I appreciated this reflection. Both the specifics of your ideas and also the notion that progress isn't linear, that a teacher can move back and forth between differing approaches and remain a good teacher all along the way.
Thank you for these reflections! I often feel like the hold out for student accountability with these brief reading quizzes. However, it promotes a culture of valuing the diligence of the students who are doing the work by showing that being successful sometimes take an investment in the effort and not just riding the coat-tails of what others are contributing to class.
I definitely still have lots of mixed feelings as far as the specifics/logistics of what these should look like (impact on grade, frequency, amount of outside reading overall) but for me that is also where I try to avoid taking an absolutist stance on many pedagogical positions—as for almost all, there are upsides/downsides and the trick is how to swim in the margins between them...
Quizzes are beneficial for learning, not just an assessment tool. Trying to retrieve knowledge helps strengthen memory of it. I like daily quizzes, immediately gone over with the whole class, self-corrected, not always even collected, and when collected, often without names on them, and recycled as soon as I’ve skimmed through them. I want a picture of the whole class’s understanding to act on immediately. I find using quizzes as primarily a way to enhance learning helps clarify the culture of the classroom. I will explicitly teach the purpose of quizzes (“trying to remember helps us remember”) and make a point of recycling them or not collecting them to prove it.
Agree here! low-stakes (or no stakes!) retrieval is definitely one of my goals this year, especially on a block schedule in which I see students at most 3 times a week.
Much appreciate this action research-like approach to teaching that you share + this also made me think of (albeit a bit tangential) the benefit of spiraling curricular content for students so they are able to revisit and reinforce past learning.
Point being returning to past practices can be powerful.
Action research is the only research I have time for 😂 — but I also think the idea of spiraling definitely has even more potential value in the era of increased student absences that many of us are navigating.
I appreciated this reflection. Both the specifics of your ideas and also the notion that progress isn't linear, that a teacher can move back and forth between differing approaches and remain a good teacher all along the way.
Thank you for these reflections! I often feel like the hold out for student accountability with these brief reading quizzes. However, it promotes a culture of valuing the diligence of the students who are doing the work by showing that being successful sometimes take an investment in the effort and not just riding the coat-tails of what others are contributing to class.
I definitely still have lots of mixed feelings as far as the specifics/logistics of what these should look like (impact on grade, frequency, amount of outside reading overall) but for me that is also where I try to avoid taking an absolutist stance on many pedagogical positions—as for almost all, there are upsides/downsides and the trick is how to swim in the margins between them...
Quizzes are beneficial for learning, not just an assessment tool. Trying to retrieve knowledge helps strengthen memory of it. I like daily quizzes, immediately gone over with the whole class, self-corrected, not always even collected, and when collected, often without names on them, and recycled as soon as I’ve skimmed through them. I want a picture of the whole class’s understanding to act on immediately. I find using quizzes as primarily a way to enhance learning helps clarify the culture of the classroom. I will explicitly teach the purpose of quizzes (“trying to remember helps us remember”) and make a point of recycling them or not collecting them to prove it.
Agree here! low-stakes (or no stakes!) retrieval is definitely one of my goals this year, especially on a block schedule in which I see students at most 3 times a week.
Much appreciate this action research-like approach to teaching that you share + this also made me think of (albeit a bit tangential) the benefit of spiraling curricular content for students so they are able to revisit and reinforce past learning.
Point being returning to past practices can be powerful.
Action research is the only research I have time for 😂 — but I also think the idea of spiraling definitely has even more potential value in the era of increased student absences that many of us are navigating.
Appreciate the comment!
Great point connecting the argument for spiraling to absences. A good practice in general but amplified now given the circumstances
This is me, investigating Thought-Question-Epiphany…thanks for your reflection and for always including new learning!