1. What did you learn from your simulated teaching experience about:
Assessing Prior Knowledge:
From this simulated teaching experience, I learned that it is extremely important to assess prior knowledge. If you do not assess prior knowledge, you might be completely off-base with what you are teaching the students in your lesson. It is also important to assess prior knowledge, because your students might have some knowledge of the subject, but might just need some review or remedial information on the topic. We assessed prior knowledge with our students, and they knew nearly everything we were going to cover, prior to our direct instruction. But in a real 3rd grade classroom, the students would not have had as much prior knowledge about worms. Before this simulated teaching experience, I knew that it was important to assess prior knowledge, but this lesson allowed me to understand the importance from a real-life, concrete experience. In the future, I will be sure to asses my student’s prior knowledge before diving into any instruction.
Planning and Designing Instruction vs. Actually Teaching:
Through this simulated teaching experience, I learned that no matter how much time you spend planning, you are probably always going to have to make changes to your lesson when you actually teach it. In our lesson, we had to be flexible a few times. For instance, a few students computers did not work, and they were not able to use the Kidspiration program. We accommodated them by allowing them to draw their worm and label it, instead of designing it on the computer. Also, a piece of information about worms that we had in our PowerPoint was different from information that was presented in the video we showed. Since we had a question about this particular fact on our assessment, we decided to just throw out the question all together. I have not had the opportunity to teach many of the lessons that I have designed, so this was definitely a valuable experience for me. I have heard that teachers must be flexible, but this experience allowed me to actually BE flexible, and to learn how to be quick on my feet in making necessary modifications to the lesson. I will definitely remember to be flexible with my lessons in the future, and to always have a plan b!
Planning and Implementing Assessments:
Through the planning and implementing of my assessments, I learned that it is more difficult to come up with assessments that are valid and reliable than I formerly thought it was. It is also difficult to think about how you will score students and how you will accommodate for students who are ELL or who have learning disabilities. I also learned that no matter how clear your written and verbal directions are, students are still going to ask you over and over what they should be doing. I think this is probably because they just want to make sure that they have everything clarified so they can be successful on the assessment. Designing the assessment helped me to realize how important it is to match your assessment with your learning goals, so students have every chance of being successful. This will help me when I am designing assessments in the future. I think when I have my own classroom, I will begin with the assessment and work backwards to make sure that everything aligns with what I am assessing my students on.
2. What did you learn from observing your classmates lessons about:
Assessing Prior Knowledge:
From observing my classmates lessons, I learned that it is very important to assess prior knowledge to make sure that you are teaching the students what they need to learn, next. Some students may not have any prior knowledge about a topic, while others might be able to write a book about it. One group used a KWL chart, and I think this is my favorite method of assessing prior knowledge. Not only does it allow the teacher to see what the students already do or do not know, but it activates the students memories and experiences they have had with the topic. I think I will definitely use KWL charts in my future classroom.
Planning and Designing Instruction:
From my classmates, I learned that it is so crucial to have everything planned out and ready to go for your students. I realized that if the teacher is not prepared, they should probably not expect their students to be as successful during the lesson. If the teacher forgets materials or has a video that does not work, it provides an opportune time for students to begin to misbehave and to get off-task. However, teachers are human and they will make mistakes. So I think it is important that we always have a plan b! That way, if something does not work, the teacher can gracefully pull out the plan b and the class can carry on smoothly, hopefully without disrupting the learning process. I also got some pretty great lesson and center ideas from my classmates that I would love to use with my future students.
Assessing Learning
From my fellow students, I learned that it is very important not to assess the students on something you have not taught them. Some of my fellow students had great lessons but used the assessment as a way to further our knowledge on the topic, rather than as a way to assess what we had just learned. This was frustrating for me as a college student, so I imagine it would be even more frustrating for an elementary school student. I also learned that there are various ways to assess students with technology. Before this course, I had never considered using technology to assess students, but now I realize the value and importance of incorporating it into my classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment