Learning Skills and Work Habits

The development of learning skills and work habits is an integral part of your childs learning. I will work with your child to develop and consolidate the following learning skills and work habits: responsibility, organization, independent work, collaboration, initiative, self-regulation. This will help him/her prepare for postsecondary education, the world of work and life in general. I will assess your childs learning skills and work habits routinely throughout the year using informal and formal observations and rubrics. Your child will also engage in self-assessments of his/her own learning skills and work habits that will help him/her become an independent learner.

TEACHING FOR SUCCESS

A GUIDE TO PLANNING & ASSESSMENT IN MISS GS CLASS

Conclusion
Learning Goals and Success Criteria Effective Instruction

Assessment

Figure 1. The relationship between learning goals, success criteria, assessment and instruction.

Figure 1. shows the important relationship between assessment and effective instruction that is based on clear learning goals and success criteria tied to the Ontario curriculum. It demonstrates how how assessment allows me to plan and provide effective instruction for your child. Indeed, through student and class proles, learning goals, success criteria, assessment for, as and of learning, and effective feedback, your child will become a better learner in my classroom this year.

If you have any comments or questions, please dont hesitate to email or call me at Email: Phone:

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2010). Growing success: Assessment, evaluation and reporting in Ontario's schools : covering grades 1 to 12. Toronto: Ministry of Education. Taylor, C.S., and S.B. Nolen. Classroom Assessment: Supporting Teaching and Learning in Real Classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Merrill/ Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.

Created by Miss G

PLANNING & ASSESSMENT IN MISS GS CLASSROOM

We know that parents have an important role to play in supporting student learning. Studies show that students perform better in school if their parents or guardians are involved in their education.

Diagnostic Assessment
Once we have established learning goals and success criteria, I will use diagnostic assessments to nd out what your child already knows about any given topic we will learn about this year. Diagnostic assessments are examples of assessment for learning because they help me plan and provide effective instruction for your child. In other words they help me to understand what your child knows, what he/she still needs to learn, and how best to get there.

Effective Feedback
Providing effective feedback on your childs work is an important part of assessment and what I do in the classroom. I aim to always provide feedback after every assessment task that is:
timely; descriptive: e.g., include strengths,

- Growing Success

Assessment is the process of collecting evidence that accurately reflects how well your child is achieving the curriculum expectations in a school subject.
Now I know what youre thinking! Quizzes and tests right? While quizzes and tests are certainly assessment tools, there is so much more to assessment than that! In fact it is the centerpiece of teaching in my classroom! I say this because it helps me plan and provide effective instruction to your child and greatly improve his/her learning. It is my hope that this brochure explains how I will plan and provide effective instruction for your child.

Learning Goals and Success Criteria

To succeed in school, your child needs to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This is where learning goals and success criteria come in. I have established learning goals that detail the knowledge and skills that your child is expected to develop in each subject this year as dened in the Ontario curriculum. I will share these learning goals with your child at the beginning of learning to ensure that we share a common understanding of what he/she is to attain this year. With the learning goals in mind, I will work with your child to create success criteria that identify what he/she needs to do to achieve a particular learning goal as well as how he/she will be assessed in relation to the Ontario curriculum expectations. Together learning goals and success criteria will help your child understand what they need to do to succeed in school this year.

Types of Assessment
As I said before, there is far more to assessment than quizzes and tests. Other forms of assessment include observations, discussions, group work, questioning, homework, projects, portfolios, peer and self assessments, essays and large-scale provincial assessments. I will be using many of these tools to assess your childs learning this year.

weaknesses and next steps for improvement; specic: that is, clearly tied to the learning goals and success criteria on rubrics that will be shared with your child before he/she starts the task. This type of meaningful feedback will help your child become a better learner.

Evaluation
I have explained how assessment can be used for and as learning (e.g., diagnostic, self and peer assessments). There is also assessment of learning, also known as evaluation. When I evaluate, I am judging the quality of your childs learning with respect to the overall expectations in the Ontario curriculum and assigning a value (e.g., letter grades or achievement levels) to represent that quality. Evaluation is fair, transparent and equitable in my classroom because it is done with respect to the curriculum-linked learning goals and success criteria that are shared with your child at the onset of learning.

Peer and Self Assessment

Peer and self assessments such as rubrics, rating scales and checklists enable your child to monitor his/her own progress towards achieving the learning goals, make adjustments in his/her learning approaches, reect on his/her learning, and set individual goals for learning. Peer and selfassessments are examples of assessment as learning, because they help your child learn better.

Student and Class Profiles

Accompanying this brochure is an informal assessment, which I kindly ask that you complete with your child and return to me as soon as possible. It will help me understand your childs learning style(s) and preferences, interests, talents and his/her learning, social and emotional strengths and needs. I will use the the information to create an individualized student and class proles that will help me plan effective instruction and assessment that draws on the strengths and the needs of your child.