Self Assessment Reflection |Spring 2013 Student Teaching
Artifact Description
This artifact is a self-assesment rubric I used for Honors Algebra I and Algebra I students during student teaching at Rantoul Township High School, after we covered exponent rules. I adopted this rubric from a second year teacher who used this rubric on factoring. I had students pick a certain number of exponent problems from a worksheet. Afterwards, students received immediate feedback as we discussed about the correct answers in class. They then had to grade themselves based on whether or not they had the right answer and showed the correct steps. The self-assessment required students to grade themselves on how they think they performed. Although they graded themselves, I did not record that grade, but gave students full participation points if they completed the self-assessment. By doing so, this gave students a space to be honest with themselves without worrying about the actual letter grade.
Satisfying the Standard (3D, 3H, 3M)
This self-assessment served as valuable feedback for me as a teacher in considering what next steps to take with the class--should we spend more time in class covering exponent rules, or should we move on to the next topic? Therefore, this artifact demonstrates my understanding of when and how to adjust plans based on outcome data, as well as student goals and responses. Based on the feedback I received from students, the majority of the students wrote that they were becoming comfortable with the exponent rules and demonstrated this through their work. By providing students this self-assessment and asking them to grade their own work, I am establishing high expectations for each student's learning and behavior as I am giving them a space to be honest and to reflect on their learning. When planning the self-assessment, I took into consideration possible student outcomes and considered different pathways based on student needs. If students indicated that they needed more practice, I would provide them additional practice problems. If students indicated that they felt comfortable, I would consider providing them conceptual questions that would allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the mathematics. All in all, this artifact showcases how I utilized student performance data to plan and guide my instruction.
Professional Development
As all students learn at different paces and in different ways, it is a huge and critical task for teachers to design instruction based on diverse student characteristics. One thing that I have learned through teaching, is that it is not always easy to plan for differentiated instruction. It takes a lot of meaningful planning time and multiple resources to come up with different opportunities to engage diverse student characteristics. I have also learned that in order to differentiate instruction, teachers must provide students opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and to challenge themselves. My goal as I enter the teaching profession, is to equip myself with multiple ways of differentiating instruction. For instance, providing students different level worksheets, breaking students into small groups, using self-assessments as feedback to guide instruction, are some of the many ways how I can provide students more opportunities to learn in the classroom as well as assess their own learning.
This artifact is a self-assesment rubric I used for Honors Algebra I and Algebra I students during student teaching at Rantoul Township High School, after we covered exponent rules. I adopted this rubric from a second year teacher who used this rubric on factoring. I had students pick a certain number of exponent problems from a worksheet. Afterwards, students received immediate feedback as we discussed about the correct answers in class. They then had to grade themselves based on whether or not they had the right answer and showed the correct steps. The self-assessment required students to grade themselves on how they think they performed. Although they graded themselves, I did not record that grade, but gave students full participation points if they completed the self-assessment. By doing so, this gave students a space to be honest with themselves without worrying about the actual letter grade.
Satisfying the Standard (3D, 3H, 3M)
This self-assessment served as valuable feedback for me as a teacher in considering what next steps to take with the class--should we spend more time in class covering exponent rules, or should we move on to the next topic? Therefore, this artifact demonstrates my understanding of when and how to adjust plans based on outcome data, as well as student goals and responses. Based on the feedback I received from students, the majority of the students wrote that they were becoming comfortable with the exponent rules and demonstrated this through their work. By providing students this self-assessment and asking them to grade their own work, I am establishing high expectations for each student's learning and behavior as I am giving them a space to be honest and to reflect on their learning. When planning the self-assessment, I took into consideration possible student outcomes and considered different pathways based on student needs. If students indicated that they needed more practice, I would provide them additional practice problems. If students indicated that they felt comfortable, I would consider providing them conceptual questions that would allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the mathematics. All in all, this artifact showcases how I utilized student performance data to plan and guide my instruction.
Professional Development
As all students learn at different paces and in different ways, it is a huge and critical task for teachers to design instruction based on diverse student characteristics. One thing that I have learned through teaching, is that it is not always easy to plan for differentiated instruction. It takes a lot of meaningful planning time and multiple resources to come up with different opportunities to engage diverse student characteristics. I have also learned that in order to differentiate instruction, teachers must provide students opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and to challenge themselves. My goal as I enter the teaching profession, is to equip myself with multiple ways of differentiating instruction. For instance, providing students different level worksheets, breaking students into small groups, using self-assessments as feedback to guide instruction, are some of the many ways how I can provide students more opportunities to learn in the classroom as well as assess their own learning.
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