J Jacob Data Driven Online Reading Journal

In your Reading Journal, predict how you think your colleagues will respond to the prompt:    Before taking a deep dive in the reasoning for or against standardized testing, my initial idea (and my prediction of my colleagues ideas) is that  standardized testing is better than the alternative of not having a standardized assessment system. I believe that standardized testing provides a lot of benefits for schools across the country. They provide set standards for everyone and serve as a summative assessment towards the end of the year. However, most teacher's also recognize the strain that standardized testing takes on students,teachers, and schools to succeed. But teachers also recognize that standardized testing allow students all across the state or country to be held to the same standard and evaluate which areas could use more support.  In your Reading Journal, jot down main points for and against standardized testing. Be sure to use evidence from this ...

Context:  In my upcoming unit, my students will be spending 12 days of open investigation that will eventually showcase science and experimental design in action.  The unit ends with a large science fair that allows students to present their investigations and results to other students, teachers, school leaders, and families. Student displays feature visuals, interactive components, hands-on models, and trifold or posters that contain explanations of student work. On these tri-folds or posters, students will articulate why their project is an important contribution to the scientific community and share data and conclusions from their experiment. Students will start off by developing interesting and testable questions with the assistance of their teacher. The questions they create will be centered around their curiosity about the world around them and the need to solve a problem within their community. Once the students have refined their questions to test, they are then able t...

Think back to your time as a student, as well as your role as a teacher. What does good feedback look like? What effect does it have, on the student? The teacher? Good feedback jumpstart critical thinking and self-reflection of one's work. Feedback should not provide the answer to the student as the student will just do whatever the feedback that the teacher said. Feedback could direct a student to reevaluate their claim or evidence used in a written response. This feedback can include a link to Quizlet so students can review the concepts for reevaluating their work.   Feedback in my case also directs students to resources found on google classroom. When I was grading exit tickets on balancing equations, my feedback was "refer to the how-to guide to check all of your answers". I had already provided information on the step-by-step process of how to balance equations and students were expected to refer back to this guide and walk through the process themselves. In my feedb...

Assess   your own work based on the rubric and feedback from your colleagues. Add this to your online reading journal entry for this week. Why was your performance at the level that it was? I believe I scored well because of my meaningful application of self assessment in the classroom. I started to use self assessment more this year and was able to provide three conconcrete examples of what self assessment might look like in the classroom. I was shouted out by each of my peers for this application as it not only outlined my understanding of self assessment but also showcased creative applications. The response can be found below.  What might effective self-assessment look like in your discipline? In Science, I use three types of self-assessment and each is effective in its own way. First is self assessment within project groups. Students are given a rubric for each project which clearly states the targets for the project along with a scale from below expectations to exceeding...

 Based on the given texts, I created a list of relavant standards to my unit. I am currently teaching a chemistry unit, with a focus on the periodic table, chemical bonds, and chemical equations. Below is the information from the group presentations based on my unit.   Standards being used are  NSTA’s Next Generation Science Standards (Science and Engineering Practices) Developing and Using Models This standard is asking students to do the following:  Develop and use a model to describe observable phenomena. Ex: Differences between chemical and physical changes  Ex: Modeling the chemical changes during an observable chemical reaction Develop a model to describe unobservable mechanisms. Ex: Model atom and molecule structures Ex: Model Chemical Bonds  Using Mathematical Representations and Computational Thinking In plain words, the standard is looking for students to:  Describe/support a scientific conclusion using mathematical representations Apply math...

Provide specific evidence from your content area resources in your reading journal response . What does your discipline value in terms of assessment? My discipline values application of knowledge and skills in terms of assessment. Gone are the days of strict memorization of science concepts. Students are assessed on their ability to transfer learned knowledge to new contexts and situations.  What is suggested of teachers when it comes to assessment? Teachers are suggested to use assessment as ways to inform instruction. Formative assessments can provide   information about the present state of the learners, clear view of the learning goal, and action to close the gap.  What are some regularly used strategies? One regularly used strategy for formative assessments is purposeful lines of questioning. From Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment (2001), I learned that teachers should give students extended time to think...