Excellence in Education:
Individual Oral Check For Understanding
In observing several teachers this week (Patterson, Krasny,
Miller, Smith, Murphy, etc.), I saw teachers interacting with students as they
worked at their desks. The teachers used this time to guide, assess, provide
feedback, and interact with students. The below ideas are a conglomeration of
what I observed and how the process can be used to maximize student learning.
Oral Checks For Understanding are a great way of assessing
students while providing immediate feedback. In using Oral Checks, you work
your way around the classroom asking students questions to ensure they have met
the learning target. This can be as
students are working on/completing an assignment or a way of checking to see if
the students understood their homework (obviously, you want to have the
students working on something as you go from student to student). Your
questions should be aligned with your learning target/objective (as a matter of
fact, you can simply turn your learning target into a question). As students
answer the question, you simply record their level of understanding in your
grade book. This can be a simply check ✔
, a letter grade, or a scaled (1-4) grade.
Examples:
Question stems: Why? Explain…Tell me about…What do you think
about...
Math: Have the students explain how they came to an answer
or how the could apply the mathematical concept in real life.
Vocabulary: Randomly ask students to define/use one-three
words
Any subject: How does this relate or differ from something
we’ve previously studied?
Advantages
- You’re not relying purely on a written assessment.
- It gives you a chance to interact with each student.
- It’s a great means of differentiating based on readiness. You can tailor your questions based on the student’s ability, readiness, or interest.
- Great way of formatively assessing and providing feedback to your students. If you see a student is struggling, you can easily redirect her, and if the whole class is struggling to answer your question(s), you have an opportunity to immediately re-teach. If a student is experiencing success, complement her on his effort.
- It’s a quick and efficient means of assessment. There’s no need to spend more than a couple of minutes with each student. Since the assessing is already done, you don’t need to take home the students’ papers.
- By visiting with each student, you are holding each student accountable. Students can’t hide, cheat, or fake it. The responsibility for learning is placed on the student. A student can’t simply do the homework, he needs to actually understand the work.
How can you use this in your classroom? What tips do you
suggest?
BYOD Ideas for the Classroom: QR Codes
QR Codes, or Quick Response Codes, are everywhere, so why
not bring them into the classroom?
Here are
some simple ideas on how QR Codes can be used?
- Include a QR Code on worksheets/questions to direct students to a website. What could you link to: an online article, primary sources, a video, etc.
- When students create online projects have the share their projects using QR Codes.
- Link to Dropbox, tagmydoc, or Google Drive for collaboration.
- Perhaps you have students researching different topics. They could then save their research onto an online cloud storage (Google Drive, for example) and then create a QR Code to share with their classmates.
- Carousel Walks. Create online and editable Google Documents with different review topics. For example, if you’re reviewing for Driver’s Education, you could create several topic pages, post a QR Code for each topic, have students scan the QR Code and then add to the document. After a couple of minutes, have them rotate to the next station.
- Another extremely valuable resource is Russel Tarr’s QR Code Scavenger Hunt Generator. It’s extremely easy to use; all you have to do is enter a series of questions and answers, click print and the codes are ready. You can display the codes around your classroom or even around the school. By the way, check out all of Mr. Tarr’s stuff; it’s excellent.
Creating
a QR Code
There are countless QR Code Generators. Some top
suggestions:
- QR Code Generator: http://goo.gl/rBL3
- www.snapmaze.com allows you to link to a website, a phone number, or text
- www.goo.gl You know this one as a url shortening tool, but when you use it a QR Code is also generated. Simply, click details and the QR code appears. It also tells you how many times the link has been accessed, so you can see if all of your students have actually accessed the site
There are tons of QR Code Readers for both Android and ios
devices. These apps work on both devices:
Administrative Notes
Thanks to all of you who have already submitted a positive
referral for a student. If you haven’t yet done so, please submit a positive referral by the end of this month. Again, this is
for any student who shows Courage, Character or Citizenship. http://goo.gl/cZIXm7
Stat of the Week
The United States has
fallen from second to fifteenth in college completion rates in the past thirty
years.
Upcoming Schedule
September 16th
Field Hockey vs. Eastern View 4:30/6:15
Varsity first
JV Football vs. Sherando 6:00
FFA Field Trip
September
17th Volleyball @ Liberty 5:30/7:00
Golf vs. Stonewall @ Prince William
3:30
DECA Fall Rally Field Trip
September
18th Cross Country @ Nokesville Park 5:00
Field Hockey vs. Fauquier 4:30/6:15
Varsity first
September 19th Volleyball vs. Brentsville 6/7
Senior Portrait Retakes
September 20th
Varsity Football @ Sherando 7:00 Senior Portrait Retakes
September 21st Cross Country @ Oatlands 9:00 am
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