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New Girl in Town...5/6/2021
Introducing Impact: Journal of Teaching and Learning at Robert College.
I am very excited to announce the publication of the first ever issue of Impact: Journal of Teaching and Learning at Robert College. The goal of the publication is to highlight the ways in which our work at Robert College is guided by evidenced practice and focused on measuring student learning and growth. It also intends to recognize that one size does not fit all, and that our work as teachers is a fine art, one that requires patience, intention, reflection, and iteration. The theme of this first issue is “Finding our Center.” Open it up to see images and read articles focused on student-centered practice written by faculty, staff, and students. I hope you find it useful.
Call for manuscripts: the theme of the next issue will be “Feeding Back, Feeding Forward”. If you would like to contribute to the issue by presenting research, writing about your own action research in the classroom, sharing a practice, or anything else, please send me a message. The final deadline for submissions: December 15, 2021 Publication: January 2021
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In the wake of Dylan Wiliam's last lecture, "Formative Assessment: What it is and what it isn't, when it works and when it doesn't", I was left thinking about how I could gather better information about student learning and how I could use the features embedded in Zoom to do that. I have used polls, for example, to give students agency over the directions we head in class, or over the form an activity will take (for example, in our discussion yesterday we used polls to decide whether we would do a full class fishbowl discussion or break into two groups for smaller Harkness table discussions) and we have used the stamp tool to check in with our well-being on different canvases such as this one below. In terms of quick formative assessment, I have found it difficult to check in without having students write in the chat (which becomes very public very quickly) or fill out a form focused on their perceived learning, which takes some time (depending on how many questions you ask), but which can also remain anonymous and so can be shared back with students. I do like the sharing back, as it helps students understand the choices I will subsequently make about the coming content and skills instruction. For example, they could see that we would be spending more time on Boolean logic than we would on understanding domains just based on this pre-assessment data I collected before embarking on a research project. I have used programs such as poll everywhere and mentimeter to collect data about a question or to have students check in with their understanding about a topic before moving on, and, of course, I have asked students to write about their understanding and provide individual as well as group feedback.
But when Wiliam started talking about finger voting, I thought wow! this is a great idea. All of these functions take time to log in and to find the right question and to troubleshoot when a student can't reach the site - but finger voting is instant, and it is effective. And that made me wonder how I might use the zoom reactions for a check in as well. Use a heart for this, a thumbs up for that, and a surprised face for the other. It was a fun and wonderful experience for all of us, and it allowed us to both laugh and check in often and quickly. |