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Letter Grades Deserve an ‘F’ – Jessica Lahey – The Atlantic
A really good, quick piece on grading, assessment, and standards-based learning. Contains some worthwhile links and interesting comments to explore and dig deeper. HT @meghancureton
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The goal in her classroom is no longer points or grades, but mastery. Students are held accountable not for the maximum points total assigned to a homework set, but for mastery of the concepts it contains.
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Teaching and learning with an eye toward mastery of a defined list of competencies circumvents many of the pitfalls that points-based grading causes.
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Playful learning: Where a rich curriculum meets a playful pedagogy | Preschool Matters… Today!
“The Capulets and Montagues of early childhood have long battled over their vision for a perfect preschool education. Should young children be immersed in a core curriculum replete with numbers and letters or in a playful context that stimulates creative discovery? The ‘preschool war’ leaves educators torn and embattled politicians in deadlock. Playful learning offers one way to reframe the debate by nesting a rich core curriculum within a playful pedagogy.”
HT @kellyBKelly2001
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Playful learning is a whole-child approach to education that includes both free play and guided play.
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It refers to play in a structured environment around a general curricular goal that is designed to stimulate children’s natural curiosity, exploration, and play with learning-oriented materials.[xxii] In guided play, learning remains child-directed. This is a key point. Children learn targeted information through exploration of a well-designed and structured environment (e.g. Montessori[xxiii]) and through the support of adults who ask open-ended questions to gently guide the child’s exploration.
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Guided play allows children to become engaged; didactic instruction helps them memorize but not transfer what they have learned.
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Guided play helps constrain what children should be focusing on; free play leaves the field too open and does not help children focus on the target outcomes.
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It is possible to have a curriculum rich in learning goals that is delivered in a playful pedagogy.
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Design Thinking: Tools to help make thinking visible \ The Lab
“The British science, technology and arts research organisation Nesta, along with European social innovation experts, have pulled together their top 30 tools for social innovation. Many of them have immediate uses for helping plan and structure design thinking activities in the classroom. We explain some of those that have the most immediate value for learning.”
HT @jbrettjacobsen
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The Disturbing Transformation of Kindergarten | TRUTH ABOUT EDUCATION
“hey are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn”
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they are hyper-focused on how students perform, but they ignore how students learn
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How can teachers hold all children to the same standards when they are not all the same?
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Play is essential in kindergarten
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There is a wide range of acceptable developmental levels in kindergarten; so a fluid classroom enables teachers to observe where each child is and adjust the curriculum accordingly.
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if we want our youngest to actually learn, we will demand the return of developmentally appropriate kindergarten.
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it's about learning 