Chapter 5

Pg. 71 – “Effective teaching is seamless—a good teacher moves fluidly between teaching and assessing, explanation and response, demonstration and practice, everything happening in one uninterrupted motion…To succeed, teachers have to develop a mindset that views assessment not as an end product but as a vital, interactive part of responsive, effective teaching. Assessing is teaching.”

I think this is definitely the mark of a great teacher. Making constant assessment a fluid part of my everyday lessons is something that I strive to do. Whether formative or summative, informal or formal, assessment is absolutely vital for my instructional plan and my ability to know where my students are and what they need.

Pg. 72 – “When we teach responsively we: Listen actively…validate all responses…seek to clarify thinking through specific, nonthreatening questions… encourage fuller and more thoughtful responses…try not to repeat what students have said.”

I think this is an important model to follow. I also find it important to familiarize students with Blooms Taxonomy and the hierarchy of thinking. Students should be aware on what level their thinking and doing lies. I do wonder, however, about the “try not to repeat what students have said” piece of this model. I was always taught that it is okay to repeat students’ thoughts in ways such as “So, what I hear you saying is…” Is this not okay?

Pg. 73 – “Feedback is not praise (“good job”) or advice (“try harder”). It is information students can use to improve the quality of their work.

I believe that specific feedback is key to student growth. We can’t say “good job” and expect students to know exactly what we are talking about. We can’t write “this needs more detail” at the top of a paper and expect students to know what exactly needs more. Our feedback can be very helpful if used in the proper manner.

Pg. 80 – “Looking at data is only valuable if we teachers and administrators are knowledgeable.”

This is something that really bothered me during my first year of teaching. We spend so much time testing students – whether it be Dominie, MAP testing, PASS testing, STAR testing, etc—but not every teacher knows how to break down the data and use it effectively. These tests can be valuable tools to guide our instruction if we know how to use them the way they were designed to be used.

Pg. 81 – “But compliant behavior cannot be equated with student engagement and learning.”

When we overlook the well-behaved students because we assume they understand, we lose children. This is how many get left behind.