Tag: tiegrad2.0

Curriculum…a Forest Worth Exploring

July 28, 2020 / fnicholas / 0 Comments

Photo from Pixabay

Initial Thoughts:

When I first considered a metaphor of how I view curriculum I thought about how convoluted, over packed and dense it is. I considered how much there was to teach and how many various concepts there were to cover in the allotted time given. It seemed overwhelming and quite frankly, impossible. Although I think that time and practice is what makes navigating curriculum easier, I have found a new understanding of where curriculum comes from and what it is for. We first discussed where curriculum is derived at the beginning of the course. I had actually never asked myself or even considered how curriculums could be different. I didn’t realize that curriculum is created by each individual province. Furthermore, each province focuses on concepts that are specific to knowledge that space. When exploring this I looked at the difference between Quebec’s curriculum in relation to B.C.’s, where I live. I noticed that they were vastly different in how they were written, what they focused on and even how they looked. Quebec’s curriculum was very confusing to me, as it was difficult to understand the plethora of diagrams, paragraphs and even how Quebec’s school system functions. I suppose, that Quebec’s curriculum would actually be considered a forest in comparison to B.C’s simply because I’ve worked with the B.C. curriculum for several years.

Comparison of Curricula:

Picture from Pixabay

I found it so interesting that Quebec has a large focus on religious learning and didn’t, until recently, have any focus on Indigenous studies. Whereas B.C.’s curriculum had a larger emphasis on Indigenous studies within all subject areas. B.C. has certainly done a good job of highlighting Indigenization and technology within it’s curriculum. However, it is still difficult to navigate all the resources available to aid educators within these areas. These key concepts are purposely integrated into each subject in the B.C. curriculum to make the connections simplistic. Yet, it is the responsibility of the educator to determine where the best connections exist between indigenization and the curriculum. Furthermore, technology doesn’t have to be a separate entity in itself but instead it should enhance the learning the students are already doing. When using technology they can learn how to type, how to use various apps for reading or math and develop skills such as coding. This being said, it is important that technology is available to all students within your classroom. My eyes have been opened to the realization that when teaching online, technology isn’t readily available to all. The Covid-19 pandemic has truly demonstrated the inequality of students and families when it comes to access to technology. Thus, when considering technology in curriculum one must also take into consideration those apparent inequalities.

Final Thoughts:

Photo from Pixabay

In conclusion, curriculum itself hasn’t changed for me. Instead, I have a new understanding and better connection to curriculum as a whole. I still believe curriculum is a forest and although there are many paths through, they are all beautiful in their own way. I have always known there is a connection between all subjects within curriculum but now I see where those connections derive from. I think there is something unique and liberating to engage with curriculum in your own way. It is an amazing thing to watch multiple people interpret one document in such different ways. I believe that how one follows and interacts with the curriculum demonstrates their own personal pedagogy and passion within teaching.

Created Resources

July 27, 2020 / fnicholas / 0 Comments

Co-Authored by experienced educators in online learning who teach at a distance learning school. These resources were created through experience and supported by academic research. The created resources are current (created July 2020), relevant (addresses assessment learning outcomes), authoritative (co-created by educators who are students in a Master of Education program), accurate and purposeful (instructional demonstration).

myBlueprint Assessment Strategies:

The myBlueprint video below, is a resource that demonstrates how to utilize myBlueprint as an assessment tool. Students can reflect, explain, justify and demonstrate personal connections through written, video and audio submissions. It is important that teachers choose accessible digital tools for student assessment. Teachers can give valuable and timely feedback on all submissions. This platform allows for continual student-teacher communication, which directly improves student learning.

Formative and Summative Assessment in an Online Environment:

The infographic below outlines various assessment strategies for both formative and summative assessment. It details which digital tools are well suited to assess students in both online learning and classroom environments. It is important that both formative and summative assessment are embedded in all learning environments where teachers use a variety of assessment strategies to inform their teaching practices and evaluate students’ learning.

Formative & Summative Assessment Graphic PDF

Moodle Formatting for Timely Feedback:

The instructional videos below demonstrate how to structure a class on the Moodle learning platform in order to achieve timely assessment. Moodle was selected to demonstrate what the framework can look like under one central learning management system. Other systems such as Blackboard and Canvas, or combination like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams can use the same formatting framework.

1) Weekly Schedule

2) Tools

3) Student Activity

Rational For Created and Curated Resources

July 27, 2020 / fnicholas / 0 Comments

Introduction:

Photo from Pixabay

Assessment is a crucial component of learning used in both K-12 and post-secondary education. In order to support other educators, we wanted to examine assessment through the lens of an online learning environment. Assessment is meant to focus on “student involvement and authentic, meaningful assessment, leading to the development of a variety of assessment forms” (Weurlander et al., 2012). Quality assessment requires knowledge of provincial curriculum frameworks, district vision and goals, as well as teachers’ expertise with traditional and online tools to support it. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on competence-based curriculum focusing on “capability rather than factual knowledge” (Weurlander et al., 2012). The resources we curated as well as the resources we created are supported by research and support our learning outcomes.

Formative Assessment:

Formative and summative assessment are vital aspects of all learning environments. Formative assessment informs teachers of students ongoing learning and understanding, whereas summative is a final capturing of students overall learning. According to Weurlander et al. (2012) formative assessment can influence “students’ learning in a number of ways. It sends messages about what counts as important knowledge; it has an impact on students’ approach to learning and gives feedback to students about their learning” (p. 749). Additionally, they included research that found formative assessment “positive[ly] impact[s] student learning” (p. 749). When considering or creating assessment, it is important to include a variety of “assessment tasks [as they] have the potential to support student learning in different ways” (p.758). Moreover, a multitude of assessment strategies, including collaborative and blended learning approaches, increases student engagement (Vaughan, 2014).

Summative Assessment:

Summative assessment is meant to be a final snapshot of students learning. However, it can exclude learners or create anxiety when the stakes are high for a singular assessment for both in-person and online learning environments. Harlen, 2005 states that,

“[h]igh– stakes tests are inevitably designed to be as ‘objective’ as possible, since there is a premium on reliable marking in the interests of fairness. This has the effect of reducing what is assessed to what can be readily and reliably marked. Generally, this excludes many worthwhile outcomes of education such as problem-solving and critical thinking” (p. 209).

Another concern about high-stakes summative assessments is that they may encourage cheating, a pressing concern for teachers, particularly in an online environment (Mellar et at.,2018). Creating a variety of authentic summative assessments and giving students choice can help to ensure their validity (Mellar et al., 2018). Therefore, it is imperative that students are provided with a variety of summative assessments with low stakes when teaching online.

Formative and Summative:

Picture from Pixabay

When integrating formative and summative assessment strategies, teachers should consider the quantity, as creating too many assessments to track student progress can have a negative impact (Vaughan, 2014). This also restricts teachers from providing timely feedback to their students, a key component of successful online learning (Gaytan and Mcewen, 2007). “Feedback is therefore a key component in formative assessment, and students need to understand and be able to act on the feedback they receive in order to improve their learning” (Black and Wiliam 1998; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick 2006; Sadler 1989, 1998; as cited in Weurlander et al.,2012., p. 748). Furthermore, Shea and Bidjerano (2010) discovered that teaching presence along with teaching students the technological skills they need to complete and navigate given tasks leads to “successful online learning” (p. 1727). Thus, well planned online learning experiences along with feedback, help and encouragement also improves learning success for at risk learners (Hughes, 2007).

Picture from Pixabay

Conclusion:

In conclusion, when considering online or in-person teaching environments, summative and formative assessments are vital. Formative assessment should be used to continually check in with students about their understanding of content, leading into a summative review of their learning. When assessing students, a variety of tools and strategies should be used in order to reach all learners for both types of assessments. Overall, the focus of this project was to provide teachers with a realistic and comprehensive overview of what assessment in classroom and online environments could entail.

Reference List:

Gaytan, J., & Mcewen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640701341653

Hughes, G. (2007). Using blended learning to increase learner support and improve retention. Teaching in Higher Education, 12(3), 349- 363. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562510701278690

Harlen, W. (2005). Teachers’ summative practices and assessment for learning – tensions and synergies. The Curriculum Journal, 16(2), 207–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585170500136093

Mellar, H., Peytcheva-Forsyth, R., Kocdar, S., Karadeniz, A., & Yovkova, B. (2018). Addressing cheating in e-assessment using student authentication and authorship checking systems: teachers’ perspectives. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-018-0025-x

Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. Computers & Education, 55(4), 1721- 1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.07.017

Vaughan, N. (2014). Student Engagement and Blended Learning: Making the Assessment Connection. Education Sciences, 4(4), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci4040247

Weurlander, W., & Soderberg, M., & Scheja, M., & Hakan, H., & Wernerson, A., (2012). Exploring formative assessment as a tool for learning: students’ experiences of different methods of formative assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 37.(6). 747-760, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2011.572153

Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning

July 23, 2020 / fnicholas / 0 Comments

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About Me : I started teaching 4 years ago and as I worked through the curriculum I constantly found myself realizing that I missed several competencies throughout the year. This wasn’t the case with just one subject but what seemed like every subject. How does one manage to teach all concepts and competencies within the year to all students at a sufficient level? I knew there had to be a better way. I reached out to district level coaches and learned about cross-curricular teaching. I discovered that subjects areas weren’t separate but in fact overlapped by teaching literacy concepts during science lessons or teaching mathematical concepts during social studies lessons. I found when I started to dig deeper for myself into what the curriculum meant to me my students in return had increased engagement, excitement and practical understandings of what we learning within the classroom.

Some things I’ve learned so far:

Cross-curricular teaching is not a new concept; in fact, it has been researched and developed since the before the 1990’s. In both Denis

Photo from Pixabay

Haye’s 2010 article The Seductive Charms of Cross-Curricular Approach and Robert J Marzano’s 1991 article Fostering Thinking across the Curriculum through Knowledge Restructuring the inherent need for cross curricular teaching was born from the lack of higher level thinking demonstrated by students. This concern was brought to the government level in both Hayes and Marzano’s articles which highlights that there were fundamental aspects of education that were missing from the current system. Despite these articles being 20 years apart, they both still note that simply teaching content isn’t enough of an education to create a holistic and well around citizen of society. Hayes argues “[a]s children are continually on a self-discovery tour, it is essential for them to know who they are, how they should best relate to others and their role as ‘world citizens’, rather than just being able to reach academic targets” (p. 386). To aid this, cross-curricular teaching focuses on concepts such as meaning, peer projects, higher level thinking, student lead interests, inquiry, themes and issues. It allows students to take control and defend their thinking about the content as opposed to simply regurgitating information that was given to them. Marzano states “that for knowledge to be restricted and higher level thinking fostered, students must use knowledge within tasks over which they have some control and which match personal goals or needs” (p.519). Cross-curricular learning allows for this to happen by providing student choice and peer interaction. Not only are they learning the content required of their grade level, but they are learning skills such as time management, organization, communication and compromise which are concepts that are hidden within the curriculum. So why is it not done in every classroom?

Reference List:

Hayes, D. (2010). The Seductive Charms of a Cross-Curricular Approach. Education 3-13, 38.(4), 381-387. DOI: 10.1080/03004270903519238

Marzano, J. Robert. (1991). Thinking and Learning Across the Curriculum through Knowledge Restructuring. Journal of Reading, 34. (7), 518- 525. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/stable/40014576