blog 7

1. I like how he pre-assessed his students by asking them about what makes people sink or float. He described something within their understanding, and also found a lot about the students in the process. I am a big fan of this idea of a metaphor, to explain a concept.
2. I liked the approach he used to tier his students with the letter from a company that needed their help. Both options were respectful and achieved the objectives that were defined. I believe that teaching is all about how you present an idea. To each student, their assignment was respectful. I would like my classroom to be respectful to each student. I would like to think that.
3. Take a No excuses stance really stood out to me, because it is a weakness I have to give in to a good excuse. I AM TRYING to not bend when it comes to an assignment, but I am a softy, I need to improve my stance on assignments. I think that this can be done by setting clear achievable goals for each student.

I have been given the task of teaching weather for the 4th grade. I hope I can do it well. I can see where pre-assessment could be invaluable to my instruction and assessment. I would pass out a 4 square assessment and decide on my tiering from that. I would then start on my backwards design to get a better idea of what to teach.