Taylor's blog

In this week's class, we learned the importance and how we should write objectives. Objectives are very important when it comes to making lessons for your students because they basically show or state what the student should know or be able to do after instruction. These objectives are always linked to a core standard and include a "formula" that was discussed in class. This is the ABCD formula. the A stands for the audience which is, usually in a classroom setting the student/learner. The B stands for behavior , so this is what the student/ learner will be doing. C stands for the condition , so what circumstances are they doing it? Lastly, the D stands for degree so this is at what level of understanding you want. An example of this put together is, Given a piece of paper , each student will write down with a pencil 3 book handling skills , with at least 70% accuracy . When writing an objective, you want to apply this formula because it provides a clear and learner-...

In week four of class, we discussed a lot about Bloom's Taxonomy and Depths of Knowledge as well as how we can incorporate these into the classroom. When it comes to Bloom's taxonomy and depth of knowledge it is very important to us as teachers because we are going to use it every day when planning our lessons. Depth of knowledge is not hierarchal more so is organized by rigor. On the other hand, Bloom's taxonomy is Hierarchal. For example, you will need to remember something before you try to understand it. While these have their differences they also co-align when it comes to planning lessons. For example, it acts as a "steppingstone' so as you go higher in Bloom's taxonomy the more rigorous the activity is in the Depth of Knowledge. Overall, blooms taxonomy gives you the verb for the objective but at that level of DOK, it gives you activities to measure that objective. In my future classroom, I would use it in the exact same way as explained because it will ...

I have always had an idea of what documentation was, but now I have learned the different ways we can do this and the benefits to this as well as why we do it. Documentation to me is a creative way to show a student's progress and learning. Artifacts that can be included are observation notes, videos of students playing, and/or students' work. There are a few ways we can do these: taking notes, taking pictures, and/or videos. Documentation is utilized for many reasons, but a few are, revisiting what a child learns, communicating with families, and advocating for appropriate development. I would use mainly individual portfolios and even portfolio panels as a way for students to show off their work, track their progress, and communicate with their families. There are two types of documentation we learned about, which include, Conventional and Reggio Emilia/project style documentation. The conventional style is more individualized. For example, students would each have their own p...

I learned a lot about observation and the different ways we can do that. Observation is the base of assessment and shows students' progress throughout time. The types of observation include running records, anecdotal records, time sampling, event sampling, checklists, and rating scales. I would use checklists when the students are working individually, and I can quickly walk around the room to check if they are doing a certain thing. For example, my students could be working on writing, if the student writes full sentences, then I can check off this task. I will use time sampling more so if I need to know the frequency of something happening. For example, how often a student is off task. Event sampling would be used when I want to record why a certain behavior may be happening. I would use this if I had a student who acted up a lot and I needed to know what the cause was. For example, I can have a kid who hits a lot and when observing I can write that, but then what happened to cau...

  In the first week of class, we learned all about assessment and the many ways we can assess students. When defining assessment in my own words, it is a way for teachers to observe, track, and gather students' progress and learning in many different formats and then be able to use that information when teaching/planning. There are two types of assessment, formal and informal assessment. We spent time in class explaining these. Formal assessments are more like quizzes, exams, and standardized assessments. Informal assessments are more laid back and focused on the student. These can be anecdotal records, portfolios, and/or self-assessments.  As a future teacher, I want to incorporate both types of assessments but focus more on informal so I can focus on the individual child's needs. I would use a diagnostic assessment before beginning a unit or lesson because it would show me what the child already knows before I teach a certain topic. When I say this, I mean that if I see that...