Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I assess student learning by asking questions as I am teaching. I feel that as I do this I can get a feel for how much the students are retaining. It also helps to gauge whether or not I can more on to other topics. I also like to use rubrics to assess student learning. I like rubrics or checklists, because if I give a copy of the project rubric to the student at the beginning of the assignment, they will have a clear idea of what is expected of them. I also feel that rubrics are a great way to get the students involved in their own assessment. They know what is expected of them and can gauge their performance on the project accordingly to reach the goals that they have set for themselves. When the students work in groups, I like for them to complete a peer evaluation of the progress that their team made. Knowing that they are accountable to their peers seems to keep all of the group members on task.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

I can use the internet to help me support my teaching and student learning by encouraging research projects. Also, students can collaborate on the group projects that they are involved in through a Wiki. I think that another good idea is to post a survey before beginning a chapter to assess what knowledge the students are bringing to the subjuect.

I can monitor appropriate use of the internet by providing a hot list of appropriate websites that the students should restrict their research to.

I am thinking about creating a survey that the students can take at the beginning of my unit concerning nutrition, healthy habits, calorie intake and the use of calories in the body. After the students have taken this survey and received the correct answers, I will show them my project example, which is a brochure. The brochure will talk about nutrition, healthy habits, calorie intack and the use of calories in the body. This, along with a rubric, will hopefully help the students form an idea of how they can present the same information to the class through their presentations.