Skip to main content

My Technology Use: MAP: January 28, 2018

My district is currently moving toward all schools using MAP as a way to assess student growth throughout each school year and to compare student growth across several school years.  This week my students completed the winter MAP assessment.  I have always thought it is a great use of technology that each student is able to be assessed on the iPad, while completing questions at their independent learning level so that we can determine the grade level that they are currently working within.  However, my goal clarity coach was able to show me a couple of tools using MAP's online system that really changed my classroom.

  • 1) Re-forming Small Groups: Using MAP's online data on each student, I was able to see both the grade level and percentile that each student is working within, therefore I easily identified my Tier 3 students.  I also noticed that two of my students moved from Tier 3 to now being Tier 2 students, which was very exciting to see the growth! I was also able to re-work my small groups by noticing students that should be moved around based on their MAP growth and performance. My students were so excited when I was able to show their growth with them!
  • 2) Finding a Starting Point: MAP is able to run several reports on each student's independent level, however, my goal clarity coach was able to show me a way to find where a specific group of students are working together.  By looking at RIT bands, I was able to identify where a few of my small groups need to focus on within a specific standard.  For example, on a standard I have already taught, MAP showed me that a small group of students have the basic concepts but need practice reinforcing the skill and then moving to higher levels within the standard.  This was extremely helpful as it kept me from needing to re-assess in small groups, but instead showed me exactly where to start with various groups of students. This is also beneficial as it shows what students are retaining as I was able to gain knowledge on standards from the beginning of the year.  
After spending ample amounts of time looking through MAP data, I am able to see how using technology in assessments has so many perks to a classroom teacher.  I feel as though I know my students learning even better than before and am now more equipped to help meet their needs.  This reminded me of several of the Blended Learning testimonies from our textbook, as the teachers were constantly stating that the data they were able to gather on each student was very valuable in steering their instruction.  While this isn't Blended Learning, I am still able to see the impact of using technology to gather data on students and the benefits that it has.
While this wasn't a technology tool that I directly implemented in my classroom instruction, it was one that is definitely going to re-shape my small groups and whole class instruction time.  I know that several JCPS schools are using MAP, so if anyone has any suggestions of other ways you have found MAP to be useful in your classroom I would love to hear about them!

Comments

  1. Karen LyonsJanuary 29, 2018 at 3:52 PM

    We use MAP at my school. I love all the reports it can run to help look at growth and small groups. My assistant principal is having several teachers try using Study Island and Khan Academy for intentional computer interventions. It is my understanding teachers can input students' RIT scores, and lessons are assigned based on their individual needs. I will have to let you know how it goes for us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 29, 2018 at 6:12 PM

    We also use MAP at our school. It is so neat to see all of the reports and information that can come out of it. I love using MAP for goal setting. We took the time to look at each score and determine what we think would be a good goal. So many of my students exceeded their goals and I have had some move out of novice and into apprentice and even proficient! It is such an exciting time. We had a dance party in my class today because every student improved on their score from the Fall. As a school, we are also celebrating each student who improved with a reward from the principal. I believe I have heard talk of an ice cream party. (Yay for funding help from PTA).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jennifer Gonzalez- Cult of Pedagogy: Updating Your Classroom Design- March 27, 2018

Recently, Jennifer Gonzalez created a blog post about upgrading your classroom design.  We often see classrooms that look cozy and modern, allowing students to collaborate and feel at home, yet many teachers believe that it is impossible to make their own classroom this way within budget constraints and small spaces.  Jennifer interviewed Bob Dillon to gather 12 things that teachers can do to make their classrooms more student friendly and a better place for learning. 1) Ask students throughout the year "What in this room supports your learning and what gets in the way?" 2) Take things out: if you remove items and you don't miss them then you don't need them in your classroom. 3) Mix up Student Seating: try different arrangements or allow students choice in where they sit. 4) Take notice of the perimeter: Are the walls distracting or do they add to learning? Do certain posters need taken down? 5) Reduce or Eliminate Teacher Workspace: Allow students more...
1 comment
Read more

My Technology Use: February 4, 2018: Smart Notebook

I often use Smart Notebook in my classroom, but I will be the first to admit it is often used to post an agenda or as an extra whiteboard in the classroom to call students up to work out problems.  My students have always loved getting to write on the Smart Board.  This week, I needed to teach elapsed time and to be honest, I was really struggling with introducing it.  I wanted an interactive lesson, which kept seeming to be impossible as our school only had a total of 10 mini clocks for the students to work with in a hands-on manner at their desks.  I remembered Smart Notebook and was able to create a lesson using it that I was really proud of and my students loved! I searched for a clock and found one under "interactive and multimedia."  This clock allowed us to move the minute and hour hand to review how to use a clock to tell time.  I was then able to put two clocks side by side and call on students to set each clock to a different time, so that we cou...
1 comment
Read more

My Technology Use: February 19, 2018: Conversion Examples

This week, I didn't try anything fancy in my classroom with technology, but instead had a spur of the moment opportunity to utilize technology to further my students' understanding.  We are working on converting units of measure.  It is my first year teaching fourth grade math, and when asking a coworker (who taught math previously in fourth grade) what background knowledge students usually come with as far as measurement goes, she said in the past they had a basic idea of what each unit of measure was.  This year, of course, was not the case at all.  My students picked up on feet and inches, but kilograms, grams, meters, millimeters, etc. were all very foreign words to them.  I quickly realized that there was no discussion that was going to help them understand, so I turned to technology for help. We went through each unit of measure individually and because it was spur of the moment, I only thought to Google each unit of measure and show real-life examples of...
1 comment
Read more