Week 7 What is assessment and what are examples of authentic assessments

When a student hear the word assessment "test", some students start to freak out.  I know for myself when I hear assessments I tend to get a little stressed.  An assessment can be done formally or informally in the classroom and teachers can make it simple or very complex.  Assessment is to see where your students are at in the content that you are going over in class and if you need to revisit some part of your content. 

Say one of your lessons is on measurements for cooking and you bring in cups, teaspoons, and etc.  You could have the students make a cake and assess if they followed the measurements and if the cake rosed or not and how it taste.  Another assessment could be a journal for the students to write what they got out of the lesson that was represented to them in class for that day.  Assessments can be just as easy as walking around the room to see if the students are understanding what is going on.  Play games with the students and assess that way.

Week 6 Informative and Persuasive Writing

An informative writing piece is designed to convey facts and data. Informative texts are created to teach people who would like to gain more knowledge/experience in a particular area. They give us details about aspects of life in order for us to go about our existence with as much knowledge as possible.

You can tell when a text is informative as it:  has one subject, uses a specific type of language, contains new information, uses facts and data and has taught you something by the end of it.

An example of informative writing and how you can use it in a lesson is have the students make a list, chart or diagram on the favorite meal and bring it to the class.  Their paper will consist of a step by step process that allows you to know what to do if you were making this dish by yourself.

Persuasive writing is a type of writing where your main goal is to persuade or convince someone to do something that you want them to do. In persuasive writing, a writer takes a position FOR or AGAINST an issue and writes to convince the reader to believe or do something. Persuasive writing is often used in advertisements to get the reader to buy a product. It is also used in essays and other types of writing to get the reader to accept a point of view. In order to convince the reader you need more than opinion; you need facts or examples to back your opinion.

An example of persuasive writing you can do with you students is having them write a letter of why the students should or should not have homework over the weekend. Have the students tell the teacher their opinion and persuade the teacher either way.