Santa Claus and Success Criteria

I’m sure you’ll agree that learning goals and success criteria are important tools to help students succeed.  I found the following assignment from Florida to be a misguided application of this principle.  Maybe innocent, childish things should be left alone and not be beaten with a high yield instructional tool!  Anyway, have a look.  It is both … Continue reading →

Eduspeak!

So, you finally have your head wrapped around assessment “for” “as” and “of” learning.  What about “chalk and talk”, “gallery walk” and “story seeds”?  Although this is an American publication, much of the lingo is transferable.  It seems somewhat counter-intuitive to bog things down with the latest jargon.  We always strive to make things clear for our students, … Continue reading →

Time for some fun….

I thought I’d post a few entertaining/enlightening you tube videos. The first features a clip from The Office as seen through the eyes of educational/parenting author Alfie Kohn.  For those of my die hard fans who read everything I post you will recognize him as the the author of The Case Against Grades. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59KY7ek8Rk The … Continue reading →

Redefining “Fair”

Despite twenty years of educational initiatives teachers continue to be resistant to change.  I find this interesting as a mid career teacher.  Why would I hold onto a grading/assessment philosophy that predates my entry into the profession?  Like any social engineering, I suppose, it is hard to legislate change.  People have to come to accept the new … Continue reading →

Redos and Retakes

Rick Womeli argues that allowing students to redo assignments and retake test will prepare them for adult life.  This is a difficult concept for most of us to get our heads around.  Womeli claims that denying students retakes and giving them a zero for missing a deadline does not teach them a lesson in responsibility … Continue reading →

One Stop Assessment Shop

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board has put together an excellent resource on assessment…I mean excellent!  When you’ve looked through as many assessment resources as I have lately, outstanding documents become pretty easy to spot. Some of the highlights of this Assessment Primer 2010-2011 include: a recap of Cooper’s Eight Big Ideas backwards design effective feedback creating rubrics … Continue reading →

Damian Cooper

If you remember way back to September’s PD session in the library, staff participated in an activity based on Damian Coopers “Eight Big Ideas”. In case you forget what they were, I’ve reproduced them below.  If you are interested in having a look at his book Talk About Assessment I have a copy you can borrow. The … Continue reading →

Teaching with Technology

Board Consultant Ken Whytock forwarded the following links to those of us involved in the grade nine digital learning project and futures forum.  Although the site uses a teaching English lens, the resources can be used with any discipline. http://tewt.org/?_tmc=TGXirizCd9TiZxnZjP4ue0ExHJYabU8NNvqRV51vgI0 http://tewt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/comics http://tewt.org/index.php/discussion-collaboration/blogs http://tewt.org/index.php/lessons-activities/commonly-taught-books   Continue reading →

Classroom Assessment: Minute by Minute, Day by Day

classroomassessment “Everything students do–such as conversing in groups, completing seatwork, answering and asking questions, working on projects, handing in homework assignments, even sitting silently and looking confused–is a potential source of information about what they do and do not understand. The teacher who consciously uses assessment to support learning takes in this information, analyzes it, … Continue reading →

Down by the Old Video Stream

As our C.O.W. population increases and our DVD players are decommissioned the move towards video streaming seems like a logical if inevitable step.  As always, make sure you preview any film before you show it to your class to avoid uncomfortable surprises.  The following sites offer free full length documentaries: Loads of reasonably current documentaries on a … Continue reading →