Project # 3 C4T # 1& # 2 Summary

Grouping Students for Effective Learning

By: Mike Prater

In Mike Prater’s blog “Grouping Students for Effective Learning”, he discusses how grouping students can be effective in learning. He states how many educators don’t like to group students by their ability level. He believes that kids can learn one concept quickly and struggle with other. He goes on to discuss four critical questions that Ricky and Becky DuFour believe should guide the work of educators. They are:

1. What is it that we want students to be able to know and do?
2. How will we know when our students have mastered those outcomes?
3. How are we going to monitor progress toward those outcomes?
4. What will we do as a school when students don’t master the outcomes or need extended study?

I think those are great questions that every teacher should ask themselves. Prater also states how teachers need to give themselves time to evaluate each of their students. I agreed with Prater that teachers need more time to evaluate their students, so that they can see which students need more help. I also said how I think the student/teacher ratio is getting out of control and teachers get so overwhelmed that by the time they notice that a student is behind it could be too late.

Engaging in a Process of Formative Assessment
By: Mike Prater

In Mike Prater’s second blog “Engaging in a Process of Formative Assessment”, he discusses how important formative assessments are. Prater goes on to talk about the differences between formative and summative assessments. Summative assessment refers to the assessment of learning and summarizes the performance of students at a particular moment in time. Formative assessment, on the other hand refers to assessment for learning. He believes that formative assessments allow teachers to monitor their instruction and make decisions based on immediate student performance. In summary, educators must use a variety of tools to inform them about the level of learning of individual students and be ready to make appropriate adjustments. I believe formative assessments are great for teachers to use, because they can be used for students to practice and can help determine the next steps during the learning process as the instruction approaches the summative assessment of student learning.