Chapter 9: Communicating About Learning

Chapter 10: Evaluating and Reporting

Chapter 11: Learning by Ourselves and with Others

Group Members: Charlee A., Abigail G., Hailey J., Bridget M., Kari M., Kianna W.

This week we talked a lot about student-led conferences and that we liked the idea of having stations to allow students to show their parents what they know. A group member mentioned having an open house at the beginning of the school year so the students can get more comfortable with the teacher and in the classroom, and parents will get introduced to who you are and can ask questions on your approach to teaching. I think this is especially important if you are new to the area or a first year teacher because parents want to be assured their kids are getting the best education. Additionally, Edsby was mentioned, which is a portal where teachers share grades, attendance, and what students have been up to at school. Communicating with parents on what the students are learning is important as we all know when students come home most will say they learned nothing. It was pointed out that as time passes, teachers are having to communicate more and more to avoid problems with parents as there seems to be a growing mistrust of teachers. Some teachers provide supplementary learning for the parents to do with the kids if they would like to and are able to support them in that way, and a group member mentioned that her co-op teacher never mentions this to the students as she doesn’t want those whose parents do not do this extra learning to feel left out.

The main thing we got from chapter ten was to get student input and not average grades, which brought us back to the parachute example at the beginning of the book. All of the students would have the same “average” but if you ask yourself the question “Did they learn what they needed? How well did they show it?,” the student who only improved throughout the year learned something and gave evidence of that in her skills throughout the year. The student who only got worse throughout the year did not show that they learned anything and therefore would receive a worse mark than the first student.

For chapter eleven we discussed the importance of going to colleagues and ensuring that marking standards are the same throughout those grades. Someone mentioned how their mom’s school does writing assessments twice a year where teachers are grouped together and have to mark the assessments together to ensure that the marking standards are fair and to avoid bias.

We finished our discussion early and began discussing our plans for the winter break, which I think shows how reflecting on controversial topics in a group really forces you to come together and form relationships with one another.