Translate

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Assessing Meaningful Learning



Assessing meaningful learning

             Assessing meaningful learning is a tool used by teachers which provides strategies that promote critical thinking skills, student engagement and prompt feedback from educators. Example: Teachers have copious online resources available in order to give students support. Another tool used for learning are rubrics. They detail exactly what is needed to complete assignments and projects.  Rubrics make it easy for teachers to grade students work. Websites such as http://www.inspiratin.com/curriculum-integration/inspiration have resources for teachers to use in the classroom as well. In addition, there are curriculum designs, brainstorming templates and question sessions. The kidspiration link on that site allows students to explore games and activities in any subject matter that they teacher may instruct them to use. Students have a tendency to learn more through the use of games and activities. This provides convenient and quick feedback for the students and is an effortless way for the teacher to make an assessment of student progress.

              This course has taught me that there is much more to technology than just email and Microsoft      word. Voki   is one program which I found most enjoyable as I was creating it in a presentation. Wiki is the online resource that I would use the most because students can work individually or in groups to create a story. Voice threads would be a great way for students to use their imagination and creativity in creating their own voice activated avatars. Throughout the semester I have learned that there an abundance of resources available to teachers. These tools can be used for teaching and for helping to support student learning. Lastly, social media and blogging for teachers aid in supporting ideas for classroom teaching.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Tehnology Applicatons Standards




Technology Applications Standards
110.16. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 5, Beginning with School Year 2009-2010
(a)  Introduction.
(1)  The English Language Arts and Reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are organized into the following strands: Reading, where students read and understand a wide variety of literary and informational texts; Writing, where students compose a variety of written texts with a clear controlling idea, coherent organization, and sufficient detail; Research, where students are expected to know how to locate a range of relevant sources and evaluate, synthesize, and present ideas and information; Listening and Speaking, where students listen and respond to the ideas of others while contributing their own ideas in conversations and in groups; and Oral and Written Conventions, where students learn how to use the oral and written conventions of the English language in speaking and writing. The standards are cumulative--students will continue to address earlier standards as needed while they attend to standards for their grade. In fifth grade, students will engage in activities that build on their prior knowledge and skills in order to strengthen their reading, writing, and oral language skills. Students should read and write on a daily basis.
(2)  For students whose first language is not English, the students' native language serves as a foundation for English language acquisition.
(A)  English language learners (ELLs) are acquiring English, learning content in English, and learning to read simultaneously. For this reason, it is imperative that reading instruction should be comprehensive and that students receive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and word attack skills while simultaneously being taught academic vocabulary and comprehension skills and strategies. Reading instruction that enhances ELL's ability to decode unfamiliar words and to make sense of those words in context will expedite their ability to make sense of what they read and learn from reading. Additionally, developing fluency, spelling, and grammatical conventions of academic language must be done in meaningful contexts and not in isolation.
(B)  For ELLs, comprehension of texts requires additional scaffolds to support comprehensible input. ELL students should use the knowledge of their first language (e.g., cognates) to further vocabulary development. Vocabulary needs to be taught in the context of connected discourse so that language is meaningful. ELLs must learn how rhetorical devices in English differ from those in their native language. At the same time English learners are learning in English, the focus is on academic English, concepts, and the language structures specific to the content.
(C)  During initial stages of English development, ELLs are expected to meet standards in a second language that many monolingual English speakers find difficult to meet in their native language. However, English language learners' abilities to meet these standards will be influenced by their proficiency in English. While English language learners can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, their level of English proficiency may impede their ability to demonstrate this knowledge during the initial stages of English language acquisition. It is also critical to understand that ELLs with no previous or with interrupted schooling will require explicit and strategic support as they acquire English and learn to learn in English simultaneously.
(3)  To meet Public Education Goal 1 of the Texas Education Code, §4.002, which states, "The students in the public education system will demonstrate exemplary performance in the reading and writing of the English language," students will accomplish the essential knowledge, skills, and student expectations at Grade 5 as described in subsection (b) of this section.
(4)  To meet Texas Education Code, §28.002(h), which states, "... each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of textbooks," students will be provided oral and written narratives as well as other informational texts that can help them to become thoughtful, active citizens who appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation.
Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to participate in student-led discussions by eliciting and considering suggestions from other group members and by identifying points of agreement and disagreement.
Source: The provisions of this §110.16 adopted to be effective September 4, 2008, 33 TexReg 7162.
(Source: Texas Education Agency at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/)

Last updated: February 23, 2010
          According to the introduction students need to be able to read from a variety of texts and write with detail and fluency. Students should also be able to conduct research and be able to discuss what they have read, written and learned with the class. In order to offer a variety of instruction that includes technology programs such as google docs would benefit students greatly. They can work on a story which will help them organize the story and find the different elements of the story. This also benefits ELL students with vocabulary and story elements.  Reading programs such as reading rockets have games and lessons for students to learn reading strategies, comprehension and vocabulary.
      I believe that all students need to be able to write passages that includes detail and logical organization.  In order to accomplish this I intend on having the students write in journals each day, these do not have to be shared with the class. Journals will be for myself to give feedback to the student. I also intend on allowing the students to create a classroom story blog where they can comment on each other’s entry.  Discussions can be made to the blog by asking questions about how more detail can be added to the entry. After students have created their story students will group together for a reader’s theatre demonstration.