I'm interested in what happens to progress as students acquire new skills and knowledge.
As mid-year reporting takes place I am fascinated by those students that attend school regularly, are busy acquiring so many new skills, and gaining new knowledge on a daily basis but are yet to show progress through assessments such as running records or JAM maths assessment.
My hypothesis is that progress plateaus as they make sense of and consolidate this new learning. It's almost as if they are close to cognitive overload.
The dose and density of learning that they experience in my class this year is intense however, seeing that they are loving it and they have an understanding of the learning progress I don't want the foot to be taken off the accelerator.
I predict that once this new learning is consolidated then I will see a peak in progress by the end of the year.
- My students have a great understanding of the learning process; that learning is uncomfortable and that success comes through practice. They talk about this process on a daily basis and reflect on which part of the learning process they are currently at.
- I also ensure that learning is kept fun with as much as possible coming from the student's own wonderings and areas of interest. There is obvious engagement happening.
- It can be frustrating at times as a teacher, to see students taking onboard new learning during class and then not demonstrating it when it comes to an assessment task.
- Students that don't attend school regularly are showing little progress in class as well as through assessment tasks, compared to those students that are not yet transferring learning to assessment tasks but can demonstrate it with support during class.
I'm reflecting that they need scaffolding, multiple exposures of the skill being modeled, then multiple opportunities to practice with scaffolds and supports being reduced. This will then lead to being able to use the skill independently, and then finally being able to transfer it to new situations.
Do many of our assessment tasks expect students to be extended abstract thinkers, transferring the skill to a new situation? Students would therefore have to have worked through the entire learning process for this to happen. When it does is when I think we will see that assessment data spike.
