Polling and Formative Assessment
Polling and Formative Assessment
When teachers do formative assessment effectively, students learn at roughly double the rate than they do without it. ~Dylan Wiliam
Formative assessment is planned to gather evidence of student learning. It enables both students and teachers to understand where they are in regards to learning and for teacher to make necessary adjustments. It is incumbent upon the teacher to take responsibility for the learning of all students and to respond by matching the instruction with each student’s current needs.
Incorporating polling into your lessons enables you to gather evidence in real-time. Nearpod and Zoom provide opportunities for formative assessment through polling. Whether it’s a thumbs-up/thumbs-down or an embedded poll, you can quickly check for student understanding to determine your next step.
How to Use Polling
Early elementary: Practice formative assessments through the day and use polls in low-stakes environments as well as instructional environments.
Middle grades: Use of multiple choice questions and students rating their own understanding of the learning targets can be supplemented with open-ended questions and other “prove it (your knowledge)” questions.
Upper grades: We can continue to raise the rigor for students by having them write short summaries after responding to polls. This enables you and them to look deeper into their knowledge and better understand their learning.
When used regularly, polling and other formative assessment strategies, where the teacher makes adjustments to instruction, strengthen the classroom culture by establishing shared expectations of student achievement, build mutual trust and positive teacher-student relationships.
How to Use a Nearpod Poll: YouTube and a more comprehensive article
Black History Month
Culturally responsive pedagogy posits that we incorporate Black history year-round and that our lessons are relevant to all students at all times. Like Hispanic Heritage Month, February provides us with the opportunity to dig deeper and expand on our curricula with an eye towards Instead of focusing on heroes and holidays, we will aim to incorporate themes like social justice, bravery and change. Rather than isolating Black history, we will explore the historical, political and social contexts of past and present and we shall aim to provide students with the opportunity to discuss and reflect upon these themes and their relevance today. Lessons incorporating such themes are not “easy” to teach but by tackling these real-life issues in developmentally appropriate ways, we strengthen our commitment to all students and the realities of our world.
Below are historical figures (all but a couple are Black Virginians) that I will highlight in my school announcements. Again, this is much more surface-level than what we should strive for. I encourage you to develop your own lessons that focus on their points of view, such as inequalities that they have experienced or observed.
I’ve also included some Black History Month resources for educators. Obviously, there are countless resources and it’s important that we appropriately vet all of our lessons.
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross Grade 6-12, Numerous themes and lessons
Scholastic Magazine: Stories/Videos for elementary students
Civil Rights Lessons from Smithsonian
Meet Harriet Tubman (National Archives Comes Alive) Video/Re-enactment
Black History Resources for Teachers (US Gov Site)
Black History Resource Guide and Part 2
At the request of the Department of Instruction, SIS Support has changed the ending dates for Q2/S1 and starting dates for Q3/S2 in PowerSchool to reflect the adjustment to the end of the first semester. We have also adjusted school calendars in PowerSchool to reflect next Tuesday (1/25) as a non-student day. Updated Final Grade Setups documents (HS & MS) have been posted to the SIS Support Site.
Educator Self-Care
As a school we have been focusing on student wellness and self-care. I realize that we need to focus on our own wellness because if we want to support our students, our well-being is critical to our mission. Our well-being is critical to our ability to perform our jobs and we know that when we feel stressed, tired or frustrated, our students pick up on that negative vibe and will also feel stressed, tired or frustrated.
While it’s a small step, I will include an educator self-care activity in most of our staff dispatches. Of course, these are not mandatory; there will be some that you may find stupid and others that catch your eye and help. I’d love to hear from you on other activities and actions we can take.
The following is from Everyday Self-Care for Educators.
Humans have a limited supply of energetic resources. Assessing both the energy expenditures and replenishers in the holistic areas of wellness allows one to prioritize needs for optimal well-being to live a balanced life.
Steps:
- One a piece of paper, create a list of energy expenditures for each category on the wheel. For example, on the physical I might list, “I haven’t been getting more than 7 hours of sleep.” On the intellectual, I could list that I’m working hard on my CRT certification.
- One a separate sheet of paper, create a list of energy replenishers for each category. For spiritual I might write that I’ve been focusing on my mental wellness by using several mindful practices.
- Look at both lists to determine which areas have the fewest replenishers and most expenditures. These will be your priorities on which to focus for a self-care plan.
Information and Tasks
Culturally Responsive Teaching
Virtual School_Official Modules, Culturally Responsive Teaching, 2021-22
Last week’s module was Module 3, Partnerships.
Grading and Report Cards
- Secondary Teachers:
- Please check assignment dates in your gradebooks and adjust them as necessary. All existing assignments with the dates of 1/25/2022 – 1/30/2022 were previously part of Q3/S2 grade calculations. Those assignments will now be part of Q2/S1 grade calculations unless the assignment dates are changed. It is likely that this is not the desired date and you will need to move those assignments to a date on or after 1/31/2022 if you want to keep the assignment as part of the Q3/S2 grade calculations.
- Grades are due February 4 or the morning of February 7
Assessment and Grading Practices Please review the following videos for information and changes to be implemented for second semester. The video is in 3 parts because apparently there are some problems with our contract with Screencast-o-matic. Sorry for it’s length.
o https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bjGFlhwONRo_WYX4x5fwtUuCR31LiiIj/view?usp=drivesdk
o https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gBYdaSxq7-t_WGwo1cet5uFLqozXEv62/view?usp=drivesdk
o https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCBrJ0syZi3w_KNzd-ny409VqDYlMBwK/view?usp=drivesdk
o Here’s the powerpoint
- Elementary Teachers
- Display of grades & report card data will be disabled for students and families until February 10. Report cards should be updated by February 10.
Elementary Announcements
https://youtu.be/ux_YtramGYc: Wednesday
https://youtu.be/lEUw5qldj-4L Thursday
https://youtu.be/Egv0bn46byU Friday
Meetings
While Monday and Tuesday are to be unencumbered time, several elementary teachers asked if we could get together to discuss some problems of practice and solutions. We will meet at 1:00pm if you’re available.
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain and Credential Cohort. Since our CRT and the Brain was canceled because of the snow, we will meet at 2:00 on Tuesday. After the book cohort, anyone pursuing certification/credentials can stick around and discuss/learn from others.
Our secondary meeting will be on Thursday.
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