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This week we looked at ISTE standard 6, students as Creative Communicators. Looking at Standards 6a and 6c, this led me to question, how can I create opportunities for my students to strive to meet state standards while incorporating a variety of digital tools as methods of differentiation?
Evidence of Learning Beyond Paper and Pencil
I need evidence of where my students are performing with state standards, yet I don’t think our system of paper/pencil or computer testing truly shows me what they know. Recently I had three meetings with multiple staff members and parents regarding students who might need special education services. At each meeting, I felt compelled to share strengths of the children and moments their child did something unique, creative, or intellectual. I want more evidence of what my students are capable of, not just how they perform on standardized testing.
As an ELL teacher, who pulls out students reading below grade level, it is a struggle to teach grade level content and meet district expectations. My hope is to introduce a variety of digital tools to my students and give them some choice in which way they choose to express their understanding. Working with such a variety of needs, I want students to find strategies and tools that work for them. However, we still have a ton of standardized assessments where they are expected to show growth.
Blended Learning
So how can I support their development? Inspired by Beth Holland’s article, Are We Innovating, or Just Digitizing Traditional Teaching? She advocates for blended learning as a way to give students agency over their learning. For example, allowing students access to learning through screencasting, video, digital text, ebooks, oral collaboration, online or in person research.
Once teachers offer more than one way to access content, we still need to provide multiple opportunities and ways for students to express their understanding. This means we need to move beyond allowing students to type using Word or Google Docs and considering this digital differentiation.
Personalized Learning as Formative Assessment
This year I’ve been exploring various sites in search of tools that will allow my students to express themselves. So far I’ve been very happy with Recap as a great way to assess speaking, grammar, and comprehension. For my struggling writers, this allows a quick check to see where they are at without the struggle of writing or a blank paper turned in. Digital Storytelling has truly allowed my students to open up and I find it to be a valuable tool where students can express themselves in their primary language or English, which allows all students to participate.
Searching for other formative assessment tools, I found an article on ISTE’s site that truly resonates with me. Robyn Howton’s journey encourages me to keep looking into what’s out there, despite having limited devices to work with. This lead to my discovery of Kahoot! In my limited time exploring the site, I liked how a novel from my next unit already has premade quizzes on there that I can sift through and choose for my own class as a fun formative assessment tool.
In conclusion, I have a variety of tools now that I can introduce to my students, to allow some freedom in how they choose to demonstrate their understanding. For example, writing a narrative may involve using digital storytelling, creating a PowerPoint, using speech-to-text, create a graphic novel, Microsoft Word or Google Docs. We need to allow students to take the skills we are trying to assess, and give them a chance to demonstrate their understanding in a way that makes sense to them. As I continue this journey of discovery, my next step is to reach out to others in ELL, Special Education, or Technology roles to see what works or doesn’t work for them.
Resources
Holland, B. (2017, February 22). Are We Innovating, or Just Digitizing Traditional Teaching? Retrieved March 11, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/are-we-innovating-or-just-digitizing-traditional-teaching-beth-holland
Howton, R. (2015, May 19). Turn Your Classroom Into A Personalized Learning Environment. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=416
ISTE Standards FOR STUDENTS. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016#startstandards
