During this week, I missed the physical class. However, I did not miss out on the content of the textbook and the peer feedback for my Professional Dialogue Paper! The chapters due to be read for this week were chapters 9, 10, and 11, which were the last chapters of this text book. My symbol for the content and tasks of this week is a light bulb. A light bulb turns on when given energy/power, if our brains are the light bulbs, ourselves, peers, assessments, communication all feed towards powering our personal light bulbs.
Chapter 9 is based on communication with learning, chapter 10 is on evaluating and reporting, and chapter 11 is based on learning by ourselves and with others. These three ideas are critical standing points when it comes to working together, working alone, assessing, learning, and how communication benefits these processes as a whole.
Going further, in chapter 9 “there are two parts to successful communication about learning: 1. Students collect and demonstrate their learning. 2. Audiences respond with feedback” (Davies, 2020, p. 86), with communication and assessment, this further adds to our growing light. This give and outlet to practice demonstrating what we know and doing so in a healthy way that lets us learn and apply more successfully over time. All while the student or ourselves are being the sources of our own learning and progression.
Learning to understand what we know and how to evaluate it and send it forth in a strong skill that adds onto our shining light. Triangulation is a strategy that supports the criticism process in a way that is not negative or looking down on students, others, or ourselves “Triangulation of evidence- looking at evidence from three different sources- is essential because it puts single pieces into context… the evidence students have collected, the self-assessments they have made, our observations, criteria-based assessments attached to projects or assignments, performance grids, rubric scores, and grades from projects and tests” (Davies, 2020, p. 95). This is a way of utilizing ourselves, communication, and working together to build onto what we know.
The last chapter dives into Learning Circles. Personally, I have extremely enjoyed the Learning Circles and what the process, my peers, and myself offers to the table when we all come together “Learning circles- places where people learn from each other”(Davies, 2020, p. 105). This strategy applies all that we have been learning in one strong approach- being able to learn from one another is a great skill to have and fuels our lights.
I also received and provided peer feedback on my Professional Dialogue Paper. I love any opportunity to practice my assessing and feedback before having to go into the workforce. While reading the other person’s paper, I would find myself asking myself how I would want to receive any feedback. I wrote down my notes of my raw thoughts on another paper while going through the paper. Once I finished reading with my first impression, I read the paper again. Then I went to my notes and sifted through my suggestions and thought about how I would be able to go forward if I received any of the feedback. This gave me an outlet to provide key suggestions in a positive, healthy, yet informative way, while using the sandwich technique. I still had a layout of small critiques, then I gave my full bulb of positivity and growth. Not only was I feeding to another’s light, but my own as well.
Davies, A. (2020). Making Classroom Assessment Work (4th ed.). connect2learning.
