Teaching Reflection - Week 6

This week I'm reflecting on assessment in my classroom. When I create lesson plans, I make sure to build in multiple ways to assess my students. These assessments help me adjust what I am teaching to ensure my students understand the curriculum. Often times, I assess my students through questioning. I ask them a question, then I ask them to explain their answer. If they are struggling, I then will reexplain the information and then ask more questions. Another method I use is whiteboards. Through the use of whiteboards, I can see which students understand and which ones don't. I continue to answer questions until all students are able to respond correctly.
Another assessment method I employ is self reflection. I ask my students every class to reflect on their learning. Not only does this help me understand where they are, it also helps my students understand where they are.

This week my students participated in a density lab. While most of my students handles the lab professionally and appropriately, I am concerned about some of my students. Additionally, I found that my students had difficulty reading and following directions. This is extremely concerning to me as a teacher because if my students are unable to follow directions, they will not be able to be safe in the lab. In every class I reviewed the directions and explained to the students what they were to do for every step. Unfortunately, there was a disconnect somewhere and I still spent a majority of time reexplaining directions. I will have to look at other ways to make sure my students understand directions and to make them more self sufficient when performing labs. It makes it difficult to assess them during a lab when a major portion of my time is spent on directions.