Assessments

Synthesis:

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas (Chapter 19)

The text discusses the importance of secondary literacy assessments and how we can use the results of assessments to learn how to best assist our students. Assessments help teachers understand the needs of their students. "Effective teachers meet students at their current levels of ability and then scaffold attention and learning so students can move to the next levels of achievement" (p. 349). Teachers need to understand a student's current knowledge and skills and work to extend their abilities. Common Core has changed in recent years and has left students and teachers with more to learn and more to teach and higher standards for standardized assessments. The texts they are required to read are more complex and students must use higher levels of thinking strategies.The use of multiple literacies can aid in helping students conquer these higher demands.

The text mentions an assessment that sounds very useful, called CARI (content area reading inventory). This assessment is used to assess students' reading, thinking, and study processes with content-area texts. The CARI is very flexible and can be very useful for teachers who wish to learn more about how to assist their students, such as finding out about potential problem areas in the text and skills that a student may lack that could be helpful for effective reading. Teachers can use the results of the inventory to determine strengths and needs of each student.

As students proceed through grade school, self-awareness becomes more and more important. Teachers can give students a vocabulary self-awareness chart before beginning to read new material. This is a chart that students can continue to revise and add new information as students read. Students can monitor their own growth with their vocabulary knowledge, and teachers can also track their progress.

Afflerbach

How do we assess? Why do we assess? What do we assess? These are questions that were discussed in this reading and they are questions that teachers must constantly think about. We have to know the answers to these questions to create assessments that will be helpful for both teachers and students. When creating an assessment, we have to keep in mind 3 things- cognition, observation, and interpretation. There are many ways that teachers can assess their students, the simplest being everyday classroom observations. Teachers need to constantly be assessing their students and their own teaching. Professional development can assist teachers with creating successful assessments.

Moje

Culturally responsive teaching is very important in today's world. Teachers need to know their students and their background, and respect everything about the student and his/her family. Teachers also need to understand youth culture and pop culture and use this knowledge to build bridges and connect with students. Teachers need to be respectful of all students and strive to create a classroom community. The text also discusses using culturally responsive pedagogy to navigate different discourses.

Responses:

(text to text)
I am taking another course right now called "Measurement and Evaluation". We discuss how to create effective assessments and what to avoid when writing test questions. I know how important assessments can be and how we can use the scores to help our own teaching and also help our  students.

(text to self)
Assessment is a scary topic. Tests were always scary to me as a student, and they are still daunting to me as a teacher. I am happy to have many resources available (such as these texts) and to have professional development that can help with creating assessments that are effective.

(text to world)
Common Core and state standardized assessments have made the job of teachers and students more difficult. It is important that teachers use efficient teaching strategies and design assessments that align with these new standards.

Questions:
1.  What do you think is the key to creating effective assessments? Any advice for a newbie who has never created an assessment?

Thanks ladies! :)

Multiple Literacies, New Literacies, and Multimodal Learning

Synthesis:

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas
(Chapter 4)

This chapter outlines the benefits of the Discourse study. "Discourse organizes and constrains thoughts, words, and actions" (p. 64). Discourse helps teachers value the different literacy identities, interests, and abilities represented in the classroom. Primary Discourses are acquired at home, while Secondary Discourses are learned outside the home by another source (school is a Secondary Discourse). Each Discourse has its own set of rules that make it unique. Matches and mismatches of discourses can affect a student's literacies and learning. Discourses can allow for a greater understanding of different types of literacies. This instructional strategy:

1. values literacies within print and non print text 
2. employs explicit instruction to develop meta-awareness 
3. develops multiple perspectives 
4. analyzes structures of Discourses to identify agency and power to affect change 
5. creates conscientious citizenship 

These are skills that are important for students in the 21st century classroom. 

(Chapter 16) - Multimodality and Literacy Learning

Classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse with varied student populations, cultures and languages, and academic abilities. At the same time, students are being raised in a society that has gown up in a multimodal world. They have access to any sort of information they desire right at their fingertips. Multimodal (visual, auditory, gestural, and kinesthetic) learning uses this access to technology and celebrates diversity as an advantage for the classroom.

In one of the examples of multimodal learning in the classroom, Deborah uses three different text types: a reading, a photograph, and a video clip. The students were able to think about the different text types and engage in different interpretations of a historical event. Deborah engaged her students in critical thinking and her teaching also exemplified how the Common Core State Standards can be taught using different modes of literacy.

Teachers should teach for conceptual understanding. This requires that students use various strategies to help them make connections to their own lives and knowledge. Multimodality and having a "new literacies stance" help students to reach a conceptual understanding. A teacher who uses a new literacies stance uses new types of literacies in the classroom and believes in a dialogic and collaborative classroom. A teacher in this type of classroom knows that using multimodal texts requires students to use skills and abilities beyond those required for conventional print materials. Looking at different types of texts helps students see different points of view and makes them question what is and what is not represented in the text.

Kim and Kamil

• Computerized Instruction: 

The computer can be a good tool to help students and teachers alike. This technology can help make material more comprehensible for students and allows for differentiation in the classroom. Students can use computer practice activities to prepare for standardized testing. Computer instruction can be especially helpful for vocabulary instruction and guided reading. This type of instruction can be used to supplement usual classroom instruction. Before students participate in computer activities, explicit instruction is needed for students to understand how to navigate and properly use computer resources safely. 

• Social Technology: 

Electronic communication can help students engage in literacy. Students have to use their words to make their point and have to learn to explain themselves in a way that is understandable. This type of communication can be valuable for someone who is shy to face-to-face conversations. 

• Adolescent Attitudes Toward Technology: 

Gender and age can affect a student's relationship or attitude towards technology. A student's socioeconomic status or their access to technology at home can also affect a student's knowledge of technology and their engagement. Some students may need more assistance with using the technology and becoming comfortable with it.

Coiro

This text discusses how to foster the development of students' online literacy. Reading online texts can be much different than reading a paper book. Students need to know how to use these types of texts and interact with them to help their comprehension. Cairo gives 5 guidelines for helping students with their online literacy development:

1-  The effective online literacy teacher understands and makes explicit for students relationships between offline and online reading comprehension strategy use.  
2 – The effective online literacy teacher honors the literacies that students bring to school from their daily lives.  
3 – The effective online literacy teacher explores and clarifies expectations about new classroom roles and relationships embedded in problem-based online collaborations.  
4-  The effective online literacy teacher provides time for students to develop positive dispositions toward learning and communicating on the internet.  
5-  The effective online literacy teacher uses self, peer and teacher assessments as inquiry to inform reading strategy use and classroom instruction.  

Responses:

(text to text)

The Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas text discussed how multiple literacies can be used to accommodate to the diversity of the classroom. We have discussed diversity in great detail in another one of my courses: Culture, Language, and Literacy. Technology can be a great tool to improve comprehension of all students, even those that come from diverse language and cultural backgrounds.

(text to self)

I am a huge fan of technology. I use technology in my everyday life for personal reasons, but I also use and sell technology for my job. I work at the One University technology store. We have a lot of cool resources available to students to use and buy. Many of these technologies can be used in the classroom to help engage students. For example, the 3D printer can be used to create real-life representations of material being studied in class.

(text to world)

I think this reading was extremely relevant to the world that we live in. Students are growing up in a technological world and teachers have to be adaptive to it. No longer is it acceptable to only use conventional texts.

Questions:

1. What are the main types of technology you use in your classroom?

2.  How do you think that we can better support multimodal learning?