At this point in the school year, you've lost hours of precious sleep just staring at the ceiling, your morning coffee just doesn’t taste the same, and your 2 p.m. coffee doesn’t either. You’re left wondering: How can I possibly prepare my students for the new STAAR® redesign?
Assessment
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12/21/22Explore Content
We’re only just beginning to comprehend the implications and lessons of the pandemic’s impact on education--among them, the advantages and limits of remote education. For all its challenges, however, the quick shift to a remote--and thus more independent--learning model came with a pedagogical silver lining. After all, educators have long advocated for and pursued initiatives that emphasize the importance of cultivating greater student autonomy in the learning process. Of the many lessons to be taken from the pandemic, the move to remote learning has a lot to teach us about how to better cultivate more independent learners.
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You may not realize it, but your students value your feedback. Whether it's a quick nod/shake of the head or pages and pages of feedback on an essay, they want to know what you think of their work.
Having said that, not all feedback is created equal.
Here are some tips for how to be sure you're providing effective feedback.
Focus on one thing at a time (or maybe two).
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If you’re anything like 97% of the student population, just reading the term "problem sets" probably made you nod off, groan out loud, or maybe start whimpering quietly to yourself. So just brace yourself and try and stay awake (and optimistic) for a bit. Problem sets can be a good way to assess student learning and help insomniacs fall asleep, so understanding just how to use this tool in your classroom is a good thing.
Problem sets are meant to encourage the practice of concepts learned in class and to keep students sharp on the material. You can find these little assignment gems in physics, engineering, chemistry, math, and economics.
The idea may be kinda boring, but problem sets are useful as summative assessments. They normally count for a small portion of one’s overall grade in the course, but some classes may see a teacher who tallies up all the P-set scores and averages ‘em out for the final grade.
Hey, stranger things have happened.
Usually problem sets are issued continuously, so that students are constantly practicing the material. And don’t forget: that’s a good thing. The assessment benefit is that you, the teacher, get a weekly or biweekly update on individual student’s learning. And even better, the scores of the problem sets can be recorded and tracked, highlighting where additional class instruction may be needed.
But you know we wouldn’t be bringing them up if there weren’t a bit of controversy involved. Here it is: some dirt has arisen regarding problem sets because of the ease of collaboration online. Which means that yet again, Internet morality has come into question, as online forums are set up to discuss and solve problems in the sets.
Plus, for better or worse, problem sets can be magnets for student collaboration. Many students meet in study groups to work out the sets together and turn in their own, handwritten assignments. Some teachers encourage working together, while others consider it cheating. The bottom line: before assigning problem sets in your class, be sure that you know where you stand on the whole "work with a group or not" idea.
Did you stay awake? Kudos. Will your students? We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
If you're looking for other ideas to engage students in your lessons, why not check out our teaching guides?
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If everyone hates standardized testing so much, when are we going to cancel it in all its forms once and for all? For now, that's not quite on the agenda. But that doesn't mean the struggle won't continue. The hope is that teachers can use the standards and the tests that go along with them to help them craft lessons for their students without falling short on creativity or student performance.
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The question we need to be asking is if the intent of Social Emotional Wellness tools is improving student outcomes? Or is it to create analytics sets about them?
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Nobody likes a pop quiz…or at least, nobody likes to fail a pop quiz. If you have students who habitually ace pop quizzes, well then, the words, "Put your books under your desk—we’re having a pop quiz," may be among their favorites in the English language. Most of the time, though? You’ll get a chorus of groans. So what’s the deal? Are pop quizzes perfectly fair and efficient ways to assess student learning, or are they a mean-spirited "gotcha" tactic designed to punish students who may not have finished their homework?
