Assessment is about GROWTH

Skip Via has encouraged us in the School of ED to think about asking interns to develop professional blogs to chronicle their learning and understanding. I'm mulling it over and trying it out myself first.

Today I met with the interns for our second session together - the theme, Assessment is about Growth, was taken from one our texts: If you're trying to teach kids how to write, you gotta have this book by Marjorie Frank.

This fall, Dr. Deborah Hedeen from Idaho State University presented to the UAF-SOE faculty and staff, sharing about how she planned for professional development relating to NCATE. She talked about giving her folks little toys/tinkets to encourage everyone to be more engaged.


I followed her lead and brought in balloons this morning. After the interns blew them up, I asked how balloons might relate to our theme for the day: Assessment is about Growth. The interns offered great answers:
Our instruction grows as we assess more and more.
We "fill" the students heads with knowledge like we fill the balloon with air.
Just like the balloon can show us how much air it holds within, assessment shows us how much learning each child as gained.

I posted information for the interns "old school:" on posters......

...and using the white board (isn't is amazing that the WHITE BOARD would be "old school?" What happened to the chalkboards?)I set up the instruction for the day similar to the structure of instruction in an elementary school classroom language arts program. The students were divided into 3 groups and rotated around the different work areas. At one of the work areas, the students met with me in a small group. When they weren't with me, they worked with their texts, websites and Blackboard to explore the Alaska Grade Level Expectations and the Northwest Regional Educational Center's Scoring Practice for the 6+1 Writing Traits. Students posted their work on discussion boards I set up on Blackboard. I'm very interested to read what they learned.

Most didn't have time to complete the work in class so I assigned it for homework- just like an elementary teacher might do with her students. I also created a lesson plan for today based on the guidelines we give the interns for their lesson plans. I shared the lesson plan with the students, explaining more about how they will write plans. I also wrote a reflection that I've made available to students on Blackboard. Let me know if you'd like a copy, and I'll email it to you.

I'm impressed with how well the photos turned out for this post...they were taken on my phone!!! With Bluetooth, I am able to transfer the pictures to my computer with no wires - very nifty.