Love the real-life example of workshop and how Tovani assesses throughout. What do you think about Stiggin's Seven Practices of Assessment FOR Learning? Would you be willing to use it, or are you already using it? If so, tell us about it. How about the text-sets? Don't forget that I have pulled some together you can use. You don't need to work in a vacuum. We have to help each other.
I like the way Tovanni keeps reminding us that the students need to be "doing the work" and they need to be effective assessors of their own work too.
I found the scripts to be somewhat helpful in understanding the workshop model. I have never had much success with this type of model because I feel that I don’t have as much control as I should. When working with 9th graders, control is important. I can see from her scripts that it is less about control and more about students being self-directed.
ReplyDeleteI like that the model opens itself up to differentiation so easily. While there is a little up-front leg work, the extra load is really minimal. I have often found that differentiation is difficult because of what I saw as extra work on me. I like that not only the work returns to the student, but the work is very student-specific.
Another issue that I have always had an issue with is assessment. I feel that I need to put a grade in the gradebook for each and every assignment. While I know that I do not necessarily have to do that, I do feel that students do their best when they know that a grade is being attached. Although she does offer some suggestions, I still feel that there has to be some way to assign a numeric grade to the whole model in order to make it work. There is still a grade at the end of the marking period.
Spring semester Kristy and I are really working on differiation as this chapter suggests. When studying a standard there will come a time that the students will need to show us what they know and we will provide for them the standard (again) that we have been working on and then a list of possible ways they can demonstrate their understanding and knowledge regarding that standard. Hopefully this will allow for more thoughtful and well executed work.
ReplyDeleteI, too, for a long time felt that every assignment needed to be graded, but I never tell the students what is graded or not and they never ask. Sometimes they ask what type of assessment, but I have never had a student realize that I did not put something in the gradebook but rather simply used it as a form of formative assessment.
This is the first time I have read such a detailed description of what goes on in a reading workshop. I will admit that I felt a little dizzy as I tried to mentally imagine doing all the things she describes in one class period. I use parallel novels now and conduct workshops, but I am not getting the kind of student thinking out of mine that she is. One thing that I found significant was her emphasis on thinking, not reading. I like that idea. She addressed several issues that I often deal with. For example, when students say a book is boring or they seem to have "lost their way" she suggested having them go back to the place they did understand and help them from there. I found her suggestions for dealing with struggling readers practical and plan to try them. I like the idea of offering several different nonfiction articles on different reading levels to enhance background knowledge. I have previously only used one article at a time with no choice. Yes, this would require more preparation time, but I'll start off slowly and add as I have time. The workshop model definitely fits the bill when it comes to formative assessment. I am excited about using the inner voice sheets. I have recently been hunting for a different way to assess independent reading.
ReplyDelete