Best way of assessing our students

How can I use alternative assessment in my classroom but still prepare my students for standardized state tests?

A way of assessment that I found relevant and beneficial to my own personal experience was alternative assessments such as artworks, essays, short writing, sketchbook or journals, portfolios, oral presentations, and group projects. These types of assessments are relevant to my own experiences because throughout schooling I always preferred the assessments that were not a fill in the bubbles and turn it in (standardized tests). These types of tests made me really nervous and I always felt like I could not do as well on them. I loved working on group projects and making portfolios because I really enjoyed working with peers and I liked being able to out together my best work for a portfolio. Group projects are also beneficial because they create a cooperative learning experience and give every student a chance to participate and share their ideas. Even know in college I always feel more comfortable writing an essay on a topic rather than taking a test on it, because with writing an essay I can work at my own pace and not be stressed out about how much time I have left to finish the test. In school my teachers have always provided us with rubrics for each assignment we have to complete. This is extremely beneficial because I am able to self-assess with the rubric before turning it in. By self-assessing I can check if I’ve met the skills or performances expected for the assignment by my teacher.

In my placements I’ve found that alternative assessments are really beneficial to all students because it gives every student a chance to show what they have learned as well as giving students other opportunities to demonstrate what they know. When teaching my science mini unit in the field I used an alternative form of assessment, science notebooks, instead of having my students take a test on motion. In their science notebooks students wrote down observations, predictions, conclusions and more as well as visually representing their investigations. This gave every student in my classroom a chance to show me what they had learned by either writing complete sentences, visually representing, using bullet points, etc. So I think including alternative assessments in my classroom is crucial, since in my own experiences I benefited from them.

The Amazing World of Picture Books

How can I encourage students that picture books are not just for younger students who can’t read the words on the page?

 Picture books were, and are still my favorite type of books today. I love being able to see the author’s depiction of the story and the characters in the images. Some of my memories with picture books are when my older brother learned to read, I would sit next to him and look at the pictures in the story and “read” the pictures. My brother would always correct me if I missed any details from the text that were not depicted in the pictures. But looking at the pictures made me feel like I was reading with him. Picture books really influenced my learning because when I was learning to read I had a lot of difficulties with decoding and comprehending text. When I learned to read I still had trouble with comprehension although I could read the words on the page. Pictures in the story helped me with this because I was able to pair up the text I was reading with the pictures in each page and make sense of what was happening in the story. In the reading “It Was Always the Pictures…” by Paula Kluth, Kluth describes how many learners with disabilities learn best when they have an image of what they are learning about; but I think this is true to for all learners, students can really benefit from visuals. Kluth says, “if you look at a picture, it puts more ideas in your head”. I think this is very true because when I was in grade school and was reading, the pictures in the books would add to the text I was reading, to create a more complete comprehension of the story. Kluth describes picture books as, “typically, in these texts, the pictures don’t just supplement the text; they are as important or central as the text”. I think this is also very true because when I got older I still appreciated picture books because the images had so much to say, and combined with the text they were perfect. 

Romare Bearden-Using a variety of materials and ideas to express yourself

How can I as a teacher create a piece like The Block that my students can relate to and want to engage with?

The website had six main parts to it:
Guided tour-This part of the website gives you a tour through Bearden's piece, "The block". The tour is an auditory tour and it takes you through each part of the panel explaining what Bearden is trying to show in each part. He uses collages for his piece, as well as contrast between everyday activities and a very imaginatively display of this block of Harlem. This tour also explains the different types of materials Bearden uses such as photographs, cut outs, and different writing utensils.
Romare Bearden-This part of the site gives you a background on the artist and his own cultural background.
Look closely-This part of the website lets you zoom in on "The Block", and look closely at what's in each window, and in each part of the streets. You can also read about how it was made, how it was composed (using geometrical rhythm of rectangles within rectangles), why he used a collage, and points to specific things to look for such as private life of the people and the public places.
Look & listen-This part of the website explains how Bearden used jazz to help him compose his work; "Think of the colors and shapes of the collage as notes of music that make up the whole composition".
Things to do-This part of the website is children directed. It has different activities to get students involved with The block, by looking for specific things in the piece. It also has options for children to look for different fun shapes and to compare playwrights with Bearden's paintings.
Learn more-This part of the website provides  more resources for children, young adults, and adults to learn about Bearden's art.

I thought this website was very interactive and fun. It is definitely children friendly because it has a lot of resources for parents or teachers to use with their children. The website really lets you interact with the art piece; you can zoom in to different parts of the piece, see how jazz relates to the piece, and more. I would definitely use both, a website like this one with all these resources and the idea of making a big piece that represents different aspects of a specific things. A project you could do with your students would be to create your own "Block" but about the classroom. This would get students thinking about different geometrical shapes as well as ideas that need to be included in the concept "the classroom". It would also give students a chance to express their feelings and thoughts about their classroom by using a variety of materials and ideas.

Graphic novels-The reading of the future?

When is it appropriate to bring graphic novels into the classroom (what age group)?

 

Gene Yang presents a new idea to educators- using graphic novels in your classroom. He defines a graphic novel as any “thick comic book”, many teachers might think why would I ever use a comic book in my classroom? Or at least that’s what I thought before I read the article and looked at his website. Yang describes graphic novels as a “part of a growing effort to cast the comics medium in a new, more literary light, apart from the genres usually associated with it”. Meaning that we, as classroom teachers, should use graphic novels to increase literary interest in our classrooms. Graphic novels are beneficial to students because they are visual, this doesn’t only support students who are visual learners because with all the media students are exposed to today, they are much more likely to connect the reading to their life experiences if they use a reading that is visual. Yang talks about how “graphic novels bridge the gap between media we watch and media we read”. I think this is crucial to our students because with today’s technology students are constantly exposed to visual media and watching media rather than reading it. By bridging these two, students can easily make connections and are more likely to comprehend the readings. Another positive aspect about graphic novels that Yang describes is that “graphic novels have a visual permanence to them”. Meaning students can go back to a page if they got lost or did not quite understand the content, while in a lesson students can’t re-wind what their teacher just said if they did not quite understood it. 

Art in Mathematics

How can you get students to fully understand other students' art pieces representing specific math concepts?

There are many ways in which you could use art in math instruction. The article Islamic Art as an Educational Tool about the Teaching of Islam by Fayeq S Oweis, talks about the importance of geometrical patterns in Islamic art. It talks about geometry in Islamic art as a "unifying concept of composition despite the diversity of materials, forms, or styles used". I think this is really important because in art we can use different materials, forms and styles, which can make it confusing to use art in math, but if we concentrate on the patterns present, they will all be the same no matter what material you use or what style you have, the geometric shape will be the same. Art can be used in math instruction to discuss different geometric shapes. Each student could create a geometric shape out of whatever materials they like, and then discuss the properties of their shape, and compare their shape to other students' geometric shapes. Art can be used in math instruction when talking about symmetry. Students can create art work with different shapes, and then compare and contrast them and have a discussion about which pieces are symmetric and which are a-symmetric. Art could also be used when talking about repetition and patterns. Oweis talks about how Islamic art uses a lot of repetition, and how "a repeat unit or cell is the base for geometric patterns". Students could use art to understand the concept of patterns, by creating their own patterns students would be able to see how patterns work in mathematics. This shows that art can be used in math in multiple ways, not just to teach about geometric shapes. It also gives students hands-on experience with shapes and patterns as well as giving them a chance to practice what they like (painting, drawing, etc).

Rube Goldberg Inspired Drawings

If I don’t understand something my student is representing in his/her illustration, how can I ask them what it means without making them feel bad about themselves or their drawing skills?

I could use Rube Goldberg’s ideas in my future classroom as a way to understand how my students see and understand concepts being taught to them. For example after teaching a unit on plant and animal cells, I could have my students pick one of the two cells and illustrate how the cell works, and how each part of the cell has an essential role. These illustrations could be used as a form of differentiated assessment, because it would show me what the students have understood about plant and animal cells, and how they function. Rube Goldberg’s website describes his work as, “…his ingenious drawings follow their own impeccable logic, demonstrating that the unnecessary can also be the mother of invention”. I think this is a very important quote because just like Goldberg, students in every classroom have their own impeccable logic about concepts, and if we do not give them a chance to demonstrate what they know, we will never know what they are capable of understanding. I really liked Thomas Oakley’s approach of using Rube Goldberg inspired drawings to get his students thinking about how art is made, from their own point of view, including every detailed that was important to them. I could definitely see myself using Rube Goldberg inspired drawings in my own classroom to see how my students develop their thinking.

Express yourself

How can we make our students comfortable enough to want to share their art work?

The article Art and Self Expression for Children with Special Needs by Pamela Wilson talks about the importance of incorporating art into each students' lives as a form of self expression. I agree with Wilson that there are always some safety issues with art supplies and working with different processes that one should be aware of as a teacher so that one can adequately plan and provide close supervision of all students. But I think it is also important to give students their personal space since creating art can become a refuge from expectations and evaluations from adults as well as peers, since art does not cater to only one specific taste and audience.

Wilson talks about how working on art in groups can build a sense of community in the classroom when students respect and accept every peer as an artist. I think this is crucial because it is really important to create a community and a safe space within the classroom where students feel comfortable to be themselves. Art helps to do this because each student can express themselves as well as learning to work together in a group. Art can also be used as an alternate mean of communication for children with language and speech disorders as well as students who cannot find the right words to describe their feelings. I think this is important because it gives every student a chance to communicate how they feel, no matter how good their speech, writing, or language is. This allows each student to have a fair chance to express themselves in the best way the know how.