Miss Archer's Blog: Engl. 493

The online article for today didn’t make much sense to me so I chose to write on the handout that we got this week instead because there were quite a few things that caught my eye when reading it. It starts out with talking about objective testing and how this teacher was choosing to use it because it was what her students were “used to” and “comfortable with” and what they “liked”. On one hand, I get it. But then I really started thinking about it and I think that it is important to test and assess students in many different ways. Not only does it make students learn how to show what they know in different ways, but it also allows those 4 or 5 students who don’t like the objective tests to excel in different ways. I think that giving students a choice of how they want to show what they have learned is really important too. I plan to always offer 2 different assessments each time, allowing the students to choose which they would like to do. I never was a student who could do well on t...

When reading this article, I found myself reflecting on my own lessons and teaching ideas, which made a few things in this article stand out to me more than others.  This first part that really stood out to me was having the students write in the margins as they read. The first part I believe asked students to label in the left hand margin the summary, introduction, issue or problem being addressed, the author’s main arguments, the author’s examples, and the conclusion. Then the second part asks students to write in the right hand margin their reactions to what the author is saying. They list some possible reactions as personal connections they can make, reflection on the quality of evidence the author offers, and any questions or contradictions they have with what the author is presenting. The first thought that came to mind was that a lot of students cannot write in their textbooks and so this may be something that is hard for them to do. But then I thought that they could do so...

In all honesty, before reading this handout, I had never done much research on the Common Core Standards. I had always heard different teachers and parents talking about them, voicing their opinions either for or against it, but I had never formulated my own opinion on the issue. This article blew my mind. Everything I thought I knew appears to be a misconception about the CCSS. The first section that stood out to me was the one explaining what they are. The article states, “the Common Core State Standards set general goals for student learning but they do not specify what or how to teach….standards provide a definition of what is possible, but standards are not curriculum documents”. I had always assumed that the common core had handed out what lessons needed to be teached. As it turns out, they are literally just a list of all the standards fore which students and teachers are working to achieve. They are what is possible. The one problem I do see with these standards for everyo...

When reading Brookfield’s article, the section that jumped out to me the most was his page 10, which discussed requiring kids to participate in group discussions. Growing up in a small school, I was in class with the same 30 kids from Kindergarten until we graduated, making it easy to speak up and have discussions because of how comfortable and used to each other we were. I used to be one of the kids who would lead all discussions, but since I have been at Eastern, I have found myself taking part in discussions less and less. One thing he discusses is that it may be a good plan to allow the shyer kids to speak up last so they have more time to listen to others speak and be able to form an answer of their own. I think that this is a good idea, but also, I think that forcing kids to talk about certain things when they don’t want to can also have the opposite effect on them wanting to speak up as well.  In classes where I have been forced to speak up when I don’t volunteer, I usual...