A little while back, I came across this clever and simple way of checking and monitoring students' understanding. I loved the posters but could not manage to find a copy of them anywhere on the internet or TpT, so I decided to make them. Here is what they look like in my classroom.
Here is a closer look at the original classroom posters that I came across but couldn't find and eventually made.
Show my Understanding is a self assessing strategy. An important step in using these posters was to
teach children how to be honest and reflective about their learning. It takes
some practise but I found after about a week the children really understood what
each poster meant and could give honest evaluations of their understanding.
I normally begin the lesson/unit with a WALT (We
are learning to...) or WALA (We are learning about) statement. This could be
your goals or learning targets.
After an explicit teaching lesson, I would say
" Show your understanding" students would then hold up 1, 2, 3, or 4
fingers to indicate what stage of learning they are at. This gives me an
indication of how well students have understood what was taught and who I need
to do further work with. Children who indicate a 3-4 I would send off to do an
independent task while the 1 & 2s would do some further work with me.
As I continued to use this system, I realised that
I could use this system as means of assessing and grouping my students so I
made some complimentary resources to go with the posters to make it easier for
me to keep record of how students were going with learning the objective of the
lesson (I was hoping to use some
of this informal assessment to inform report writing as well).
This is the teacher monitoring sheet I use. I have
used this sheet in two ways.
1. I record the names of students as they are
learning so it is for my own records of who achieved what.
2. At the end of the lesson, I tell students to go
and write their name on the sheet displayed on my whiteboard to indicate where
they are with their learning if I didn't get around to writing all the names down myself.
I also made a student reflection sheet for those lessons where the objective was quite big and I really wanted students to articulate what they have or have not yet mastered.
I later added another component to this system. I
felt the posters that I made originally reflected how students learnt at the
end of an explicit teaching lesson but I wanted to engage in what their
learning was like at the end of the lesson especially after doing some independent
work themselves, so I changed the wording on the posters to:
1 = I need more practice with a teacher
2 = I need more practice with a capable friend
3 = I need more practice this a little more by
myself
4 = I can help others with learning this
After
a couple of weeks of using this strategy, II introduce "mini
teachers". The children loved this! Mini teachers are students who have
mastered a certain skill/learning target. They then get to support other
students in their learning. I found this was a great motivator for students to
work towards the learning goal as well as freeing me up to work with those students who were really struggling. I would generally pair up a mini teacher with children who are 3's (have understood the work, but need more practise).
I made little badges to make my mini teachers feel
special. The children are so proud when they get to wear one.
1. Peg chart: Put names of students on pegs and
they can move their peg up and down the chart as they learn the key concepts.
2. Put names of magnets and children can slide them
across the whiteboard under each poster.
3. Desk strips: I have made desk strips with the 4
levels of understanding. Each child has a strip on their desk and a counter.
They place their counter on the level they are working at, so when the teacher
walks around they can assist children without children having to move around
and ask for help.
You can get a free copy of the original classroom
posters {here}. OR if you would like the complete set with all the additional resources click {here}.
Hope this has been a helpful post. Happy Teaching!
X Laura
