The fifth-grade teacher at this school did, in fact,
create math curriculum and lesson plans right from the start of the year toaddress the students' strengths and needs. The fifth-grade teacher
reinforced computation skills, briefly, and then quickly exposed her newfifth-grade students to "problem-solving" experiences in math involving
"real-life" activities and math-based word problems.
This
Teacher's Story is an example of how an
end-of-the-year math assessment helped another colleague to shapecurriculum and focus lesson plans to meet the strengths and needs of the
students. This can be done throughout the school year: Casting the net togather information; reflecting upon the information gathered and letting
it inform your curriculum.
Helping students reflect
Research in recent years has shown that learning
improves significantly ifstudents are able to think about their thinking,
or, in other words, learn about their learning. Assessment methods thatinspire this kind activity result in consistently higher performance.
Here are some examples of how to help students reflect upon their own
process of learning:
- Before turning in a paper or a project, ask students to
reflect upon the process of doing the paper or
project. Have students submit their reflection in written form alongwith their project.
- After a Cooperative Learning, activity ask students to answer the
following questions: 1) What did you notice about your participationin the cooperative learning group? 2) What did you notice about how your
group worked together?
- Once students have taken a math test, let them grade their own tests
with an answer key. Have them reflect upon the types of problems they gotright and the types of problems they got wrong. Ask them to write "Math
Notes" in their math journal: acknowledging the types of problems theyknow how to do and encourageing themselves or making note of what they
need to work on.
- Invite students to participate in the making of a rubric
(guidelines); then have them evaluate themselves once the paper orproject is ready to be turned; ask them to provide evidence or support
for the scores they give themselves. As part of the rubric, ask them toreflect upon their learning. (Do not grade content of the reflection,
rather depth of analysis.)
- Student self-evaluations encourage self-reflection and better
learning for students. They can encompass a variety of formats. Thecontent of self-evaluations should never be graded. However, there is
a kind of evaluation that can be graded for depth of analysis - i.e., howseriously did you take this task? Did you attempt to understand your own
thinking and writing processes? Were you able to contextualize yourown acts as a writer and thinker within course themes? The grade is for
the application of insight and course themes to his/her own practice.
Assignment 6: helping students reflect
Assignment 6: Helping Students
Reflect
