Traditional vs. Alternative Assessments

In today's world of education we hear words like differentiation, personalized education, student centered learning. Yet, we continuously come back to the age old traditional assessments that are one type fit all. This is one of the issues with today's educational system. Can one assessment truly determine what a child knows? There are several areas of education that standardized tests can not test. For example, standardized tests have a difficulty testing students creative and analytical skills. Often times questions can only reach low levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, because of the limited types of questions available in traditional test making. As a result, there are only certain elements of student understanding that can be tested. Testing is a very individual focus and does not promote cooperation and communication among peers.

There are several reasons why traditional testing does not always work or is beneficial. However, what is the alternative? If we can not assess students with a test, how do we know that students are understanding the content? There is a wide variety of assessments that can take the place of traditional assessments. Portfolios, project-based assessments, performance tasks, and oral presentations are all examples of alternative assessments. The benefit of the alternative assessments is the wide variety of skills needed to complete the assessments. Students are not able to just provide an answer, they most justify, explain, and expand on their answers. This provides a great deal of insight into a student's understanding of the material. Additionally, the evaluation process of these types of assessments are typically done through a rubric style grading. Rubrics allow students to have creativity and freedom within their presentations and puts the learning and assessment truly in the hands of the students.

There are a wide variety of reasons as to why alternative assessments are beneficial. Regardless of the type of assessment that is given you will always find pros and cons for each. It is important to have a clear understanding for the goal of the assessment and use that to select the best method of evaluation.

 Kwako, J. (n.d.). A BRIEF SUMMARY OF TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM. Retrieved September 2, 2015. 

What does technology look like?

How does a technology infused classroom look exactly?

Students buried nose deep in computers, headphones in, absorbed in their device right? 

W. R. O. N. G

Technology infused classrooms require, "critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration." (Blair, 2012). To truly benefit from technology, it is imperative that the students become the central focus of the lesson and as teachers we need to take a step back and allow them to drive their education. Allowing students to be the ones in charge of their education and putting the technology into their capable hands, we are teaching students to become independent thinkers. This is a necessary skill for them to develop when they are ready to enter the real world. Through the use of technology we are providing the students with a means to find resources to support their thinking, answer questions, and to practice their skills. These are all critical components of becoming independent learners and thinkers. By infusing technology into the core of our classrooms, we are provding students with a broader audience. "By using technological resources to establish authentic audiences for student work, we tell students that their work is worth seeing, worth reading, and worth doing." (Blair, 2012). Technology integration opens a whole world of possibilities right in our own classrooms. 

Unfortunately in my classroom technology is not something that is readily available to put into the hands of my students. School wide we have a serious lack of accessibility when it comes to putting students in control of the technology. It is rarely feasible to allow students an opportunity on their own to test their ideas, research, and draw their own conclusions through the use of technology. However, it is not impossible! We just have to get creative. Technology infusion in my classroom tends to take place out of my classroom. We are not equipped with enough devices in my room to even allow students to work in collaborative groups together. Instead we are forced to take our show to a computer lab. Here I have introduced students to the wide world of technology and the many benefits it carries. Students have researched, applied content to create projects and presentations, and have allowed students to creatively express their understanding and given them time to develop their own thoughts about the content. As a grade level students completed a cross curricular forensics unit. The culminating project for this unit was the development of a video at the end. Students had to use their knowledge gained through their various content studies and apply it to the creation of the video. It was written, recorded, and edited by the students themselves. A lack of resources is no reason to not allow our students the opportunity to experience and benefit from the infusion of technology. As teachers, we need to be dedicated to allowing students the opportunity to learn from technology. 

 Blair, N. (2012). National Association of Elementary School Principals: Serving all elementary and middle-level principals. Retrieved August 21, 2015, from http://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2012-technology/technology-integration-new-21st-century-learner 

The Internet in Today's Classrooms

“Gutenberg’s generation thirsted for a new book every six months! Your generation gets a new Web page every six seconds. And how do you use this technology?” (Messengale, 2013) Most people may not recognize this quote taken from Mr. George Feeny. Although his statistics may be out dated, he said this around 1999, his sentiment is true. Today's generation has every piece of information the world has to offer at their finger tips and what are we doing with that information? It is easy to misuse the power that most of us carry around in the palm of our hand. However, if used correctly it has the ability to catapult us into a new level of understanding. 

Today's students have a unique set of characteristics that have not been seen before. They grew up in a generation where everything they needed or wanted was immediate. They did have to wait or use a card catalog to search for an answer. Teaching students to utilize this benefit has added a twist to 21st Century teaching. Dr. Katherine Mcknight has compiled a list of the Top 12 Ways Technology Changed Learning  (2012).  Her article points out something very important. Yes, the internet has changed education immeasurably and forever. Students now have access to tools that were only found in futuristic thinking. We can literally bring the world into our classrooms, through the use of blogs, social media, and videos. As teachers we can facilitate interaction and promote a global mindset like never before. No longer is education a teacher centered task, it now has the student at the center of the learning experience. Learning no longer has to take place only in the classroom. Through the use of online communities teachers and students can interact anywhere at any time. The internet has also opened a plethora of doors to introduce education to higher degrees of differentiation. The internet has made possible the ability to tailor a students educational directly based on their needs. Although there is such a wide variety of benefits  in using the internet in education, it needs to be handled with care and implemented in the proper way. 

I find the use of Visual Thinking Strategies to be highly effective in the classroom. Making connections is a pivotal tool in helping students better understand the content. I find that for my particular content, when students can use images to trigger certain information it is helpful to them in better recalling information. Visual Thinking Strategies requires students to not only interpret images, but support their interpretations with evidence (Visual Thinking Strategies, n.d.). A large part of my job as a science teacher is helping students view images, interpret them, and form clear understandings that they can support. Visual Thinking Strategies allows teachers to accomplish those things through a method that is highly effective. 





It is not necessary to watch the entire video to see that this method can be highly effective in making correlations and calling upon previous knowledge. This video is an excellent representation of the benefits of using Visual Thinking Strategies. 

In my classroom the internet has a very significant role. Primarily it is used to bring experiences to my students. Many of my students lived under privileged lives and worry about where their next meal is coming from. I want to them to know that although they may feel at a disadvantage knowledge is accessible anywhere at any time. We do not have state of the art lab facilities, but my students were still provided the opportunity to dissect frogs through a virtual course. The internet has the potential to break down barriers that may exist and can level the playing field for all students if they know how to properly access information. At the end of the day, I want to teach my students to harness the benefits of the internet and its tools to better educate themselves and become more successful people. 

McKnight, K. (2012). Top 12 Ways Technology Changed Learning. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/how-technology-changed-learning

Messengale, J. (2103, July 11). 6 Ways Mr. Feeny Taught You to Succeed in College. USA Today. 

What is VTS? - Method & Curriculum - Visual Thinking Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vtshome.org/what-is-vts/method-curriculum--2 

21st Century Learners' Need for Instructional Differentiation

"Differentiation allows teachers to focus on essential skills in each content area, be responsive to individual differences, incorporate assessment into instruction, and provide students with multiple avenues to learning" (Hobgood & Ormsby, 2011). There are a huge number of benefits of using differentiated instruction in the classroom. The most important aspect is that differentiated instructional strategies allow the teacher to reach the largest number of students on their level. Through the use of differentiated instruction all students are being provided with a quality education that is tailored to their needs. Additionally, progress monitoring is more beneficial. Rather than one assessment providing a certain aspect of data points, differentiated instruction opens the door to a variety of assessments and data. It has been proven over many years that the use of differentiated instruction is effective, but it also teaches the student to be more assertive with their own learning. Below is a video of a young girl who also firmly believes in differentiating instruction and meeting the students on their level, rather than providing a cookie cutter education when every student isn't fitting that mold. 

Although it has been proven over many years that differentiated instruction is highly beneficial, there is still a large portion of today's teachers that do not take advantage of its benefits. Why are teachers not providing this for their students? Is it not their job to ensure that each student is learning to the best of their ability? The answers to these questions are not exactly simple to answer. Let us look at a typical middle school teacher, they teach 4 classes a day with about 20 students in each class. That means that one teacher is responsible for the education of 80 students. Can you imagine writing 80 different lesson plans that accommodates the individualized needs of each student? That is virtually impossible for any one person to take on. This is where technology allows us to virtually revolutionize personalized instruction in today's classrooms. If used correctly, technology helps the teacher be in a different place at the same time working with each student. While one student may be fully understanding a concept another student may be struggling. With the use of technology the student that is excelling can continue on with the lesson. The student that is struggling can then have one on one attention from the teacher to receive the help they need in understanding the content. Additionally, technology is providing a much wider range of resources for teachers to use within their classroom. It is no longer just a book, that could be outdated, and a chalk board. Today's technology can provide high quality photography, instant information, and a wide range of simulations that provide students with real hands on experience. 

Teaching Community has published an excellent list of resources based on the type of learners in the classroom, Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction.  The article not only provides a list of resources for each type of learner, but they provide resources for all content areas. This is just one site out of an innumerable list of resources that are available to today's teachers, because of technology. 

 Hobgood, B., & Ormsby, L. (2011). 7 Inclusion in the 21st-century classroom: Differentiating with technology. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/every-learner/6776c 

Tenkely, K. (2014). Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction. Retrieved from http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/8484-using-technology-to-differentiate-instruction?page=1#comment_formhttp://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/8484-using-technology-to-differentiate-instruction?page=1#comment_form