Part of the role of a teacher is
to carry out assessment activities comparing each
child's educational progress in a number of areas to
age-appropriate and provincial standards. In our
program, parents assist with this task, helping and
guiding their child while ensuring that appropriate
"evidence of learning" is sent to the teacher every
2-3 weeks.
If a family chooses to use
the Provincial & Locally-Approved Distance
Education Option with a child, the
assessment of learning is an integral part of the
program (Grades K-3) and individual courses (Grades
4-7). If the family has the child follow the
directions and complete all required activities and
tests, this issue is addressed by the structure of
the program. We do encourage parents to review their
child's work on a regular basis for accuracy and to
provide immediate feedback and assistance to the
child to keep the education program positive and
"on-track". In the way, the family also knows when
to ask the teacher for ideas or other assistance.
If a family
chooses to use the
Portfolio
Option or the Blended
Option with a child, the family works with
the teacher to structure how the appropriate
learning outcomes will be addressed as well as to
determine how "evidence of learning" will be
provided. We can help with this by providing
families with very useful tools such as "Marking
Rubrics" and forms so the parent can provide us with
"Performance Standard Snapshots" indicating how the
child is doing in relation to provincial Performance
Standards. This is especially useful when we need to
translate the child's achievement into a letter
grade through numeric scores at the Grade 4-7 level.
Whatever instructional program option a family
chooses for the child, it is important that the
student's work and evidence of learning samples come
back to the teacher regularly. Submission of work
every 2-3 weeks allows for proper recognition,
corrective feedback, and collection of the necessary
evidence of learning to take place, as well as
maximizing the child's learning.
It is especially important that parents and
student are well organized for their program and
that a definite time schedule is kept in adhered to
at all times. Final work submissions for each term
should come in at least three weeks before each
formal report card date to allow the teacher time to
do the required marking, mark collation, and report
card writing.
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