Some resources that I will need to follow my game plan are examples of authentic assessments. My first goal is to incorporate authentic assessments into my classroom. Instead of trying to "reinvent the wheel" I would like to see what other teachers have done, and what has worked in other classrooms. I can use the successes and failures of other teachers to formulate my own authentic assessments. Some more information that I may need will come from people in my community. In order to make a true authentic assessment, I will ask community members about real problems and have my students use their skills to solve the problem. For example, maybe the problem is writing a news story while not showing any bias. Not only will my students research a local story, they will also learn how to look at a story from both sides.
So far I have talked to other local educators about what they have done. While I haven't had a lot of success, I have found other places to look. With the Common Core coming in, authentic assessment is becoming much more common and examples are much more available.
I plan to continue to research different authentic assessments and also try to incorporate one into my classroom.
It sounds as though you have a great start to ideas on what you would like to do to reach your goal. Reaching out to your community is a great way to incorporate ideas and real problems that your students will have interest in. Teaching is a profession where it is very beneficial to learn from each other. It is wonderful that we can gain new ideas and learn from others previous lessons. Have you tried to research other teacher’s blogs to view their ideas on authentic assessments? We teach the students that the purpose blogs are to share personal ideas and reflections, feelings and opinions (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). Although a search for these blogs might be difficult, it might be worth the try to hear other teacher’s ideas and reflections on authentic assessments that are not around your area. Good luck with your GAME plan and I look forward to hearing about more progress!
ReplyDeleteCharlotte
Resource
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom
use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
I have not searched for other blogs yet, however, I have searched through Pinterest and found some very valuable websites and a couple blogs. Thank you for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteStephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou have ambitious aspirations that should yield interesting results if all works out well. I admire your initiative go into your community asking about local problems.
Perhaps you can do a unit on journalism and have your students act like field reporters interviewing a few people in the community like their own family members and other local people of different races or cultures. They can bring a flip cam or digital camera with video recording. After getting consent from the interviewees, they could write a news report geared for TV. They could act as anchors or co-anchors and do a live report in front of class using the interview videos.
This kind of lesson will go a long way in fostering the mindset of a self directed learner. It can promote content learning in an authentic setting. It also enables supporting the social needs of students because interviewing outsiders and creating a broadcast news require what Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer,(2009)claims as the underlying values of collaboration: trust, open communication, and risk taking for the outcome to be successful.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based
approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Cecilia
(Pantua-Evasco)