Unit 9 Journal

In writing my Curriculum Review I have learned how to write and review my assessments and lesson plans to fit state and national standards.  I believe after class discussions, the readings and writing my Curriculum Review that I am ready to implement the lesson plans, assessment tools, and a curriculum webs in my classroom. 

In my project I have planned lesson plans that fit educational theories.  They fit in the educational plans to better fit the needs of the students.  I have chosen lesson plans that engage the students.  The more engaged they are, the more they will learn.  The students will stay focused and learn more than if they sat in the classroom and worked on worksheets. 

In planning for future lessons I will be able to understand how to implement a curriculum web. In a curriculum map I have to break down the skills that I need to teach and what they should get out of each unit.  I know the topic, the skills and how I will assess them.  I am prepared for what I need to teach.  I use this topic I could change the assessments based on students and how well the unit went.  It will depend on the outcome of the lessons the first time that I use them.  If the students understand and assess well on each unit, than I will continue to use the same assessment.  I might switch up the activities for each year.

I will be able to look at my assessments and know how I will need to improve them to fit the needs of myself, as a teacher, and the students.  For an example in my Curriculum Review Project, I think that I could improve on deciding how I would assess this activity.  I could keep a chart of each student and mark whether they gave me the right change and what part of the activity that they understood.  This activity may be hard to keep track of and hard to assess. 

I believe after writing my Curriculum Review I have learned a lot about my assessments and lesson plans.  When I in a classroom I believe that I will apply my knowledge of assessment and lesson plans when teaching my students.  I have also learned to step back what I am assessing and planning to make sure I am filling the national and state standards.  I will be more likely to look at how my students learn and make sure that all of the lesson plans help a diverse of students.  I have enjoyed writing the Curriculum Review and this class.  I have learned a lot and I believe that I will use what I have learned in my classroom. 

Unit 8 Journal

In my artifact, in my reflective journal, I will reflect upon my knowledge of assessment.  I will discuss how my Curriculum Review Project, discussions and the readings helped me better understand assessments. 

My understanding of assessment has improved since I wrote my Curriculum Review Project.   In the project I found that how I needed to improvement my assessment by finding a variety of assessments.  I think by using a fun assessment tool will engage the students.  If I can find out what I need to know about the student by using a fun activity and changing the assessment so that it fits all learning styles it will benefit the student and myself. 

As part of the measuring unit I could follow the National standard better by explaining to the students how measuring is used in everyday life.  As mentioned in the NCTMM standards students need to “understand geometric concepts, characteristics and properties of two – and –three dimensional shapes, coordinate geometry to represent relationships, and units of measure” (Zelemen, Daniels, Hyde, 2005, p. 121).  I could have elaborated my measuring activity by having the students compare two objects and how they are different.    

I also found that writing this Curriculum Review I am looking on how to improve my assessment and what I could do the next time that I plan an activity and how to assess the activity.  For an example, I could have made some of the activities more engaging and added certain aspects to an activity to make it more fun for the students. 

When performing my assessments I learned how to fit the assessments and activities with the national and state standards. 

Zemelman, S., Daniels, D., and Hyde, A. (2005). Best Practice: Today’s Standardsfor           Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools (3^rd edition). Portsmouth, NH:       Heinemann.