Affective Learning Processes profile

14 Jun Affective Learning Processes profile

Instructions:

Option 2: Self-Regulation Paper

Using material in textbook readings for this week, create a 3- to 5-page essay to explain the processes of self-regulation of learning described in the video.

Address the following in your essay:

· Affective learning processes

· Internalization processes

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Please answer this question only “Affective learning processes”

THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO READ TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ABOVE!!!!

Current thinking suggests that we need tomove toward more authentic means ofassessment– that is assessment that is bothintegral to instruction and supportive ofinstruction.

00:02:34

Yes, yes.

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I think one of the reasons that our societyseems to be so caught up and needy ofevaluation is there is that need for harddata.

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Oh, Yes– numbers.

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Yes.

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The percentiles and stanines and all.

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Yes, they’re very impressive.

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You put them in charts and have all that dataavailable.

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There seems to be a need to be able toprove in some way that learning has takenplace.

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And it’s not bad.

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But what these tests or this data seem toprovide for us is comparative information,but really not instructional information.

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They don’t seem to do much to help informinstruction or what’s going on in aclassroom.

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Certainly.

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They’re very limited.

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And for that reason, teachers are movingmore and more toward informal classroomassessment.

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They may use reading conferences, forexample, where they discuss a student’sreading on a one-to-one basis, or inresponse groups.

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Or they may use writing conferences.

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It’s an excellent way to determine howstudents are progressing.

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And most important, the student is in on theassessment.

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The students are privy to the kinds ofconcerns that may exist.

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These means are informal, but they arecertainly not without structure.

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Occasionally a teacher may decide to take aspecific aspect of writing and look at that,either across the whole group on a certainwriting sample, or across several differentsamples of a particular student’s writing.

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So that they get a sense of how a student’sdeveloping.

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And often that targeted process that they’relooking at comes from the conference thatthey’re having with students.

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Certainly.

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It grows right out of the instruction and thenit informs instruction as well.

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And these are authentic means ofassessment.

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They not only are integral to instruction, butthey support instruction.

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Another issue that’s related to assessment, Ithink, is the concern for accountability.

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And no matter what kind of assessment weestablish, it seems very clear that we haveto involve parents and society at large.

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Sure.

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They want to know how well schools aredoing.

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Linda, do you see this as an important issuethat needs to be taken into account?

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The public feels that it must have a measureto be sure that students are progressing.

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And that’s a legitimate need and a legitimateconcern.

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We happen in this country to have adopteda form for that, which is cheap, easy, andconvenient, but not very effective or useful,particularly when it comes the driving forcefor instruction.

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We have embedded in the test an idea thatkids must memorize a lot of facts and learna lot of rote skills before they can begin toproblem-solve.

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And so the early grades’ tests areconstructed around that idea.

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And our kids– You know, you can get thetest scores up.

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And our kids do reasonably well, evencompared with other countries in the earlygrades.

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What’s not going on in those years is afoundation for critical thinking and problem-solving.

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So while the kids are busy learning how tocolor in those little circles with number twopencils, they are not reading books.

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They are not conversing.

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They are not learning how to expressthemselves in writing.

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Yes, I agree.

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It is a legitimate concern.

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And Hal, as you’ve already mentioned, thelitmus test is that people want theirevaluation, their measures reported in acomparative way.

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Yes, percentiles.

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Sure, percentiles, of course.

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They want to know how one child compareswith another.

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How one class, one school, even one districtcompares with another.

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Real estate prices, taxes, even legislationcan be influenced by test scores.

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Very broad consequences.

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Sure.

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Ramsay, tell us is this something relativelynew or has this always been in existence?

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If you look at the history of theseaccountability measures, where they’recoming from most of the time is from thelegislature or the governor’s office.

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And the governors want them because theydon’t feel they’ve got compelling data toargue for the state as an economicdevelopment site, or as an attractive placefor people to locate.

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So there’s a lot of pressure from outside thesystem to install these accountabilitymeasures.

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The problem is that they’re usedindiscriminately by policymakers and upper-level administrators, who tend not to be verywell-informed about the– some are, butmany are not– about the content of the testand the emphasis of the test.

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And is that really what they want to use inorder to evaluate their education system?

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The concern about assessment that’sincreasingly raised is a question of whetherwe want a test to dictate instruction orinstruction to dictate test.

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Isn’t it the case that heavy emphasis on testscores can tend to dictate textbook content,and also the related instruction?

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I agree that there is probably too muchindiscriminate use of tests.

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And that tests are probably inappropriatelyused to drive instruction.

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I would much rather see the whole thingturned around.

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I would rather see a sound, competentteacher decide what is important to teach,pursue that, have that be the curriculum ofthe school, or the district, or the state.

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And then have the test be regarded assomething which is a subservient samplethat comes behind them and measures it,and verifies that that’s indeed what you’retrying to learn.

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That’s indeed the relationship which isproper, to have the educational decisionscome first and the tests come behind them,to verify those practices as well as possible.

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But I think what’s happened is that too oftenthe situation is reversed.

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So much of a premium is put on theimportance of the test that it really is thesource of the decisions.

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That’s not the way it should be.

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This is a problem because when instructionis driven by most standardized tests,teaching becomes fragmented, routinized,and [?

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atomistic.

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?] What happens then in the later gradeswhen those skills are called upon, is that thekids don’t have a foundation for it.

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They don’t have the early experiences thatwould make them successful ascomprehending readers andcommunicators.

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And that’s where you see, particularly ininternational comparisons, that Americantest scores dropped right to the bottom.

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We lose ground because we haven’t givenour kids the kind of early gradespreparation.

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We have to find ways to assess whatchildren know in a more productive fashion.

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That costs more money.

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Other forms of testing are more expensive,but we need to begin to put our moneywhere our educational mouth is, so tospeak.

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If we want accountability for real learning,then we have to invest in assessment thatwill be assessing and encouraging reallearning to occur.

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I want you to do two separate things in yourlearning log today.

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The first thing I want you to do is I want youto pick three of these categories right hereand write what you have learned about thedifferences between the North and theSouth pertaining to the three differences thatyou’ve chosen.

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Then I want you to write your point of view,from either a Southern point of view or aNorthern point of view.

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And what I mean by that, if you were aperson living in the South, how would youfeel about the differences between thecountry?

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If you were living in the North, how wouldyou personally feel about all the differencesbetween the country?

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So first of all, pick your three things andwrite what you’ve learned about thedifferences.

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And then write your point of view, eitherfrom a Northern point of view or from aSouthern point of view.

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You have very good ideas.

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And you’ve got them down on paper.

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What have you learned from doing this?

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That the North and South were verydifferent.

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and I think there were a lot of reasons thatwe had the Civil War.

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I think it was kind of necessary because theNorth and South were too different.

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Acting like two different countries, weren’tthey?

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What do you think about the economybetween the North and South?

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I think in the North there was more moneybecause there was more things to buy.

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And there were a lot of banks because that’swhere the bankers wanted to be.

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Because they knew that if they lent peoplemoney, then they would give it back.

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Because they had good products to sell topeople Excellent.

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Excellent thinking.

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I think that learning logs are better thantaking a standardized test, because of thefact that children learn at different levels.

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And a learning log lets every level comethrough.

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Even the highest children and the lowestchildren can express themselves in alearning log, and show their knowledge, andthat they have learned.

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Hi all!

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My name is Sarah.

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I live in Alabama and I am mad.

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Why?

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Because my farm is going to be taken awayfrom me because my dad can’t borrow anymoney from a bank because there are nobanks.

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So unless we sell our slaves, we can’t payoff our debts.

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But if I sell my slaves, we can’t run the farm.

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So we’ll just be more in debt.

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And we don’t have any money to hireworkers.

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I have divided this piece of paper into littlesquares, one for each child.

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And as they are doing their learning logs orworking on their projects, I circulate aroundthe room and write down what I see thatthey’re doing.

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Now in a little while, when they get throughwith their learning logs and we go into theirproject, they will be with their partners.

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And as I go around the room, I look to see ifthey’re on task, if they’re cooperating withtheir partner, the quality of the ideas thatthey are sharing back and forth, how muchof my time they need to finish their project,how much of my help they need to finish theproject, and what is the quality of the ideasthat the partners are sharing back and forth.

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And these are all levels of assessment that Iuse.

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They want some of the money over there.

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OK.

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They wanted to be a little bit more industriallike the North, didn’t they?

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Excellent Christian.

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You’re on task.

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You have good writing skills.

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And you’ve expressed yourself very well.

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I like using the learning log better becausein a test it’s hard to put what you’ve reallylearned.

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Because all you do is fill in a blank orsomething.

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And when you use the learning log, you canput everything that you know about thewhole subject in it.

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So I like that better.

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When you’re wrong on a test, she might nothave enough room to say how you werewrong, or not have enough time to explainwhy you were wrong, so you might not knowwhy.

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But in a learning log, she would usuallycome tell you if you were wrong, or youcould explain what you feel.

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So really it would be your opinion.

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And your opinion can’t be wrong.

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I think they’re really two very importantquestions we have to ask when we deal withthe whole notion of assessment.

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One is does the assessment really measurewhat students have learned?

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And secondly, does the estimate reallymeasure how well students apply whatthey’ve learned?

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And I’d also like to see assessment that isso integral to instruction that practicing orteaching to the assessment is by definitionprecisely what we want to see happening inthe classroom.

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Teachers will say I have to cover this.

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And I had a teacher say to me once, a mathteacher, Dawn Overcash from Winchester,Virginia, she said you don’t have to coveranything.

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You’ve got to uncover a lot.

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So the demands of the curriculum put theteacher in a bind, between a rock and ahard place.

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The teacher’s always between a rock and ahard place.

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The administrator wants to look good.

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The principal has to look good.

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How does the principal look good?

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Test scores.

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That makes a principal look good.

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So the teacher is under the gun to get thosetest scores.

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Now you’ve got a choice here?

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What’s your objective?

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Raising test scores and coveringcurriculum?

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Or is it teaching kids to read and think aboutwhat they read– to write?

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And can we do both of them?

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Yes, we can.

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They’ve been doing it in many schooldistricts.

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OK, so as I’m reading just a short part toyou, what I’d like to have you do is just lookup here at the chart.

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And as soon as you figure out the think-aloud that I’ve done, raise your hand.

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And as you know, what’s the signal that weuse in here when we’re doing a think-aloud?

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Joel, close the book.

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So that’s what you’ll be doing too with yourpartner.

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The name of this chapter is On Parole.

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And I think about the name of the chapter,On Parole and I think about what parolemeans.

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It means that somebody’s been releasedfrom some kind of captivity.

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And my prediction is I think that someone’sgoing to be on parole in this chapter.

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It might be Captain Long John Silver.

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It might be Jim.

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Or it might be the mutineers.

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OK.

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What did I just do?

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Jenny.

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You’re making predictions about the chapter.

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Yes.

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And what was I using to make predictions,Jenny?

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The title of the chapter.

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OK.

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So I was doing that one.

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That’s great.

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“All the troubles of the past months seemedto flood away with the running of the brook–” What I’m doing is I’m watching these girlswork cooperatively.

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And one of them is reading from a novel.

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And the name of her novel is The Door inthe Wall.

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And the listener– Anna’s the listener– she’skeeping a checklist of whatever think-aloudstrategies Christa’s using.

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And these are self-monitoring strategies.

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And Christa’s thinking out loud the thingsthat she will be thinking to herself as she’sreading by herself.

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The importance of what we’re doing is that ithelps the children practice the strategiesthat they’ll use when they have troubleunderstanding what they’re reading at homeor at another time in school.

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And It really does transfer over into differenttypes of reading.

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And these are the strategies that have beenproven to help children to be more effectivereaders.

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It helps me because when I take anecdotalcomments on what I see when I see themusing these strategies, it helps me to know ifthey need further help, if we need furtherlessons on it.

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It also helps me to notice the level of theirreading.

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For example, while I’m listening to themread and watching them using thestrategies, I’m also thinking about theirreading development.

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And it helps me to know what kinds oflessons to work on with either small groupsor the class as a whole.

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How have these strategies helped you,Christa, with your reading?

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Well they helped us understand the bookmore and helped us understand more wordsfrom medieval times.

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And this book is more difficult because ofthe language, is that so?

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So which strategies did you find that wereespecially helpful with understanding theway it was different from our modern way ofspeaking?

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Checking out words and finding out whatthey meant.

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And what other strategies did you use onthis sheet that were helpful to you?

00:18:21

Predictions.

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Predictions?

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Then did you check them?

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Usually I can’t understand some texts verywell.

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So I use all these strategies to make surethat I understand it.

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And for the reading group, Mrs. Collins picksus hard books to read.

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And so I can’t– I have to read the chaptertwo or three times to understand it.

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And sometimes I could just read the chapteronce.

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But doing all these strategies, it will makeme understand the chapter better.

00:18:49

If we can integrate content and process forinstruction, then we certainly ought to beable to integrate it for assessment.

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If we do it well, it should be reflected in thescores that students make on thoseinstruments that we create.

00:19:03

Scott, what new directions do you seeemerging in the area of assessment?

00:19:07

Well, the kind of testing that I aspire to is thekind that students try hard to be successful,the teachers feel are valid methods ofevaluating students’ performance, and thatthe results are used so that they provideimmediate feedback to students andteachers about the direction of learning.

00:19:25

If assessment isn’t shared with students,and parents, and teachers, then who is itserving?

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It’s not being diagnostic.

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It’s not helping the learning enterprise.

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And so I like the kind of assessment that’susually informal.

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It’s usually non-comparative.

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It’s diagnostic.

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Because that most directly serves thestudents.

00:19:46

Mary does a very good job of integratinginstruction and assessment in herclassroom.

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She not only provides the atmosphere, butshe provides the mechanisms wherebystudents get involved in self-evaluation andpeer evaluations.

00:20:02

Mary, tell us some of the ways in which youintegrate assessment into your dailyactivities.

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Every Monday they have to write what theirgoal is for the week.

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In other words, what didn’t work last week?

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What are you having trouble with?

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And they have to write that in a sentence.

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And then on Friday, we get together and talkabout whether the goal was reached or not,or whether they’re going to have to extend itto the following week.

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They also write on that goal sheet which wecall it, what was easy for them, what washard, and what was just right.

00:20:36

And anytime they take a test, if it’s acommercial test as far as math isconcerned, or a test that I make up, I willhave them give me their reaction to the test– what was easy, what was hard, how didyou feel about the test, what do you thinkyou knew, what do you think you’re gonnaneed extra help in?

00:20:52

So you’re constantly trying to get feedbackfor them for them to internalize and toevaluate what they’re doing in the class.

00:21:00

This is a good example of what we’relooking for regarding the use of instructionas a form of authentic assessment.

00:21:08

It’s also a good example of how assessmentcan inform instruction, It seems like theconsequences of this is that students beginto develop more ability to think about theirown thinking, reflect on why they’re right andwhy they’re wrong.

00:21:23

Sure.

00:21:23

Both are important.

00:21:25

An important consideration in testing is theextent to which subject, content and processskills can be integrated and measured.

00:21:34

Do you find both of these elements presentin testing programs?

00:21:37

I think that depends on the subject thatyou’re talking about substantially.

00:21:43

Obviously, in reading, most tests areintended to measure processes– processesof being able to find information in a piece oftext and remember it, and being able to askor answer questions about it later.

00:21:58

If you go into an area like science or socialstudies, the test is primarily content.

00:22:09

You’re measuring the kids’ understanding ofconcepts, of facts, of relationships.

00:22:16

As a matter of fact, tests in those areas arecriticized because they don’t incorporateprocess skills.

00:22:23

Clearly, educators recognize the importanceof assessing for both content and process.

00:22:31

And students need to be offered a variety ofways to demonstrate what they know andwhat they can do with what they know.

00:22:39

Alice, tell us some of the ways that youassess students when you’re teaching forboth process and content.

00:22:47

They can be reading books for pleasure.

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That’s one way of using print.

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They can be doing research, as those twoguys were who were finding out about armsand weaponry in the Bronze Age in Greece.

00:23:01

They can be using print to discuss someaspect of the Odyssey.

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And next door there were some who wereusing print for directions, who were makinga mask.

00:23:14

And so Alice, your students have clearlydemonstrated their ability to use a widevariety of text materials for a variety ofpurposes.

00:23:24

And through her ongoing observations overtime, Alice is able to assess thedevelopment of those abilities.

00:23:32

And teaching it gives an emphasis to reallyestablish a purpose with some inclusion ofan emphasis on cognition.

00:23:40

It’s really the kind of instruction we’re lookingfor, I think.

00:23:44

Alice demonstrates how to incorporate anemphasis on cognition as part of a lesson.

00:23:51

She clearly establishes purpose.

00:23:53

She engages students in some importantactivities.

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And she watches how they’re responding tothose activities that she sets up.

00:24:01

And then she gives students an opportunityto think about how they themselves areperforming.

00:24:07

She thinks about their activities and thethought process that go in it.

00:24:12

And she encourages them to also thinkabout their own thought processes.

00:24:17

Scott, do you agree that this form ofassessment is vital to teaching?

00:24:20

I think informal assessment is vital.

00:24:23

Because without that ongoing monitoring ofprogress, teachers aren’t sure whetherstudents are picking up in the curriculumthat they’re delivering.

00:24:30

And we can’t wait for the end of the week, orthe end of the month, or the end of the yearto find out if our teaching had an impact.

00:24:37

That’s part of the value of the metaphor ofcoaching is that it’s an ongoing daily processin which instruction and assessment arelinked.

00:24:45

They’re interchangeable, almost.

00:24:47

For example, if we’re teaching a sixth gradera lesson on social studies, one of the thingsthat we’d like to do is to make sure that thecontent of the lesson is mastered.

00:24:58

The other thing we’d like to do is to makesure that the student has thought deeplyabout the material.

00:25:03

And so we would like to use writingstrategies, thinking strategies, speaking andlistening, and integrate them into the activity.

00:25:10

Now one of the things that good teachers dois to use authentic activities, like projects orgroup activities, that combine all these skillstogether.

00:25:19

As teachers observe students workingtogether, they’ll see the processes ofthinking as well as the products of theirunderstanding.

00:25:26

Yes, and this integrated emphasis oncontent and process is important acrosssubjects and across grade levels in contentarea classes and also in reading classes.

00:25:36

Sandra, can you describe the thinkingprocesses that you and Allison weremodeling in your reading groups?

00:25:42

We predicted.

00:25:44

We brought in prior knowledge.

00:25:47

We talked about what we already knewabout the book.

00:25:50

And then as we began to read, we talkedout loud.

00:25:54

We thought out loud.

00:25:56

Because we want the children to realize thatwhen you read, you don’t just look at wordsand letters and just run through them.

00:26:05

You think as you read.

00:26:07

A good reader thinks as you read.

00:26:10

How do you help students think about theprocesses they are using?

00:26:14

We are giving voice to all the processes thatchildren normally use when they read tobecome skillful readers.

00:26:22

But it has to be given a voice.

00:26:24

They have to bring it to a conscious level, toreally say yes I do that as a reader.

00:26:30

And once they see themselves as doingthese things, as having these strategies,then they become better readers.

00:26:38

Because they are in control.

00:26:40

It puts it with them.

00:26:41

It’s not somebody else controlling theirlearning.

00:26:43

They have something that allows them tolearn.

00:26:46

They have the strategies.

00:26:48

When students become aware of thesestrategies, they are able to take thatknowledge and apply it to new situations.

00:26:56

They’re empowered to become independentlearners.

00:27:00

Katherine, you work with students with verydiverse abilities.

00:27:05

Do you ever find the need to help them toapproach specific tasks?

00:27:10

The students in our district especially aredoing poorly on tests that are givennationwide.

00:27:17

And one of the things that I think they find isa problem is that some of the students don’tknow how to actually begin a thinkingprocess.

00:27:26

And if I take a class and begin with thinkingactivities, before they actually get into areading activity, they’ll have an opportunityto think about the idea so that they canbroaden what they already know, and thenalso add to what they don’t know.

00:27:47

So if they are predicting, validating,summarizing and anything else that theycan do, I think it’ll improve their test scores.

00:27:57

And that we need to do.

00:27:58

Yes, and when students learn these skills,they can perform well in all situations,whether it be instructional settings orassessment settings.

00:28:08

Predicting, and summarizing, and analyzing,the kind of thinking about thinking, all theseare cognitive processes that really helpstudents become independent learners.

00:28:19

Students help themselves.

00:28:20

And they really become self-evaluators.

00:28:24

Mary Ann, you seem to be interested indeveloping your students’ abilities tobecome independent learners.

00:28:33

How do you do this in the subject ofchemistry?

00:28:35

I don’t think chemistry’s going to stay withthem forever.

00:28:37

In fact, I’m fairly sure that it won’t stay withthem forever.

00:28:41

But I think if I can help them look through abook, read a picture, think about ideas theymay have heard about, tie it together withsomething that’s happening currently– Ifthey can get the feeling that I can work withsomebody else and figure something out,when they get in a job and they’re throwninto a group situation, they’ll have someexperience with that.

00:29:04

They’ll know how to introduce their ownideas, how to sit back, maybe how to lead agroup.

00:29:10

So those are some of the overall goals thatworry me.

00:29:14

Cooperative learning requires a high level ofinterdependence among students.

00:29:19

It forces them to make decisions betweentheir own personal needs and the dynamicsof the group.

00:29:27

Withholding judgment, analyzing, andsharing their ideas are paramount.

00:29:33

And determining how well students usethose interactional skills, whether or not theteacher’s present, is really another key toassessing the effectiveness of instruction.

00:29:43

Another way of looking at this is determininghow students respond to the work that yougive them in their literature responsegroups, that kind of analysis.

00:29:55

The teacher’s not present.

00:29:56

Look at the product.

00:29:58

Alice, tell us how you use these techniquesin your classroom.

00:30:02

You have to start by observing kids becausewhen you observe kids you first begin todiscover what it is they already know.

00:30:09

So that you don’t have to go through theseredundancies, and where the gaps are, andhow you can begin to fill up the gaps.

00:30:21

Because you can’t do it for all of them inexactly the same way.

00:30:25

And anybody can observe.

00:30:27

It’s not a special– I mean I’m not a virtuosoobserver.

00:30:32

You observe.

00:30:33

You watch.

00:30:33

You listen.

00:30:34

You think.

00:30:34

I do a lot of writing.

00:30:36

I keep a log, a journal, lots and lots and lotsof writing.

00:30:42

Part of my observation of what kids do is toread the stuff that they write.

00:30:46

And they do a fair amount of writing in thisroom because it’s something that I value.

00:30:50

All of that gets put together in my head.

00:30:53

I talk with the student teacher who does herobservations.

00:30:57

I talk with my colleagues who’ve seen thesekids in other contexts in other years.

00:31:02

All of that forms a body of knowledge that Ihave about this youngster.

00:31:06

And then I put that all together and I figureout what I can offer that would stimulate,challenge, provoke thought.

00:31:17

And then I record what happens.

00:31:19

And then I meet with parents and I tell them.

00:31:22

By observing what your students do inactual practice, you can see whether or notthey are in fact exhibiting the techniquesyou’ve demonstrated in the classroom.

00:31:31

What’s implied by authentic assessment is ameasurement of students’ learning throughtests or instructional processes that arereally central to the cognitive and affectivesituations we want students to learn.

00:31:43

Assessments are consistent with instruction,the instruction that has taken place.

00:31:48

Authentic measures support the instructionalprocess.

00:31:50

They don’t distort it.

00:31:52

This can be done when teachers set goalswith their students and work with them tomonitor their progress.

00:31:58

And they can use checklists or anecdotalrecords to keep tabs on their progress andobserve how well they perform throughprojects, whether they be written or oralactivities.

00:32:11

Both the goals and the measures ofprogress can be put in the student’sportfolio.

00:32:15

Good idea.

00:32:16

When you’re ready then I’d like for you towrite a letter.

00:32:18

But before we start, let’s have someexamples.

00:32:21

What are some goals that you’ve alreadyaccomplished?

00:32:24

Barbara?

00:32:24

One of mine was to learn to put a topic inone paragraph instead of scattering itaround.

00:32:32

And I’ve learned to do that since you’vewritten a paragraph with the class.

00:32:36

I’ve learned to start putting it togetherinstead of scattering it, and justremembering to put it there, and revising soI can put it in one paragraph.

00:32:44

So you’re putting all the details that tellabout one topic in a paragraph.

00:32:49

So you’re developing your main idea.

00:32:52

Excellent.

00:32:53

In the portfolio, it shows the process thechildren go through in writing.

00:32:59

We can see the pre-writing.

00:33:00

We can see the draft.

00:33:02

We can see the revision, as well as the finalcopy.

00:33:05

It’s not just a product.

00:33:07

But there is the process that the children gothrough in writing, as well as in learning toread too.

00:33:13

And that’s very evident in the portfolio.

00:33:15

In this particular conference, I want thechildren to be aware of the goals that theyset for themselves.

00:33:22

I want them to look at them and to makesure that they are working to achieve thosegoals.

00:33:29

And I think by them analyzing what theyhave done thus far, and then writing a letterto me telling me their plans, it will help tokeep them on target.

00:33:40

And also, I will take the letters and look atthem and make sure that if there are mini-lessons that I need to teach to help themachieve those goals, that I will work that intomy plans in the next few weeks.

00:33:52

And I might be able to help guide them tocertain kinds of literature that they want tomake sure that they read.

00:33:59

I might make some suggestions if they needthe suggestions.

00:34:04

Skilled instructors know what’s usefulinformation and what seems to work best foreach student.

00:34:10

This is accomplished by providingopportunities for learning to take placewithin an environment which valuesreflective thinking and learning, by bothstudents and teachers.

00:34:18

Yeah.

00:34:18

And they know that learning is occurringwhen students are able to take a strategyand apply it to a variety of circumstances.

00:34:26

And then make decisions about what elseneeds to be done to fill gaps in the learningprocess.

00:34:31

We’ve observed several innovativeprocesses related to assessment.

00:34:35

But one wonders what could be done toimprove the traditional assessmenttechniques that school systems continue touse.

00:34:40

Well, assessment, I think, is a fundamentalcharacteristic of life in classrooms.

00:34:45

And it’s not going to go away.

00:34:46

What we need to do is make sure thatassessment works to the benefit of teachersand students.

00:34:52

Too often we think of assessment in terms ofcomparisons amongst students, and who’sdoing better, or who’s doing best.

00:34:59

And that’s not what assessment is designedto do in good, rich classrooms, wherecoaching is evident.

00:35:06

Assessment is an ongoing part of learning.

00:35:09

And so what we need are diagnostic formsof assessment, not comparative forms ofassessment.

00:35:15

So that one of the things that I’d like to seehappen is that teachers in districts andparents reevaluate the multiple bases forevaluating student progress, and to makesure that the assessments that are evidentin the classrooms are the things that servethe students and the teachers best.

00:35:32

Do you use some reading think-aloudstrategies when you’re reading to help you?

00:35:37

I used predicting with title and picture clues.

00:35:43

And I also, when I have a hard part that Idon’t understand, I read it over a few times.

00:35:51

And then sometimes I read over the nextsentence.

00:35:54

And then it makes it clear.

00:35:56

Well, I like this a lot better t than the test,because the test you just– it doesn’t showwhat we can do as much as the portfoliodoes.

00:36:10

If it’s a multiple choice test all we have to dois just put in a circle.

00:36:15

That doesn’t show anything.

00:36:17

With the portfolio, it shows that we learnedthings and we understand what we’re doing.

00:36:22

It is an opportunity to show more what weknow.

00:36:28

The fact remains that assessment still drivesinstruction in this country.

00:36:32

And we have a lot of teachers who are reallyconcerned about this.

00:36:35

They’re concerned because students arebeing labeled for their weaknesses ratherthan for their strengths, looking for what’swrong with them rather than what’s right.

00:36:42

And that’s really too bad.

00:36:43

And a lot of teachers are looking for waysaround that.

00:36:46

And what they seem to be finding is a goodway of assessing is to watch how studentsrespond to carefully structured instruction.

00:36:53

Sure.

00:36:54

And I think that’s a key contribution of theteachers with whom we’ve talked.

00:36:59

They consistently look for the strengths oftheir students.

00:37:03

They want to know what their studentsknow, rather than simply what they don’tknow.

00:37:07

And they manage to involve students in theirown self-assessment.

00:37:12

Assessment, then, is used to assiststudents, not to punish them.

00:37:15

It becomes a gate opener rather than a gatecloser.

00:37:18

The foundation of all this, both assessmentand instruction, seems to be the pursuit ofthe idea, the centrality of that concept in anylesson.

00:37:29

And what that leads to ultimately, I think, isbuilding students’ confidence in their ownreasoning powers.

00:37:35

And that, in turn, leads to a lifetime of beingable to build bridges between what theyknow and what they don’t know, confident intheir thinking abilities.

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