Our Current Project

OUR CURRENT PROJECT: We are beginning our final science unit for the year--Motion and Design. Students will work on building the best car they can, documenting their progress as they go along!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Success!!!

My students were so excited to self-assess using the iPads. They are really motivated to read carefully and then listen to their recordings in order to determine areas where they can improve. I noticed that students wasted no time transitioning from instructions to implementation. I even had some students request to stay in during recess so they could finish their work since we ran out of time.

What worked really well:
  • I took my time modeling as if I were a student so they could see/hear the entire process from start to finish.
  • I made common mistakes so students could see/hear me assess myself.
  • I did a think aloud while filling out my self-assessment sheet so they could hear how I made decisions to mark myself in each category.
  • I gave all students the same reading passage, an independent level for all, the first time through so they were practicing the process rather than the reading.
What I plan for next time:
  • I have copies of several passages at the same levels for students to choose their reading passage.
  • My students are going to be partnered with fourth graders beginning the process so they can learn together and model for each other.
  • Students will finish assessing themselves and immediately use apps to practice their goal.
Students have also been talking about getting to record again on Friday. This shows me their motivation to work hard to improve now so they can see results the next time they record. I cannot wait to see the results!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Fluency Self-Assessment

After spending quite some time with my students on learning how to identify words that they do not know and self-monitoring, we are finally ready to embark upon self-assessment using our iPads. My initial plan was to go completely paperless. That is not working out so well.

I set-up notebooks for each student in my Evernote account. This way I could easily access student information from home, laptop, iPad, etc. Logging into one account to see everyone is great! Students could also use any iPad to access their notebooks and record right into the program so no exporting was necessary!

I downloaded several fluency passages into another Evernote notebook so that all of my students would easily have access to them, again from any iPad. My next task was where my paperless route came to a road block. I wanted to figure out a way for my students to read off of the iPad while recording themselves (audio or video). Then I wanted them to be able to listen to the recording while marking errors and self-correction on the fluency passage. At this point in time this idea is impossible. I have been unable to figure out how to do this in Evernote or find an app capable of this task.

So for now I have settled on having the recoding of students in their Evernote notebooks and paper copy of the fluency passage for students to mark. When they are finished, they will record their observations on their self-assessment papers. Finally, they will type their accuracy, expression and phrasing scores, as well as their goal, in the same note where their recording is.

I will be able to use these records and scores as an additional assessment tool while simultaneously having students reflect on their reading progress and identify areas where they can improve. I anticipate students' comprehension to increase significantly as a result of hearing themselves read and reflecting on their reading ability.