Week 11

Chapter 6:

An important part of inquiry-learning is assessment. Assessment provides opportunities for teacher/student feedback. Teachers can incorporate assessments throughout a lesson. This serves as a more engaging way to monitor student progress and student understanding than the traditional assessment at the end of a lesson does. Continuous assessment throughout the lesson is more effective as it gives teachers and students more opportunities for gauging and enhancing their understanding.

Some types of assessments teachers can integrate into a lesson are quizzes, problems that center on real-world application and self-assessments.

Benchmarks are a good way in which to identify what the students should understand at a given point within the lesson. By identifying benchmarks, teachers can monitor students’ progress. Teachers, where a benchmark is identified, can integrate a learning assessment in order to monitor if the student has an understanding of the material.

Rubrics are good tools for teachers to use to measure what is important for students to learn. Students, when a rubric is provided, have a tool that they can use to easily determine their level of understanding. By using a rubric, students and teachers have a concise measuring tool to monitor understanding.


Chapter 7:

In an art history lesson, learning objectives for students would include interpreting artwork and explaining possible messages/meanings the artist hopes to convey (Understanding). Another objective would be for students to take the understanding they have acquired regarding how the artist successfully conveyed their message and use that understanding to address modern issues, in their own artwork, affecting the students’ own lives (Apply).

My inquiry activity emphasizes 21st Century skills by requiring students in a short period of time to gather accurate information about a particular work of art. Students will gain knowledge about how to filter the vast amount of information on the web and determine what information is factual and useful. In addition they will have to use technological tools to produce a booklet of the information that they gather. Although the lessons goal will be to gain an understanding of a work of art, students in the process will use their 21st Century Skills and build upon them.