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I believe one of the BEST ways to assess students is through different levels of questioning. I always pose a Big Question of the concept. As we learn different things about the concept, to check for metacognition and check for understanding, I ask different levels of questions. Depending on student answers, depends on my next question or questions from the class.
One thing I do is at the beginning of a "NEW" concept is give students different colored stickys and the students write down questions they want to learn about in the new unit. The stickys are posted on a piece of paper and it hangs on a bulletin board at the front of the room. Students pull stickys off the poster and I pull them off to answer. If the students can't answer the question, it goes back on the board and we come back to it later.
I will be doing more Academic Conversations in the classroom. During discussions or when I pose a question to the students I give the students a minute to have a conversation with the person around them. The students listen to what each other has to say and they can agree, disagree, or expand on the partners answer/s--they discuss why which leads to the metacognition. The conversations will usually lead to more questions.
I enjoyed reading the article, Five Highly Effective Teaching Practices. The two I really use and will use more of them is the "giving feedback" to the students and having "classroom discussion." These are vital so you can continually assess the metacognition/check for understanding in the room.
I also watched a couple of the videos on Integrating Literacy Strategies. The video on Paraphrasing was enjoyable. The students were interacting in a positive manner as the teacher roved the room making comments to the students as they checked for understanding.
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