Effectively Teaching Critical Thinking through Document Analysis: Formative Assessment, Backward Design, and the DBQ
The Document Based Question or DBQ is not often used in the average Social Science and History classroom. Advanced Placement (AP) classes use them as part of the learning and assessment process to prepare students for the AP Exam. Nevertheless, the average student and curriculum ought to use more DBQs however challenging they may be. […]
Read MoreAssessment Design Checklist 1.0
Often deciding what to teach and how is haphazard and can feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants. I must confess, I have pondered to myself on more than one occasion, “man, what am I going to teach them tomorrow?” No design with the end goal in mind was present in my […]
Read MoreONLINE DISCUSSION AND BUDDHISM: FLIPGRID & FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
AP World History has just gone through a significant redesign this year that has removed a lot of content and asks students to go deeper in matters related to global modern history. While Many teachers are understandably frustrated, as I have been at times in the last few months, I am taking this as an […]
Read MoreEducational Inception: A Metacognitive Self-Assessment on my Classroom Assessments in light of Assessment Theory
We are in the throes of the busiest time of the school year. My finals have been submitted to administration, I am wrapping up the last bit of content review, and preparing for the big show: finals, the ultimate assessment. Every assessment has assumptions about learning. Moreover, teachers make assumptions about the students to whom […]
Read MoreThermometers, Mirrors, and Pageants: A Reflection on Assessments
“Why do we have to be so fancy? Can’t I just keep my grades focused on tests, quizzes, and homework?” Sitting at the faculty lunch table, our casual conversation about our most recent PD on formative and summative assessments had just turned into an argument. Half of the table lauded the distinction, function, and purpose […]
Read MorePersonalized Learning: A Wicked Problem Solved?
Personalized Learning is a wicked problem. That is, it is a problem so complex that it is nearly unsolvable. Personalized Learning, the educational philosophy wherein student learn and proceed through their content at their own pace according to their own interests and needs, is just one of these problems. My team and I, organized through […]
Read MoreA PASSION FOR CREATIVE HISTORY TEACHING
Starting out as a teacher, I went right back to that which I had become accustomed. Throughout college, professors would assign reading and then in class would tell us about the text in two hour lectures. I loved it. I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed talking about history. And so did most of the other students […]
Read MoreTHE WICKED PROBLEM OF PERSONALIZED LEARNING: A SURVEY
Personalized Learning is an answer to the diverse needs, prior knowledge, interest, and skill of individual students. It is a customized and flexible approach to student learning in which students learn according to their own pace, making choices about their own learning, and adapting the material according to each student’s needs. However, several complexities make […]
Read More10 COMPLEXITIES OF PERSONALIZED LEARNING
Personalized Learning is complex, so much so that it indeed is a wicked problem that seems to be impossible to solve. There are many layers of complexity and considerations from various stakeholders in the education of students—from parents to principals. Three central questions that drive further exploration of personalized learning are the following. 1. Why […]
Read MoreKilling Confirmation Bias in Ed Tech and Personalized Learning
Like most in this social media and smartphone age, I get a lot of my information—either news or stories—through Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, I don’t read the paper nor do I even go to a news website. Instead, I follow news agencies and “talking head” political analysts on social media. I must make a public […]
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