Concept Rich Chapter 5, Afterword, and Appendices

Chapter 5

I think that process oriented assessment and classroom communications and observations are things I could use in the future. I like the idea of assessing the students process for math because that is what matters most in math. It is really easy to make a sign error or an arithmetic error and get the wrong answer but what truly matters is that you had the right process. Making a small, insignificant error to cause the answer to be incorrect on your assignment tells me nothing about if you really know what you're doing so by using the process instead of the product I would be able to really, truly analyze what my students know. I also think that using observations could be useful for me in the future. By specifically focusing on observing a student you are able to notice things that you wouldn’t have picked up on in other situations. I think this would be useful to do during class wide, or even small group, discussions. I have always felt it is extremely important to create a safe environment so this would be a good technique to use in my classroom because students would feel safe enough to discuss their confusions and feelings during assignments. I also think that observations offer a lot of opportunity for use as feedback. I can use the information I get from the observations to readjust things within the lesson or even change the way I teach to benefit my students the most.

Afterword and Appendix 1

During each of my lesson I schedule in a time to correct any misconceptions that students have with the concepts discussed. This helps to eliminate those misconceptions so that they do have a negative effect on students in the future. For example, I had some misconceptions with the way logarithm’s work when in high school and that has had a negative impact on me throughout college because I have had to attempt to correct my own misconceptions without the assistance of a teacher which has been difficult. I also have given lots of opportunity for practice with the content for students and it is in varied tasks. They have a crossword puzzle, play bingo, and other activities and assignments which they can use to really solidify the concepts for them. They then can show me their mastery with the end of lesson project and/or the post-assessment I schedule in for the end of my lessons. I also enforce the importance of practicing skills during the notes portion of my lesson plans. I also encourage them to desire to practice by using fun and interactive activities within each of my lessons.

Appendix 2

This appendix relates to CCSS because most of these categories, if not all of them, are the clusters which go with the common core standards. They are the big categories for those standards. I think for my unit they relate to it because they help guide things as to where they should start off in terms of introductory skills and then where things can be maintained. I also think that if my unit was a little bit farther along in the year in terms of the order Algebra is taught it would be beneficial to help determine the pre-requisite skills that would be needed for students before the lesson occurred.