Assessment Tool: Class Discussion
Type: formative (pre-assessment, developing)
Grouping: whole class
Purpose: This tool will help students develop their understanding of the topic collectively. It allows them to “get their hands dirty” by hashing out ideas in a classroom forum.
Rationale: Class discussion can be an effective tool in pre-assessing the knowledge of a class. I can use it to assess previous knowledge as well make informal assessment of some of the learners within my group. The key to this tool is to facilitate it properly. As a teacher, I must be able to generate questions that provoke thoughtful responses and perhaps varied responses (Success for all learners). The type of questions must start with low level stepping up to more high order of thinking. This tool can be used in conjunction with other tools such as reflective journals or graphic organizers.
21CLD connection: While this discussion may traditionally happen within the classroom, it may also happen in the virtual classroom as well. The actual discussion may happen in a virtual chat room such as chatzy.com. In fact, the discussion may extend past the original discussion and lead to offspring of other ideas. Within this sphere it would be easy to add multimedia inputs to stimulate the conversation even further to elicit understanding and learning of students.
Example:
Grouping: whole class
Purpose: This tool will help students develop their understanding of the topic collectively. It allows them to “get their hands dirty” by hashing out ideas in a classroom forum.
Rationale: Class discussion can be an effective tool in pre-assessing the knowledge of a class. I can use it to assess previous knowledge as well make informal assessment of some of the learners within my group. The key to this tool is to facilitate it properly. As a teacher, I must be able to generate questions that provoke thoughtful responses and perhaps varied responses (Success for all learners). The type of questions must start with low level stepping up to more high order of thinking. This tool can be used in conjunction with other tools such as reflective journals or graphic organizers.
21CLD connection: While this discussion may traditionally happen within the classroom, it may also happen in the virtual classroom as well. The actual discussion may happen in a virtual chat room such as chatzy.com. In fact, the discussion may extend past the original discussion and lead to offspring of other ideas. Within this sphere it would be easy to add multimedia inputs to stimulate the conversation even further to elicit understanding and learning of students.
Example:
Source(s): Government of Manitoba (1996). Chapter 7: Questioning and discussion strategies. From the document Success for all learners. Winnipeg: Manitoba Education and Training.
chatzy.com.[website]. Image retrieved Feb 28th, 2013 from http://www.chatzy.com/
chatzy.com.[website]. Image retrieved Feb 28th, 2013 from http://www.chatzy.com/