Formative Assessment & Reading Apprenticeship:

Formative Assessment & Reading Apprenticeship:

 

Within our district we have a few initiatives that we are focusing on to increase student understanding.  Two that I will be incorporating into the science classroom are Reading Apprenticeship and the Formative Assessment Process. 

 

Reading Apprenticeship helps students develop the knowledge and strategies they need to become more powerful readers.  Reading Apprenticeship helps students understand how they read and why they read in the ways that they do, as well as, what they read in the subject areas.  We will be working on reading strategies together in class.  Students will also spend 20 minutes in class once per week reading a book of their own choosing.  This strategy, called SSR, will usually take place on Fridays.

 

The Formative Assessment Process is an ongoing learning process for both the teacher and the student.  Five formative assessment strategies that I will be incorporating into my classroom with students are: activating prior knowledge, goal setting, self- assessment, peer assessment and feedback use.  There will be assignments that will not be graded.  These assignments will be formative assessments.  They are considered formative because they help me see where students are in the learning process.  I will adjust my instruction based on where my students are in the learning process.  Through written and oral feedback, students can see what they understand and where they can improve without a grade being attached to the assignment or activity.

 

 

 

Grading:

 

In Power School, there will be a mixture of graded assignments and assignments with feedback only. The graded assignments are considered summative assessments.  They allow you to see how your student is doing at that place and time in the class.  Each of the summative assessments will be linked to learning targets.  Students will be provided and made aware of the learning targets for each of the units.  

 

 

 

I grade using total points. All summative assignments are given a point value. Grades are then figured by adding up all of the points a student earned that quarter and then that total is divided by the total possible points for the quarter. The total possible points vary each quarter.