One Teacher's Adventures

  What is Assessment? Assessment is an integral part of a teacher's job. Assessment is a systematic measure of how students are learning in order to improve their learning. Effective assessment practices should direct the next steps of the teacher. Both formative and summative assessment practices should be used in every classroom.  What is Formative Assessment? Formative assessment is a part of the learning process. It provides teachers with a snapshot of teaching and learning while it is still happening. Formative assessment allows for guided practice for students so that the teacher can check the understanding of their students. Formative assessment allows for the teacher to make adjustments as needed and guides future teaching. What are Some Formative Assessment Practices? While this list is far from complete, here are some formative assessment practices that I use in my middle school classroom. 1. Exit/Entrance Slips Exit slips are a quick, written response to a question ...

This term, I've partnered up with the Literacy Support teacher in my school for my Social Studies 8 class.  For two blocks each week, she comes into the classroom and we co-teach lessons for the Grade 8s. She has more experience and so many more ideas than me, so it's been amazing getting to work with her in the classroom and learn from her. One idea that she had was to do an artifact study to explore culture and to spark critical thinking. This is what we did over the course of 4 days. Day 1:   As a whole class, we had a discussion about artifacts.  My co-teacher, Laurie, is Ukrainian and brought in a Ukrainian headscarf from her family.  She didn't tell the kids a lot about the scarf at teh beginning of the lesson.  Instead, she asked them to observe it, ask questions, and arrive at conclusions about it.   For example, one student noticed it was made from wool, and concluded that the people who made it must have had access to sheep to col...