AER Strategy

EDBE 8Y01 Digital Portfolio: AER Strategy Form                  Name: Bernadette James
GROWING SUCCESS POLICIES	My Professional Learning Goals 1 goal for each	Strategies For Meeting My Goals 1 strategy for each	Curated Resources minimum of 2 sources for each
POLICY Fundamental Principles	To provide support for students with special education needs, whether that need is behavioral, physical or environmental based.	Create an inclusive classroom environment that will allow students to feel safe, heard, and valued. I could do this through differentiating my course content and giving every student equal opportunities to speak and ask questions.	Learning for All http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/ elemsec/speced/LearningforAll2013.pdf Differentiated Instruction http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/lms/differentiatedInstruction.pdf
POLICY Learning Skills & Work Habits	I will instill my students with effective self-regulation strategies	Implementing a gradual release of responsibility. Getting the students comfortable setting their own goals and managing their time and behavior.	Calm, Alert and Happy http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/Shanker.pdf Authorizing Students' Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesSV/StudentVoiceResearch/AuthorizingStudentsPerspectivesTowardTrustDialogueandChangeinEducation.pdf
POLICY Performance Standards: The Achievement Chart	I will give consistent and meaningful feedback to help my students grow and learn	I will be concise and clear with my comments on my students work, outlining their areas of need and the steps they can take to improve	Reporting Student Learning http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesAER/PrintandOtherResources/ReportingStudentLearning_Engfinal.pdf Assessment Planning: Mrs. Chan’s Story This resource records the planning and implementation of a specific assessment strategy used by a teacher named Mrs. Chan to help her gauge the kind of feedback her students will benefit from. http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesAER/ ModelsofImplementation/MrsChan_ AssessmentPlanningSecondaryText.pdf
POLICY Assessment FOR Learning & AS Learning	I will engage in effective and meaningful collaboration between student and teacher to devise assessment strategies	I will give my students the opportunity to self-assess and give input in the assessment strategies used for class.	Student Voice in Assessment This is a transcript of a video from EduGains that focuses on real life stories of students taking control of their own assessment and using learning goals to direct their own learning. http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesAER/VideoLibrary/StudentVoice/TranscriptforStudentVoice.pdf Collaborative Inquiry Project Educators gathered to discuss one question: How can we gather valid and reliable evidence of learning to inform our professional judgement to determine a grade?   They developed specific, focused inquiry questions related to the Theory of Action and are sharing the results of their ongoing professional learning on this site. http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/aer/collaborativeinquiryproject/cipquestions/cipquestionsyork.html
POLICY Evaluation	I will provide evidence based evaluation that will be clearly communicated to students and parents.	I will make myself available and open to conversation with students and parents on student progress and strategies to improve	Reporting Student Learning http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesAER/PrintandOtherResources/ReportingStudentLearning_Engfinal.pdf Planning, Assessment and Evaluation http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teacher/planningAssessment.pdf
POLICY Reporting Student Achievement	I will make sure my Elementary Progress Report Cards show the student’s development of the learning skills and work habits during the fall of the school year, as well as a student’s general progress in working towards the achievement of the curriculum expectations in all subjects.	I will be sure to keep consistent notes and observation of each student’s progress in every subject.	How Should We Measure Student Learning? 5 Keys to Comprehensive Assessment https://www.edutopia.org/comprehensive-assessment-introduction Easing the Stress of Evaluations for Teachers Teachers approaching their summative evaluations with a growth mindset will bridge the divide and diminish the adversarial relationship with the administrator, who is on their side. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/easing-stress-of-evaluations-for-teachers-ben-johnson
POLICY Students With Special Education Needs	I will plan and implement differentiated instruction and assessment for students with Learning Disabilities	Through consistent and thorough assessment I will get know my students learning needs and adjust to meet them.	Identification of and Program Planning for Students with Learning Disabilities http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesSpecEd/ClassroomEducator/Overview%20of%20PPM8%201.pdf Learning for All http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/ elemsec/speced/LearningforAll2013.pdf
POLICY English Language Learners	I will create an inclusive environment where my ELL students will be given the assistance they need to thrive.	I will assess their areas of strength and need and provide them with the tools to improve.	Supporting ELL Students http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/esleldprograms/guide.pdf Do's & Don'ts for Teaching English-Language Learners https://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski
POLICY The Kindergarten Program	I will assess kindergarteners to improve learning and to help children become self-regulating, autonomous learners.	I will follow the seven fundamental principles of assessment.	The Kindergarten Addendum http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growingSuccessAddendum.pdf Early Learning for Every Child Today http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/oelf/continuum/continuum.pdf

Growing Success: True to its Name

Growing Success is a document that has popped up in every one of my courses because of how essential it is. It breaks down assessment into manageable sections and gives thorough explanations as to what assessment looks like today, what it looked like years ago and how it may change. Something big that I learned from this document is the idea that assessment is fluid. Not that it does not have rules or types, but rather that it has changed form so many times over the years and it will continue to do so to meet the needs of the classroom. This is especially evident in how the document approaches Special Education and the vital role meaningful assessment plays in identifying student's particular needs. Knowing your students is so incredibly important for teachers to accurately aSssess the strengths and areas of needs for their students so they can begin differentiating their instruction to meet them. I found this teachers blog online that outlines ways a teacher can get to know their students as learners which I will include here: Know Your Learners

Southard. Students.[ Online image]. Retrieved from
http://funinfirst.com/getting-to-know-your-students/

My understanding of report cards and how the grading system worked was quite minimal before reading this document simply because it had been so long since I had seen a report card. And the ones that I knew are not as the same as kind you will find today. I appreciated that Growing Success is true to its name and the amount of feedback and detail included in report cards has indeed grown.

Assessment: My Experience

Most of my elementary experiences with assessment were the picture of traditional teaching methods. We wrote tests, we were assignment letter grades and there was little in the way of differentiated learning. I had a very poor experience of elementary school because I was a very slow worker and learner, I had very little confidence in my abilities as a student and believed myself too far behind to catch up. And since most of my assessment came from timed written tests I was labelled as a poor student. I find it strange now that it was my younger elementary years where I experienced a more strict assessment whereas now the younger students are given the most open assessment strategies. I do also find it difficult to look back on these years with a teachers lens. I may have been feeling stressed and pressured and that may have contributed to how I interpreted everything I saw.

 As I approached my upper elementary years there was a wave of new assessment strategies at my school. I'm not sure whether it was due to a new system implemented by the ministry or because we had a new principal or if our recent influx of new teachers had really changed the class dynamic but we had taken more of a turn towards Assessment for and as Learning. We were encouraged more to reflect on our progress as students, right at the age where we didn't want to, but we were also given more opportunities for project based learning where we could have more choice in how we completed our work (presentation, written form, visual etc.). I found myself with more chances to do well in the ways that I knew how and it showed. I had one teacher who really flipped the board and created her own unique expressions of assessment. She would have pictures on the board and along with assessing our individual progress throughout the year, she would also assess us as a class. If we kept up with our work, if we all participated and kept a respectful atmosphere then we would win an ice cream party at the end of the year. She did, however, come across many problems with her expressions of assessment as parents did not understand the values of this system and switched back to letter grades in the middle of the year.

I have never liked the idea of grades myself very much because so much of it relies on perception. I might see a 75% as a good grade but I have friends who would read anything below a 90% as a failure. I have had teachers in my undergrad and in courses I am currently taking who will assign a grade, give suggestions for improvement and then give the students the chance to resubmit the assignment with the improvement. Though I understand this will be more work for me as a teacher, I think it is a great way to give students a chance to show you that they can take instruction to improve their work and fix their mistakes. I am very nervous to start marking assignments because I am worried about how I will be able to give students fair marks according to their abilities. Especially with students who might need an IEP or are in the process of obtaining one and as a result may be doing more poorly than they would if they were given the accommodations they need. I hope to learn more in this course about how I can create the best assessment strategies as I possibly can!