Week 3 - Essential Question

What technology tools can I use to manage and track differentiated student progress in my class?

In terms of tools themselves, at first glance, I would probably say that the tools I use to manage student progress have not changed much over the past few years. I use a lot of projects in my classes (English, social studies, technology), and tend to plan my year for my courses in units of study.  For each unit, I have an idea of what I will be "covering", and then I come up with a performance task that I want my students to complete.  The performance task is based on a question I ask myself at the beginning - "What could my students do that would prove they have the understandings I want them to have at the end of this unit of study?".  Asking this question takes me out of the testing mindset.  One test could never prove to me that they really have the deep understandings I am trying to move them toward.  I may give tests along the way, just to do a check-in on certain rote knowledge I'd like them to be collecting, but they are not the end result of the learning.

I spend a lot of time laying out the performance task - it can be multi-faceted. I make sure that technology will be incorporated into any creation, research, presentation, and collaboration portions of the task.  From there I work backward, asking the next question, "What will they need to know in order to complete this task?".  This really focuses my lessons - how I teach really depends on what they will really need to complete the performance task.  Sometimes it's a series of tools that will help them discover things, sometimes it's research skills, sometimes it's teaching them how to think critically about something, sometimes it's resources, sometimes it's just the technology.  Most often it is a combination of these things. 

After these things are decided, I start building a rubric for the performance task.  I leave various portions of the task (the choice of tools, and other creation portions) up to the students.  I assign some basic point values to each portion of the task and create checklists.  These things all get posted online on my course pages so that students are able to check in often and make sure they are on track.

Along the way, there are various tools the students use that make it easy for me to check in, give feedback, and help assure that they are on track.  For example, I may request blog posts along the way regarding certain aspects of what we are studying.  I link all student blogs to my main class blog so that makes it easy for me to check them (and easy for students to find them too!). I may require students work on a wiki page together (they must link their wiki pages to their blogs - still easy for me to find). A quick glance at the discussion and revision history can tell me a lot about how collaborative work is going on a wiki.  I can also give feedback easily.  I may require students to submit some things to me on GoogleDocs/Drive - I can give instant feedback and help them with revisions.  Quick quizes on GoogleForms tell me at a glance if students have a grasp of a particular concept.

Ultimately, the rubric that was set out from the beginning will be the main tool that the students and I use.  Rubrics allow lots of flexibility - if part of the project includes an online presentation, students may choose the presentation tool they wish, as long as they meet the requirements in the rubric (concepts included, developed, appropriate imagery, etc.).

Tracking progress is an important task, but many technology tools make this task much easier, more meaningful, and more clear for both students and teachers.