"I Can Post In My Blog So That I Can Reflect Upon This Week's Discussion"

I have thoroughly enjoyed and been intrigued by this week's discussion. I get the notifications of a new posting sent to my gmail, which pops up on my phone, so I've had some interesting reading all week. I especially like this week because it's giving me a fresh perspective on a topic that we discuss a lot in my district. I feel like sometimes we (my colleagues) can get pretty grumbly about in-service, so this is a nice take on a topic that has much importance in the classroom.

I liked reading Shephard's article about the history and research of assessment, which ended like kind of a "where are we going and how are we going to get there" vibe for me.  Regarding this new type of assessment, I found myself agreeing that they made much more sense. But to my surprise, I also found myself coming to the conclusion that regular old summative assessment has its place, too. I know that I use those types of assessments, but sometimes I would feel guilty about it. However, this week has given me some peace in that regard. Perhaps formative assessment can be more catered to the s/c mindset, and I think it just does that naturally, and this will lead students down a path in order to be summatively assessed.

May I digress here for a second to display my amusement/concern that the word "summative" keeps getting the red squiggle for misspelling? It's a word so new for a concept so old that our computers don't know what to do with it! Ahhh!

But anyway.

So I have to admit, I kind of groaned at the thought of reading about the NCTE standards, as our district (and I'm sure many others) has been just crushing us, via the state of Pennsylvania, via the national Common Core movement, with new standards and how to align our curriculum therein. It's frustrating to reinvent the wheel, especially for teachers who have very little free time. So when I started reading these standards on this website, I immediately felt defensive, as if to set out to prove that we are already doing these things! However, I ended up liking a different perspective from that of CCS; these were broader and more life-friendly. Ending with a smile-worthy expectation that families should be involved in the process, as well. So often do they just look at the end product: the grade. When in fact, there might (and usually is) much more to the percentage on the report card. (Like a girl I had who got a 96...probably wrote at the level of 90...but just tested well and turned in all of her homework. I hope her parents get a chance to really view her individual scores on assignments so they can understand what truly made her earn a 96...this would help her in the end, and I'm not trying to trick anyone, but I would think that I would want the same for my own child someday).

Initial groan aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this list and understanding a little more about these expectations. So often we get tied up in the scare of the standard that we forget to step back and view them like the NCTE details for us: in a matter of simple, yet defined, real-world tactics.

Overall for the week, I feel that I learned so much and was able to pull from things that I have filed away from previous in-service days. I like being able to reflect upon these things and think about how to use them so that my students can learn better every day!