As I was reflecting on my past week, and continuing to look forward to what is expected this week, I wanted to research a topic that would give me some encouragement. It is almost mid semester, and I am starting to burn out from all the stressors and demands that hit right before Spring Break. With that being said, I came across a blog post that was post on the Education Week website. The quote at the beginning is what caught my eye, which states: "Learning requires multiple opportunities. So get rid of your justice mindset and remember, kids need practice."
This article takes the time to explain the reasoning and benefits behind giving students the opportunity to "re-do" their assigned task. Learning is a progress that requires collaboration, feedback, and finalizing a task. Students should have more than one chance to show their mastery of a skill or concept. Re-dos allow students to show their understanding from more than one perspective and increases their depth of knowledge when they can review the concept over again. Allowing students to have second chances on their work can be very beneficial for increasing their comprehension levels; however, a lot of teachers are against it because they either don't have the time to go over the concept again, or they don't have the patience. The justice mindset that most teachers have is to penalize the students who did not demonstrate mastery on their first attempt. Learning is a continuous process. To tie this in with our class, I greatly appreciate my professors that allow me to submit my assignments for feedback, and then provide me with the chance to strengthen my understanding and performance on that particular task.
The North Carolina Teaching Standard that best fits with allowing students to have multiple chances to demonstrate their understanding is standard 4: Teachers Facilitate Learning for their students. Teachers should be responsible for working collaboratively with their students and providing them with fair opportunities to achieve their goals.
Feel free to check out the blog post ---- http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/02/students_need_multiple_opportu.html?cmp=eml-contshr-shr
I completely agree! I need a lot of practice to actually master a concept. I greatly appreciate when I submit work for feedback and then take that feedback and improve upon my work. Students in our future classrooms also deserve that kind of courtesy. No one should be expected to grasp a concept at the first sight of it, so we should allow practice for our students throughout our lessons.
ReplyDeleteJess,
ReplyDeleteThe quote that you mentioned it very touching. Students who are given multiple opportunities are given a chance to improve and practice what they have learned. I totally agree that feedback is very important for students. So giving a student a second chance can allow them feedback and a second chance! I also have been stressing about all of the work and things that have to be done before spring break. However, as a future teacher we will get overwhelmed but it's important to NOT focus on stressing and just doing the work, staying ahead and rolling with the punches. Great blog! I annoyed reading it and thinking about students having second chances.
I really liked this blog post! The quote you used was very inpsiring and gave me a different outlook on "second chances". I think that it is important for students to master the concept that is being taught, and should practice until the concept is clearly understood. Giving students feedback and encouring them to do better is much more important than giving a student a bad grade. I am right there with you when it comes to being burned out and were only half way through the semester. I think this is just the beginning of the busy/rewarding career path we have choosen. As future educators we are going to get stressed out and overwhelmed but at the end of the day we just need to remind ourselves the reason why we are doing this!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Jessica! I agree that allowing re-dos helps to facilitate learning. I believe that one of the best ways to grow both in your academic career and in your personal life is by learning from your mistakes. Receiving constructive criticism allows us to understand concepts and topics that we may have not mastered. This is beneficial from early education through college. It is definitely a perk to have professors who are available to give feedback because this allows us to grow as future teachers.
ReplyDeleteJessica - the quote is great. Learning does require multiple opportunities. How does this work with the EOG?
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