New to Google Classroom - Practice Sets!

 New to Google Classroom - Practice Sets!

Google has recently announced a new and powerful tool that will be coming to Google Classroom, called 'Practice Sets'.  Practice sets can be given to students in the same fashion that homework is assigned.   Practice sets can be created using new or existing material.

The power behind practice sets is twofold, for the student's and the teacher's experiences.  Once the practice set has been created, Google's powerful artificial intelligence tools will review the practice set and find useful videos and concept cards that can help the student better understand the concepts being presented.  Upon the teacher's approval, these videos and concept cards can be embedded into the practice setting.  The 'auto grading' feature within practice sets will let the students know when they are correct and will provide the teacher-approved videos and concept cards where appropriate.  This will provide immediate feedback for the students as they are working through the practice set.

From the teacher's experience, practice sets provide an enhanced grading view which will show the class's performance and results of every attempt made by the students.  Furthermore, the AI tools will provide insights using classwide trends to inform teachers on what concepts the class or individual students may be struggling with.

Check out a detailed video on Google Practice Sets here

5 minute assessment reviews: Triangulation

 

Hello again,

Today we are going to begin looking at how to triangulate your assessment, both by including observation, conversation and product in judging your students' mastery and by using three points of data guide your assessment.

The first video discusses using observation, conversation and product to assess our students.

The second video begins to look at using three points of data collection (that is three assessments) to both guide your teaching and also make your assessment more valid.  This video is assuming that the 3 points of data are all equally weighted an that the course, or the unit is scaffolded and one concept is built on another.  In a subject like English (my area), the assumption is that the entire course builds upon earlier concepts and understandings.  In a subject like science or math, each unit of study might build upon earlier concepts in the course or just the unit and be scaffolded in that way.

I hope that these ideas can open a conversation about how teachers use triangulation to make their assessments fair and reliable.

The next video will dig deeper into looking at most recent and most consistent marks and I will do an English teacher explanation of measure of central tendency.

Let's keep the conversation going.

5 Minute Assessment Reviews: Damian Cooper on Triangulation & Curriculum Expectations

This begins a short series of 5 minute (or less) assessment reviews.  Like many of you, I hear terms in education and know what they generally mean but find myself needing to do a quick google search to get the specifics if I want to think more deeply about the topic.

Now that I am focusing on assessment as your faithful Secondary Assessment Teacher, I thought I would share a few deeper dives into some of the terms and concepts we teachers talk about and are guided by every day .

The first in this series is an overview that is presented by Damian Cooper.  It will give you a quick, 5 minute overview of what triangulation is and how that fits in with our own overall and specific curriculum expectations. Cooper suggests that using technology is the way to collect triangulated evidence and we will explore this more later in the series.

In the next post, I will look more specifically at triangulation and what that means in a short video.

If you would like to learn more about a specific aspect of assessment, evaluation or reporting and all the terms, ideas and examples therein, please email me and suggest a post.  

Now, on to Damian Cooper:

Assessment v. AI

Will the struggle between valid assessment of students and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot generated work become the new Battle Royale in teaching?  

The P.D. session on February 17, 2023 on ChatGPT and other AI applications gave us a glimpse of what is to come.  Some teachers expressed concern that applications like ChatGPT might make plagiarism and cheating harder to detect.  So, let's take a look at some ways that we can make our assessments and evaluations of students reliable, valid and rich (and more plagiarism resistant).

You can download a copy of the infographic here.  Feel free to print it or share it.

Don't forget that Growing Success and Learning for All still apply and can help guide you.

Combatting "Fake News": Helping Students Distinguish Between Fact and Fiction

There is so much information in the world that we must teach students to distinguish what is true information and what is false information.  EBSCO has a useful infographic to help you teach students to use critical thinking when choosing what to believe.

There is a link below the image to a .pdf that can be shared with students.

FACT or FICTION? Ferret Out Fake News

EBSCOhost for English Teachers, Language Arts Teachers, Literacy Teachers and Readers

Do you teach Literacy, English, Reading or Language Arts?  You you have children who are in school?  EBSCOhost has a number of databases that are perfect for Subject English or ELA students and teachers.  

The infographic below provides easy reference to the EBSCOhost databases available through the Student and Teacher portals at www.wecdsb.on.ca.

As always, there is a link below the infographic to a .pdf you can share or post in your classrooms.

EBSCO for English .pdf

Exploring Canadian Points of View (EBSCOhost database)

Looking for a way to develop critical thinking?  Looking to explore issues in Canadian news?  Looking to debate?  Canadian Points of View, a database available for free through EBSCO host, examines both sides of a variety of issues through a Canadian lens.  The video below will take you through the database in under 4 minutes and hopefully offer some inspiration for your teaching.

 

Google Meet Reactions

 Google Meet Reactions

Staff at the WECDSB will now have the option to use Google Reactions during a Google Meet.  This is a quick and easy way to convey reactions from a large number of participants.  For more information, visit:

Our Continuity of Education Site

Using Boolean Operations and Search Modifiers for better research with EBSCOhost

 Boolean operators and search modifiers allow students to narrow their searches quickly.  Not only do these skills return better search results, they also save time so students are not sorting through thousands of results.  The cheat sheet below is also attached and you are free to post it in your google classrooms, print them for students or post in your classrooms.

Boolean Operations.pdf

Homework and Project Support for Elementary Students using EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost offers databases to help with homework and projects for Elementary students

EBSCO offers many resources for geared to Elementary school learners.  The infographic below describes the databases that might be useful for your Elementary students and parents.  A copy of the infographic is also linked below so you can share it with students and their parents or post it in your classrooms.

Students can access EBSCO through the student portal at www.wecdsb.on.ca. 

Homework and Project Support for Elementary Students using EBSCOhost.pdf

Exploring EBSCOhost databases

EBSCOhost databases

EBSCOhost offers free access to a number of databases.  Some are targeted at all users, some secondary and some elementary students.  You can assign a specific database to your students to use based on their age and grade level and/or based on the purpose for the database.  

Take a look at the infographic below for a description of some available databases and their uses.  There is also a link below so you can share the infographic with your students or post it in your classrooms.

Exploring EBSCOhost databases infographic .pdf

Here are a few quick videos about how to access EBSCOhost.

Accessing EBSCO as a student

Accessing EBSCO as a teacher