Sierra Denholm

  Week 5 Reflection ABCD Formula ABCD formula stands for Audience, Behavior, Criteria and Degree. This formula helps educators remember to include all four of these elements when writing their objectives in order to be as clear and specific to ensure student success. When writing learning objectives, it is important to take into account the ABCD formula. Objectives need to be developmentally and grade level appropriate, define clear behaviors, explain how students should be carrying out these behaviors, and to what degree of accuracy should the behaviors be completed. Why is it important to set up learning objectives? It is important to set up learning objectives in order to ensure that they align with standards and assessments. If the objectives and assessments are not aligned, students may not be properly prepared for assessments. Setting learning objectives also creates accountability for teachers by making sure their lessons are geared towards helping students meet standards an...

Week 4 Reflection Bloom's Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy is a pyramid that displays the hierarchy used for teaching and learning. There are 6 levels beginning with remember, which is the most basic form of understanding, to evaluate, which is when students have the most comprehensive knowledge base about a topic. When students are first introduced to the topic, they start at the bottom of the pyramid. The cognitive level needed to accomplish assignments and assessments increase as students move up the pyramid. Depth of Knowledge Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a range of levels of complexity and depth of understanding that are needed for an assessment. There are four levels of Depth of Knowledge that vary from students being able to complete basic tasks all the way to students being able to use extended thinking skills.  How are they different? Bloom's Taxonomy focuses on the level of knowledge that a student must possess in order to be able to successfully complete an activity or asses...

  Week 3 Reflection What I Learned  This week we learned about the power of documentation. Documentation helps track student progress in a variety of different ways. It may show photographs, teacher comments, transcripts, explanations, etc. We learned that there are four components of documentation - why, what, how, and utilization. The two documentation types we focused on were documentation panels and portfolios. Documentation panels keep track of what the class is learning, where portfolios document the work of individual children. We learned how there are different advantages and disadvantages for using the actual work of children. Advantages include authentic evidence, focus on change and individualized instruction, whereas disadvantages include having storage issues and representation issues. Conventional Style vs. Reggio Emilia  Conventional documentation and Reggio Emilia documentation are different in many ways. Conventional is more of a summative type of documen...

Week 2 Reflection What I Learned This week we discussed the importance of documentation as well as the different types. Documentation includes a piece of the student’s work, however the type and purpose depends on the audience that the teacher is showing the documentation. Though documentation may be used to track student’s development, it can also be used for students to self assess or as an aid to talk to faculty or families about what you are doing in the classroom. Observation Techniques Different observation techniques have different purposes. I would use a checklist to assess skills or traits that are determined on a yes or no basis because it is not a detailed form or observation. I would use anecdotal records to document certain events. Time sampling would be beneficial to use in a classroom to track frequency of behavior. Event sampling would be useful in  a classroom to identify behavioral causes and consequences. A running record would help monitor sequences of behaviors...

Week 1   Reflection   This week has helped to fill in some missing blanks that have been discussed in previous classes. Though we have learned what content to teach, this is the first time we have discussed how we know what to teach, how we evaluate and assess our students, and how we adapt our teaching based on these assessments. Before this week, everyone knew about standardized tests and content exams. However, this class has given us insight into what happens behind the scenes in a classroom. Of course, teachers know how to follow the given standards and curriculum, but they can also decide how to teach them and how much focus needs to be put on certain content. Notes Assessment  Teachers use assessments to determine knowledge, behavior, skill level, or personality in order to guide their teaching. Using the information teachers gain from assessments, they can decide want content to focus on, if student’s have successfully mastered content or standards, and what teach...