Stage I and Performance Assessment Ideas

Planning Template

(p. 30 Tomlinson and McTighe)

Stage I – Desired Results
Established Goal(s) [all standards/proficiencies]: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.1 Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations:            Lines are taken to lines, and line segments to line segments of the same length.            Angles are taken to angles of the same measure.            Parallel lines are taken to parallel lines. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.2 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.3 Describe the effect of dilations, translations, rotations, and reflections on two-dimensional figures using coordinates. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.G.A.4 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is similar to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, translations, and dilations; given two similar two-dimensional figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the similarity between them.
Understanding (s): Students will understand that… The difference between congruent and similar shapes Rotations, translations, dilations, and reflections have different effects on shapes Shapes can be found and used in everyday life, and throughout different mediums.	Essential Question(s): How can we show the congruence and similarity of shapes in different mediums?
Students will know…                                                           Students will be able to…1)How to rotate, translate, dilate, and reflect                1) Explain and show they can shapes on a coordinate plane.                                           rotate, translate, dilate, and                                       reflect shapes on a coordinate      plane. 2) The difference between congruent shapes                   2) Explain the difference and similar shapes.                                                           between congruent and similar                                                      shapes. 3) Shapes can be found in many different                        3) Express their knowledge of mediums.                                                                           shapes in a new medium (such       as computer programs or       artwork)

One idea I have for a performance assessment during my lesson is an art project that uses similar and congruent shapes. I think this would be a great and creative way for students to show what they know about similar and congruent shapes. A student would need to apply all of the knowledge they gained from my unit to complete this assignment. My rubric will include specific instructions about what they would need to include in the art piece, for example a rotation, dilation, reflection, etc. to make sure that students have applied their knowledge and meet the standards I have set in place for the unit. This piece of artwork will also give students the ability to apply their knowledge about how shapes and art relate by creating their very own piece.

These pieces of evidence show the beginning stages of my planning for a unit in an eighth grade geometry class. They show that I am thinking of the purpose of my unit before I start looking at anything else. This is the root of backwards planning, which looks at the purpose of a unit first, and then plans lessons. A main idea and purpose will help a teacher stay on task, and remember the most important part of the lesson.

This blog will focus on Performance Criteria 7.1: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of content areas to meet rigorous learning goals. This mean that I will focus on showing my ability to plan lessons based on my knowledge of my content area. I believe that Stage one of my Backward planning template and my mind map show that I am meeting this criteria. The evidence shows what I want my students to specifically know about congruent and similar shapes. I want them to be able to explain rotations and reflections. This means that I have an understanding of what these are and why it is important for a student to understand the difference between them. This evidence also shows that I want show students how the material connects to a world outside of mathematics. I must have a very deep understanding of the mathematics if I wish to give my students meaningful connections. The backwards planning guide helps me think of ways I can connect my content area to other areas of the world. This will make my instruction stronger, because it shows that I want my students to make connections to the world around them.

I believe that the evidence shows that I am just barely scraping my understanding of my content area knowledge to create instruction. The evidence currently shows that I have a plan to get there, but doesn’t show much else. I believe as I delve deeper into my unit plan I will have more evidence that shows how I relate my content knowledge to my lessons to give rigorous learning goals. I will learn more about geometric shapes, along with congruence and similarity so I can find deeper meaning in them and find many other ways I can relate them to the real world, so I will have even more rigorous goals for my students.

Shadow Puppet and Explain Everything

Link to Progressivism: https://youtu.be/_u34vE1OsIQ

Link to Literacy: https://youtu.be/PI24YdpslFI

In the shadow puppet a partner and I were asked to describe our definition of literacy, how it has changed over the past few weeks, and how we could relate it to our content area. In the explain everything I was asked to explore my teaching philosophy, research theorists and it, and apply my learning to my future teaching style.

In these two projects I found a lot of similarities. As I researched my teaching philosophy I learned that I believe it is incredibly important for students to actively work with material, and not just listen to me talk about the material. When I gave ideas as to how I would assess my future students literacy in math I said I would do exactly that. A great example is starting at 1:23 of the shadow puppet with my partner. We stated that a student must be able to show they are literate in multiple ways. I then gave an example of how a student could do that. Our shadow puppet also brought up the fact that a person who is truly literate in math can apply it to everyday life. I think these are huge points in my teaching philosophy. Students must be able to find connections to their world to find the subject matter interesting. Along with this they must be able to experiment with the material, and actually do instead of just listen. So I believe there are a lot of connections with literacy in my content area and my teaching philosophy.

Performance criterion 4.1 states that candidates must accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline. My shadow puppet with my partner really showed that. One of the key concepts in high school mathematics is the ability to understand signs, symbols, and important language. My partner's and my shadow puppet talked a lot about the importance of understanding these things to be literate in the content area. I think this also covered the performance criterion 5.2 which states "Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills [such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving] to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways". In the shadow puppet I stated students will need to show literacy by taking different text styles and applying them to different text styles. An example of this is taking a graph and find the equivalent algebraic equation. Then I also stated that students need to apply the concepts to the real world, which my teaching philosophy believes is very important. This will require critical thinking skills. Students will need to critically think about how they can apply these concepts to the real world. My partner and I had a picture of a student playing basketball in our shadow puppet, and that would be a great way to integrate critical thinking skills. A student would need to figure out how to apply their math skills to the real world, and that requires critical thinking.

As I have explored my presentations and how they relate to the performance criteria I have learned more about how I can apply the different criteria. When I first read performance criteria 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, and 5.2 I was confused as to how I could apply them, but I started to see that my shadow puppet expressed the importance of being able to understand different mathematical mediums and relating them to real world situations, and I felt that performance criteria 4.2 and 5.2 really expressed that. As I keep moving forward I want to find other creative ways I can relate class projects and experiences to the performance criteria and mission statement pillars

Friends and Peers

This week MayZin and I worked on reading graphs and slope-intercept form. I struggled helping her this week, mostly because she had a hard time understanding the relationship between x and y values along with fractions and decimals. These past few weeks I have started noticing a gap in MayZin’s mathematical learning. She is working on learning to write equations, but she has a hard time working with fractions converting decimals to fractions. This is a problem in foundations of algebra because fractions are a huge portion of algebra. I believe this is why she is struggling with slope-intercept form, because an understanding of fractions is important to find the slope of a line.

MayZin was much more motivated in her classes this week, especially her reading class. I had mentioned in earlier posts it is often difficult to get her to focus on her reading plus work. Earlier in the semester I noticed that she would become distracted during reading plus. This week, however, she started reading plus as soon as class started. She even asked some of her classmates to be quiet so that she could focus on what she was reading. I believe this change is mostly because progress reports were recently sent out. She seems to be trying harder these past few weeks. I wonder if this is because she was unhappy with these grades. I believe that she is trying to finish the school year on a stronger note, and she is headed in the right direction.

MayZin seems to spend a fair amount of time with her friends. Every week I ask her what she has planned for the weekend, and after some suggestions she often tells me she will probably hang out with her friends. She spends a lot of time socializing with her friends before class as well. Theorist Harry Stack Sullivan believed there were four positive aspects to intimate friendships. These four aspects developed higher self-esteem in adolescents (Arnett,2013). These four aspects are informational support, instrumental support, companionship support, and esteem support. I have noticed MayZin’s friends offer all four. When she is not in school her friends will text what she missed. They will also work together in class, helping each other with vocabulary worksheets. MayZin spends much of her time between classes with her friends showing that they rely on each other for company during structured social time. Finally, I often see them supporting each other through their successes. When someone gets a good grade they congratulate each other. If they didn’t do as well as they hoped they encourage each other to work harder.

Since we were working on graphs again this week I worked on MayZin’s reading level with her again this week.. According to the WIDA can do descriptors the ability to “evaluate usefulness of data or information supported visually or graphically” (Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A., 2007) is not attained until level 4. She struggled with reading the graphs that she was asked to work with again this week. I mostly worked with her on deciding which variable is the independent variable, and which variable is the dependent variable. From there I asked her leading questions until she was able to figure out the the x-value is the independent variable, and the y-value is the dependent variable, and why they are like this.

Media

Today MayZin had the chance to work on her complex assessment today in her math class. The complex assessment theme she was assigned is finding evidence of an afterlife. I mostly looked at her presentation and tried looking for different articles she may be able to use. When I asked her about her assessment she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it. She moved around in slides and articles quite a bit. I had a hard time trying to figure out what exactly she was trying to do. When I continued to ask her about it she gave me short answers. In all there was not much I was able to help MayZin with today.

            I didn’t have any new assumptions this week, but I did notice a change in MayZin’s academic attitude in her reading class. In previous posts I have stated that I have assumed MayZin seems to not have a strong motivation in her classes. This week, in her reading class, I noticed that she focused on her reading plus work more this week, and she participated better in class. This could have been a push to do better before break, or maybe she was ready to start working harder in her classes. I also know that progress reports had been sent out a few weeks ago. She could have not been pleased with her progress report grades, and she may now be pushing to end the year in good standing.

            MayZin is surrounded by technology all day long. Winooski has a 1:1 tech initiative. This means that every student in the high school has a laptop that they use regularly throughout the day. The two classes that I follow MayZin in uses technology. Her Math class is an independent learning classroom, so she completes and turns her homework in all on her computer. This has positive and negative effects on MayZin and her classmates I have noticed. One of the positive effects the 1:1 initiative has is students are able to work at their own pace. This helps MayZin’s understanding, because she is able to work on a unit until she thoroughly understands it. MayZin also has access to the Internet when she does not understand a concept. However, I have noticed that MayZin and her peers take advantage of technology in the classroom. Many of them will use the computers to watch YouTube videos and search through their social media feeds. They also use their cell phones an excessive amount during class time. I have noticed many of MayZin’s peers’ texting when they should be working on reading plus work. There are many positives to the 1:1 technology initiative, but I also have seen that it needs to be better regulated, because many students are abusing it.

            I continued to work on MayZin’s reading level with her this week. I noticed that she can read graphs well, but taking information and making a graph with it is difficult for her. According to the WIDA can do descriptors the ability to “evaluate usefulness of data or information supported visually or graphically” (Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A., 2007) is not attained until level 4. This could very well be why she has a hard time to create her own graphs. This week she was asked to make a graph of her own with two related variables of her choosing. I tried to give her examples, some of them including her favorite sport soccer, but she still struggled to create a graph herself. She also struggled with solving a question where she was given information and then had to draw a graph with that information. I could see that she could not decipher what information is important and what isn’t. I believe this is because of her reading level, because after many guiding questions and explanations she was finally able to draw the graph.

Works Cited:

Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M. E., & Cammilleri, A. (2007). WIDA English language proficiency standards and resource guide. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

Family

I was unable to go to my partnership today due to illness. Everything in this blog will be about things that I have observed in previous visits.

The most important assumptions that I have been making about MayZin in the last few weeks is that she may not have a lot of motivation when it comes to her schoolwork. She has missed school quite often, and when her teachers talk to her about her assignments she is almost always missing homework assignments. I often notice she is unfocused during her reading plus work. She will look around the room, instead of reading the prompt on her computer screen. I also see her drifting off and checking her phone when she should be doing her work. MayZin spends a lot of time talking to her friends during class time, and it can be difficult to keep her attention on the task at hand. I assume she isn’t motivated, but there could be something going on in her home life that I do not know about. She does not talk to me about anything other than her homework, so it is hard to know if there is an outside source. It could also be as simple as she does not like the course, so she does not have a strong desire to do the work. I’m assuming she is not motivated to do the work, but it could be as simple as she is not interested.

            I do not know much about her family life. MayZin does not talk about her life at home. I will often ask her about her plans for the weekend, or how her week went and she does not give me any information. All I know about her home life is what I can infer from background knowledge I have on her culture. Her culture appears to encourage a traditional parenting style. According to CultureGrams, parents have five obligations to their children; these are keeping their children from being bad, telling their children to be good, make sure their children have an education, ensure they are financially supported, and organize their children’s marriages (CultureGrams, Family).  Traditional parenting is defined as “The kind of parenting typical in traditional cultures, high in responsiveness, and high in a kind of demandingness that does not encourage discussion and debate but rather expects compliance by virtue of cultural beliefs supporting the inherent authority of the parental role” (Arnett,J.J pg. 186 2013). Based on MayZin’s cultural background it definitely seems like this would be the case. The little I do know about her it does seem like her parents put a strong emphasis on education. It appears that they do want her to do well. She has told her that her parents want her to go to college, so it is clear her parents have higher education expectations for her. The description of parenting from CultureGrams also allows me to infer that the parenting style used by her parents is more of a traditional parenting style because Burmese parents seem to believe in the idea that they must provide their children with rules that teach them the difference between right and wrong. This seems more like traditional parenting, because CultureGrams does suggest that there is no negotiation when it comes to those rules.

            I wasn’t able to help MayZin with her WIDA standards, because I was unable to make it to Winooski today.

Works Cited:

Arnett, Jeffrey J. (2012-07-02). Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood (Page 168). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

Myanmar: Family (2016). CultureGrams Online Edition. ProQuest. Retrieved from http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?cid=198&cn=Myanmar&sname=Family&snid=11