Assessments

There are three main types of assessments; formative, summative, and authentic.  A formative assessment is a quick check to see if the students are grasping the concept, it is a quick check for understanding.  A summative assessment is a more formal "test".  It may be an end of a unit test, a portfolio, a presentation, a project, etc...  An authentic assessment is a special type of assessment that relates to the "real world."  If you were doing a lesson or unit over a famous person, you could have your class write them a letter.  If were teaching nutrition, you could have the students plan snacks for the week for plan a dinner for home, shop, cook it and report about it.  Authentic is something that they would actually do in real life, something that happens in the real world.
I have many formative assessments built into my lesson plans.  I always feel that you should check for understanding with your students.  It can be something very simple.  I also have an authentic assessment in my 1st lesson, the webquest.  It asks the students to write a letter to the president of the United States.  I also have a couple summative assessments in my lesson plans too.  Both happen to be pretty small quizzes or tests, nothing too big because it is not over a unit, just a lesson.  I think that assessments can be fun, they do not always have to be pencil and paper "tests."  They can be a game of Jeopardy, creating something, writing a letter, presenting something.  I feel that if you make assessments more creative, students will learn that they don't really hate them

Webquest Presentation

Well, I did my presentation on my lesson plan.  I think it went well!  I hope the class liked it and I hope my future students like it.  I think it is an versatile lesson that can be easily changed when the presidents change.  I spend quite a bit of time on the actual Webquest itself, so I would hate to lose all of that work.
The session is almost over, so I have to get to work on the rest of the 9 lessons!  I believe I have all of my strategies paired up with the lessons and texts.  It is just a matter of getting them all typed up and getting my 10 Blooms questions for each of the 9 lessons. 

Sematic Mapping

I am definitely planning on using the Sematic mapping on at least one of my lesson plans.  I love this strategy and how it involves the whole class.  This strategy will also work very well math, which most of my lesson plans are. 
I really liked a lot of the strategies that were presented tonight.  It really helped to ease my mind about these lesson plans!

Strategies

Directed Reading Thinking Activities (DRTA)- This is strategy that can be used for reading in almost any content.  The teacher would first give the students background information, ask open ended questions, ask the students to make predictions, etc...  Then the students would read the material provided.  After they would see how "correct" their prior thoughts were, baised on questions the teacher askes.
         I am not sure how this would work with math, which is what I am doing my lessons on.  Any ideas or help would be great!  I am not sure how you can have children read about math (3D shapes) and make predictions, etc...

Group Mapping Activity (GMA)-  This is a strategy that can be used for reading in almost any content also.  You would use this after you read the material.  The teacher could break the class into groups or do it as a class.  The would map out ideas, settings, characters, ect... that they have learned in the text.
           This could be used in a math lesson.  The students could draw maps connecting differences, similarities of shapes (2D & 3D).  They could also connect verticies to sides.  There is a lot that could be done with this.  Because of the grade level, the teacher (me) may actually have to guide it instead of breaking the class up into small groups.

Reading Comprehension