Context For Learning

I've been conducting my observations for a few months and I find myself struggling with a few of these questions. I think the class size is around 27 with 14 girls and 13 boys. I never took the time to get the exact numbers. The students are seventh graders ages 12-14. Three students have 504 accommodations and IEPs. Most of my students are white middle SES but there is also three Hispanic students and one black student. I think knowing the demographics and history of the class helps gauge abilities and expectations. Naturally teachers are expected to have high expectations for all their students. I want to set realistic goals based on numerous factors. The fact is students don't have the same educational experience. That's why the common core state standards are so useful. It may not be 100 percent accurate, but the common core state standards are a good reference guide to what specific knowledge students currently know and what they are expected to learn. If I had to condense my essential goal or philosophy on education it would be as follows: Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. My job is to help students discover their strengths and cope with their weaknesses. How this goal is accomplished is another story entirely. Content and academic language needs to be introduced gradually over a long period of time. Students need to not only provide a definition but use the content vocabulary in class and in their writing. It is only through formative and summative assessment that educators can even begin to gauge students' comprehension. I've discovered many ways to perform formative assessment and yet I still need to know much more. I prefer to use graphic organizers when lecturing so students are more inclined to take notes by filling out graphic organizers. After they've been collected and graded, I can return the organizers to let students study. I tend to grade students on effort and involvement more than initial knowledge. Summative assessment is more narrow in scope and should align with formative assessment. Students should only be tested on what has been taught. Tests, essays, projects, and presentations are the most common forms of formative assessment but I'm eager to discover some variations of these traditional practices. I've also learned that formative assessment is also an assessment of a teacher's instruction. If all the students are failing, something is probably very wrong. Perhaps the test did not align with the material that was taught. If all the kids are acing everything, something is probably wrong. The students might not be challenged with the material. It's a never ending line of questioning and reflecting.