Here are your questions for the week:
Chapter 9
1. Are there restrictions inherent to the forms of student assessment that we use in our school? What are those restrictions? How can we move beyond those restrictions?
2. How might digital portfolios allow our learners and teachers improve the long-term motivation and self-knowledge of our learners?
3. How does the work with digital portfolios affect curriculum decision-making?
4. The author states, "Portfolios can be used to create an ongoing dialogue between students and teachers." How could such a conversation improve performance at your school?
Chapter 10
1. How can our school setting address what the author calls the "upstream problem"?
2. How can we create a foundation with our specific constituents (students, professionals, parents, community) to educate for sustainability?
3. What might sustainable curriculum and assessment look like for our specific community at each level, K-12?
4. How might we inject and upgrade curriculum content across disciplines with an emphasis on sustainability?
Monday, May 24, 2010
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2 comments:
First of all, I am very excited about the possibility of using digital portfolio for assessment with our students. Our leadership team has met, discussed this, and is on board. The questions that have come up though are logistical, such has having computers in the classroom with enough memory space to hold the portfolios. Our vision is to have the student portfolios posted on the desktop of the computer which will be connected to the Smart Boards in each classroom so that they can easily post, share, present, etc. This needs to be a computer other than the teacher computer which is how it is set up right now. Just some logistical stuff to work on.
We believe that the whole idea will be engaging and motivating to students of all ages. This is a step into their world, and we must do something to make learning a more "real life" thing and not a "school" thing. Certainly, anything that we can do to put the learning into the hands of the learner will engage them and help them retain their knowledge.
Chapter 10 is a bit frustrating for me. It reminds me of how hard it is to introduce, maintain, and sustain any new initiatives in a public school system that has essentially not changed for over 100 years. You essentially fight "the system" every day of your life. And by system, I do not mean BISD. In fact, BISD continually fights the system! I found it disconcerting that the examples of sustainability came from private school examples with the exception of some kind of program in New York that didn't really offer any kind of data of its success rate. Just sayin'......
Implementation of digital portfolios is long overdue. What an awesome way to truly engage students and transfer responsibility of learning to them. Students need to be actively engaged in selecting, reflecting, and presenting each piece within the portfolio and then the adults (teachers, parents, administrators) need to continually respond and conversate with the students about their progress. By taking small steps, and narrowing the focus of a portfolio, this initiative is very doable. Elementary students can focus on a single subject initially, or take an interdisciplinary approach and develop a portfolio that reflects creative thinking and problem solving in all subjects. High school students could develop a portfolio that resembles a resume' or application for a specific area of post-high school education or work opportunity. Regardless of the approach, collection is only the initial step in development - reflection and communication are vital creating a meaningful, valued piece.
Chapter 10 is the challenging/overwhelming/frustrating - many ways to describe. While the ideas are valid, the implementation is, well... I guess the best approach is to weave into the day-to-day curriculum what it mean to be a productive, contributing member of society in all aspects of life! Gee, that should be no big deal, right?!?!? I agree with DeeDee - it's a fight....
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