes are appreciated. I give students a lot of praise for coming up with new strategies for solving problems. I think the math program we currently use in CASD, Investigations, really starts to force students to become more learning based. I foresee that as the years go by, more and more students will come to 5th grade with this mindset instead of performance focused. **-Chad**

With the 350 kids I see throughout a 6-day cycle I would say a lot of my students are more learning oriented while a few of them are performance oriented. Many of my students understand that they can make mistakes with the new challenges they face and will not be penalized. While a few of my students still worry very much about failing or not getting perfect scores. I try to remind my students that many times we learn through our mistakes and it is ok to make mistakes. I think by teaching students to be more learning oriented we will help them be more successful in life. Life is all about learning from your mistakes so lets teach them early!
 * - Morgan**


 * __Greg - Online Facilitation Discussion__**

I often have times giving homework. When I give homework I probably get about 50% back. Because we run a six-day cycle, I only see my students once every three days and fifteen times in a nine weeks. Therefore I don’t see my homework being effective. I read an article (I will post next week) that sometimes homework isn’t always as effective as you think it is. The teacher gives the homework but never checks it. But instead the teacher will give a small quiz on the homework. If the student gets the concept, why waste their time on homework. And for the student that needs work, they can do the homework and do well on the quiz. They will do well because the quiz is random homework questions. This method holds the student more accountable for their work. Also, in talking to some of my colleagues, we see that some students are not able to get help from parents. Students in sixth grade might have to get home, pick up little brother, make them supper, and get them ready for bed all before moms home from work and dads home from the bar. What are your feelings and methods of homework? Do you provide it? Do you grade it? Is it worth your time and their time? Does it play a big roll in your grading?

Like Greg said, I do not see the students enough to give homework. Many times if students have homework in my class they will either forget to do it or forget to bring it all together. The only time I really give homework and is when the students don't complete something in class. They must then complete the work at home and bring it back to be graded. Although, I do like the idea of giving homework and not grading it, but using it as tool to help with quizzes. This helps student take responsibility in making sure they understand the material and if not they should do their homework. The students have a lot on their plate now of days and I think unless it is crucial for their learning homework is not really necessary. **- Morgan**

I really like this subject of homework, because it has been something on my mind lately. I do give homework to my kindergarten students. At the beginning of the year, I do not give homework. They are learning so much and they are overwhelmed with an 8 hour day at school, so no homework at the beginning. After a month or two, I start giving homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Eventually it will become everyday except Fridays. I would say 90% of my students bring in their homework. There are a couple that tend to forget. When I first started teaching, this drove me crazy because I didn't understand why they never brought in their work. But, I have learned that students have a lot going on at home. Sometimes they are just surviving. It is hard to think that a five year old is surviving on their own and then I think, "Who cares about homework". I have started to give the students their homework during their morning work. That way they can have some reinforcement of my teaching and also some reinforcement for rewards. I give them a small reward and they love it. I must admit, I usually grade their homework by looking at it quickly and making sure their answers are correct, then give them their small reward. If they are not correct, I will usually walk through it with them. I do not usually give it back, it just starts piling up in their folders. It definitely does not play a big role in their grading and I still have not decided if it is worth my time. I think I get frustrated when I notice parents doing the students' homework. This is SO frustrating to me. What are you teaching your child if you do their work? The article really hits on this subject about parents doing homework. I thought it was an interesting idea. Asking two questions and then grading according to their responses. I wonder what this would look like in kindergarten. I kind of like the idea of asking two questions from my lesson the day before and grading if they "got it" or "they need it re-vamped". Very interesting article, Greg :) **~Bethany~**

I usually give homework about three times a week. I find that about 90% of my students get the homework done every day and about 10% are off and on. There are some students (about 5%) that hardly ever get their homework done due to the same reasons Bethany gave in her response. Some students have so much going on at home or their parents don't participate in their academic life at all. I do not grade homework but students are responsible for understanding the material when I do go over it in class. I use the power teaching view of homework, where the teacher will give team bonus points if everyone on their team gets their homework done. Bonus points can really come in handy at the end of the power teaching cycle. I have found that peer pressure can really help motivate students into getting their homework done. I have seen a huge increase in homework participation with the power teaching approach. I also feel that homework is important at the 5th grade level because I need to prepare my students for what might come in future years. It's hard to say how much homework they will get at the middle school and I want to get them in the swing of doing extra academic work outside of school. **-Chad** __**Class search and share on Assessment Articles 4/4/2013**__

<--- Let me know if you cant get this hope it works, Gregmedia type="custom" key="22645924"

__**Video share (Chad) / facilitation discussion**__ This video was found on the Ted Talk website. It is a very inspiring story. I think this is such an interesting way to assess a student's understanding of so many important real world concepts! The explanation of the game is a few minutes into the talk. Also, I found an interesting blog note from someone who got to meet these students outside of school. This game is really fascinating! Here is the blog quote:

// "Last April, Hunter and his fourth-grade World Peace Game delegates were invited to the Pentagon, where there were empowered to interact firsthand with policymakers and top officials, including Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. At the time, I was serving as writer and communications strategist for the Office of the Under Secretary for Policy, and although this event was closed to outside media, I covered the daylong interactions to write several backstories for our Policy e-zine. //

// It was clear that before they arrived at Pentagon, these students had thoroughly researched global economic, social, and military hotspots, and developed serious, substantive questions in advance. And during their interactions with Pentagon insiders, these emboldened youngsters asked probing questions of top brass, tugged at the heartstrings of senior policymakers, and impressed everyone they met along the way. Unfettered by constrained hierarchical structures and protocol parameters, they actually challenged policymakers to think differently about innovative ways we might accomplish our goals. //

// Many thanks to Hunter and his World Peace Game delegates for lessons learned" // I always find it very interesting when teachers do projects that incorporate real-world scenarios. Towards the end of the year, I like to do these sorts of projects with my 5th grade students. Nothing as elaborate as what Mr. Hunter is doing, but class projects/discussions that take about one class period. I recently did a cost analysis with my students to decide whether it was a good investment to put toys in cereal boxes or not. I loved how I was able to discuss so many of the concepts we learned in class this year, such as averaging and probability. I also loved how I was able to incorporate real business terms and examples. I felt that even though this was a little over their heads, they were motivated by the discussion and left the class with a better understanding of how some businesses try to increase their sales. Do any of you have any examples of past teachers that did a project like Mr. Hunter does that really motivated you? Can you think of any other examples of projects like this that you have seen in the past or have done personally? **- Chad**

I thought this video was very inspirational. You can tell Mr. Hunter is an amazing teacher as well as a person. He really understands the important things in life and what important ideas we should be teaching children. I found his World Peace Game to be an amazing tool to teach a variety of concepts as well as life long skills. You can tell the students absolutely love playing the game and interacting with each other to reach common goals. I wish as educators we had the freedom to teach what we wanted and how we wanted to get the information across. I feel I do have some flexibility but I still need to follow the standards and curriculum set. Although, through my subject of Health Education I think I can relate a little to his teaching styles. My subject area is all about teaching life long skills and concepts so I do believe I have a little more freedom compared to the common core subject areas. Many times I use games or scenarios to work out problems in class so students can understand the importance of them. At the middle school level most students love to interact with each other and this is a great way to teach a variety of concepts. I think we can learn a lot from Mr. Hunter and his teaching style as well as his view on life. Thanks for the video Chad, good stuff! **- Morgan**

Wow...very thought provoking video, Chad :) I found Mr. Hunter to be very eccentric in his thinking. I am amazed at the World Peace Game and the challenges it provides to the students. As always, I am wondering what this could possibly look like in kindergarten? I think it would be really neat to challenge them with character traits. Why do we need to be responsible? What happens if we are not responsible? I know it is not as deep, but it could get very thought-provoking. I also connected it to the article we read "Assessing What Matters". Challenging the students with real-life scenarios and their ethics. (That was one of my favorite articles we read). I also really loved Mr. Hunter saying he saw his teachers in himself. He heard their voices, their gestures, even their looks :) I find this challenging, as well. What are my students seeing in me and my teaching to take and teach others? Thanks for the video, Chad :) **~Bethany~**

__**Morgan - Online Facilitation Discussion**__

The article I read was about grading and averaging grades. I have found this topic very interesting since our first class discussion as well as from reading many of the assigned articles. I do agree that averaging grades is not a very accurate description of how are students are actually performing in our class. There are many factors that go into specific tests or project’s grades that we do not see. Life events, test environment, and test content are different factors that can affect a student’s grade. Since reading many of these articles I have changed the way I currently grade. I am now looking at the student themselves and their progress in my class. I am giving grades on effort given throughout project rather than what is handed in at the end. I am also giving students partial credit for larger grades when I see them complete some of the work but they did not turn in anything on the due date. It really has stuck to me when we discussed the 100-point scale and how much a student is punished for getting a “0”. I agree that this is a not a fair description of a students performance. Is grading this way better than using averages? What happens if a student, parent, or administrator asks to see your grade book? What if you don’t have evidence of what you saw your students complete? How can you justify your grading methods?

I think that grades are a very difficult task in teaching. How can I make it fair to the student that does work but does not submit anything for grading? I have put some effort into this in the past nine weeks. What I have been doing is giving each student a ten-point participation grade each day. I let them know early if they are not prepared and not participating in class they will not receive all the points. I also made it very clear that if they are creating such a disruption that they are preventing others from learning they will not receive all the points. How can I prove that they are not participating or creating such a disruption? At the beginning of class I have them hold up that material that they need for class. If they do not have it I put a “NP” by their name for not prepared. This indicates that they only receive seven of the ten points. For the major class disruptions I tell them that they are going to lose points and I mark down the behavior and date. This lets parents and me know exactly what the student’s actions and trends are. This method allows students that do not turn in an assignment to keep their grade up as long as they are participating in class. As I was turning in my grades this past marking period, I noticed that the scores that they all earned were well deserved. Even some of the students that did not submit work and showed me in class that they new the material were able to get a grade that they would have earned. - Greg



This article did a great job of explaining why it is so important to change the way we have been grading in the past. From this class and articles like this, I'm very excited to go to a standards based report card. It will give students an honest look of how they are actually doing in class and what exactly they have mastered. Students and parents will get appropriate feedback! Sure it looks great do get straight A's, but that letter grade simply does not give the details behind that A. Students that get a D or F have still mastered something! I think we are really headed in the right direction for the future of education by going to standards based report cards! **- Chad**

I really liked how this article put averaging grades into perspective. I had never thought about a student getting an F, F, A, A, and B and receiving a grade of D. I also really loved how the author of the article talks about a student who didn't know the information on the test, studying and received an "A" on the next test. Yet the grade does not justify his/her learning because of the previous poor grade. The article also talks about different things a student can be going through or changes in their routine and how that would affect their test score, as well. Although kindergarten is very different with grading, I agree with how the assessments/tests scores can change. I also think it is really unfair to average a grade and basically tell the student "it isn't worth working for because your grade is still going to be poor". This does not reward a student with a positive reinforcement. Great article, Morgan...definitely something to think about :)
 * ~Bethany~**

An interesting article I found online. I am still processing what I think of each myth. Sorry it is two pages :( Let me know what you guys think :)


 * ~Bethany~**

[|Five Assessment Myths and Their Consequences]

Interesting article Bethany! Thank you! I strongly agree with myth #1 and #5. For myth #1, the path to school improvement involves so much more than how schools do on standardized tests. I consider the best way to school improvement is attitude. I like to tell my students that, "attitude is everything." If faculty and students have the right mindset, they will be willing to do what it takes to improve the school on multiple facets. For myth #5, many students can be motivated by grades and tests, but not every student will be. Some students are simply not motivated by how well they do on tests. For whatever reason, they don't feel that it is important to get good grades. Teachers need to find other ways to motivate these types of students. These types of students probably have the highest dropout rate when they get to high school. **-Chad**

I really thought this was a good article regarding myths of assessments. Like Chad stated, I also agreed with myth one and five. I think these myths really represent people’s ideas of assessment in schools. I also thought myth two was very interesting. I feel many times schools and community do not know how to use the data from standardized assessment to improve future education. Also, like the article said there are many negative impacts from poor test scores. I think as a district we need to look at these scores and really develop some plans for improvement or at least include the educators more in this process.
 * - Morgan**