Last chapter before the actual FACTs!
Read chapter 3, pg. 31-44 and answer the following questions.
1. When thinking about the bullet point on p. 35 that says "Don't grade FACTs," but also knowing that we want to provide feedback to the students, what do you think is the best way to go about this? Should we grade it, but not enter a grade in our gradebook? Provide more verbal/written commentary? Check +/ check - type feedback? What do you think works best and why?
2. Looking at figure 3.3 on p. 39, what questions do you already feel you converse about with your department, and which do you feel you need to discuss more? Which do you think FACTs will help us out with the most?
3. After reading these first 3 chapters, are there any major concerns you have about implementing these in your classroom? What do you think is a reasonable goal for you to set for yourself? 1 per week? 1 every other week? Commit to a goal that will work for you (considering we can share these amongst ourselves) and let us know how many you plan to implement.
Next week we will start reading through these a few at a time and trying to implement them in our classrooms. I can't wait to hear which ones we use and how they go!
Please try to respond to this post by Friday, October 24. Then respond to one or two colleagues' posts by Monday, October 27. If you get behind, no worries! This is not meant to be stressful. Also, continue to keep track of your own hours during the course of this blog.
1. I have been providing a check, check + and check - response to my students. I tell them that check + means they've got it, check means they're close but may not have written enough and/or may have some errors and check - is they really aren't understanding. I also take time to correct the things they wrote incorrectly so they have a corrected version. It really doesn't take that long at all. I don't know if this is the best way to go about this so I'd love to hear some feedback. It took the kids a few times with them constantly asking if it was a grade in the gradebook before they really understood why we were doing it. I don't think they've experienced a lot of formative assessment before so I had to thoroughly explain the purpose behind it.
ReplyDelete2. I think our department is good about discussing pace, problematic concepts, and, more recently, preconceptions and prior knowledge. We could definitely use more discussion on using formative assessment to differentiate, as well as looking more closely about what formative assessment teaches us about our curriculum matching our learning goals.
3. I would like to try one every other week. At some points in instruction (beginning of a unit) it's easier to give one. I would like to write some that are implemented when we are deep in the unit to check how they are doing. This is my goal.
I still think the best way would be to “grade” them. Now, I doubt I would take record them in the gradebook, but nonetheless, I will still look them over and use some sort of checkmark system. i.e. check, check minus, or check plus. I would also alternate between not taking for a grade and taking for a grade. I believe that if you don’t hold the student’s feet to the fire every now and then, they will become complacent and start to slack off knowing that you as a teacher won’t take it for a grade.
ReplyDeleteI feel that for the 7th grade science department, we talk about our pacing being appropriate and hoping that we will get everything taught in the prescribed time. I also see us talking about what we need to do to improve our lessons. I would think after each lesson, we are constantly asking ourselves that question. I know from year to year, we have tweaked our lessons because we saw gaps in some of those lessons. Probably the biggest question that I have that we need to discuss is are the students progressing well toward our goals? If not, then what do we as teachers need to do to help those students get those goals? Divide up into 3 levels of science? As for the which FACTS will help us at the most, well, I think there are too many variables to give one particular answer to that. I believe that it depends on what the kids can handle, and what the topic might be.
One of the biggest concerns that I have would be finding the time to implement these assessments. A reasonable goal would be one every other week. I would like to “test” more often, but don’t know if it can be done and still get everything that needs to be done. I will start with one every other week.
Your biggest concern is one I have too.... finding time to implement FACTs. I want to embed many, and want to discover ways to provide feedback to individuals or small groups that doesn't draw time away from class as a whole. I guess FACTs can help differentiate, which would not take class time away from students... just time outside class for us to develop.
Delete1. When thinking about the bullet point on p. 35 that says "Don't grade FACTs," but also knowing that we want to provide feedback to the students, what do you think is the best way to go about this? Should we grade it, but not enter a grade in our gradebook? Provide more verbal/written commentary? Check +/ check - type feedback? What do you think works best and why?
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on when you use the FACTs. If it is at the beginning of the unit--definitely not grading them. If we are using them at a point in our curriculum where they should know the material--then yes--I would grade the FACT. If it is mid-stream I have the students make corrections/additions/deletions as we go over the answers using a colored pencil. This is something that I think should be policy in ever classroom. Students want to erase their wrong answers. Once I explain to them that it is a great study tool because as you study for your tests/quizzes focus more of your study time on the times you had to add/change/correct.
2. Looking at figure 3.3 on p. 39, what questions do you already feel you converse about with your department, and which do you feel you need to discuss more? Which do you think FACTs will help us out with the most?
I don't feel that we talk enough about what the misconceptions are that our students bring to our class. I am hoping this book and the OWP gives me/us great ideas to use.
I feel we would like to use formative assessment as a differentiation tool but with our changing curriculum we don't have the time. As we get our curriculum set this year we should be able to do more differentiation next year.
Tammy and I are always talking about what went well in a lesson, the pace of our instruction.....
3. After reading these first 3 chapters, are there any major concerns you have about implementing these in your classroom? What do you think is a reasonable goal for you to set for yourself? 1 per week? 1 every other week? Commit to a goal that will work for you (considering we can share these amongst ourselves) and let us know how many you plan to implement.
Since we give small quizzes each week the time before or after the quiz would be a great time for a FACT. I like having the weekly quizzes so I an gauge where my students are and where we should go next. Waiting until the end of a unit is too late.
1 hour
How long have you been doing the small quizzes? My main question is, do you think they are effective?
DeleteWe have been doing them for several years. They are designed to take 10-15 minutes. I think they are very effective. It lets you know right away if you need to re teach or do intervention. I hope we can get lightning grader to work and they get the iPad APP running soon so I can give more exit tickets.
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ReplyDeleteI would think certain FA’s (those that look / feel like a mini-quiz) still could be given a grade. I’ve been assigning a small value of 5 to 10 points for certain exit slips. After providing feedback, I give students scoring 60% or lower the opportunity to try again at home (no time constraint, maybe adding text support or visuals ). Most, when given this opportunity, take advantage and earn 70%. They just seem to respond when they view an unfriendly score inked on their paper. With the variety of FA’s described in this book I would think many can remain under the students radar, providing valuable data/info on student interest, skills, and understanding and help guide our instruction. I also like the idea of possibly inking a score for them to see yet not recording in the gradebook… use for data purposes, and informing parents where students stand without grade impact.
ReplyDeleteLooking at figure 3.3 I think big areas of focus on the use of FACTS should be identifying student misconceptions and concepts which seem problematic. Discussions could extend between grades as our students move to 8th. Collaboration on how we can turn data into differentiation opportunities should also be a focus. With all of the content we present our students, I think FACTs data sharing/discussion between 7th teachers can guide proper pacing and make best use of precious time.
I don’t have any major concerns other than learning about the variety and implementation of FACTs. I would think a couple per unit would fall well in my comfort zone. Proper feedback techniques which are not too time consuming is a slight concern. I really enjoyed Carrie’s MTV drawing FA at the beginning of the atoms unit. Very simple to scan and get a view of where individuals / whole group are. I don’t want FACTS to look and feel like never ending mini-quizzes for students… the MTV did not fall in this category.
Sorry for the few “comments deleted” as I didn’t copy/paste whole response first try… and last sentence seemed to link MTV activity in with mini-quizzes. Will preview better before future posting!
1.I would say that we grade them but don't enter them into the grade book, or enter them in the grade book but mark them as not for a grade so we can track the progress of each student. There is a function on grade pro where you can tag an assignment to not show on the progress reports for the parent to see. I have been toying with adding assessments like exit quizzes to my grade book for only me to see and color coding the entries so I can easily track the progress of the students as we move through a topic. I just haven't had the time to create the set up to do it.
ReplyDelete2. I think we already talk about misconceptions, engagement, pacing, and how to implement assessments within our lessons. We don't really discuss students that are struggling in a sense of the actual kids but we do discuss ways to differentiate between the levels of the students that we have within our classrooms. I think our discussions are going to need to be about choosing the right FaCT for the correct purpose within our lesson.
I think the facts will help us flush out misconceptions and track the student progress through a unit.
3. I would say that one per week might be a good place to start and then expand from there. As we get caught up with our technology I think we should try to work in "plickers" which is a system where the kids hold up cards to answer questions and you take a picture with your phone or ipad to record the answers. There is even a way to set up the system to send it to your grade book if you import your seating charts...might cut down on some of the time involved in entering grades all the time for formative assessments.
I like the idea of putting them as "not for a grade." It would be a good way for us to track their progress.
DeleteInteresting about holding up a card and taking a pic of it--we will have to discuss more ways of integrating technology to make this grading of the formative assessments as easy as possible!
I would like to learn more about "plicking" and how it can be entered to gradebook... I am amazed something like this is available. This would be one of those under the radar FACT's that can maximize valuable instruction time. I think BYOD, teachers included, is going to become commonplace.
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