Module 6, Unit 3, Activity 2 - Tackling the Grading Dilemma

Module 6, Unit 3, Activity 2 - Tackling the Grading Dilemma

Marc Finks

Module 6, Unit 3, Activity 2

Tackling the Grading Dilemma

For many students, grading the paperwork is the task is the most time-consuming and energy-draining. People only see what teachers do while they’re at school and in the classroom, but they don’t realize how much work they expect the teacher to do in order to assess their students in the most efficient and fairest way possible. However, there are several ways that teachers can help lessen the load that comes from grading everything the students to.

Peer Assessment:

Peer assessment is having students grade themselves and their classmates based upon a rubric that should be easy for the students to follow. Many teachers often say that students are often much tougher on themselves than the teacher would have been, but from my own experience, I have found that the majority of elementary students will either grade their friends unfairly high, or the students will unfairly mark down students of the opposite gender. I do agree that having the students help the teacher create the rubric is the first step, but I think that there has to be some type of feedback or punishment/rewards that is dependent upon how honest the students are trying to be. Once they get used to this type of assessment and having this type of power and using it fairly, then maybe it’ll work, but I think the teacher needs to set up the framework correctly from the very beginning.

One in Four Rule:

The one in four rule is actually a really good idea. Essentially, only one out of every four essays is graded in detail. The other three essays are given the grade of credit or no credit. I have had weeks before where I’ve had over ninety students giving me essays that had to be graded by the following week, and so I did use the credit/no credit grading scale from time to time, but I like this one in four rule better. To me, though, it would have to be random – at least in the eyes of the students. That way, the students wouldn’t know which ones of theirs would be graded or not, thereby ensuring that most of them would try to turn in quality work time. Also, this way, instead of having thirty essays to grade each week, the teacher would only have seven or eight which would be much more manageable. The only complaint that I can see at the moment is that some essay topics may be more difficult than others, and the students who got graded on those, as opposed to easier topics, maybe feel unfairly slighted.

Stamping Method:

I think that this would be appropriate for younger students, but would most older students care about the particular stamp that is on their essay? And, if this is just going to be put on the credit/no credit essays, then it doesn’t really matter what kind of stamp a teacher uses. I know that I’ve had younger classes who loved getting stickers on their homework, and so it does have a nice, tiny effect, but I don’t think most students turned in their work just because they wanted to get a sticker that said, “Excellent!”

Student Journals:

I really like this idea of having student journals. Besides keeping all of their work in one, organized location, it’s also a useful tool for students and their parents to see the work that they’ve done, and for everyone to note the improvements that the student is making throughout the year. This would also be a good way of incorporating the other grading methods, such as the one in four rule and the peer assessments, since the teacher can choose which ones to grade or not grade when they are given these each week. The teacher can also quickly check the peer grades and make note of which students are giving acceptable feedback, and which ones need to be spoken to privately on Monday.

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I think that I am going to use the student journal in my classes. I think it’ll help me to stay better organized, and I like the idea of students having portfolios and being responsible for their own work. Again, while this will require the teacher to spend time at the beginning of the year showing the students how to do this properly, it’ll pay off in dividends throughout the year. I think that if I were to collect the journals every Friday afternoon, then hopefully I could get through all of them with only a couple of hours of work at some point before class on Monday.

Module 6, Unit 2, Activity 4

Monitoring Student Performance

Having high expectations for students is an essential component that all teachers need to consider from the very first day of class. In our school, our students have a lot of online homework, and while all teachers mention it the first day, not every teacher actually places much emphasis on it, nor do they check it for completion regularly during the school year. As a result, in many classes, the homework completion rate is around 40%. I have found, though, that when I talk about the importance of doing online homework and how it can benefit them, and then I make a big deal about checking the homework at the beginning of each class and talking to students about why they were unable to compete the homework, my homework completion rate for the term usually ends up being around 95%, and that the students actually help one another to complete it.

I don’t think most teachers realize how much they can affect their students’ perspective on learning and schoolwork. If teachers are positive about it and constantly convey their expectations to their students, while effectively using praise to bolster students’ confidence and effort, then the students will respond accordingly. However, if teachers are a bit more lackadaisical about talking to the students about their goals and how they can get there, then the students soon find class to be pointless and just start going through the motions.

Besides schoolwork, this is also true regarding student behavior. I am very firm about how my students must treat one another. They must be respectful, they can’t bully, they can’t hit…All of the things that I just assume should or should not happen in a classroom. But I’ve had students (or I’ve spoken to former students) who have had other teachers, and I can tell that they are often surprised by the extreme differences in what we allow to happen in our classrooms. But, personally, I believe that besides giving the students knowledge, teachers are also partially responsible for raising good people, and since students spend so much of their time in school, it is there where they should learn what type of behavior is considered proper and improper.

For students who do struggle academically, Response to Intervention, or RTI, is necessary so that we can identify early and support them in whatever way we can in order to help them progress and not fall irrevocably behind. The process for RTI is ongoing and should begin on the first day of class. Teachers need to always be aware of how their students are doing, and they need to learn to identify the ones who are struggling. When teachers do find students who seem to be having difficulty, it’s important for the teacher to differentiate instruction and see if this is enough to help the student keep up with the rest of the class. If it is not, then further steps need to be taken. Besides using tiered instruction, parental involvement it key. Teachers must contact the parents and explain what is happening, explain the plan, and then try to get the parents to work with them so that the child gets help at home as well.

References:

Borich, Gary D. (2011). Observation Skills for Effective Teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Inc.

The Power of High Expectations. (n.d.).  Retrieved July 29, 2014, from http://teachingasleadership.org/ sites/default/files/Related-Readings/Diversity_CommunityandAchievement_Chapter2.pdf

Module 5 / Unit 5 / Activity 3

Marc Finks

Module 5 – Unit 5 – Activity 3

Activity 3: Importance of Lesson Planning and Preparation

I thought that this was really helpful. Unpacking a standard and thinking about the objectives will be really helpful in writing lesson plans in the future. I haven’t really needed or used lesson plans in the past, as I usually just think and plan ahead about what I want to do, and then I remember my ideas and do them, but I can see how this would be useful.

I think it have been helpful to have several examples of lesson plans from different schools and different teachers. We keep learning about differentiating instruction, and I’ve read about how important it is to use media while teaching because it’s so much easier to get the idea across sometimes with a simple image. This would have been one of those times. If we could have had several lesson plans to model our own off of, I think that this module would have been less stressful for some people.

However, other than that, I liked the idea of trying to plan ahead, and I know that if had to teach tomorrow the unit that I planned for, then I would be able to walk into the classroom and teach it without any hesitation.

Module 5/Unit 5/Activity 2

Marc Finks

Module 5 – Unit 5 – Activity 2

Effectiveness of Lesson and Unit Plans in Meeting Outcomes

For my clinical observation, I observed my mentor, Shaun Terriss. He has the same students on Tuesday and Thursday, but he teaches different material to them on each day. On Tuesday, he teaches reading skills to the students, and the theme for the lesson was the migratory habits of certain seagulls. The objective of the class is to teach reading skills, and so the topic that they are covering is of secondary importance. For this Thursday class, Shaun teaches the same students listening skills, where they learn how to analyze listening passages, take notes, and then answer questions using their notes. Again, the topic is of secondary importance, but they were learning about Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence theory, and then they listened to three passages and a conversation about that topic.

Day one

·                     How did the lessons support the topic/theme of the unit and the learning objective(s)?

Shaun made excellent use of media and while covering twenty vocabulary words that he thought the students would need to know in order to understand the topic and to discuss it. He showed several short videos of seabirds that emphasized the point of certain vocabulary words, and he made good use of images for the other words. All of these led to the students having peer to peer discussions, and this “pre-knowledge” made the reading passage easier for the students, so that they were able to focus more on skills, and not spend a lot of time wondering what certain words meant.

·                     How did the lesson plans compare to the activities that occurred?

Shaun clearly explained to me what he was going to do beforehand, and he pretty much followed it to the minute. He has taught this lesson several times before and has made adjustments each time he has taught it. This class, while not too different from the first class he had on this topic, ran much more smoothly and he was able to incorporate everything that had worked well in the past, according to him.

·                     What adjustments to the lesson plans did the teacher make? Why were those adjustments needed?

The only adjustment that he really made was to show an extra image and video when the students were struggling to understand something that he thought they would understand much easier. He spent several moments searching for something that would help them understand, as opposed to just clicking on it like he did with his other planned, pre-loaded videos/images.

·                     How effective were the activities at helping students meet the learning objective?

The vocabulary preview really helped the students understand the topic. The activities that he did where he guided them through the skill that they were to use that day seemed pretty effective as the students were able to give their own examples a few seconds after he did one first.

·                     What formative assessments did the teacher use? What did the teacher learn from those assessments?

He did a vocabulary game/contest at the end of his vocabulary lesson, and this showed him which of the students were struggling a bit to understand all of the words. At the end of each reading passage was a short quiz about it, and he had the students help him write an outline on the board based on how they annotated the passage. When they finally had to do their final quiz for the day, Shaun helped the students who seemed to struggle on the earlier reading passages.

Day Two

·                     How did the lessons support the topic/theme of the unit and the learning objective(s)?

For this class, Shaun did vocabulary in the same way. It seems to be a routine for the class and it keeps the students engaged. He also had them do an activity where they had to plan a class for students with different types of intelligences. This was a very effective way of having the students show that they understood the idea.

·                     How did the lesson plans compare to the activities that occurred?

Shaun pretty much stayed to the lesson plan this time. The kids understood the concept quickly and he was able to let them do a lot of student-centered work, which was his initial goal.

·                     What adjustments to the lesson plans did the teacher make? Why were those adjustments needed?

He ran out of time a bit when the students were doing group work, and so he combined several groups and had them quickly mesh their work together so that everyone would have enough time to present. The students didn’t really mind, and their presentations were good, but I think it was just a lack of foresight about how much time the students would need to do all of the work that he asked them to do AND have enough time to make a presentation and present it.

·                     How effective were the activities at helping students meet the learning objective?

Really effective. Again, by the time they go to the listening skills passages, the students understood everything. Shaun did the first example with them and asked them how they should take notes on certain things, and how they could make the notes more concise. Since the students understood the vocabulary so well, they were able to focus on organizing their notes.

·                     What formative assessments did the teacher use? What did the teacher learn from those assessments?

Again, just like the reading, there were several mini-lectures, one conversation, and a final lecture, all over the same topic. Shaun walked around and checked the students’ notes and then he had them tell him what he should write on the board as he made model notes. A couple of students’ notes were poorly organized, and so Shaun worked with them a bit during the last listening lecture and helped them organize them better.

Clearly, Shaun planned his lesson with the entire class time in mind. He knew where he wanted to be at each point in the class, and each activity led smoothly into the next one. By the end of each class, the students had clearly learned a lot about the topic, and were able to use that knowledge to improve their reading and listening skills. He did a good job of differentiating his questions and asking ones that everyone could answer, varying them based upon the individual’s skills. I think that it’s important to make lessons as interactive as possible – like Shaun did – but also keep in mind what your end objective is and make sure that you have a clear path to get there by the end of each class.

Module 5 – Unit 4 – Activity 3

Marc Finks

Module 5 – Unit 4 – Activity 3

Teacher Collaboration in Lesson Planning

The two teachers that I chose to interview are Jill Hayden and Kevin Cowell. Jill is a third grade teacher at a nearby international school and sees the same class every day for seven hours, while Kevin is professor at a university in Seoul and sees his students for about one hour per week.

1. How much time do you spend creating your lesson plans?

2. How far in advance do you actually prepare your lessons before the actual class?

3. Do you prepare for each unit, or do you generally make an overall plan first?

4. How do you prepare for differentiation if your students are of different levels?

5. How closely do you follow your lesson plans once you get into the classroom?

6. Is there a certain style that you follow, or did you create your own for making lesson plans?

7. Does lesson planning help you have a better class?

8. Do you edit or annotate your lesson plans after the class is finished?

9. Who do you submit your lesson plans to?

Jill Hayden has been working at an international school in Seoul for the last five years. Before that, she taught in a public school in the United States after receiving her degree in education.

Jill said that since the grade level that she teaches has changed twice over the last three years that she is still redoing and revising lesson plans. However, if she had been teaching the same grade for the entire time, then the lesson planning process would be a lot easier and less time-consuming, since it’s probable that she would be able to reuse the majority of her previous lessons, or at least have a better understanding of where students should be at each point during the semester.

She said that she does a lot of planning and preparation before the school year begins and always tries to be six to eight weeks ahead of schedule. Because of this, her lesson plans need to be really detailed as she needs to trust whatever she made two months prior to teaching the class. Jill explained that she always studies the objectives and end goals for each lesson, and then considers the major steps along the way that will be necessary to reach the end goal, and then she breaks down the lessons into weeks and days, determines how long she can spend on each section, and then makes the individual lesson plans from there.

As for differentiation, she said that she always has two or three alternate activities written into the side of each lesson plan, which she can use for students who are struggling with the material, or who are ready for more challenging work. She also said that she tries to adhere to the lesson, but things happen or questions are asked that must be adapted to on the fly. The key thing, though, is to always remember that this is a journey and the students must be at certain points by certain dates. If she spends an extra day on one section, then she said it’s just a matter of squeezing a little bit more into another day. The trick is to not let these types of things happen too consistently or else teachers will find that they are always behind schedule.

The lesson plan that she follows was required by her first school in the States, and she said that she just feels the most comfortable using it now. When she first started at her current school, she had to let a senior teacher look over her plans at the beginning of each unit, but now, she is in that role at her school and no one checks her lesson plans.

Overall, Jill is a huge fan of lesson plans and how much they help teachers prepare and understand what they need to do for their students. While it does take a lot of time to make the initial ones at the beginning, after a year or two, all you really do is jot notes to say what worked and/or didn’t work, and add in new ideas that you would like to try the next time you teach the lesson.

Kevin has been working in Seoul for over ten years, and has been at his university for almost five years. He teaches EFL students and sees them once a week. Kevin has a Masters in TOEFL and a CELTA degree and said how much both of those really helped him in learning how to prepare for teaching his classes.

Kevin said that he will usually do a brief overview of the term before classes begin, but since he doesn’t need to prepare many lessons each week, and he only teaches twelve hours each week, he prefers to make the plans the week before. Usually, once he finishes his class, he will go to his office and make the lesson plan for the next week, since his students’ needs will still be fresh in his mind. Even though he often teaches similar courses each term, he still likes to redo the lesson plans each time because they change depending on the makeup of his classes. He said that he does keep one from the previous terms, just so he can look back at what he did, and if things worked well, then he will incorporate them into his lesson. But he needs to change things up each term depending on the abilities and personalities of his students.

Kevin said that he uses the lesson plan style that he learned while studying for his CELTA. He said the one that they made him use in his classes were extremely detailed and encouraged teachers to prepare for unexpected things that may happen, and that while his is similar, it’s not nearly as detailed as they used to be.

He is a big fan of lesson planning, though. He has seen a number of new professors at his university who just try to make things up each class, and most of them end of with terrible reviews from their students and the professors usually don’t get re-signed. He says that lesson planning gives each class a sense of purpose, and it’s obvious to the students that the teacher always has something planned and clearly knows that the next step is going to be in the class.

Even though Kevin doesn’t have anyone checking to see if he has made any lesson plans, he still feels that it’s something that all teachers should be doing.

Overall, I’m starting to understand just how important it is to lesson plan. Speaking with Kevin about it and hearing his opinion really affected me because he doesn’t generally come across as a serious person. However, he let me observe one of his classes, and it was obvious how professional and prepared he seemed. The class schedule was clearly mapped out, and even though he didn’t really talk about it beforehand, he had made a ton of copies to hand out and had prepared several different activities, depending upon the student’s level. In terms of planning in advance, I do understand how Kevin’s style works for university students, but for an elementary class, I think I agree with Jill and – considering how much time it takes – it is probably best to plan ahead as far as possible, which at least means that you’re always aware of what you need to do in class for the next couple of months.

Module 6, Unit 3, Activity 2 - Tackling the Grading Dilemma

Marc Finks

Module 6, Unit 3, Activity 2

Tackling the Grading Dilemma

For many students, grading the paperwork is the task is the most time-consuming and energy-draining. People only see what teachers do while they’re at school and in the classroom, but they don’t realize how much work they expect the teacher to do in order to assess their students in the most efficient and fairest way possible. However, there are several ways that teachers can help lessen the load that comes from grading everything the students to.

Peer Assessment:

Peer assessment is having students grade themselves and their classmates based upon a rubric that should be easy for the students to follow. Many teachers often say that students are often much tougher on themselves than the teacher would have been, but from my own experience, I have found that the majority of elementary students will either grade their friends unfairly high, or the students will unfairly mark down students of the opposite gender. I do agree that having the students help the teacher create the rubric is the first step, but I think that there has to be some type of feedback or punishment/rewards that is dependent upon how honest the students are trying to be. Once they get used to this type of assessment and having this type of power and using it fairly, then maybe it’ll work, but I think the teacher needs to set up the framework correctly from the very beginning.

One in Four Rule:

The one in four rule is actually a really good idea. Essentially, only one out of every four essays is graded in detail. The other three essays are given the grade of credit or no credit. I have had weeks before where I’ve had over ninety students giving me essays that had to be graded by the following week, and so I did use the credit/no credit grading scale from time to time, but I like this one in four rule better. To me, though, it would have to be random – at least in the eyes of the students. That way, the students wouldn’t know which ones of theirs would be graded or not, thereby ensuring that most of them would try to turn in quality work time. Also, this way, instead of having thirty essays to grade each week, the teacher would only have seven or eight which would be much more manageable. The only complaint that I can see at the moment is that some essay topics may be more difficult than others, and the students who got graded on those, as opposed to easier topics, maybe feel unfairly slighted.

Stamping Method:

I think that this would be appropriate for younger students, but would most older students care about the particular stamp that is on their essay? And, if this is just going to be put on the credit/no credit essays, then it doesn’t really matter what kind of stamp a teacher uses. I know that I’ve had younger classes who loved getting stickers on their homework, and so it does have a nice, tiny effect, but I don’t think most students turned in their work just because they wanted to get a sticker that said, “Excellent!”

Student Journals:

I really like this idea of having student journals. Besides keeping all of their work in one, organized location, it’s also a useful tool for students and their parents to see the work that they’ve done, and for everyone to note the improvements that the student is making throughout the year. This would also be a good way of incorporating the other grading methods, such as the one in four rule and the peer assessments, since the teacher can choose which ones to grade or not grade when they are given these each week. The teacher can also quickly check the peer grades and make note of which students are giving acceptable feedback, and which ones need to be spoken to privately on Monday.

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I think that I am going to use the student journal in my classes. I think it’ll help me to stay better organized, and I like the idea of students having portfolios and being responsible for their own work. Again, while this will require the teacher to spend time at the beginning of the year showing the students how to do this properly, it’ll pay off in dividends throughout the year. I think that if I were to collect the journals every Friday afternoon, then hopefully I could get through all of them with only a couple of hours of work at some point before class on Monday.

Module 6, Unit 2, Activity 4

 Marc Finks

Module 6, Unit 2, Activity 4

Monitoring Student Performance

Having high expectations for students is an essential component that all teachers need to consider from the very first day of class. In our school, our students have a lot of online homework, and while all teachers mention it the first day, not every teacher actually places much emphasis on it, nor do they check it for completion regularly during the school year. As a result, in many classes, the homework completion rate is around 40%. I have found, though, that when I talk about the importance of doing online homework and how it can benefit them, and then I make a big deal about checking the homework at the beginning of each class and talking to students about why they were unable to compete the homework, my homework completion rate for the term usually ends up being around 95%, and that the students actually help one another to complete it.

I don’t think most teachers realize how much they can affect their students’ perspective on learning and schoolwork. If teachers are positive about it and constantly convey their expectations to their students, while effectively using praise to bolster students’ confidence and effort, then the students will respond accordingly. However, if teachers are a bit more lackadaisical about talking to the students about their goals and how they can get there, then the students soon find class to be pointless and just start going through the motions.

Besides schoolwork, this is also true regarding student behavior. I am very firm about how my students must treat one another. They must be respectful, they can’t bully, they can’t hit…All of the things that I just assume should or should not happen in a classroom. But I’ve had students (or I’ve spoken to former students) who have had other teachers, and I can tell that they are often surprised by the extreme differences in what we allow to happen in our classrooms. But, personally, I believe that besides giving the students knowledge, teachers are also partially responsible for raising good people, and since students spend so much of their time in school, it is there where they should learn what type of behavior is considered proper and improper.

For students who do struggle academically, Response to Intervention, or RTI, is necessary so that we can identify early and support them in whatever way we can in order to help them progress and not fall irrevocably behind. The process for RTI is ongoing and should begin on the first day of class. Teachers need to always be aware of how their students are doing, and they need to learn to identify the ones who are struggling. When teachers do find students who seem to be having difficulty, it’s important for the teacher to differentiate instruction and see if this is enough to help the student keep up with the rest of the class. If it is not, then further steps need to be taken. Besides using tiered instruction, parental involvement it key. Teachers must contact the parents and explain what is happening, explain the plan, and then try to get the parents to work with them so that the child gets help at home as well.

References:

Borich, Gary D. (2011). Observation Skills for Effective Teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Inc.

The Power of High Expectations. (n.d.).  Retrieved July 29, 2014, from http://teachingasleadership.org/ sites/default/files/Related-Readings/Diversity_CommunityandAchievement_Chapter2.pdf