Educational Resources & Tech Tools 03/27/2015

• Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding | Edutopia

  This article describes the merits of formative assessment and offers over 50 suggestions for such assessments.

  tags: formative assessment differentiation assessment understanding

  • What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately."
  • Alternative formative assessment (AFA) strategies can be as simple (and important) as checking the oil in your car -- hence the name "dipsticks." They're especially effective when students are given tactical feedback, immediately followed by time to practice the skill.
  • Pre-planning methodical observations allow instructors to efficiently and effectively intervene when it counts most -- the instant students start down the wrong path

  • New to Alternative Formative Assessment? Start Slow

      

  • having learners use their own vernacular to articulate why they are stuck can be profoundly useful for identifying where to target support.

      

  • The biggest benefit of integrating AFAs into your practice is that students will internalize the habit of monitoring their understanding and adjusting accordingly.

• Parenting With Dignity - Reasons why punishment doesn't work

  Another take on parenting and punishment

  tags: parenting punishment consequences

  • Punishment will be considered to be any artificially created   consequence for a given behavior.
  • Any time that one attempts to change a child's behavior the child will   resist.
  • Add punishment and you will insure more resistance to change.)
  • When a parent resorts to   punishment both the parent and the child begin to pay attention to the   punishment
  • the child is not engaged in   creating a new thought process that will bring about better decisions and   outcomes next time.
  • A child sent to his/her room will   seldom or never think about how to behave properly but rather will think   about how unfair his/her parents are or some equally negative idea.
  • It becomes a game of   not getting caught.
  • Punishment traps the "punisher" into maintaining the   punishment schedule. "You made the rules, now you must enforce them."
  • Punishment does not teach accountability.
  • As parents we need   to point out the negative consequences inherent in their negative   behavior, we do not need to create new ones.
  • We can serve as a big help to   our children if we help them foresee potential problems and the natural   consequences of some of their possible decisions.
  • The error comes when we think that the punishment has taught the child   what to do in the next situation.
  • It has taught the kid NOT to do   something… but it has not taught them what to do! That is our job as   parents… teach them what to do and how to decide to do it!

• Punitive Damages

  This book excerpt puts an interesting spin on punishing children.

  tags: parenting punishment consequences

  • Punishment proved to be counterproductive regardless of whether  the parents were using it to stop aggression, excessive dependence,  bed-wetting, or something else.  The researchers consistently found that  punishment was “ineffectual over the long term as a technique for eliminating  the kind of behavior toward which it is directed.”
  • parents who “punish[ed] rule-breaking behavior in  their children at home often had children who demonstrated higher levels of  rule-breaking when away from home.”[3]
  • Hitting children clearly  “teaches them a lesson” – and the lesson is that you can get your way with  people who are weaker than you are by hurting them. 
  • Announcing how we plan to punish children (“Remember:   if you do x, then I’ll do y to you”) may salve our  conscience because we gave them fair warning, but all we’ve really done is  threaten them.
  • This communicates a message of distrust (“I don’t  think you’ll do the right thing without the fear of punishment”), leads kids  to think of themselves as complying for extrinsic reasons, and emphasizes  their powerlessness.
  • Sometimes parents are advised to use a time-out instead  of spanking their kids -- as though these were the only two options  available.  The reality, as we saw in an earlier chapter, is that both of  these tactics are punitive.  They differ only with respect to whether  children will be made to suffer by physical or emotional means. 
  • “When you stand by and let bad things happen, your  child experiences the twin disappointments that something went wrong and you  did not seem to care enough about her to lift a finger to help prevent the  mishap.  The ‘natural consequences’ approach is really a form of punishment.”[7]

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.