Differentiate:
Each student is unique. They have their own neuronal network that is created from their life experiences. It has been shown that learning takes place when a student connects what they have already experienced with new learning. Thus it is important to create opportunities for students to make a connection between the class material and their own personal experiences. With these connections they are then able to critically think and create new knowledge and learning with the inputs.
Students learn in different ways; they have their preferred learning styles that allow them to best take in and understand information. It is important as a teacher to present activities and information in various formats so that all learning styles can be addressed in the classroom. With the presentation of information in various formats all students will have better access to the information. By having diverse presentation of material students will be able to both use learning styles they are most competent with but also be able to practice with learning styles that they still need to better develop.
Students also need to be given practice opportunities based on where they are at in their learning of the material. To differentiate appropriately you must understand where the student is at in their understanding. This can be done through various and diverse forms of formative assessments that allows the teacher to give specific feedback to each student. It can be hard to know what students know because they have a difficult time expressing what is in their head. Because of this I like to give students a choice of ways that they can present their learning to me as a teacher. Much of the time the demonstration of their learning is in some written format. For students who have a hard time expressing themselves completely in this way, I have also followed up verbally with them. This can take the form of them simply trying to express more completely what they were writing about or I might ask probing questions that allows them to show greater depth to their thinking.
Each student is unique. They have their own neuronal network that is created from their life experiences. It has been shown that learning takes place when a student connects what they have already experienced with new learning. Thus it is important to create opportunities for students to make a connection between the class material and their own personal experiences. With these connections they are then able to critically think and create new knowledge and learning with the inputs.
Students learn in different ways; they have their preferred learning styles that allow them to best take in and understand information. It is important as a teacher to present activities and information in various formats so that all learning styles can be addressed in the classroom. With the presentation of information in various formats all students will have better access to the information. By having diverse presentation of material students will be able to both use learning styles they are most competent with but also be able to practice with learning styles that they still need to better develop.
Students also need to be given practice opportunities based on where they are at in their learning of the material. To differentiate appropriately you must understand where the student is at in their understanding. This can be done through various and diverse forms of formative assessments that allows the teacher to give specific feedback to each student. It can be hard to know what students know because they have a difficult time expressing what is in their head. Because of this I like to give students a choice of ways that they can present their learning to me as a teacher. Much of the time the demonstration of their learning is in some written format. For students who have a hard time expressing themselves completely in this way, I have also followed up verbally with them. This can take the form of them simply trying to express more completely what they were writing about or I might ask probing questions that allows them to show greater depth to their thinking.
Summative Assessment Personal Health Unit 5 - Valid Information
Personal Health Unit 5 - Special Topics
Personal Health Unit 5 - Special Topics
Formative Assessment Analysis:
I used two of the formative assessments in my class early this fall. It didn’t work as well as I hoped but I still found it a worthwhile exercise. Here is what worked well. When the students did a good job giving an example and then explaining why they felt it met the scale it really gave me a good idea if they really understood the learning scales. Sometimes the example and explanation they gave did not match up with the learning scale they circled. When this was apparent it was easy to then have a brief conversation with the student about this scale and improve their understanding of the differences between the different levels. If I noticed that this was true for a number of students in class I would then also revisit this standard with the whole group.
One reason that I did not think this formative assessment was as successful as it could have been was because students were often not good at giving specific examples, they tended to be very general, and their explanation of they this met the scale was likewise weak. This did lead to class wide discussions about evidence and analysis which I consider global standards, but it was not really what the class purpose was at that time.
I found that it was much more efficient to have students report their level of achievement on the learning scales verbally at the end of each class. This would allow me to ask for specific examples and explanations as I felt it was necessary. This was better than reading all of these formatives, giving written feedback on each, and then recording it in my gradebook.
I used two of the formative assessments in my class early this fall. It didn’t work as well as I hoped but I still found it a worthwhile exercise. Here is what worked well. When the students did a good job giving an example and then explaining why they felt it met the scale it really gave me a good idea if they really understood the learning scales. Sometimes the example and explanation they gave did not match up with the learning scale they circled. When this was apparent it was easy to then have a brief conversation with the student about this scale and improve their understanding of the differences between the different levels. If I noticed that this was true for a number of students in class I would then also revisit this standard with the whole group.
One reason that I did not think this formative assessment was as successful as it could have been was because students were often not good at giving specific examples, they tended to be very general, and their explanation of they this met the scale was likewise weak. This did lead to class wide discussions about evidence and analysis which I consider global standards, but it was not really what the class purpose was at that time.
I found that it was much more efficient to have students report their level of achievement on the learning scales verbally at the end of each class. This would allow me to ask for specific examples and explanations as I felt it was necessary. This was better than reading all of these formatives, giving written feedback on each, and then recording it in my gradebook.
Formative Assessments - Unit 1 NASPE 5.1,
Unit 1 ESL 1.4 & NASPE 4.5,
NASPE 4.4
Unit 5 (PH) - Vocabulary, Brain, Addiction
Unit 5 (PH) - Exit Card
Unit 1 ESL 1.4 & NASPE 4.5,
NASPE 4.4
Unit 5 (PH) - Vocabulary, Brain, Addiction
Unit 5 (PH) - Exit Card