Jan 11 2022

Students Own Their Own Learning Assessments

Students Own Their Learning Assessments

This post is ninth of a series based on excepts from my book on Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke (2020). You can purchase the book from Roman and Littlefield for charts, examples, and worksheets on how to engage students to become owners of their learning successes.

Components of Student Owned Assessments

Components of students owning their learning assessments include:

Learning intentions and outcomes are clear from the start. Learners understand what and how they will be learning and why it is relevant and worthwhile.
Student owned assessments respect and respond to the student’s needs, interests, and abilities. For example, Bruno is excited when he learns he can pick which era and which president to research for his project. Bruno plans to present his research in a game format that he intends to align with the learning goals and rubric.
Social and emotional skills are the foundation for progressing successfully towards personal mastery. For Murray, as he develops self-regulation, he notices that his grades also get better.

[Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.

Jan 04 2022

Teaching Engaged Students

This post is eighth of a series based on excepts from my book on Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke (2020). You can purchase the book from Roman and Littlefield for charts, examples, and worksheets on how to engage students to become owners of their learning successes.

Teacher Examples of Engaging Students in a Classroom

Mr. Kee likes to introduce a new lesson with a story that cultivates interest and attention, raises curiosity, or presents a mystery about the topic. Sometimes, as he uses an image or object to introduce a new concept, he also models a think aloud. One time, he showed a picture of an ending or outcome of an occurrence for students to ask questions about what it is and how it came to be. Another time he asked his middle schoolers about the Little Red Hen’s process of decision making. [Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Dec 28 2021

How Parents Can Support Learning at Home

This blog is a parallel commentary from the parent perspective on Mary Ann Burke’s December 7, 2021 post “What Does an Engaged Classroom Look Like?” from her series Student Engagement Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners.

How to Create Learning Goals from Academic Standards

When talking with your children about creating learning goals, a good approach to take as a parent is to make sure that your children initiate the learning goals. They can choose to reflect on a class in which they excelled, or they may choose to take a closer look at a class in which they need improvement. The key here is to remember to nurture and instill the growth mindset as children move forward towards their goals. [Read more…]

Jaime Koo, Encouraging Literacy

Discovering the joy of teaching while in high school, Jaime pursued her B.A. in English at Santa Clara University. She also received a teaching credential and a M.A. in Education Administration from Santa Clara University. Jaime taught English Language Arts at Rancho Middle School, motivating and inspiring young people to become effective communicators and contributors in their community. From being a Middle School English Language Arts/English Language Development teacher to becoming a stay-at home mom, Jaime is an education consultant who presents literacy workshops. Her workshops focus on a combination of her ten years of teaching expertise with tried-and-true experiences that she uses with her own children. Jaime is also a Teacher Consultant with the San Jose Area Writing Project. Jaime’s mission is to share effective reading and writing strategies with families to encourage literacy.

Dec 21 2021

Learn to Parent Adults in College

My husband and I headed back to Berkeley a year ago after EJ completed his last set of finals. We were picking him up for the last time to complete his final school semester at home. Was college already coming to an end for him? We collectively decided to complete EJ’s final semester at home in Los Angeles. The move back home made the best financial sense.

When your child leaves as a senior in high school and returns as a senior in college, expectations and parenting shifts tremendously. My husband and I had to learn how to step back and reset boundaries for ourselves and our young man. Nothing could prepare us for how much he had grown, developed, and changed in three years. It is tough to be clear about expectations without smothering my adult child. Having him home for the holidays was fantastic, but we had to make some agreements and set new rules for how we would coexist in this new young adult season. [Read more…]

Yvette King-Berg, College Readiness

Yvette King-Berg, is the Executive Director of Youth Policy Institute’s Charter Schools. She was the former California Charter Schools Association Vice-President of School Development and Outreach-Southern California. Ms. King-Berg has over thirty years of experience working with teachers, students, parents, and organizations in a variety of positions including Director, Assistant Director, Curriculum Advisor, Bilingual, and Title 1 Coordinators, classroom teacher (K-12) in Pasadena and LAUSD. She has been married for twenty-three years, and is the proud mother of her son, EJ, who attends UC Berkeley.

Dec 14 2021

Student Learning Goals

This post is seventh of a series based on excepts from my book on Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke (2020). You can purchase the book from Roman and Littlefield for charts, examples, and worksheets on how to engage students to become owners of their learning successes.

Sample Student’s Learning Goals and Assessment Plan

Students can personalize their learning goals to make them more relevant, achievable, and interesting. The chart below illustrates how Davi, a second-grade student, personalized his learning goals and plan in each of his subject areas. These goals combine his understanding of what he needs to learn at his grade level as well as his specific interests. As appropriate, this may start with peer feedback. Then Davi meets with his teacher to discuss his progress and in due course, with his parents at student-parent conferences. He continues to modify and revise his goals for each cycle after receiving feedback. [Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert