Skills to Pay the Bills: Businesses need employees with basic skills: reading, writing, and math; but they also need employees with soft skills like teamwork and leadership and technical skills necessary to work with everyday technologies and software. Evaluate your talents in order to prepare for interviews. (SMI, LevelSet, teambuilding activities, lessons on digital citizenship and use of Google Aps, email, calendar, etc., resume and interview work)

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS

• Observation: Watching how students solve a problem can lead to further information about misunderstanding.
• Discussion: Hearing how students reply to their peers can help a teacher better understand a student’s level of understanding.
• Confidence Indication: On a traditional pen and paper test, include a way for students to indicate how confident they are in their answers. Letting students self-report can tell teachers a lot about a student’s prior knowledge of the material.
• Categorizing: Let students sort ideas into self-selected categories. Ask them to explain why such concepts go together. This will give you some insight into how students view topics.
• Interviews: Design questions that get to the heart of what you’re planning to teach. Interview students to gauge each child’s understand of the topic. You’ll come away with a great continuum of where each student’s prior knowledge is. This may help you pair students to work together later in the unit.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

• Exit slips: Ask students to solve one problem or answer one question on a small piece of paper. Students hand on the slips as “exit tickets” to pass to their next class, go to lunch, or transition to another activity. The slips give teachers a way to quickly check progress toward skills mastery.
• Graphic organizers: When students complete mind maps or graphic organizers that show relationships between concepts, they’re engaging in higher level thinking. These organizers will allow teachers to monitor student thinking about topics and lessons in progress.
• Self-assessments: One way to check for student understanding is to simply ask students to rate their learning. They can use a numerical scale, a thumbs up or down, or even smiley faces to show how confident they feel about their understanding of a topic.
• Think-pair-share: This is an oldie but goodie. Ask a question, give students time to think about it, pair students with a partner, have students share their ideas. By listening into the conversations, teachers can gauge student understanding and assess any misconceptions. Students learn from each other when discussing their ideas on a topic.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

• Portfolios: Portfolios allow students to collect evidence of their learning throughout the unit, quarter, semester, or year, rather than being judged on a number from a test taken one time.
• Projects: Projects allow students to synthesize many concepts into one product or process. They require students to address real world issues and put their learning to use to solve or demonstrate multiple related skills.
• Performance Tasks: Performance tasks are like mini-projects. They can be completed in a few hours, yet still require students to show mastery of a broad topic. Inside mathematics put together a fantastic, free set of math performance assessment tasks.

The Skills of Service: Volunteering in the community is a great way to display soft skills, prove hard skills, and to earn letters of reference. Engage in service in your community to better understand what soft skills can be displayed, how to make use of hard skills as a volunteer, and to understand references as proof of your skills. (Service participation, resume and interview work)

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS

• Observation: Watching how students solve a problem can lead to further information about misunderstanding.
• Discussion: Hearing how students reply to their peers can help a teacher better understand a student’s level of understanding.
• Confidence Indication: On a traditional pen and paper test, include a way for students to indicate how confident they are in their answers. Letting students self-report can tell teachers a lot about a student’s prior knowledge of the material.
• Categorizing: Let students sort ideas into self-selected categories. Ask them to explain why such concepts go together. This will give you some insight into how students view topics.
• Interviews: Design questions that get to the heart of what you’re planning to teach. Interview students to gauge each child’s understand of the topic. You’ll come away with a great continuum of where each student’s prior knowledge is. This may help you pair students to work together later in the unit.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

• Exit slips: Ask students to solve one problem or answer one question on a small piece of paper. Students hand on the slips as “exit tickets” to pass to their next class, go to lunch, or transition to another activity. The slips give teachers a way to quickly check progress toward skills mastery.
• Graphic organizers: When students complete mind maps or graphic organizers that show relationships between concepts, they’re engaging in higher level thinking. These organizers will allow teachers to monitor student thinking about topics and lessons in progress.
• Self-assessments: One way to check for student understanding is to simply ask students to rate their learning. They can use a numerical scale, a thumbs up or down, or even smiley faces to show how confident they feel about their understanding of a topic.
• Think-pair-share: This is an oldie but goodie. Ask a question, give students time to think about it, pair students with a partner, have students share their ideas. By listening into the conversations, teachers can gauge student understanding and assess any misconceptions. Students learn from each other when discussing their ideas on a topic.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

• Portfolios: Portfolios allow students to collect evidence of their learning throughout the unit, quarter, semester, or year, rather than being judged on a number from a test taken one time.
• Projects: Projects allow students to synthesize many concepts into one product or process. They require students to address real world issues and put their learning to use to solve or demonstrate multiple related skills.
• Performance Tasks: Performance tasks are like mini-projects. They can be completed in a few hours, yet still require students to show mastery of a broad topic. Inside mathematics put together a fantastic, free set of math performance assessment tasks.