STRATEGIES AND ASSESSMENTS (BEEF UP YOUR SCIENCE LESSON)
CoRe, Learning cycle (5 E’s)
Assessing students before, during, and after each lesson is extremely important. Eliciting student ideas about topics is crucial. I have learned that throughout this semester. However, eliciting student’s ideas is something I still struggle with but I am working on getting better. It is important that assessments are useful and measure what the student knows or doesn’t know about the topic at hand but that doesn’t mean assessments have to be boring. I have learned that I can be creative and make many different types of formative assessments in order to assess by students. I can also make summative assessments and evaluations so that I have what I want to know on them and then I will have an understanding of what my students understand. If I don’t assess my students before, during, and after each lesson how will I know if they made any progress because I would have nothing to look at as a reference (student data is important). While planning and implementing my CoRe assignment I got the opportunity to create my own assessments and the kids loved them which meant a lot to me because I planned with them in mind (CoRe attached). In the beginning of the semester there is no way that I would have been able to teach such a powerful science lesson and plan it out on my own (with some help from a peer). Like I have said, I enjoy science and THOUGHT I was knowledgable about science topics but when I taught my first lesson I had a serious reality check about how much work really needed to go into planning in order for my lesson to be effective and I needed to assess my students so that I would know if they were meeting the objectives I was trying to teach them. Another thing that has helped me with planning my lessons and assessment is the learning cycle which is the 5 E’s (engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate). Coming into science I had no idea what the 5 E’s stood for, didn’t even know it existed but now when I plan that is what I use. I keep my article on my desktop as a reference so that I can effectively plan for my students and make my little scientists enjoy what they are doing and make sure they understand the purpose of the lesson.
CoRe, Learning cycle (5 E’s)
Assessing students before, during, and after each lesson is extremely important. Eliciting student ideas about topics is crucial. I have learned that throughout this semester. However, eliciting student’s ideas is something I still struggle with but I am working on getting better. It is important that assessments are useful and measure what the student knows or doesn’t know about the topic at hand but that doesn’t mean assessments have to be boring. I have learned that I can be creative and make many different types of formative assessments in order to assess by students. I can also make summative assessments and evaluations so that I have what I want to know on them and then I will have an understanding of what my students understand. If I don’t assess my students before, during, and after each lesson how will I know if they made any progress because I would have nothing to look at as a reference (student data is important). While planning and implementing my CoRe assignment I got the opportunity to create my own assessments and the kids loved them which meant a lot to me because I planned with them in mind (CoRe attached). In the beginning of the semester there is no way that I would have been able to teach such a powerful science lesson and plan it out on my own (with some help from a peer). Like I have said, I enjoy science and THOUGHT I was knowledgable about science topics but when I taught my first lesson I had a serious reality check about how much work really needed to go into planning in order for my lesson to be effective and I needed to assess my students so that I would know if they were meeting the objectives I was trying to teach them. Another thing that has helped me with planning my lessons and assessment is the learning cycle which is the 5 E’s (engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate). Coming into science I had no idea what the 5 E’s stood for, didn’t even know it existed but now when I plan that is what I use. I keep my article on my desktop as a reference so that I can effectively plan for my students and make my little scientists enjoy what they are doing and make sure they understand the purpose of the lesson.