Pre Tests and Post Tests

 Why should I use Pre-tests with my class? You should use Pre-tests because it is a great way to assess the prior knowledge of your students. This prior knowledge will help you, as the teacher, decide what to focus on the most when teaching a topic that students have been exposed to. Some examples of pre tests are:

• KWL Charts 
• Questionnaires 
• The Post Test 

Those are my 3 favorite ways to give pre tests. I like the KWL charts because it gives students the ability to track their own learning because they fill the chart out as the unit goes along. I like the questionaries because the students get a sense of what they will be learning within the upcoming weeks. Lastly, I like the Post test..because it gives students a sense of what they will be learning, but I like that it also focuses on specific points that will be covered within the unit. 

Before my fieldwork experience at Bishop Dunn Memorial School in at the 5th grade class. We created a test to give to them. My groups 3 questions were: 

5. What was Jamestown famous for? 

6. The origin of jamestown comes from...

     a. the colonist's king 

     b. Virginia's ordinary person

     c. one of the explorers 

     d. after the river

7. What was the name of the Native American Tribe who helped with the survival of Jamestown?

     a. Inca

     b. Powhatan

     c. Iroquois

     d. Mayan

Post tests are great for assessing your students as well as yourself as a teacher. It tells you what the students have learned, as well as where you may need to focus your instruction on for the next unit or the next year. I think teachers need to make it clear to students that the assessments they are given in and out of class are not just to test the students knowledge and does not always measure their intelligence. When my group created the post test, we created similar, but more challenging questions because the students had shown us that they are very intelligent and are able to retain the information that we are given to them. 

I also believe that teachers need to find other ways than just unit tests for post or summative assessment. In my last blog post I discussed different ways of assessing students and the benefits of them. But to recap, summative assessment , or post tests can be unit tests, final portfolios, or any other sort of project, presentation, or assignment that will prove to you and the student what they have learned. 

EdTPA Tips And Why They Are Important!

10 Tips for edTPA Success! 

1. Communicate with your cooperating teacher. 

It is important to communicate with your cooperating teacher because they have insights and background knowledge to what you need to do and where you need to place the majority of your focus. edTPA is such an important thing that if you have any questions, you need to reach out and ask...do not push them to the side. 

2. Find the right time in the school year to begin the process.

Timing is always crucial! You want to find time where you have the proper amount of time to focus on the several tasks at hand. The more time you put into your portfolio, the better it will be. 

3. Plan Plan Plan! 

The tasks in edTPA are so specific. The more planning you have done, the higher you will score. 

4. Get acquainted with the portfolio platform. 

Like anything else, the more you are acquainted with something, the easier it will be. 

5. Quantify and Qualify 

edTPA looks at the quantity of your lessons just as much as the quality of them! 

6. Read the commentary prompts and rubrics before video taping. 

Knowing exactly what to improve on and to focus on will make your videos so much better overall. 

7. Videotape every lesson you intend to include in your portfolio. 

Even if the lesson doesn't seem important now, the way the students responded or worked cooperatively could be perfect for your portfolio at the end...you don't want to not have a video because of your assumptions. 

8. Send out videotaping forms to families early. 

The families should be notified when and for how long you will be videotaping. If they do not want their student in the video, this should be taken seriously and worked around. 

9. Plan the seating arrangement and camera placement before taping. 

If the family of a student does not feel comfortable having them on video, their request should be honored even if that means rearranging the room for a few lessons. 

10. Focus on student interactions during video taping. 

There is nothing worse than looking at the camera when you are being filmed. The best idea is to forget it is even there and go about teaching the lesson like normal. 

Getting Creative With Geography

Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries. 

Geography can be a hard topic to teach because it can be so boring...but not anymore. The following powerpoint contains 103 exciting ways to teach geography. I am going to highlight a few of my favorites and a few that I would use in my future classroom; but I truly believe that all 103 of them are fantastic ways to teach geography to elementary students. 

All 103 ways are great, but I am just going to share some of my favorites with you here and now!

#3 Google Earth Trip:

- This is a fun activity for pack up time or unpacking time in the morning. One student gets to choose a slip of paper and on that paper is a world city, a landmark or other destination and whatever strip is drawn is the class destination for the day. 

#6 Go Local
- Assign students to walk or drive 5 minutes from their house and take pictures of what is around them along the way. Have them create a photomontage and even link it to a map if they can.

#8 Adopt A Rock
- Give a rock a home. Rock has rocknesia. Identify the rocks name, makeup, where it may have come from, what process have shaped it, etc. This is good for long weekends or holiday breaks. Make sure to have students photograph their rock along its' travels.

#12 60 Second Film
- Have students to summarize a concept as a 60 second film. It will develop their understanding and unleash their creativity.

#23 Bingo!
- Print 3x3 grids and have students fill them in with vocabulary words. Read the definitions of the words aloud. The first person to get Bingo! wins.

#24 Model
- Create physical features of a place with modeling clay.

#40 Describing Photos
- Have student sit back to back. One describes a photo and the other draws what it looks like. The students compare pictures when they are done.

#51 Landscape In A Box
- In a small shoe box students will create a landscape that fits inside the box so when the box is open, the landscape is revealed. A map is put on top of the lid.

#62 Before, Before, After, After
- Choose an image and ask students to consider what happened before the image and what they think is going to happen after the image.. in 10 years, 20 years, 50 years etc.

#72 Model Your Place On A Paper Plate
- Using modeling clays, students will create an environment on a paper plate.

#82 Dizzy Directions
- Each student gets a compass. The teacher calls out directions and the students have to face that way. The last student to face that way is out.

#100 Use A Shower Curtain
- Get a world shower curtain and display it on the wall or floor. The teacher or student can annotate it with expo or any dry erase marker.

The Not So Horrible Horrors of Assessment

Every person would define assessment differently. Students see assessments as horrible assignments that determine their intelligence. To a teacher, assessment can be used in many different ways and there are also three different types of assessment. Each type serves its own purpose in the overall category of assessment.

A big question about assessment is what exactly can be assessed? Here are some things that can be assessed.

Readiness 

Interest 

Learning Profile 

Readiness can be tested by skills, concepts, and content knowledge. Interest can be assessed by interest surveys, interest centers, and self selection. Learning profiles can be assessed by self awareness, work preferences and areas of strengths and weaknesses. 

Another issue that arises is when should students be assessed? This is where the three different types of assessment really come into play. Students should be assessed before they learn something new, during the time they are learning the new topic, and after the new material has been taught to them. These three types of assessment are: 

Diagnostic Assessment 

Formative Assessment 

Summative Assessment 

Diagnostic assessment serves as a pre test. Pre assessment is any method or process used to determine a students current level of readiness or interest in order to plan for appropriate instruction. Some examples of diagnostic or pre assessment would be: 

• Pre-test 
• Graphing for greatness
• Inventory
• KWL Chart 
• Checklist 
• Observation 
• Self Evaluation 
• Questioning 

Formative assessment is assessment that occurs during a lesson or a task. This is a process of accumulating information about a student's progress to help make instructional decisions that will improve his/her understandings and achievement levels. Some examples of formative assessment are: 

• Conference 
• Peer evaluation 
• Questioning 
• Exit Card 
• Portfolio Check
• Quiz 
• Journal Entry
• Self Evaluation 

Summative assessment is the last part of assessment and should be done after the new material is thoroughly taught. Summative assessment is the means to determine a student's mastery and understanding of information, skills, concepts, or processes. Some examples of summative assessment are:

• Unit Test
• Performance Task
• Product/Exhibit
• Demonstration 
• Portfolio Review

The majority of my elementary education tract was based off of types of summative assessment. Seeing how this has changed makes me have high hopes for the children of the future. As a teacher I will focus a lot on formative assessment because it sheds the most light on what students are really thinking and learning from information that they are gathering, 

Social Studies Does More Than We Think

When someone hears the term "social studies" they automatically think of the American Revolution, George Washington or a class they sit through in school. Social Studies is so much more than that. It is a vital component to the education of a well rounded student and a well rounded individual in today's ever changing society. 

Social Studies by definition is " an integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence."

Some of these social sciences and humanities are:

• Anthropology
• Archeology
• Economics
• Geography
• History
• Law
• Philosophy
• Political Science 
• Psychology 
• Religion
• Sociology
• Humanities*
• Mathematics*
• Natural Sciences*

*These are sometimes recognized as part of social studies.

Like anything else, Social Studies has a main purpose. The main purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society; in an independent world.

In schools there are no specific standards for Social Studies like there are for math and literacy set forward in the Common Core. The National Council for The Social Studies does however, set forth 10 Themes that should be covered in a student's Social Studies learnings. These themes are:

1. Culture
2. Time, Community, Change 
3. People, Place, Environment
4. Individual Development and Identity 
5. Individuals, Groups and Institutions
6. Power, Authority and Governance 
7. Production, Distribution and Consumption 
8. Science, Technology and Society 
9. Global Connections
10. Civic Ideals and Practices 

Though these are vague themes, many teachers use them as standards. As an undergrad student we are taught to align these with grade level Literacy, Reading, and Writing standards to create appropriately targeted lessons for our students. 

Knowledge is a huge part of social studies. Different kinds of knowledge can be seen in social studies and well as any other subject. They are all part of Fragile Knowledge. There is also Inert knowledge, naive knowledge, and ritual knowledge. These highly effect a student's deeper understanding and their understanding performance. 

Fragile knowledge is knowledge that is learned in school but is not remembered or understood. 

Inert knowledge is knowledge that allows students to remember information when they are tested, but they do not make any sort of outside, real world connection with the knowledge. 

Naive knowledge is when students rely on simple examples of a topic to provide an answer. 

Ritual knowledge is when a student goes through the motions of school every day but does not apply the knowledge they learn and they make no outside, real world connections with the knowledge. 

Deeper understanding is knowledge that a student can think about, explain and apply to situations beyond the classroom. 

That deeper knowledge leads to understanding performances. These understanding performances are things students do to show that they understand what they have learned. When they understand what they have learned, they will be able to do the following: 

• explain the information 
• give clear examples of the information 
• apply the information to situations beyond the classroom 
• justify the information 
• compare and contrast the information 
• use the knowledge in context 
• make generalizations of the information

Lastly, the principles of teaching and learning social studies. 

1. Social Studies teaching and learning is powerful when meaningful
2. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when integrative 
3. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when value based 
4. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when challenging 
5. Social studies teaching and learning is powerful when active

I firmly believe that Social Studies can be every students favorite subject in school. Social studies is so much more than the memorization game that teachers these days make it into. In my future teaching, I plan to make social studies meaningful, integrative, value based, challenging, active, and most importantly fun! I want all of my future students to have the same positive Social Studies experience that I was lucky enough to have. 

PCK: Pedagogical Content Knowledge

To understand what Pedagogical Content Knowledge is, you first have to understand what Pedagogy is.

Pedagogy is the method of practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge has many definitions. The one that spoke to me most was "teachers interpretations and transformations of subject-matter knowledge in the context of facilitating learning" (Schulman 1986).

There are 5 key elements to PCK They are:
1. Knowledge of representations of subject matter
2. Understanding of students conceptions of the subject and the learning and teaching implications that were associated with the subject matter.
3. General pedagogical knowledge (teaching strategies)
4. Curriculum knowledge
5. Knowledge of educational context.
6. Knowledge of purpose of education.
(Shulman, 1987)

Some other fun facts of PCK are:
- PCK combines theory, learned during teacher preparation and experiences gained from on going school activities.
- PCK is influenced by the background of the teacher and the context in which they work.
- PCK is deeply rooted in experiences of students and their families as well as their communities.

Fieldwork Discoveries

- Discoveries from Planning and Teaching

• Planning needs to be very exact. 
• Lessons can go faster or slower depending on how the students grasp the material, there needs to be prepared for both. 
• Students are going to ask questions that I may not know the answer to, they could either be told to research it themselves and report back to the class or as a teacher, you can tell them that you, as the teacher will research it and get back to them. 
• It is important to learn the students and know their personalities 

- What was discovered about students

• These particular students were very emotional, some were very bossy, and some personalities in the classroom didn't quite click with every other student. There were several "know it all's" in the class an they did not get along with the students who were very bossy.

     - What were your expectations? Were they lived up to? 

• I expected 5th graders to be somewhat organized and more independent than not. I expected them to be able to work with one another with minimal arguing. I also expected them to have really good listening skills and more self control. 

• I personally believe that the maturity level of this classroom was no where close to what it should be. The students were always arguing, even over silly things. They were not independent. They had to be directed step by step in almost everything. Several students lack self control and just think they are too good to do projects because they "know" the information. They make a simple game of jeopardy a process because there is so much arguing. Transitioning from one thing to another was a nightmare. If they have 3 seconds to themselves, all control of the classroom is lost and it takes double the time to get them back on track. 

- Discoveries about self. How did you perform in front of classroom?

• I thought I performed quite well in front of the class. After the initial nerves of being in front of my first whole class, my nerves simmered as I began teaching. I felt very confident in the information that I was teaching. 

- Discoverers about team teaching