Miss M's Learning Space

English Language Learners (Chapter 8) Assessment  for English Language Learners (ELLs) is based on the modifications/accommodations outlined in the student's IEP that are based on the student's language-learning needs. On report cards teachers will check the ESL/ELD box to indicate that modifications to the curriculum have been made in order to address the language learning needs of the student. However, just because a student is participating in ESL or ELD classes does not mean that there are modifications being made to the curriculum. Several accommodations can be incorporate into the assessment of ELLs; such as:  allowance of extra time;  use of alternative assessment strategies; or  use of simplified language and instructions.  Modifications vary on a student-to-student basis and are based on how early a student is in the language learning stage and how limited/extensive their prior schooling was.  Some other resources to help teachers include ELL studen

This week was our final week of presentations and our last traditional class, and therefore my last reflection post. We went over technology in the classroom in general, but specifically their applications within the data management and probability strand. The first resource was Prodigy , which I discussed in detail in my post from week 8 , so I won't go into detail about it here. In addition, we talked about an activity called story graphing . The idea is students graph some variable over a series of time. Based on the above story, students could get a variety of specific height answers since they're making an estimation, but hopefully their graph would look something along the lines of: This activity allows students to interact with, and clearly understand, what a graph means . I would consider this an appropriate activity for students in grades 5-8 as a part of the data management and probability strand. Another interesting activity is the video below. It doesn&

Students with Special Needs (Chapter 7) An individualized education plan (IEP) will specify whether a student is requires:  accommodations only;  modified learning expectations, with the possibly of accommodations; or an alternative program, not derived from the curriculum expectations for a subject/grade or a course.  Students who require modified or alternative expectations will be evaluated based on those expectations, as outlined in the IEP, not the curriculum requirements for that grade level.  Accommodations are requirements by some students in order to participate with the curriculum and to demonstrate achievement of the expectations. They are changes in procedure that enable students to demonstrate their learning.  Modifications are changes made to the grade-level expectations for a subject. Modifications can include a blend of expectations from different grades or an increase/decrease in the number and/or complexity of expectations from the regular grade

Reporting Student Achievement (Chapter 6) In Ontario, student achievement is documented in a series of report cards. The first is the Elementary Progress Report Card which represents a student's general progress through the curriculum as well as development of learning skills. The second is the Elementary Provincial Report Card which is distributed twice a year and designed to showcase students academic (curriculum) and developmental/social (learning skills) achievements.  High school report cards are distributed at the end of each semester and reflect similar achievements to those in the elementary report cards.  The Elementary Progress Report Card for grades 1-8 indicates progress through the curriculum using the following phrases rather than letter grades:  progressing with difficulty;  progressing well; and  progressing very well.  On the Provincial Report Cards, however, there are letter grades assigned to students in grades 1-6 and percentage grades assig

Screen Time - Part 1 NPR (2015). Screen Time - Part 1 [Online Image]. Retrieved from: http://n.pr/1KbeEb Podcasts are a wonderful source of media for teaching students about oral communication (specifically listening) since there are podcasts covering almost every topic under the sun, and they're typically more interesting than a book being read aloud since they're designed to be consumed orally. The specific podcast I chose to discuss today is one by the radio station NPR (National Public Radio) that brings together several TED talks of similar topics. This one, screen time - part 1, talks about how advances in technology are changing not only how we communicate but who we are. The language can be challenging at times and the topics fairly advanced, but it may be what's necessary to spark interest in students and push them to more advanced listening and thinking. Before, and During, the Podcast I would prepare students for a podcast by asking them to mak

Evaluation (Chapter 5) Evidence of student achievement is gathered through observations, conversations, and student products using multiple sources of evidence in order to increase reliability and validity of student learning. In order to determine a report card grade there are several considerations a teacher must make. In addition to taking into account all evidence gathered throughout the class/unit, the teacher will also consider what's missing , and what weight different evidences might carry. Teachers will use their professional judgement in order to assign a grade based on the aspects of student performance listed above.  Report card grades are based on the achievement charts and success in achieving the overall expectations. In grades 1-6 students are assigned a letter grade, whereas students in grade 7-12 will be assigned a mark out of 100 (a percentage).  Growing Success (2010). Achievement Levels Grades 1-6 [Online Image]. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1LWt

Assessment for Learning, Assessment as Learning, and Assessment  of  Learning (Chapter 4) Assessment for learning: assessment that is used to gauge where learners are in their understanding of content; it is not used for grading but rather as a tool for students and teachers. It's broken down into:  diagnostic assessment which occurs before instruction begins so teachers can determine students’ readiness to learn new knowledge and skills, as well as obtain information about their interests and learning preferences ; and  formative assessment which occurs frequently and in an ongoing manner during instruction , while students are still gaining knowledge and practising skills. Assessment as learning: assessment that is ongoing and in conjunction with students. It attempts to foster students to become their own best assessor. It is comprised of:  formative assessment which occurs frequently and in an ongoing manner during instruction, with support, modellin

Performance Standards: The Achievement Chart (Chapter 3) An achievement chart is a standardized way of assessing curriculum expectations. The achievement charts are divided into several categories. First, they are divided into 4  types  of knowledge and skills (page 17).  Knowledge and understanding: s ubject-specific content acquired in each grade/course (knowledge), and the comprehension of its meaning and significance (understanding).  Thinking: the use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes.  Communication: the conveying of meaning through various forms.  Application: the use of knowledge and skills to make connections within and between various contexts.   In addition to being divided by  types  of knowledge and skills, they are also divided into  levels of achievement . Level 1: achievement that falls much below the provincial standard. The student demonstrates the specified knowledge and skills with limited effectiveness. Students must work at si

The following series of posts is an outline of what I've learned in our assessment class. It's outlined by sections in the Growing Success guideline and ties together several resources from around the web. In addition, it includes a personal reflection on what I need to improve in order to better integrate these practices into my classroom.  Learning Skills and Work Habits (Chapter 2) The learning skills and work habits are defined by Growing Success (page 11) as:  responsibility;  organization;  independent work;  collaboration;  initiative; and  self regulation.  Several other resources expand on why those are so crucial in the work force/in society in general. For example, the Conference Board of Canada outlines the employability skills which are strikingly similar to (but more expanded than) the skills outlined in Growing Success. Similarly, the Ontario Ministry of Education describes the Essential Skills - again a more expanded version of the learning

This week we discussed data management and probability. The main thing to remember when teaching data management is the quality of the data (i.e. is it meaningful and accurate). One way the data can be made less meaningful is if the sample size is too small. For example, if we only sample 3 people in a class of 45 then the results of the sample will not apply to the entire class. I'm going to organize this post similarly to my week #9 post in that I'm going to outline several strategies/activities that can incorporated into lessons for data management and probability. Terminology: Probability Line It's important for students to understand the terminology that's used when talking about probability. Below is an example of a graphic that could be posted in the classroom for students to refer back to regularly.  MathIsFun.com (2014). Probability Line [Online Image]. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1MpzS9B  Having an anchor chart in the room like this one will h

This week we discussed various units of measurement and various types of measurement. For example, we talked about measuring in bps, metres, kg, and minutes as well as how to calculate area, perimeter, and speed. I'm going to discuss in this post some of the activities I found to be the most engaging for students. Video Clip The first activity is a video by John Green called 36 Unusual Units of Measurement . It discusses bizarre (but very real) units of measurement that are no longer commonly used. This video can lead into discussions surrounding what it means to be a unit of measurement (i.e. everyone needs to agree what 'one' of the unit is, but other than that they can be fairly arbitrary) and some other units of measurement not often discussed in schools (ex: GB). I showed this video to the class I'm observing and got mixed reviews. Some students absolutely loved the video since they read a lot of John Green books. Others simply enjoyed the content and

In this week's exploration of geometry there were two activities in particular that really stuck out for me. The first activity is a toothpick puzzle game as a way of reasoning with edges and vertices and how changing one affects the shape as a whole. The second activity, No Pegs Allowed, is similar to the first in the sense that it explores how changing a part affects the whole, but it uses geoboards and requires students to find all triangles that have no pegs within them. And the last thing I want to reflect on this week is a game I found while observing a grade 7 class. Toothpick Puzzle When presenting the toothpick puzzle it is important to make the learning goal of the activity clear before they start, that way they understand why they're doing this activity and will have the learning goal in mind while they work through the puzzle and will likely be better able to make the connections we're hoping for them to make.  The puzzle works by presenting the studen

MsJordanReads (ND). Roll-A-Story [Online Resource]. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/206TZAA This unit is based on the activity I found on Classroom Freebies Too which led me to Teachers Pay Teachers . The activity is called 'Roll-A-Story' and it's an excellent starting point to create a series of lessons that will help students develop their writing skills. Depending on how the activity is framed it can be useful for many grade levels. The resource itself is recommended for grade 1-4, but in this post I'm going to be going over a way it can be used in grade 7, or late grade 6. To the right is the actual Roll-a-Story handout; students roll a dice 3 times in order to get a random character, setting, and problem. This puts advanced students in a position where they must think creatively in order to combine those three elements logically. My suggestion, is to use this resource as a starting point to help students come up with an idea before spending at least a coupl

I never understood the connection between patterning and algebra until this past lesson; we seek out patterns, and then algebra is how we communicate patterns to each other. We start in elementary school by describing and representing patterns, then in middle school we model and predict patterns (through algebra), and then in high school we solve and analyze those patterns.  Since I'm observing a grade 7 class right now, I'm going to focus on strategies at the grade 7 level. In grade 7 students move beyond extending a pattern to the next three items, and start being able to calculate patterns at any point, and students begin to see patterns as relationships. For example, if a car is moving at 50km/h consistently for 3.5 hours, how far will they have travelled? If we chart it on a 'T' chart we can see the patterns:  MacCuish (2015).  Based on the above diagram, students can easily see that as time increases by 30 minutes (0.5 hours) then the distance tra

I found an excellent resource on EduGAINS called Critical Literacy: Is Reading Dangerous?  It goes through a sample lesson for teaching critical literacy of a poem, but I'm going to outline how it could be applied to the reading of persuasive articles.  The idea of the lesson plan is to discuss how reading could be ‘dangerous’ and includes strategies for differentiated instruction, small group and large group activities, a rubric, and curriculum connections. Activity Outline The majority of the lesson plan would apply directly to the critical literacy of a persuasive article with a few minor exceptions. For example, the lesson plan begins with critical learning, and curriculum expectations (see below) which would remain as they are for a persuasive article.  Literacy Gains: Transforming Instructional Practice Supports – Grade 7 language (N.D.) Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1LSvhua Minds On Literacy Gains: Transforming Instructional Practice Supports – Grade 7 langu