One of the most common ways of understanding students prior knowledge is KWL charts. It is important to know where the students are in terms of what they know about the project before it begins. It is not likely that all students are starting the project having the same knowledge, therefore it is important to establish anchors in the classroom.
Establishing anchors allows the teacher to gain a sense of what the student's knowledge is at the beginning of the project. The anchors also allow teachers to know how far students are going to meet there learning goals. In a project-based classroom it is important to use anchors to differentiate instruction and help all learners be successful.
There are three main ways that teachers can ask students what they learn. The first one is create something new. In this example the teacher may ask the students to create something that summarizes the main ideas that they learned during their project. The next example for teachers would be modeling a real-world assessment. In this example students apply the skills of professionals to their project. Some examples of professionals the students could use would be historians, journalists, scientists, and engineers. This way of assessing students will allow teachers to know that the students are getting ready for the world outside of the classroom. The third example of assessing students are their project is entering a contest or submitting your publication. In this example students will submit a part of their project that they are proud of. This form of assessing students can be motivating for students who may be ready for a real-world assessment.
One of the ways that these subjects relates to our project is the creating something new part of assessment. At the end of the semester we need to create something new. This may be considered a form of creating something new that the teacher could later use to see what we have learned. Another way that these topics relate to our project is the since of the teacher trying to figure out how much knowledge we have on something before we learn it. Our teacher often asks if we have used a certain form of technology before we must do part of our project using it.
Good post! I liked how you talked about the importance of knowing where students are at before starting a project. As a teacher you can't just assume that the students know everything which is why I think teachers should do a pre-assessment prior to the beginning of the project. This will allow teachers to see if their students are ready for the project.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of anchors too! I think knowing and learning where your students are is a great way to be a great teacher! It is so important to understand the starting point of your students and what you should be teaching in order to benefit your students. Great Job :)
ReplyDeleteKnowing what you are going to teach and how to accumulate that knowledge is important for a successful project. I agree that using real world assessments are most beneficial for students so they can see an instant reaction.
ReplyDelete