Authentic Assessment

         One of the most important things to me in education is teaching lessons that are authentic. Lessons that are authentic are easily applied outside of the classroom and have much purpose behind them. Authenticity is motivating because the students know that what they are learning is necessary for their lives outside of the school building. Authenticity is beyond memorization or circling the correct answers on a multiple choice test. Authenticity has meaningful application that will follow the student where ever they go. 

           One of my favorite things about high school special education is that I get to teach service learning. I can't think of a better way to have authentic assessment. One classroom I spend a lot of time in was a perfect example to me what authentic assessment looks like. Each week the students had a cooking class. They would follow recipes, safety precautions, health precautions, and make their food. On Friday they would make chocolate chip cookies to sell at the school. They would make advertisements to hang up around the school. They would sell cookies during lunch periods. They were responsible for keeping up with the money, making correct change, and counting the money. It was great! I hope that I can be authentic in all of my teaching.

This schools idea of authentic assessment is really neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5m66Y607U

Chapter 6

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 
  It is important that students are able to recognize and recall information. If they can detect patterns and activate prior knowledge they are more able to store skills in their long term memory. For tips on practical ways to incorporate these techniques refer to my previous post.



How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions? 

 Depending on what the students know already determines your instructional decisions. If you are able to pretest your students you will know what " building blocks" they already have that you can continue to expand on. After you determine where they are coming from you can make decisions about the design of your instruction. If you know techniques, such as the one we have discussed, you will know how to teach in a way that encourages the long term memory.

Long Term Memory Retrevial

ROY G BIV

HOMES

King Play  Chess On Big Green Steps

My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Nine Pizzas

Any of these ring a bell?

Think back to your time in elementary school. What are some of the lesson you remember being taught the most? How did the teacher teach them? Why did they stick?
            Chance are the lessons you remember are not the ones that you were lectured at and finished a worksheet on. As teachers, we obviously don't want our students to forget what they learn. It is important to know what information need to sustain the children's memory as we teach. Cramming and forgetting quickly do not serve any purpose but a quick grade. So what are some ways to make this information last?
          Things are stored in our memory that are distinct and unique. This means as teachers it is important to mix up how we present material. Build on previous knowledge and memories. If you associate something it has something to latch onto in your memory.
         Another key to remember is " hot cogniton." Hot cognition is when you are emotional invested in something. Simply put, it is your interest. If you can incorporate students interest into your subject matter they are more likely to pay attention, think about it longer, and refer back to it.
        So I encourage you to consider the ways you can start promoting long term memory among your students. Here is a great article about just that.  http://chat.downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/article.pdf

Cool Links!

Throughout the course I have been introduced to some awesome and very helpful videos. This video really caught my attention. I couldn't explain it any better than these words. I love the idea of " awakening" my students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


One day in class we talked about being positive with our students. Specifically in regards to testing and assessments. There are now so many required standardized tests that I can only imagine how stressed the students feel. Students are labeled so often by the number on result from one test that is assessed in one way. I could rant about why I don't like standardized test. Instead, check out this video about how these teachers make the  idea TCAP less taunting and looming for the students at their school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLpzetHuQbQ


My favorite of all these link is this one. This is a brief view of  the special education classroom at Westdale. This covers a variety of topics that we have discussed in class and ideals I would love to incorporate into my classroom. There is a strong sense of community, great classroom management, positive relationship, adaptations, and so much more!  The teacher says that " a lot of people use the word delay, but all I see is ability and a desire to learn." I love that, that's the attitude I would hope that all teachers approach their students with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOTMxlRn7c

I am a special education major wanting to teach in a high school setting. This is a blog about my educational psychology class and what I learn along the way. I've had a few difficulties with this blog so the first few blog posts can be found at emdodson.blogspot.com

Chapter 14

1.       Using the diagram on p. 505 of Ormrod’s text, consider three different types of assessment that you could use in your classroom.  Find examples of these assessments through a Google search, identify how you would use them, how they might need to be modified for your students, and what the assessments can tell you – or can’t - about student performance. 

             I think the way you assess your students is crucial to their learning and motivation.  It is easy for test to make students feel discouraged, pressured, or stressed. This should never be the affect. While grades do give students a reason to work hard, there are many different ways to assess their learning. One method I find very productive is Authentic- assessment. Authentic-assessment is a way of assessing that applies learning to real-world task. This is important to build motivating for students because they will see that what they are learning can be applied to the real world. It is easy to lose motivation when students feel like they will never use what they are learning again.

                Another form of assessing that I think I would use in my classroom is performance assessment. Testing students can go beyond just circling answers on a multiple choice test or filling in blanks. If the students have to perform their knowledge, you, as the teacher, are able to see the extent of how much they understand the material. It is not simply guessing the right answer, but applying what they know to their performance.

                One last form of assessment is the paper-pencil assessment. While I think that it is very important how you format the exam, sometimes you have to assess if they students know the facts. I do think it is important to follow up after the test. If students do not understand, do not just take points of and be done with the material. It is crucial in any assessment that the students understand the material thoroughly. If that means reteaching after a pencil- and paper test, then reteach. The format must be structured in a way that you can be sure that they students knowledge is assessed properly.

Chapter 15

1.       Turn to p.559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictures at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? Her strengths and weaknesses?  If grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what would you suggest? Make sure to include links to scholarly articles or other authoritative sources.

              Ingrids test scores explain several things about her strengths and weaknesses. It is clear that her highest scores were reading comprehension and science and social studies was not far behind. It is interesting that while her reading comprehension is high her spelling is much lower. It is clear that Ingrid understands the words but cannot create them on her own.  It is also clear that her math need improvement. Since her math concepts are higher than her math computations, this shows that there is a gap between what to do and how to apply it.

                To strengthen skills it is important to practice. Take problems from the classroom and rework them until they are understood. It is important to not just move on when you don’t understand something, but understand a concept and then move on. Ingrid could attend tutor sessions and give math extra reinforcement time everyday.