Module 3 Reflection

This module has helped me think about the impact of the Internet on my students' learning in the following ways:

The classroom can be opened as often as Wal-Mart (on Atlana Highway 0f course). Through web pages, chatrooms, and other useful interactive tools, students and parents are able to communicate with teachers and peers on a consistent real time basis. A coumputer is in almost every home, and almost every student knows how to navigate through the Internet. Students can turn-in assignments, check homework, complete group projects, virtually visit the library, and many other things. In addition, the Internet makes learning fun by painting pictures and linking children to distant worlds. It is a resourceful tool for teachers as well, opening up lecture time and eliminating the 50 to 90 minute window.

Module 2 Reflection (2/08/10)

This module has helped me think about using standards, CFQ's, or formative assessment in the following ways:

Sometimes teachers become overcome with a bundle of standards to cover in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, in the light of this situation, they often assess their students through summative assignments, covering several standards in bulk. However, CFQ's provide students with an outline or a guide to realize how real life situations relate to concepts being taught in the classroom. I find that the opportunity to use these formative assessments in classroom provide students and teachers with an easy to use guide, creating a path to mastery of standards.

I will make continuous attempts to implement CFQ's in my classroom, hoping to guide instruction and filter misconception. This will enhance my lessons by providing substance for my students.

Module 2 Reflection

How can CFQ's help support my student's learning?
CFQ's or Curriculum Framing Questions provide students with a guide. It steers not only them but the teacher into the right direction. The questions give both parties (teacher and student) an opportunity to search for more in the lesson just by evaluating a general, semi-specific, and specific question set. The answer to one of these three types of questions can be very elaborate and even evolve into more inquries about the subject. At minimum, CFQ's give meaning to any given unit for the teacher and student.

How can I plan ongoing assessment?
Testing is repetitive, necessary, and overwhelming. It is good and bad. There is a matter of how to assess that determines the success of students on those assessments. Creating a chart could be a possible effective means of assessing students without constantly testing them. Basically, asking students to perform a variety of tasks (journal, report, create questions, recite, teach a peer) within a timeline could serve its purpose if students were constantly given points based on the task performed. A point system can be instrumental if you base the students overall achievement (grade and skill level) on accumulated points at the end of a unit.