Formative Assessment Strategy with a Technology Twist-Page Keely

Strategy I pledge I am going to use in the upcoming month...

An extended formative assessment probe: 

Post-it note activity with pictures posted to twitter of student opinions before and after a lesson/discussion.  Students are going to answer a very difficult multiple choice question with a blue post-it note first. Then they are going to talk to their partner and then in a group of four.  After those conversations, they will repost their answer after the conversations. Finally, there will be a whole class discussion and a final post-it note vote on a different chart. This will compare one group's answers over time.  This is a Page Keely formative assessment activity. 

However, my technology twist will be to take pictures of different class periods to help students see the thought progression data of other classes. This will provide students that opportunity to be metacognitive as the analyze their own and other's thinking.

I will probably use this with the question, "Should antibiotics be used on healthy livestock to increase the growth rate and reduce feed costs?" I'll have students use their post-it notes at the beginning of class and at the end of class to see if their positions have changed. I think I'll have students write their primary reasoning on the post-it note as well. I am looking forward to posting the results of this activity in mid-April.

Opening up the black box of my room a little bit...

7:30-8:00 3/10/15

This week I am using technology to help students learn about meiosis, genetics, and all of the various forms of inheritance.  Some of the tools I am using include online simulations.  For example, mouse breeding simulations, rat development interactives, and mitosis vs. meiosis interactives.  I think that these tools are helping my students experience these concepts in ways that would not have been imaginable over 10 years ago.  I wonder about how this is impacting their learning.  I assume that it helps them visualize and internalize these processes that otherwise would be difficult to experience.  

However, I also am not sure if the lack of these tools when I was a student forced me to think more deeply about them so that I had work harder to create my own models of the concepts. Potentially my internal generation of those mental models was a great learning activity that is not as likely to happen in this technology rich course.  I really am not sure.  

Finally, we have a common assessment next week.  Therefore, I have used my iPad to make 4 review podcasts for students to be able to listen to to help them complete their study guide for next week’s assessment.  I hope that students are learning from these podcasts.  In a way, this is a little bit of flipped instruction.  However, I know of a couple of students who are very diligent that are unable to access these podcasts at home because of the way their wifi works.