One of the biggest lies a teacher tells herself when her students don’t perform well on an assessment is that she taught the content. What she did was a lot of talking about it, and a few volunteers accurately responded to her questions, so she believed the class was ready to test. You can talk, sing, dance, perform, skip and hop while talking about the associative property, but unless a student can demonstrate that he understands the associative property, you haven’t taught a thing. The teacher hasn’t taught until the student has learned. Formative assessment was developed to prevent this very thing. Make it work for you. Randomize calling on students to answer rather than only volunteers (who likely are confident that they know the answer). The most valuable formative assessment is one in which every student must give an answer. The teacher then can identify exactly who knows, understands and can do what is required.  Being surprised by how your students perform on an assessment is going to happen to you a number of times before you retire so don’t make it a cause to hate on yourself. Just remain cognizant that you need to teach it again (and assess it again). Giving yourself a fresh start everyday is just as valuable as giving it to your students.

You have been taught that we all have different learning styles. Before this was common knowledge, most teachers taught the way that they learned best, which may not have benefitted some of their students. In addition, we now know that understanding your “ Brain Dominance Profile”, can drastically improve your learning ( “ The Dominance Factor: How Knowing Your Dominant  Eye, Ear, Brain, Hand & Foot Can Improve Your Learning”, by Carla Hannaford, Ph.D. ©1997) .

“The teacher hasn’t taught until the student has learned.”……Think about how many different learning profiles there are in your classroom, and how you can best support them. If you are unsure about how to begin, ask your PEC teacher for help.

Pamela Webster, M.Ed. SPED

Experienced Teachers- If you have a story that supports this topic, please add it in the comments below.