Pauline+R

Line of learning--How have my understanding and application of the CEI influenced my thinking and instruction.
This is not the first time I've been introduced to the charactereistics (STAR) of effective instruction. My biggest problem in my classroom is I teach K-2 and I don't have the time to do small group instruction because I have students coming & going all day. It is easier for me to teach small group but to break them up into groups to discuss things is difficult. There has got to me other ways for a clssroom to be student centered then to do it in groups. My understanding of formative assessment is when you are done teaching a unit is when the assessment is given. Then you decide where to go from there.

August 3, 2010

I am so glad we went over the formative assessment in the STAR. I really enjoyed the articles that we read. It really helped me with the understanding of what formative asssessment is and what it is not. Basically formative assessment is when the learning process is given back to the student. Finding out the differences is between a good or not so good writing sample or the mistakes that were made on a test. Then go back and the teacher teaches the strategies needed for them to be successful. The students are building on their own learning giving themselves learning targets and goals. Formative assessments impower the students to be successful and at the same time helps the teachers know where they need to go for instruction.

August 4, 2010 Rigor and Relevance: Rigor is using the knowledge taxonomy. Relevance is using the application model. Using the four quadrants remindes me of using a genetic graph that i was taught during biology. Quadrant A maybe used at the beginning of a lesson, or as a quick write. Quardrant B could be used as an exit or admit ticket. Quadrant C could be used during an assessment when you need to know where the next step would be. Quadrant D would be used at the end of a unit to show what the student has learned and some ways they can apply it.

Teaching for learner diffrences: This takes it all and puts it in one process. It's data driven, students are engaged, respected, having a target goal, all students working towards that goal in different ways and groups are moved around based on different purposes not based on ability.

Student centered classrooms: As I read this article Projects that Power Young Minds a couple of things came to my mind. This is similar to a constructivist classroom,. The other thing that I kept asking myself is that the district tells us what to teach and when to teach it. How we can go about making these district decisions and letting the students decide how it's going to be taught?(Know what I'm thinking just can't figure out how to put it in words.

August 5,2010 I am excited to begin this in my classroom. My groups will be smaller and most of the time be in partnership. I am curious on how to begin using STAR and the new strategies that I have learned with the district curriculum that we need to implement in our classroom. This should be a very interesting year for me and will be excited to share with the group what I am experiencing.

Sept. 22, 2010 the strategies that i was so excited about using in my classroom have become more of a difficult process then i have realized. none of the kids in my classroom enjoy writing what so ever. My pre-test was for them to draw a picture of what they knew about tigers. I was very surprised to see that the students didn't really know a lot about tigers. The pictures were mainly pics of lions. Should be interesting to see what their pictures will look like in october. I am trying to teach the window strategy.