My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that learning should be engaging, authentic and meaningful. I believe that as a teacher we are not there as the expert rather the facilitator of information, 'The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator not content provider, (Vygotsky). I believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to support their students in a safe learning environment where they feel valued and confident to achieve their full potential. I wish to teach students to be life-long learners who can grow to become positive contributors to our global community.
‘Amber thought about and implemented lessons that engage diverse learners. She took into consideration the needs of all individuals’- Deborah Nykyforuk, 2015
‘Amber thought about and implemented lessons that engage diverse learners. She took into consideration the needs of all individuals’- Deborah Nykyforuk, 2015
Assessment
- Assessment should be spontaneous
- Assessment should be ongoing, always giving opportunities for reflection, justification and guidance.
- Formal assessment is important in a sense that you can show progression with evidence, and important for a start point for planning.
- Summative assessment is important not only for the teacher to know where students are at, but for the students to know where they are at, the path they are on and the end point they are intended to reach.
- Ongoing assessment is vital!
- Assessment of the students is vital for learning, however poor results on a test or subject area can also be a reflection of the teacher, constant reflection of what does and doesn't work for you is an important skill required for effective and engaging teaching.
- Assessment should be ongoing, always giving opportunities for reflection, justification and guidance.
- Formal assessment is important in a sense that you can show progression with evidence, and important for a start point for planning.
- Summative assessment is important not only for the teacher to know where students are at, but for the students to know where they are at, the path they are on and the end point they are intended to reach.
- Ongoing assessment is vital!
- Assessment of the students is vital for learning, however poor results on a test or subject area can also be a reflection of the teacher, constant reflection of what does and doesn't work for you is an important skill required for effective and engaging teaching.
Assessment FOR Learning: Occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching,
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Assessment AS learning: occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals.
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Assessment OF Learning: occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.
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Designing Assessment
During a Poetry Unit I implemented in Grade 3, (see Literacy page for lesson details) I created a rubric to assess the students final pieces. The students assessment task was to incorporate all poetry devices they had learned to create a poem. The poem inspiration came from an experience created for them out in the 'dry creek bed' on the school grounds. They were to imagine they were the only one in the world and the feelings physical and emotional that come with that. To tie into their inquiry work on Indigenous Culture students were to imagine that something came and changed their word forever. Students have prior learning and knowledge of the First Fleet, the Stolen Generation and Sorry Day. Some students chose to write about how they would have felt when the europeans came to take the land, one student went a step further and wrote about ‘world war 3’ what it would feel like if those things that happened in the past were to happen to him, and others chose to write about those feelings that they felt outside all alone. This final piece was then edited and published ready for assessing against the Grade 3 poetry rubric as a form of summative assessment for the unit. Students were to conference with a teacher before printing their final copy, I chose to save and mark the poem before it had been finally edited in conference with the student, as I felt it necessary to mark what they can do independently rather than mark something with perfect spelling and sentence structure that has been influenced by myself when working with the student.
During a Poetry Unit I implemented in Grade 3, (see Literacy page for lesson details) I created a rubric to assess the students final pieces. The students assessment task was to incorporate all poetry devices they had learned to create a poem. The poem inspiration came from an experience created for them out in the 'dry creek bed' on the school grounds. They were to imagine they were the only one in the world and the feelings physical and emotional that come with that. To tie into their inquiry work on Indigenous Culture students were to imagine that something came and changed their word forever. Students have prior learning and knowledge of the First Fleet, the Stolen Generation and Sorry Day. Some students chose to write about how they would have felt when the europeans came to take the land, one student went a step further and wrote about ‘world war 3’ what it would feel like if those things that happened in the past were to happen to him, and others chose to write about those feelings that they felt outside all alone. This final piece was then edited and published ready for assessing against the Grade 3 poetry rubric as a form of summative assessment for the unit. Students were to conference with a teacher before printing their final copy, I chose to save and mark the poem before it had been finally edited in conference with the student, as I felt it necessary to mark what they can do independently rather than mark something with perfect spelling and sentence structure that has been influenced by myself when working with the student.
On the rubric their is a guide for what term mean and what exactly we should be looking for. For example if a student is ‘mostly’ using poetry devices in their work that would mean that you would see it 70-90% of the time throughout the piece. Terminology Percentage Evident Not at all > 10% Some 20%- 40% Developing 40%- 70% Most 70%- 90% All 90% < Not only does this help the teacher marking, it also helps in having a common goal and common expectations across a year level, and helps with the moderation process. All students were not only marked in terms of the rubric, but were also given written and verbal feedback, with new writing goals set for them to improve upon their writing. |
Class results were then collated and placed on this graph. From here results were analysed, where is the Grade 3 standard, who is above, at or below standard in accordance to the curriculum. Reflection also took place in terms of teaching, what needed extra time, what could have been done differently, what worked well? This data was used to also plan the next unit of writing.
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Links to AITSL standards:
5.1 Assess student learning
5.2 Provide feedback to students on
their learning
5.3 Make consistent and comparable
judgements
5.4 Interpret student data
5.5 Report on student achievement
5.1 Assess student learning
5.2 Provide feedback to students on
their learning
5.3 Make consistent and comparable
judgements
5.4 Interpret student data
5.5 Report on student achievement