Forms of Assessment

Assessments are important because they help a teacher better understand the comprehension her students have gained from a lesson.  They are used to help monitor growth and evaluate the necessary pace of a lesson.  If assessments of a particular lesson are poor then the teacher would know not to begin a new concept.  The students also get a better understanding of the degree of their comprehension.  It is very easy to ask if everyone understands a concept and move on, but the possibilities of having an honest perspective are slim.  I like to assess individually as my children work in centers.  It is easier for me to assess my grade level with a checklist to make sure they are on task.  I also integrated that into my unit.  The teacher will be using a checklist as well as a KWL chart to see where their knowledge of the farming concept is.  We will also include a rubric to evaluate comprehension.  We need these forms of assessments in order to understand the children's comprehension and to decide if it is okay to move on to another lesson.

Me Portfolios

I enjoyed reading about "Me Portfolios" in Chapter 6 of Daniels and Bizar.  I like to do an "all about me" theme at the beginning of every year.  In  order for the children to learn about their new classmates we so several introduction activities.  Their favorite is when they are asked to fill a bag full of items that represent who each child is.  They put in items such as favorite colors, food, toy, movie, what they want to be when they grow up, etc.  They also draw a picture of themselves so that we can use it at the end of the year to compare their drawings to the beginning portraits.  We look at similiarities in the different children to see if any of them like the same things and then discuss differences.  It helps the children understand that everyone is different and that is Okay!!! "All About Me" is a very fun unit in getting to know one another!!!

Task 3

I would choose to do my lesson on the "Symbols of Life" retrieved from http://ncmoa.org/artnc/lesson.php?lessonPlanid=13.  I would target the 2nd grade because I feel like the students would need to be able to write their opinions.  The students would be asked to write a story or a blog about what they see in the picture.  After reading the story to the class, they would do a group discussion on what other types of still life could have been included.  We will do a web of the different ideas.  The students will then be asked to draw their own depictions of a "symbol of life" from their interpretations of the pictures.  At home or in their community they will find one example of a "symbol of life" and bring it to school for homework the next day.  We will review the items brought and write a class story on using the symbols represented.

Task 2

I would choose to modify Strategy 7 on Developing Map Skills for my Pre-K classroom.  I think it would be interesting to have my students design their own maps of their homes and their communities.  I would love to see what it looks like in their minds.  I would start them out by showing them how I would make a map of our classroom related to our school.  They could then related to the immediate area outside.  I am sure that I would have to help most of my children draw their images, but having them dictate what they see would be very interesting.  They could work with their parents and create a map of their home so that we could put it on a school map of our area.  I would show them some local maps and areas both on paper and online.  They could create their map at home and then we could combine them all into one.  This might give them an idea of distance as well as the area of a community.  Sounds like it might be fun, as well as very interesting.

Task 1

I definitely got a better understanding of the differences between topics, themes, concepts, and big ideas from reading Chapter 4 in Shell & Fisher's book.  I remember a little bit about the Big Idea concept from taking the National Boards.  I use themes in my classroom where I can incorporate them into all of the subjects and centers.
We will be able to use big ideas in order to know what we want I end result to be.  We have to have an idea of the finished product in order to assign task.  We have already picked our topic and a theme that we want to follow and will be using different concepts to follow that theme.  It was interesting to read about all of Ben Franklin's Big Ideas.  It helped me have a clearer understanding of the differences in the concepts.

2010-2011Reflections

This has been an awsome year.  I have been blessed with a great class.  They had a great amount of academic issues, but great personalities.  I have grown close to each and every child and dread telling them goodbye.  Anticipating next year is always a little nerve racking!! I don't even know where I will be next year thanks to the governmental issues.  I can only pray that I will be back in pre-k.  I'm looking at the bright side and if I get moved to kindergarten, maybe I can loop my fabulous class!!  Pray for all of us pre-k teachers this summer.  Our state needs pre-k in order for these children to succeed!!!

Guiding Children's Questions

As I was reading the section on "Guiding Questions" in Chapter 5 of the Drake & Burns textbook, I thought about how easy it is to just offer a "yes" or "no" question to students.  One thing I have always been taught as an early childhood teacher is to be sure to ask lots of open-ended questions.  The book calls these "guideing questions".  Sometimes asking"guiding questions" can be difficult because you have to be ready for any answer and it could take a really long time to get to the final point.  As I lead group time I like to ask open-ended questions and sometimes it can make our carpet time last what seems like forever.  I love to hear anwers and listen to the children's vocabulary as they try to answer my questions.  I work with very young children which often means their answers of very interesting!!  I tend to use more "topic questions" than ""essential questions" because my students are not ready for the abstract.  They need a little help to stay on topic, or who knows what you will be talking about my the end of the day.  I also use a lot of open-ended questions as I work through the learning centers with my students.  I like to make them think about what they are doing and as "what if" and "how could you" questions.  It is quite interesting to hear the answers when they have to think and use their imagination and prior learning knowledge.  I think I teach a great age to begin the important use of "guided questions".