Self-efficacy and Self-regulation

How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

Elementary Education Case Study:

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations. 

In the social cognitive learning theory, self-efficacy is defined as the belief that one is capable of executing certain behaviors or achieving certain goals. As our book states, self-efficacy plays a key role in how hard an individual tries, how long they persist at challenging tasks, and how much they learn and achieve. In my intervention plan to change Lisa's behavior in her small group, I first want to find the root of the problem that is causing Lisa to act out. One possibility that could be causing Lisa to not contribute to the group and to disrupt their learning is that Lisa may have a low self-efficacy about the academic task the group is completing. Because Lisa may feel that she is not capable of achieving the role her group has given her or does not think that she is good at the task the small group is performing, she does not try hard in the group and as a result does not benefit from learning nor does she benefit from achieving an academic goal. To help with this, I will sit down with Lisa and together we will set goals for Lisa to meet that are both challenging and attainable. If Lisa feels that she is capable of succeeding at an academic goal in her group, she will be more likely to contribute to the group and to cooperate with her group members. Once Lisa achieves the goal her and I have set for her, her self-efficacy will be higher and in return she will benefit from learning and from achieving an academic goal. In addition, I will be sure to encourage Lisa and support her throughout the process of achieving the goal we have set for her to help boost her confidence that she is capable of meeting the goal. 

Furthermore, the social cognitive theory also involves self-regulation. Our book defines self-regulation as the process of setting goals for oneself and engaging in behaviors and cognitive processes that lead to goal attainment. For this part of the intervention plan, I as a the teacher will serve as a model showing Lisa how to control her impulses when she feels upset in her group. Lisa and I will discuss how it is possible for Lisa to control her anger and emotional impulses and I will provide Lisa with a stress ball that she can squeeze whenever she starts to feel upset or angry in her group. I will tell Lisa to squeeze the ball and breathe in 2 deep breaths in order to prevent herself from becoming angry in her group. In addition, I will use cues to make Lisa aware of her emotional outbursts by tapping her shoulder or tapping her desk and this will then cue Lisa to squeeze the stress ball to calm herself down. Eventually, I will not have to cue Lisa and she will squeeze the stress ball on her own to control her emotions. Hopefully, this will eventually end in Lisa not feeling the need to squeeze the stress ball because she has realized how to control her emotions and that she is able to learn more and achieve her goals when she controls her anger. This will overall lead to a change in Lisa's behavior when working in her small group. 

This article from education.com talks about how teachers can use games to teach their students how to self-regulate. This would be especially useful at a young age because the younger children learn to self-regulate, the more academic success they will have. I plan to use these games in my classroom to model to my students how to control their behavior. 

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/self-regulation-children/?page=2 

PLE Post #8

Consider your CSEL intervention case study. Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they? 
Now, compare the interventions that you have identified above with what you think might work from a cognitive or constructivist viewpoint. How do they compare to behaviorist tools? What are the benefits of each theory, and what are the deficits? Which theory might play a larger role in how you determine classroom management? 

Elementary Education Case Study

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations. 

Regarding the case study above, there are tools I could use from a behaviorist view for both encouraging productive behaviors and discouraging undesirable behaviors that I could apply. To encourage productive behaviors, one strategy I would use is creating a contingency contract with Lisa. Lisa and I would meet and discuss the behaviors that she is demonstrating in her small group and how those behaviors go against the routine procedures that our class agreed upon regarding small groups. Lisa and I would then discuss desired behaviors for working in small groups that I expect Lisa to demonstrate and agree upon a reinforcer when Lisa demonstrates this behavior. The reinforcers would be positive reinforcers that increase the occurrence of the desired behavior. Reinforcers could be both primary and secondary depending on what Lisa decides motivates her to behave more. Primary reinforcement could be candy whenever Lisa appropriately behaves and cooperates with her group. Secondary reinforcements could be praise, extra recess time, a homework pass, a ticket or token, etc. Another positive reinforcement I could use to increase a desired behavior would be the use of a behavior chart and a work habits chart. For this strategy, every time Lisa demonstrated good behavior in her small group and stayed on task and participated, Lisa would get to put a star next to her name on both the work habit chart and the behavior chart. When Lisa fills up an entire row on either chart, Lisa will receive a reward. The reward could be candy, getting to take her shoes off in class, getting to eat lunch in the classroom with a friend, etc. On the other hand, there are behaviorist tools I can use to discourage undesirable behaviors. One tool I could use is presentation punishment. When Lisa misbehaves in her small group and does not participate I will scold Lisa in front of her peers and Lisa will relate her behavior with an undesirable response from me. Other punishment strategies would be taking away recess time, adding work for Lisa to complete, removing Lisa from the small group and having her work alone, moving Lisa's desk to the front of the room or by my desk, etc. All of these forms of punishment would seek to decrease the occurrence of Lisa's undesirable behavior. 

From a constructivist viewpoint, I would not use reinforcers or punishments to encourage good behavior or discourage bad behavior. I would understand that it is important for Lisa to build her own understanding of why her behavior in her small group is not the correct behavior because currently it is apparent that she sees no issue in the way she acts. For instance, I would offer Lisa an opportunity for restitution when she misbehaves in her group. For this strategy let's say I see Lisa constantly interrupting her group, I would then call Lisa over and ask her if she knows what just happened in her group that might not make me happy, I would then tell her that she was interrupting her group members and it was making it hard for me and her peers to concentrate on what we are trying to do, then I would tell her that I do not like when she interrupts her group members and ask her if she can please do something to fix this problem, Lisa should say yes and I would ask her what she thinks the best thing for her to do to fix this problem is. This strategy allows Lisa to form her own understanding of why her interrupting others is not the correct behavior and also allows her to form her own understanding of how to correctly fix this problem. In theory, this constructivist strategy would decrease the occurrence of Lisa interrupting her small group members because she formed her own understanding of why it is an incorrect behavior and associates it with the fact that it upsets the teacher. 

A constructivist viewpoint focuses more on the cognitive processes of Lisa and how she as an individual has formed her own understanding of how one should act in a small group. A behaviorist viewpoint creates associations between reinforcers and punishments and the student's behavior. Behaviorism does not focus on the student's cognitive processes. Instead, it focuses more on the environmental stimuli and how they influence a change in the student's behavior. 

The benefits of using a constructivist approach for behavioral management is that it requires students to own their actions and be held accountable by their peers. In addition, it allows for them to gain confidence, self-respect, and the ability to express themselves as they build an understanding of appropriate behavior through their experiences. A downfall to using this approach is that learners do not always construct an appropriate meaning or understanding despite our efforts to promote conceptual change. The benefits of using a behaviorist approach for behavioral management is that it is very helpful in dealing with challenging behaviors through the use of reinforcers and punishment. A child is more likely, in my opinion, to decrease or increase a behavior if they are receiving something enjoyable, having something enjoyable taken away, or having something undesirable presented to them. A downfall to using this approach is that it completely ignores cognitive factors that take part in how a child behaves. In addition, reinforcers and punishments might not always be the best way to handle a situation and reinforcers might influence a child to pick up a bad behavior like rushing to get their work done just to get the reward. 

While I would like for constructivism to be how I structure my classroom behavior management, I feel that behaviorism will play a larger role in my classroom environment especially since I will be dealing with younger students. I feel that students will react more to the occurrence of reinforcers and punishments in terms of their behavior than they would having to take ownership for their actions and create an understanding of why their behavior is correct or incorrect. That being said, I won't give up on the idea of implementing constructivism but behaviorism is just a more familiar strategy to me when it comes to behavior management. 

This article discusses the effectiveness of implementing a constructivist approach to education. One section specifically deals with social and moral education where it discusses that children benefit from making mistakes, experiencing the consequences, and developing their own reasons for following the rules. I recommend you take a look at that section!

http://www.education.uiowa.edu/html/iae/iae-z-op-devries-1-5.pdf

Metacognition

Consider a lesson plan you might use. Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain? 

For this post, I am going to use an example of a math lesson plan on word problems for 3rd grade. Using the Dr. Seuss book "I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today!", I will build upon my students' prior knowledge of subtraction by introducing them to word problems. This story involves subtraction by the main character reducing the number of tigers through various excuses. The main character of the story goes from 30 tigers to 29 to 22, etc. However, the entire story can be seen as one giant word problem: "If the cat, the main character of the story, started with 30 tigers and ended with 1, how many tigers were sent away?".

To start off the lesson, I will introduce the concept of word problems to my students by telling them that math equations are not always written in number form. I will draw on the board for them an example: 4-2=2. I will then tell them that math problems also exist in word form and that a number equation can be used to solve the word problem. I will then write an example of a word problem: "Ms. Hallock has 10 kids in her class. One day, Ms. Hallock only had 7 kids in her class. How many students were missing from Ms. Hallock's class?" Then I would show my students that I can use subtraction from the word problem to find my answer by writing 10-7=3. 

Next, I will introduce the story to my class and have them predict what they think the story will be about based on the new math concept we just discussed. I will tell my students that what they predicted the story would be about connects to the new math concept I just introduced and that this story will help them to better understand word problems. Making predictions and connections are metacognitive skills that are important for comprehension. 

Then, I will read the story to my class and tell them to pay special attention to the story so that they will be able to answer the various word problems the story contains. Throughout the story, there are a number of places that allow for me to stop and ask my students questions regarding the cat reducing the number of tigers. I would ask my students "If the cat started with 30 tigers and now has 22 tigers, how many tigers did he send away?". I would explain to my students that it is important to stop and check for our understanding when learning new material/reading text by asking ourself questions or explaining to ourself what is being read. I would then ask my students to first explain to themselves how I could use subtraction to find the answer to this word problem. Then I would have them turn to their neighbor and discuss how I could use subtraction to solve this word problem. This would involve my students in self-explanation by verbalizing to themselves how to solve the problem. In addition, discussing it with a partner would involve monitoring their comprehension of word problems by checking their own understanding and the understanding of their peer. I would then have someone volunteer to tell me how to write the problem. 

After finishing the story, I would tell my students that we are going to solve a word problem together that relates to the story we just read. I would write the problem out: "If the cat started with 30 tigers and ended with 1 tiger, how many tigers did the cat send away?". 

Then, I would tell my students that they can use the word SOLVE to help them remember the steps to go through when working a word problem. Next, I would walk my students through the SOLVE process.

1. Study the problem. (I would have my students read the problem silently to themselves and decide what the problem is asking them to solve for. I would then ask my students to tell me what they think the problem wants them to find and then I would write what I think the problem wants us to find. Checking their answer based off my answer is a way for my students to use the metacognitive skill of comprehension monitoring by checking to see if their understanding matches with the correct answer.)
2. Organize the facts. (I would tell my students to look at the problem and identify what information is important by circling the most important words and numbers. Picking out what information is important to finding the answer is an important metacognitive skill. I would ask my students to think about what information they circled and to verbally explain to themselves how they know this information is important. This demonstrates the metacognitive skill of self-explanation, which helps to further their understanding of the material. I would then tell them what information I circled and allow for them to monitor their comprehension by comparing their circled words and numbers to mine.) 
3. Line up the plan. (I would first have my students decide what operation they need to use to solve this problem. Then, I would have my students work with their partner to write out an equation to solve the word problem and explain to one another why they chose to use a specific operation and why they set up the equation the way they did. This allows for additional comprehension monitoring. I would then write out the correct equation to be used to solve the word problem "30-1=?.) 
4. Verify your plan with computation. (As a class, we would test out the equation we came up with by solving 30-1=?.) 
5. Examine your answer. (I would ask my students if the answer we got to the problem makes sense to answer the question of how many tigers the cat sent away. We would then as a class decide whether we thought this answer was correct or not.) 

To conclude the lesson, I would have my students write out the answer to the problem in a complete sentence and then write what steps they used to solve the word problem to further expand their comprehension of word problems. This involves the students using the metacognitive skill of summarizing which enhances their learning and memory. 

This article explores what metacognition is, why it is important, and how it develops in children. It discusses why teachers need to help children develop metacognitive awareness and identifies factors that enhance metacognitive development. 

Developing Metacognition 

Chapter 7

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student's individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles? 

For my example, I am going to use a math lesson on capacity. In order to achieve ultimate mastery of the content in this lesson, the students must be able to correctly identify which cup has the largest capacity and explain why. Below I will outline a list of skills needed to achieve ultimate mastery of the content.

• First, I am going to activate my students' prior knowledge of capacity by showing them two different sized cups and saying, "Ms. Hallock is thirsty! Which cup should she use? Why?" I would then listen to what my students say about which cup I should use and why. (The obvious answer to the question is that I would use the blue cup because it holds a smaller amount of water.) This part of the lesson involves whole class discussion and exploration of the concept of capacity therefore lending itself to group construction. 

• After discussing which cup they think I should use, I am going to add in another cup to challenge their previous answer. I will then ask them which cup they think holds more water and will ask them to discuss it with a partner. I will then have us discuss as a whole group which cup holds more and why and will listen to my students' answers in order to identify any misconceptions they may have about capacity. Having students discuss with a partner promotes individual construction and discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. (Students will more than likely answer that the green cup holds more because it is taller...this answer demonstrates a misconception) 

• Next, rather than telling my students the correct answer of which cup holds more, I want them to explore for themselves with a partner. I will provide each group with a green cup, a red cup, some small dixie cups, an empty container, and a bucket of water. (this way they can explore with a variety of materials different ways to solve the problem) I will then tell my students that they can use whatever they want to try and figure out which cup holds more water. In addition, I will encourage them to discuss various ideas with their partner about how they should approach this problem. Working together with a partner and discussing their individual ideas promotes individual construction. It is important to remember that children learn a lot from one another maybe even more than they do from us. In addition, having the students explore their own way to solve the problem also promotes individual construction. Furthermore, I am pushing them in the direction of conceptual change by allowing them to see hands-on that their existing belief that "the green cup holds more water because it is taller" is incorrect therefore addressing their misconception about capacity. 

• While the students are working together, I will walk around to each group and act as a guide to push them in the right direction, if needed. I will ask questions such as "Tell me what you are doing?" "Why did you decide to do that?" "What are you going to do next?" and if I see that they are stuck I will ask "What would happen if...?". This lends itself to the student's individual construction. 

• After my students have had plenty of time to test which cup they think holds more water, we will come back together as a group for a whole class discussion about the results they found. We will first talk about what each group did to find out which cup holds more water and what method they think worked best and what method they think did not work the best. We will discuss what their prediction was and then discuss what they learned through this lesson about capacity. This will once again address their misconception about capacity and then show how their existing belief about capacity was reconstructed through what they learned. Discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. 

• At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to see that the red cup have the largest capacity and explain that this is because it is wider than the blue and green cup. 
• At the end of the day, I will have students right what they learned about capacity in today's math lesson. This will promote individual construction and provide me with a formative assessment on how well my students understood the lesson. 

This is a great website on how to apply constructivism in the classroom. It provides detailed steps on how to implement constructivism in your classroom environment. In addition, it discusses challenges that you might face, how you can assess your students' progress using this approach, how constructivism aligns with state and national standards, and how to use technology to complement constructivism. You should check it out!

Constructivism in the Classroom 

PLE #5

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

     First off, it is important for me to know as a teacher how my students' retrieve and process memories and information. My students will be most likely to retrieve information when they have multiple connections to it. Therefore, I will make sure that my instruction allows for my students to make multiple connections to the concepts we are learning. This can be done through emotional connections like excitement, anger, and sadness. By making an emotional connection to my instruction, it will be easier for my students to retrieve information. In addition, we have learned that wait time during instruction is important. By waiting three-four seconds after I ask my class a question, I am allowing my students enough time to process the question and retrieve information from their memory. Furthermore, by providing wait time I am making it more likely that students who typically don't speak up will (females and minority students). I also know that it is important for me to make learning meaningful because students are more likely to remember information when it is relevant to them and their prior knowledge. To do this, I will make sure what I'm teaching makes sense and I will ask my students to explain their reasoning for their answers and relate it to their lives or tell how it is relevant to their lives. This will cause them to retrieve prior knowledge and make multiple connections to what they are explaining. I will also make sure that my instruction is distinctive and fun. We have learned that we are more likely to remember things that are unique, new, or bizarre. Therefore, I will make my instruction hands-on and engaging so that it sticks out in the minds of my students. I will also use mnemonic devices to make learning concepts fun through the use of songs, rhymes, verbal cues, etc. I know that this trick is effective because I still to this day remember the different mnemonic devices I learned throughout elementary school. Most importantly, I know that practice makes perfect and that students put skills to their long-term memory by practicing them. For instance, during science experiments I will walk my students through the experiment by explaining it while they practice doing it rather than me standing in front of the class and just showing it to them. There are many more ways I will adapt my instruction based on what we have learned about the memory processes, but these are just a few.

     Below is an article on 10 ways to enhance students' memory so that they might develop a more efficient and effective memory. It provides excellent information on ways to adapt your instructional decisions and it also provides information you can tell your students to increase their memory. For instance, you can remind your students that information is better remembered when they review materials before they go to sleep at night.
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php

PLE #4

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?

     There are several skills I want my students to be able to do that relate to cognitive learning. The first skill is that I want my students to be able to construct their own meaning and understanding. In addition, I want my students to be able to assimilate and accommodate new information in order to construct a better understanding of what they are learning. One of the more essential skills I want my students to be able to do is the process of equilibration due to the fact that this promotes more complex understanding and thoughts. Furthermore, I want my students to be able to take their constructed meaning and understanding of concepts and store it in their long-term memory. I think it is important for students to figure out what kind of learner they are and experiment with different strategies in order to find out what helps them to learn and understand most affectively. The earlier students start to do these essential skills, the better.
     In addition to wanting my students to be able to do skills that relate to cognitive learning, I also want them to know certain things about cognitive learning to better their overall learning outcomes. For instance, I think it is important for my students to know that they are in control of their own cognitive processes. For instance, being aware of the importance of attention in terms of cognitive learning will cause them to create effective personal learning environments. An example of this could be that my student knows they are easily distracted when they sit near the door or when they sit next to their best friend. In theory, they would then make adjustments to this so that their attention is not bothered. However, I realize how hard this concept would be for elementary students. In addition, I also want my students to know about metamemory strategies and how they effect their learning outcomes. For example, some of my students will not be able to remember what we talk about during a lesson unless they write some of it down. Most importantly, I want my students to know that there are several factors that go into creating affective learning outcomes and the sooner they are aware of these factors the better their learning outcomes will be.

     Below is an article on meta-attention for learning disabled and non-learning disabled children. When it comes to being aware of their attention, this study shows that younger children are more inclined to pay attention due to the effects of rewards and that older children are more inclined to pay attention due to their interest level.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1510613

Ch. 14 Assessment

Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning. 

As we have learned in class and read in our textbook, assessment is a very important part of being an effective teacher. Assessments allow us to observe a student's behavior or academic achievement and draw inferences from those observations about the student's knowledge and abilities. I know everyone thinks of multiple choice standardized tests when the word assessment comes up, however there are many different ways that teachers can assess their students. Assessments are most effective when a variety of them are used to determine a student's knowledge, abilities, and behavior. As a teacher, I will make sure I use a variety of assessments to observe my students because it is important to remember that my classroom will be made up of different learners who demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

Using a Science lesson plan on friction for a 4th grade classroom that I recently created, I will explain how I would use both informal and formal assessments to provide myself with valuable feedback that I could use to reshape the direction of my teaching and also keep track of my students' learning while involving my students in assessing their own learning at the same time. The objectives of this lesson are that students will discover that friction is a force that resists motion by observing the effects of friction on a moving object, students will discover how lubricants reduce friction between an object and the surface, and students will suggest additional ways to reduce friction between objects.

4 Informal Assessments I will use:

1. Questioning: I will use this type of informal assessment at the beginning of this lesson and during this lesson to gain insight on the degree and depth of my students' understanding of friction and motion. Using questioning at the beginning of the lesson will allow me to see what preconceptions my students already have about friction and motion and what they do/do not already know. This will allow me to adjust the lesson to most effectively meet the needs of my students. Questioning during the lesson will allow my students the opportunity for deeper thinking. 
2.  Observation: I will use the assessment strategy of observation during the lesson while students work in groups to complete the activity, since a large part of this lesson is student-led. While students are working in groups, I will walk around and take notes on how well each student performs physical tasks, reflect on a specific aspect of their learning, note specific behaviors when working in groups, etc. By keeping a notebook of my individual observations on each student, I can furnish a picture of student learning over time. 
3. Write daily or weekly entries in their journals: I will use this type of informal assessment to further expand my students' understanding of the lesson on friction while also tying in a connection to Language Arts/Writing. Our Language Arts lesson for that week or day might be on short stories and poems and so to connect to this skill, I would have my students write about either what life would be like in a frictionless world or describe other ways to reduce friction between objects. This type of informal assessment would provide me with feedback on my students' understanding of friction after learning about it in the lesson and show me what they still need work on. 
4. Peer/Self Assessments: This type of informal assessment would allow students to evaluate their own learning. These are important because when students are required to think about their own learning, articulate their understanding, and what they still need improvement on, their overall achievement improves. One way I would use this assessment would be the "Two Stars and a Wish" peer assessment strategy. After writing in their journals about friction, each student would be paired with another student and would read to one another what they have written about friction. Each partner must then identify two things the author did well (stars) and one suggestion for improvement (wish). This type of assessment is great because it creates a classroom community and it also allows students to see where they could use improvement while also learning from their peers. 

4 Formal Assessments I will use:

1. Oral Presentation: For this assessment strategy, I will have my students present an oral presentation to the class on either sports in which friction plays an important role or ways that scientists have used their discoveries about friction to improve transportation. This presentation can be done either with a partner or individually, which allows the students some sense of control over how they are assessed. This will provide feedback on the students' understanding of the lesson and show what they are capable of doing. This type of task is meaningful, thought provoking, and authentic. 
2. Multiple-Choice Test: While this is not my favorite type of assessment, it will still provide useful feedback on what my students know and still need improvement on regarding the topic of friction and motion. I would use this assessment at the end of the unit on friction and motion to test my students' overall knowledge in this content area. This would show how effective both my teaching and the lesson were on furthering their understanding of friction. 
3. Conducting an Experiment: At the end of the lesson, I would have my students get in groups and discuss with one another an experiment they could conduct on friction and motion. This could be an experiment that shows how objects have different amounts of friction when rubbed against different surfaces. This type of performance assessment will give me feedback on what my students really know about friction by showing me rather than writing it out for me or telling me. By applying their knowledge of friction to conducting an experiment, I can see their level of understanding they gained from the lesson and adjust my teaching from there. 
4. Short-Answer Quiz: I will inform my students before starting the lesson that there will be a quiz when the lesson is finished. This type of formal assessment provides feedback on a student's understanding of friction by having them put into their own words what friction is, how friction stops motion, and how lubricants help assist objects in motion. I plan to use this assessment format to provide me with an overview of what my students learned and didn't learn through the lesson. This will give me a guideline of what concepts need to be further explained and worked on before I give my students the multiple-choice test at the end of the friction unit. 

Through using these different types of assessment, I can most effectively gain feedback that is both valid and reliable. 

West Virginia Department of Education 

This is a link to a great website on formative assessments. It provides a variety of ways for you to assess your students and describes why each type of formative assessment is valuable and useful. I found so many great resources on this site that I plan to use in my own classroom that will provide me with great feedback on my students' progress. I think it is important to utilize all the ways that you can assess your students in order to gain reliable and valid feedback.