Third Post

There are many types of assessments. Most assessments fall into two categories, formative and summative. Both assessments are beneficial to students and teachers to gather information about how well students understand the material being taught.

Formative assessments are more casual and can be done throughout a lesson to gauge student understanding on a daily basis. This can also help guide the teacher through the lesson and decide what direction to go in and ways to improve. Some examples of formative assessments are observations, reviews, worksheets, word searches, quizzes, polls, surveys and other daily activities.

Summative assessments are more formal types of assessment that produce more concrete results. Teachers can actually see the progress, compare, contrast and measure the scores.  Some examples of summative assessments are standardized tests, AIMs test, finals, final projects, and state testing.

Using the 1st Grade Common Core Math Standard of :

Identify and describe shapes (correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size), I could use this poll below to gauge their progress using a formative assessment.

http://poll.fm/3ne82

For a summative assessment, I would use the sheet below and have the students name each shape by writing the name underneath the shape.



Second Post

It is extremely important to make sure you are using quality sources when using the internet. As a teacher, it our job to teach our students the skills needed to be able to make the determination between a quality source and an inferior source. First, using search engines can be an easy way to find an abundance of website. When looking through different sites, it is important to ask questions and have a critical eye. Ask yourself if the website looks professional? Who is the author? Does this person have expertise in this certain area? Is the author affiliated with a company, organization, school that has a history or reliability? These are important to ask if you are looking at websites ending in .com. Another way to make sure the sources you are choosing are reliable and of high quality is to use an academic search engine like EBSCO host or ERIC. These have a wide array of articles on all subject areas and most have been scholarly reviewed and the authors are experts in the field of study. Using websites such as Wiki or Wikipedia should be discouraged because those are the types that just about anyone can add to and do not have to add their citations. The most important thing to keep in mind is to be a critical thinker and not use the first website you find just because it’s convenient.  

http://www.edmondo.com/

http://testmoz.com/

http://kidshealth.org/

http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/teachingTools/whyPE.cfm

http://www.livestrong.com/article/90781-physical-indoor-games-kids/