Blog Post 3 for Module 6

Blog Post Module 6

                Module Six is focused around student centered assessment in the classroom. This module has helped me to think about student-centered assessment in many different ways. It is important for teachers to think of alternative assessments for students beyond tests and quizzes. If a teacher can assess a student in different ways, then the teacher can be certain of the student’s mastery of the content. A Formative Assessment is defined as a wide variety of methods that teachers use to assess student understanding of the content. 

As teachers, we need to be focused around our students’ passions and learning styles they bring into our classroom.  A student’s background and experiences can play an important part in their learning. While there are multiple ways a teacher can use assessment tools in their classroom, one straightforward way is to have one on one conversations with the student about the content. Teachers can also keep a journal or make a graphic organizer to keep track of students’ interests. By keeping track of a student’s interest, we as teachers are able to build a better classroom.

Another tool that teachers have in the twenty-first century classroom is the rubric. Rubrics allow teachers to assess students on an array of skills related to the content. Rubrics can also be used to monitor the teacher, the students and the material. Teachers who use rubrics can see where students might be struggling and focus on building that particular skill set in order to help their students.

Although formative assessments are useful in order to show a student’s understanding of the content, teachers should focus on making sure the classroom is student-centered. Since technology plays such a large role in the world today, students need to be prepared to use many different types of technology. Students need to have a voice in their learning. Technology is one important way that students can be given a voice through assessment. Tools such as Google Forms and Poll Everywhere are two types of modern applications that can be used to help bring technology into the classroom.

Google Forms could be used in the class in order to show videos or images as examples of a concept. They can also be used by teachers to quiz the students on the content of a lesson. Teachers can also use Google Forms as a survey tool in order to assess the students’ learning. Poll Everywhere is another useful tool for teachers. Poll Everywhere allows the teacher to conduct open ended polls and multiple-choice questions for their classroom. Poll Everywhere is also convenient because students do not have to download anything to their iPad or iPhone.  Instead, students only need to join the game off of a web code that the teacher provides. This web code connects the phone or iPad to the website and the game automatically.

One of the applications that I have seen used while I was teaching is Kahoot! This popular and free game allows teachers to quiz their students while playing a game against others in the classroom. Students can be placed into teams or work as individuals to score points with correct answers. The faster they answer, the more points they can get. I have seen many students excited to play Kahoot! and the results have been exciting. Another exciting example of an application was Class Flow. Class Flow is a web-based program that allows teachers to send slides, polls, and quizzes to the students in real time. This allows the teacher to be able to assess the students during the lesson.

This module was very informative about using today’s technologies in the classroom. I found Poll Everywhere, Google Forms and Class Flow to all be very interesting tools. I would like to use Google Forms in the future for my students’ quizzes. I also would like to use Poll Everywhere in order to assess my students’ understanding of the historical content. However, the Class Flow application would be very useful for a history classroom. Because Class flow allows for instant student responses, I would be able to assess if the students understood the historical content.