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I really liked taking the M-Step practice test this week because as a lower Elementary teacher I am not involved in that test portion. However, I do teach 2nd grade so knowing what is on the test is helpful to know in order to better prepare them in the future. It helps me know how to prepare them academically and also become more tech savy.
Another topic that I also liked was researching and finding articles about writing. I really wanted to find more information about how to incorporate technology into my classroom. I was really looking forward for some good ideas but I feel like most of the technology that is offered is geared toward secondary educators or upper elementary schools. It has made me become more determined to find outlets out there for the little ones. I also enjoyed reading everyone's response to that journal entry because I felt like it gave me good ideas and I felt like I was also able to give some good ideas too!

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This week I found two specific topics that really stood out for me. First, the M-Step assignment. While I have had a little experience navigating some of the performance tasks, during the assignment I had the time to dive deeper into my specific grade-level. It was great to see what skills my students really need to know to complete the test. In addition, it made me pretty anxious on how to teach my low-level students those higher level thinking skills.
Secondly, the article, "What are Rubrics and Why are They Important" made me really think. While I try my best to use rubrics in my writing, it made me open my eyes and realize the use of rubrics in other subjects are useful and important. In addition, this year our teacher evaluation is based on rubrics, therefore, I am very alerted when rubrics are being discussed.
What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important? (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, fromhttp://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important¢.aspx

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Linda:This week I found the rubric article, “What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important?” most helpful.  I enjoyed reading about the different types of rubrics. As I mentioned in my write-up of the article, I am much more familiar with the Analytic Rubrics than others. I also enjoyed the reminder that rubrics are more for the student than for the teacher. Students are able to look at the rubric at the start of their assignments to determine what needs to be done. They can continue to refer to the rubric to see if they are on the right track. Then, when the complete the assignment, they can check it against the rubric to see if they had met the criteria. With a clearly defined rubric, there shouldn’t be a mystery surrounding the final grade. I think they key point, though, is a “clearly defined” rubric. If the rubric is vague at all or confusing, it isn’t helpful to the student. I need to keep this in mind as a teacher. With regard to my case study student, I found that she struggles with writing. She is not able to provide details, use temporal words, or a sense of closure. She does like to draw and in kindergarten drawing was a pre-writing skill they focused a great deal on. I think with more time and focus on first grade expectations, she will become a more competent writer. What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important? (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important¢.aspx 

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Linda:This week I found the rubric article, “What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important?” most helpful.  I enjoyed reading about the different types of rubrics. As I mentioned in my write-up of the article, I am much more familiar with the Analytic Rubrics than others. I also enjoyed the reminder that rubrics are more for the student than for the teacher. Students are able to look at the rubric at the start of their assignments to determine what needs to be done. They can continue to refer to the rubric to see if they are on the right track. Then, when the complete the assignment, they can check it against the rubric to see if they had met the criteria. With a clearly defined rubric, there shouldn’t be a mystery surrounding the final grade. I think they key point, though, is a “clearly defined” rubric. If the rubric is vague at all or confusing, it isn’t helpful to the student. I need to keep this in mind as a teacher. With regard to my case study student, I found that she struggles with writing. She is not able to provide details, use temporal words, or a sense of closure. She does like to draw and in kindergarten drawing was a pre-writing skill they focused a great deal on. I think with more time and focus on first grade expectations, she will become a more competent writer. What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important? (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important¢.aspx 

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One thing that really stood out to me this week is how challenging the writing process is for students today with the rise of technology. We live in a world now that is dependent on instant gratification and balks when the Internet runs slowly, the connection is poor, or the search results come up dry. The effect of this on young writers today is a lack of persistence when it comes to engaging in the writing process. It is essential for students to know and understand that writing is a process and often a struggle. Dorothy Parker put it well when she said, “I hate writing, I love having written.” What Parker alludes to is the difficult and often burdensome work that is writing. Gipe refers to the writing process as “a complex, problem-solving process in which writers move back and forth between planning, composing, and revising their work (Gipe, 2006, p.148). Let’s encourage students to engage in this process. Let's allow them to struggle so they can feel the pride of "having written." Let’s use technology to work for us rather than against, using technology to motivate writers rather than to shirk the writing process.

Gipe, J.P. (2006). Multiple Paths to Literacy Assessment and Differentiated

Instruction for Diverse Learners, K – 12 (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson.

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As a reading teacher, the M-Step assignment was useful for me. Although I had used this site before, it was interesting to view it from the perspective of a student. When asked when I fatigued during that activity, I realized that I should probably be teaching students some strategies for how to keep themselves focused during these standardized tests. What helped me the most this week was the research on the use of rubrics. I currently only use rubrics for writing pieces and the occasional science lab. However, when I read how students “that used rubrics for self-assessment wrote better overall,” I was encouraged to think of ways to use them in that manner (Brookhart, 2013). I would like to learn more about these effects. I plan to implement this in my classroom to see how it might work. What I have questions about is whether the rubrics we currently use are effective. I may need to do more searching for what other rubrics are out there and whether they are backed by research. While working with my student this week, I learned that she is able to write a complete story, but struggles in the areas of organization, narrative techniques, and language. Hopefully, with formal writing instruction, she will see improvement.

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx.

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Since we were using the same practice test that we use in our classroom to prepare for the M-Step, it was just a refresher of what kind of skills students will need to be successful with that particular standardized test. This was a good reminder because it helped me focus again on some reading and technology skills that I would like to start exploring and practicing earlier in the year to be prepared for the test in the spring. Even more than just being ready for the test, the skills are important to learning and understanding everyday in the classroom.
With the discussion questions that we had to look at different links for writing, I took away some good ideas for incorporating visualization into the reading and writing process. I will do more modeling of visualizing aloud when we read and when we are drafting our writing. I also got some good ideas on helping students with run-on sentences which is a constant struggle in many grades. I highlighted some of those ideas in my discussion about the writing links. I look forward to trying these new ideas and seeing how they can help my students be more successful readers and writers.

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This week I was able to familiarize myself with the M-Step test. I teach science at a level that students are not tested so this was my first experience with the assessment. I learned that our students really need all of their focus and attention on that assessment for the days that it is being taken. It would not be a bad idea to suspend normal instruction during those days and allow students to relax. I found myself becoming fatigued while taking the test, I could only imagine how my 5th graders feel. We also had the opportunity to learn more about writing this week. Digital writing is making a big push to become the norm in our classrooms. I do have some concerns with it in that many of the word processing programs that are available to students will make corrections and suggestions for them on how to fix grammatical errors. I know that the major focus on these writing pieces is grading their actually ideas and structure and not necessarily their grammar, but if I were teaching English it would drive me nuts.

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This week I learned about the various standardized assessments used to test students’ knowledge and how we can apply their scores into our teaching techniques. I also learned about different rubrics used in writing assessments and their purposes to describe student performances. I also became more aware how helpful it is for an elementary student, just like my case study student, to have a good understanding of writing techniques, using idea maps and editing. I noticed how digital writing is becoming more popular and taking over traditional paper and pencil writing. Students seem to enjoy it more and are willing to spend more time in front of a screen, rather than thinking, writing down their ideas, and having several drafts written before the final one. Chromebooks are being used in almost every district, and I understand how useful those can be in a classroom not only to practice toward the standardized assessments, but to practice digital writing skills as well.

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This seminar, I learned a variety of techniques and maps to help students in the area of reading comprehension. I loved getting to know more about the specific character map described in the Gipe textbook. It allows the students to gather detailed information about a specific character in a story. Students gather facts, actions, feelings and thoughts. In addition, I really liked the story structure chart for several versions of a story. This allows the students’ to organize multiple stories in one chart. The third reading comprehension strategies is the double-entry journal. This allows the students to quote information from a book or story in addition to making connections (Gipe, 2014, p. 313). I have begun implementing this strategy with my fifth grade students.

I have been working on implementing a variety of techniques to help students understand expository texts. This seminar helped to reinforce the strategies I have been working on teaching to my students and provide me with more support. When reading expository texts, students should engage in pre-reading, during reading and post reading stages. In the pre-reading stage, it is important for students’ to example the topics, pay attention to the headings, graphs, table and vocabulary. Students should access their prior knowledge, and begin skimming the text. In the during stage, it is important for students to monitor their comprehension by asking questions while they are reading. Students need to be thinking about their thinking. In the post reading stage, students benefit from completing a graphic organizer such as a KWL.

I look forward to implementing a variety of comprehension maps and organizers to help best meet my student’s needs.

References

Gipe, J. P. (2014). Multiple Paths to Literacy Assessment and Differentiated instruction for Diverse Learners, K-12 (Eighth Edition). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

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I found the m-step assignment very valuable.  Maybe not so much for LA but I realized I need to look into it more for math.  Since our district does not emphasize the M-step I have not really taken the time to get to know it like I should.
I also found very valuable talking with Julie about her writing. It was interesting to see her incorporating what she is learning in LA into her written piece and that she did it on purpose. I think that Julie has grown a lot in her comfort level (she is beginning to actively participate in class more), which is refreshing. It has made me realize how important making those connections with students is and how the limits of teaching multiple classes for 50 minutes can influence that lack of connection.

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Scott Seminar 5 Journal     During seminar 5 we have reviewed and discussed the
standardized assessments, writing in class, along with our reading selections
about vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The biggest help for me was seeing
all the resources and articles about reading across the curriculum and how to
incorporate technology with reading and writing in the classroom. Teaching an
elective class we tend to support all the core classes as it pertains to test
taking skills for SAT and M-Step. Reading and writing across the curriculum is
a major part of what we do. Getting help and more information about technical
writing and specific reading skills for comprehension of manuals and
professional text is very important in this line of teaching. I plan to
continue to support the reading and writing initiatives in class, but now with
more emphasis on comprehension of what they read. During writing we will work
specifically with communicating our ideas specifically and to the point. 

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Scott Seminar 5 Journal     During seminar 5 we have reviewed and discussed the
standardized assessments, writing in class, along with our reading selections
about vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The biggest help for me was seeing
all the resources and articles about reading across the curriculum and how to
incorporate technology with reading and writing in the classroom. Teaching an
elective class we tend to support all the core classes as it pertains to test
taking skills for SAT and M-Step. Reading and writing across the curriculum is
a major part of what we do. Getting help and more information about technical
writing and specific reading skills for comprehension of manuals and
professional text is very important in this line of teaching. I plan to
continue to support the reading and writing initiatives in class, but now with
more emphasis on comprehension of what they read. During writing we will work
specifically with communicating our ideas specifically and to the point. 