MET Project: Significance of one Occurence

The video I watched, ELA form One video 11562, focused on writing.  Currently, my students have a “Creative Writing” course to prepare them for FCAT writing. In this class, they are taught formulaic writing and rarely get through the full writing process. They write an essay, turn it in, and receive teacher feedback. Rarely do they go back and revise their work. Additionally, they jumped right in to the writing process, being expected to know how to write essays with very little explicit teaching. Consequently, our students are struggling with learning how to write. The video I watched was insightful because it presented a component missing from my students’ writing instruction, explicit instruction in analyzing the components of an essay.

In this video, all students have same essay and the teacher gives them key components of an essay they are focusing on. Students must find the hook, thesis, anecdotes, examples, transitions. Students must use highlighters to color code each component of the essay, for example all transitions in the essay must be highlighted in the same color. Once students have completed this activity they review it with the instructor, and analyze the accuracy of their highlighting and effectiveness of the author’s use of each component. For example, the teacher discusses with the students’ how well the writer infused a hook in the introduction. The teacher then gives the students pointers for writing their own hooks. They do this for the entire essay.

I think my students will benefit from doing this activity with different levels of text, a poorly written text, a mediocre, and an exemplar text. I think my students would understand what components they needed to include in their essay if they had ample practice in finding these components in other student’s work. Once students were accustomed to doing this accurately, then they would be adequately prepared to peer- edit.  Learning how to peer edit would facilitate the infusion of the writing process in class, ensuring students always received adequate feedback on all pieces of writing. Once students receive adequate feedback they would be able to revise and publish their drafts. This process would help them get closer to becoming proficient writers. 

MET Project: Significance of One Occurance

The MET Project video that I watched was of a 7th grade English Language Arts Class (Form ELA1).  The goal of this 65-minute class was pretty straightforward:  identify the choices and subsequent consequences of major characters in the independent reading novel.  

 

Students were placed in seven groups of four and were assigned a character from the novel.  Each group was then tasked with identifying two major choices their assigned character made as well as the consequences of each of those choices.  They were instructed to chart their findings in a graphic organizer.  After completing this task, the teacher then assigned each group member a number from one to four and divided the class into four groups of seven.  The new groups of seven were each instructed to share their initial group's findings on their assigned character while their new group members wrote down the information in their graphic organizers.  This ensured that each member of the class completed the graphic organizer for all seven characters within the class period.

 

I often employ the use of small groups to determine key ideas or details of a text, but I very much liked the approach of regrouping students at the end of the first task.  Normally, I have one member of each group share their findings with the entire class and allow time for whole class discussion of the finding of each group.  However, when students know that each of them will be responsible for verbally conveying information to others, it forces them to more actively participate in their initial group.  In addition, this strategy provides an opportunity for students to get up and move around during class, rather than remaining seated for the entire period.  I have found that although having students move during class may take up a few extra minutes of class time, movement tends to invigorate them and that can be valuable during sluggish periods (like first period).

MET Project; significance of one occurrence

I really enjoyed watching the practice lesson for the first MET project video. In the featured classroom, the teacher had arranged all of the students’ desks into groups of five or six to allow the students to work in teams. Each team had been previously assigned a book to read, most likely one of the books read by the entire class at some point earlier in the year. The teacher had placed a larger, hand-written chart over the whiteboard in the room with the title of each book at the top of a column and a different learning point or question on the very left-hand side of each of five or six rows. The students were responsible for working with their group members to determine both the “main theme” and the “critical event” of each novel. As the students worked in groups, the teacher walked around the room and made sure each group was selecting a “teacher” to present the group’s ideas at the end of the working time period. The teacher also stressed to the students that it was important for them to think about why their group had decided x or y was the main theme or critical event, and that it was necessary for them to use the word “because” and to reference specific instances form the specific text in their answers.

This type of exercise is significant for a few reasons. First, it allows the students to work together toward a common goal, a school-life and work-life skill that is valuable throughout the student’s life. Second, the students acquire critical reading skills by having to decipher what the main theme of the book was and what the critical event or events of the book were.  Third, the public speaking related aspect of this assignment is also something that promotes a school-life and work-life skill that will be valuable to the student when speaking to a crowd, whether it be ten or one hundred people. Finally, by filing out this type of chart, the students can gauge their own work level by comparing their answers to the answers of the other groups.

To note, I found it very interesting when the teacher spent the last ten minutes or so of class time working with one individual student. The teacher asked the student about her reading level, whether she found the book difficult or easy to read, and whether the student enjoyed the novel. The teacher also had the student identify who she believed the main character of the book was and why she thought that character was, in fact, the main character. He also asked the student to read fro the book aloud, most likely to ensure that the level of the book was appropriate for the student.  Assuming that the teacher rotates each class which student he sits with, I think this is a very effective way for the teacher to become more familiar with each individual as a student and also allows the student to present his or her current level of reading skill to the teacher in a one-on-one basis. This might make the student more comfortable and allow for him or her to perform better than if called on to speak in front of the entire class. 

Whitney Kouvaris

Unit Assessments, Chapter 4

Creating a final assessment for a unit plan allows the teacher to purposefully and meticulously design daily lessons that ultimately will lead students to mastery of a particular skill or benchmark. As Smagorinsky states, when teachers know where students are headed, they in turn have a better idea of how to teach them appropriately. Therefore, backwards planning inevitably will ensure that classrooms are flourishing with purposeful instruction and meaningful discourse. Furthermore, creating a final assessment for a unit plan allows the teacher to continue making thematic connections throughout the time of the unit, which will draw the students into various texts and discussions because the stories selected or material chosen for a particular lesson will be aligned to the overarching theme.

Scaffolding instruction, especially in my English classroom where the students’ reading levels fluctuate drastically and the needs for each student can vary greatly, allows students to master concepts at their level and show their mastery through daily exit slips and/or bi-weekly benchmark assessments. Smagorinsky also stresses the notion that creating a unit plan helps a teacher differentiate between what students learn and what the teacher should grade. Lastly, aligning the content one teaches to the unit plan’s final assessment forces the teacher to question what steps need to be taken in order to reach the final goal (mastery of the assessment). It allows the teacher to infuse a sense of purpose into the students. These students can then enter school everyday being cognizant of what the daily goals are, what the ultimate goal is for he/she individually, and understand that the instruction being given on that specific day is directly tied to the assessment that is crucial for their academic success in that area.

The portfolio assessment approach certainly fits my teaching style best. At Miami Edison Senior High School, we as a faculty have been trying to instill school pride because for many years our school has been frowned upon in Miami and in the Little Haiti community. Oftentimes, students are quick to want to transfer to another school because of the reputation Edison has academically and athletically. Portfolios will allow students to make mistakes or produce work that isn’t their best because ultimately the work that is placed into the portfolio is work that best represents the student’s ability. Learning from their errors is not only great for success in school but is also a life lesson that my students need. In addition, process portfolios encourage students to select pieces of work that demonstrate key learning experiences throughout the year. These key learning experiences don’t necessarily have to be the most polished piece of work but can show what a student has learned. This autonomy allows for the students to be comfortable with being uncomfortable: a skill that oftentimes is difficult for my students to grasp.

Using a portfolio as an assessment also instills a sense of accountability within the classroom from the beginning. Students know that if they do not save their work they may do poorly on the final evaluation. Instilling pride and accountability could be monumental at a school such as Edison and I am excited about implementing in the upcoming unit I will be creating.

          

           Creating a final assessment for a unit plan gives that unit more focus and alignment. Smagorinsky notes that class time becomes more purposeful and helpful to students as they work towards accomplishing the unit goals. As teachers create a final assessment, they become able to realize the various goals needed for students to learn, and through such discern what needs to be taught. Recognizing this helps to ensure students are able to best achieve throughout and at the end of the unit. Since each unit ideally ties together the overarching concept of entire year, students will theoretically be able to reflect on what they learn over the course of the units. A process portfolio seems to fit ideally within this model.

            At my school, we keep student work folders to maintain documentation of work graded with explicit and corrective feedback, that has been handed back to our students. After reading about the benefits of portfolios, I think I can modify the way in which we use these folders in my classroom. So frequently my students lack time to reflect on their learning, mainly because I do not provide it to them. Though I understand how necessary reflection is, I have often felt restricted by time and expectations placed on me from my administration and the pacing of the guided curriculum. Despite this, I would like to give my students more class time for these reflections as they can work to recognize what they learned from the products they created. Although we are already halfway through this year, I would like to place more of a focus on the process of reflection in my classroom. Despite not being explicitly told at the beginning of this year that they would produce a portfolio at the end of the year, I still believe that I can create time and space for my students to recognize the work they have already created. I now understand that I must give them time to engage with processes of re-writing their work as well.

            One way to figure out what works best for my students will be to create a teacher log to reflect on my instruction. Though with seven classes and almost 175 ninth graders I often feel overwhelmed and lack free or quiet time during the day, I would like to try to do better with considering areas I can improve on for my students. Though a daily reflection might be difficult, I might try to take time every few days to recognize what I am doing well with and what I need to make better. Since I know that doing this will best benefit my students, I am absolutely willing to work differently to discover what behooves them in our classroom.

Ch. 4 Final Assessments

I think that planning with the end in mind is the most effective and purposeful way to plan. When you create a final assessment for a unit plan at the early stages of planning, then you are able to align the content you teach and the way in which you teach it with the final assessment. Research shows that students perform best on assessments that are structured in the same way in which the content was taught. Creating a final assessment before teaching allows teachers to map out what they would like their students to know by the end of the unit, and as they plan their unit, they will make sure to cover what will be on the assessment. Not only is planning backwards a smart idea for teachers to plan effectively and make sure that their exams have content validity, but it is also a good student investment tool. As Smagorinsky explains, having a final assessment that ties together the overarching concepts from a unit or even the entire year’s curriculum gives students a sense of purpose for their studies in your class. In the most high-performing education systems in the world, students take purposeful end of year assessments that are directly tied to the content that has been taught throughout their schooling. In this way, students come into school every day with an understanding that what they are learning will help them reach their end goal for their classes.

After reading about the different final assessment approaches that Smagorinsky describes, I believe that the portfolio approach fits best with my teaching style. With all of the testing that my students must go through, it is easy for them to lose sight of the purpose of school. In an elective class like Spanish, students often think that this class is their opportunity to not do work because there is no standardized test that they have to pass for the class. Therefore, it is important for them to have a purpose for their work in my class. As a student in foreign language classes, I often lost sight of the real world applications of the language, so as a teacher I prioritize instilling in my students the value of learning Spanish in Miami. If my students made a process portfolio throughout the year as a final assessment, they would reflect on the significance of their experience learning Spanish in my classroom. This portfolio may be a collection of their writing, grammar and vocabulary quizzes, cultural readings, or projects in which they are speaking Spanish. They would reflect on what they excelled at, the struggles they experienced learning a second language, and what they learned about language and culture overall. Essentially, my students would be establishing their own personal purpose for taking Spanish, which would motivate them to put in effort on a daily basis.

Smagorinsky ch. 4 “Planning Backwards:  How Endpoints Suggest Pathways”

After reading chapter four of Peter Smagorinsky’s Teaching English through Principled Practice, there are actually two final assessment approaches that best fit my teaching style: the analytic essay and the multimedia project.  In fact, I already use both of these in the courses that I teach.  What I gained from this reading was the idea of planning backwards and choosing an overarching concept for an entire semester, rather than for each literary work that I teach.

Smagorinsky asserts that creating the final assessment at the beginning of a unit plan helps ensure that the teaching and assessment will be not only be more closely aligned, but also help students feel that each class period is working towards a long-term goal.  When I first began designing the courses that I teach, I did have an idea of what I wanted students to gain by the end of the reading, but I always wrote the final assessment a few days prior to giving it.  I still do this.  I’ve done this because although I’ve taught the same works for several years now, each year I choose to teach it slightly differently.  It may be because I want connect the classic literature with something in current events or because I learned something new or because my students and I had a discussion that led us in a different direction than I had planned.  My assessments reflect what was covered or discovered in that specific course with those specific students.  No two assessments are ever the same for that reason.  That being said, as I was reading about choosing an overarching concept, my American literature course kept popping into my head.  That course combines a study of the American literary movements (which is primarily done during class time) with outside readings of great American novels, plays, and short stories.  I didn’t think there was a way to choose an overarching concept for such a course, but by the time I had finished the chapter, I realized that it was possible to connect the outside readings for this semester with a theme:  alienation.  Having an overarching theme for these works has inspired the analytical essay that I will assign for the final exam and has changed the approach that I will take in presenting these four works this semester.