Henry Ho EDUC450

  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HEddF4_CcumiDUxsX2-8QpvbfGqwZ6T6NoT0-wnt7H8/edit?usp=drivesdk

Regarding how I plan to connect my inquiry to the real world, I will most likely be implenting the assessment policies and strategies that I come across in the readings. For example, the strategy of offering retests but having students submit corrections or some sort or come to an afterschool session (or FIT time) to be able to take the retest. From the assessment course I went to on Wednesday evening, one of the main ideas was to assess the understanding at the end. Professor Kevin gave a great example where if a student was failing the class throughout the term but gets a high pass on the final, how can you possibly still fail that student (if final was worth a low %). In my own classroom, I plan to retest strategies like the one mentioned above, and have a policy where they can replace a unit test or mid term if they get a higher mark in the final to support this.

1. Clark, D., & Talbert, R. (2023). Grading for Growth . Outlines major alternative grading systems and explains how they reduce anxiety and promote mastery.  2. Meadows, M., & Billington, L. (2005). A Review of the Literature on Marking Reliability . Demonstrates that traditional tests are not as objective or reliable as we assume. 3. Dueck, M. (2011). How I Broke My Rule and Learned to Give Retests . Explores a teacher's shift toward structured retesting and how it can reduce stress while maintaining high expectations 4. Frey, B., Schmitt, V., & Allen, J. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment . Describes authentic assessment as a meaningful alternative to traditional tests.  5. Wiliam, D. (2011). What is Assessment for Learning? Why feedback and ongoing checks for understanding are more effective than single-shot tests 6. Assessment Methods Overview of direct and indirect assessment methods 7. Ulutan, D. (2019). Treating Students Like Adul...

Today I was went over all the additional readings I have accumulated. I observed the assessment course yesterday and was provided a huge assortment of readings. While I still have yet to go through all of them, I am enjoying the articles that I originally found on Google Scholar:  Grading for Growth by Clark and Talbert, and “How I Broke My Rule and Learned to Give Retests.” One cool idea I found during my school visits was a teacher who gave retests but would not give any part marks on those retests to still give incentive to do well on the initial test. Funny enough, both these readings mention the same policy. One teacher in the second reading went further by only permitting retests for students that have done extra work, went to the extra-help session, or submitted extra work.\ Together, these two readings have helped me refine the direction of my inquiry. I will look into the readings from the assessment course next. I am particularly interested in the pdf titled "assessment...

For the initial stage of my inquiry, I started searching on Google Scholar using keywords such as “alternative grading policies,” “assessment reliability,” and “test grading schemes .”   These searches helped me locate readings that connect to my inquiry about how assessment systems can balance accuracy with student well-being. One source I found was Grading for Growth by David Clark and Robert Talbert (2023). This book discusses how traditional grading systems often fail to reflect authentic learning and instead create unnecessary competition and anxiety among students. What drew me to this source is its discussion of “alternative grading systems” such as standards-based grading and specifications grading , which prioritize feedback and revision rather than single high-stakes evaluations.  Another article that caught my attention was A Review of the Literature on Marking Reliability by Meadows and Billington (2005). This review goes over issue of marking reliability , ...

Originally, my inquiry topic was how can we balance teaching for understanding vs teaching for assessment. However, after the short practicum I have had a slight change in perspective. While tests can cause stress and anxiety, it is extremely difficult to find an efficient alternative that accesses students as well as a test. With that in mind, I want to dive into more test policies and grading schemes that can help reduce the stress of students while giving just as accurate of an accessment of their learning if not better. One example is from my SA where they are given a mark based off the proficiency scale instead of a letter grade or percentage and then given the chance to correct their answers to get a bump up the scale. Alternatively, I saw another where there are retests for every test but there are no part marks given on the retest to still give incentive to do well on the main test.

Today in groups of 4, we made permutation poems or PH4 poems. They work by picking 4 words and then constntly mixing up the order of the words until you get back to the original order. After taking a brief look around us, the 4 words our group came up with were “plant, leaves, swallow, flies.” I personally recommended starting with this order because I hate flies haha… Not that it is an issue for these poems, but our 4 words unfortunately did not flow too well when mixed in a way such as: “swallow flies leaves plant.” One group though did have 4 words that seem to all flow at any order with the words: “I only love you.” Even at a mix where the verb comes before the two nouns, it still seemed to flow: Love only I you.” Still, if I were to create another permutation poem, I would try to have all 4 words sticks more to a theme. For example: “fear, silence, death, arise.” All these words relate to one another thus giving a good flow no matter where the verb is.

 1. Define your question Search Topic: What is the balance between "teaching for understanding" and "teaching for exams?" 2. Analyse your topic into concepts Concept A: Depth vs Performance Concept B: Procedural Fluency Concept C: Integrated Approaches I chose this inquiry question inspired by last week's reading about the pros and cons of numerical grading. I think it is one of the toughest challenges as well all want our students to do well in our classes and get high grades, but we also do not want them to do so from just memorizing everything. I will admit I am also guilty of this especially for electives in my undergrad, so I figured it would also be a good topic for myself as well, not just for my students. 

 Today we made Fibonacci style poems and apple cider. While poetry is quite the polar opposite of my teachable physics, I recall being decent at it back in high school, so I was not too lost. Not having to pay attention to grammar and just how the lines flow and mesh is a nice break from formal writing. In any case, this was the poem I came up with in my sit spot: I really wanted to start with the word arise because it fit the morning vibe and because I just finished watching Solo Leveling where the main characters signature ability is "Arise." From there, I was thinking of using the flowers or even the weeds on the ground until I heard some "chirps" and transitioned to birds. To be honest, I wish there were some crows because those are my real morning signal / alarm clock at my house. While I thought I did okay with getting up to 13 syllables, I was shocked to hear that some others went up to 34! Also, if I were to write another one or revise this, I would definite...

 As a student bird, grades are a currency, indicating your worth relative to your peers and serving the purpose of ranking students (hierarchy). As the article notes, students like Charlie admitted that grading allows them to "compare my marks with others." A high grade is a reward and a low grade is a punishment. They are arrived at a combination of memorization and complying as Lucy from the article mentions, trying to figure out what the teacher wants. While they provide motivating goals "try harder" and a way to measure progress, they also cause significant stress shifting the focus from understanding to performance. Given the choice, a student would almost always pick the easier problem for a higher grade rather than the more difficult one out of curiosity and as a challenge.  As a teacher bird, grades indicate a student's level of understanding, skill, and growth. Not how smart that student is but their ability to comply with specific tasks at a specific t...

It was raining today, so we had class indoors in the math education classroom—which, honestly, was a nice break from the bees. We explored conic sections through the idea of “verbing.” Circles and ellipses were relatively easy to find examples for like the hands on a clock and hoola hoops, but I struggled to think of ones for parabolas and hyperbolas. Others came up with very creative ideas though, such as the lines on a basketball representing circles and the arrangement of toothpicks as they were removed. We also watched a video on indigenizing mathematics by Dr. Doolittle. I was particularly intrigued when he demonstrated teaching sequence recognition without using algebra. His method of finding patterns by taking the difference between numbers twice was both intuitive and accessible. It’s definitely a strategy I’d like to use if I ever teach math, as not everyone comes into your class with the basic math foundations as he said.

It was raining today, so we had class indoors in the math education classroom—which, honestly, was a nice break from the bees. We explored conic sections through the idea of “verbing.” Circles and ellipses were relatively easy to find examples for like the hands on a clock or a hoola hoop, but I struggled to think of ones for parabolas and hyperbolas. Some classmates came up with very creative ideas, such as the lines on a basketball representing circles and the arrangement of toothpicks as they were removed forming a hyperbola.  We also watched a video on indigenizing mathematics by Dr. Doolittle. I was particularly intrigued when he demonstrated teaching sequence recognition without using algebra. His method of finding patterns by taking the difference between numbers twice was both intuitive and accessible. It’s definitely a strategy I’d like to use if I ever teach math, as not everyone comes into your class with the basic math foundations as he said.

 The two main things we did today were matching color swatches to natural things and various ways of rope making. For the color swatch activity, I picked a bright orange and purple color. At first, I thought orange was going to be the easy color, as I would just match to one of the fruits or dried out leaves. However, none of them actually had the bright orange color. They had a more tan, brownish orange. The only thing that matched my orange were the orange bags covering the sunflowers but obviously they are not natural... As for purple, I came across some a magenta-colored flower which is actually called "Red Clover" even though it does not really look red to me at all. Thus, I kept looking and stumbled upon a purple cascading flower that almost matched my purple swatch completely. Apparently, it is called "Tufted Vetch). Since I thought purple was such a rare color, I thought finding this flower was like finding a needle in a haystack but google search also says it is...

  Exit Slip One stopping point for me in this excerpt was the introduction of the term backsourcing . I found it interesting that the author defines it as the process of re-claiming what we outsource when factories took over the production of goods, especially food. However, I think the motivation behind backsourcing feels a bit dated, even though the excerpt is only about a decade old. The author highlights that as oil becomes too scarce or expensive, we will be forced to rethink how we meet our needs. While this was a strong concern at the time, today electric cars and renewable energy are becoming more common, meaning gas prices may not be the same limiting factor the author suggests. Still, I think the core idea of backsourcing and   taking responsibility for some of our own production remains valuable similar to still learning how to do math without a calculator. In terms of the videos, I was particularly intrigued by the rope-making one, since I work with ropes all the...

Today’s sit spot felt surprisingly different compared to the last time despite them being both being drawings from the same spot. When I was focused on drawing my surroundings before, it seemed almost silent.  Similar to tunnel vision in first-person video games—being so focused on what’s right in front of you that you never look around and then end up getting snuck up on from behind.  But with my eyes closed this time, I realized there were so many sounds I had missed such as cars, a helicopter, people playing tennis, the hoses in the garden, though I would definitely not miss a bee buzzing right by my ear.  For my drawing, I tried to sketch all the things I heard, but looking at other people’s work, I think it might have been more interesting to draw the “sound signatures” instead like lines and shapes showing which noises were constant, low-pitched, high, or less frequent. Next time, I’d like to experiment with that more abstract approach.

While reading the article, I stopped at the idea of the garden and living ecosystems as co-teacher. To be honest, I haven’t really thought much about teaching outside a classroom before. Despite not explaining things out loud, the living ecosystem still “teaches, inspires and speaks” (p.109). We are “ observers at all times, learning from the garden itself ” (p.110). This really clicked for me when I thought back to our class the other day during the sit spot drawing activity. During our discussions I noticed the birds chirping, ants crawling, and bees moving from flower to flower. None of those things were “teaching” in the traditional sense, but they made me more aware, more curious, and more attentive. If I were to teach science in a high school garden, the first activity that comes to mind would involve microscopes and drawing (Science 8), inspired by our sit-spot drawing exercise. Students would create detailed scientific sketches of a specimen of their choice—potentially produci...

Today’s class in the garden was definitely a change of scenery for someone like me, who usually prefers the comfort of indoors. I found a bush that looked almost exactly like the one that used to grow fruit in my old backyard—it was a bit of a nostalgic moment, so I decided to draw it for the sit spot activity. Now, I will be the first to admit that my drawing skills won’t be winning any awards anytime soon. Even though I took some drawing classes as a kid, my artistic skills never really made it past the stick figure stage.  Despite taking some drawing classes when I was little, I never got good at it. I originally avoided the charcoal (because it looked messy) and stuck with pencil. But once I started coloring in the fruit with charcoal, I have to say... it was actually really cool. It added this nice depth and contrast I did not expect. I would definitely try adding some shadows next time with it too. Also, shoutout to the bees for keeping me on high alert the entire tim...

Despite being written decades ago in a different place, the article makes some valid points in developing my ideas about teacher inquiry. Dewey’s three attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness remind me that my inquiries should not only ask “what works” but also “for whom, and at what cost?” In physics, this could mean questioning why I often default to cannonballs when teaching projectile motion. What message does that choice send? A more thoughtful approach would be to draw on the sidearm “whip” shot in lacrosse, a sport with cultural significance for many First Nations. Shifting from a generic cannonball to a culturally specific example reflects open-mindedness, acknowledges responsibility for the hidden curriculum, and shows wholehearted dedication to teaching all students. It also requires me to seek out resources beyond the standard curriculum. What feels dated is the article’s framing of the reflective teacher as a lone actor resisting a uniformly trad...

One of the key questions that came up in our breakout group was how teachers can show students that what they are learning is both useful and important. We recognized that while real-life applications help, it is often even more meaningful to connect the material to students’ personal interests or hobbies. Here, I was reminded of the manga  Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It , where a student who loved playing dating-sims became motivated after his professor connected computer science research to finding the optimal path in said dating sim. While it might sound trivial, if a game has 10 scenes with 3 choses each, there would have to be 3^10 ≈ 60000 different ways to play it which would be difficult even for a computer to find the 1 right path. This made me think about the power of motivation and how I, as a teacher, can design lesson plans that tap into the interests or hobbies of students while still meeting curricular goals. In physics, I could connect sports such ...

 Today is Thursday!