Formative Assessment: Voices from the Field

  • Home
  • About Us
  • What Is Formative Assessment?
  • Join the Conversation
  • MKEA Trainings & Support

How do you use iPads and tablets?

by  Barbara Jacobs, MKEA Regional Coordinator, Greater Boston Region

Lisa Kuh, Director of Early Education for the Somerville Public Schools, posted a question recently to colleagues in the Greater Boston Regional MKEA Leadership Network set up last year. Her question: How are adults and children in other districts are using iPads/tablets in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms? Here is a synopsis of the responses:

Adults use iPad/tablets:

  • to videotape specific activities with children to share an individual child’s work with parents
  • to document observations and develop assessments for GOLDTM and portfolios
  • to document formative assessment: Teachers use the “Explain Everything App” to show how children carry out different mathematical operations or how they understand a particular part of their science activity
  • to videotape specific activities with children to share an individual child’s work with parents;
  • to use with educational tools like the Osmo (a gaming accessory for the iPad);
  • to augment communication for some students using Apps like Pro-Lo-Quo.

Children are using iPads/tablets (including at computer stations):

  • to support early literacy and early numeracy using pre-kindergarten children Apps as a choice activity
  • to support the content they are learning (reading, math and handwriting goals) at a center. For example, children are directed to specific Apps and games, and classroom teachers download books that students can listen to on headphones. Handwriting Without Tears and other handwriting Apps are also utilized this way.
  • to create a class electronic book, in which children contribute to a creative project through audio, visual, and text documentation to teach podcasting and use of QR Codes

Outside the classroom:

  • Librarians use iPads/tablets with kindergarteners to teach coding and primary technology skills like “drag and drop.”

As schools are looking into using iPads/tablets to to support formative assessment through observation and documentation and to support children’s learning in the classroom, they are seeing that the cost to purchase this hardware is not within their current budget. One way teachers have purchased the hardware is to apply to organizations like Donors Choose, an organization that supports teacher requests for needed supplies. View their website at: http://www.donorschoose.org/home.html

Have you found other ways to use iPads/tablets?

Related

Filed Under: Sharing Ideas and Practice, With Administrators in Mind

Like what you're reading? Share it.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Formative Assessment: Voices from the Field promotes and supports observation-based, ongoing assessment of the whole child leading to responsive teaching to maximize children’s learning.

On this blog you will find information, resources, news and upcoming events, and discussions initiated by Massachusetts educators. Click on the article's title to enable commenting.

Let us know what else you want to see related to the use of formative assessment!

Subscribe by Email


This 11-minute video of North Carolina kindergarten classrooms gives a vivid picture of formative assessment in action.

Categories

  • Helpful Resources (3)
  • Sharing Ideas and Practice (7)
  • Social-Emotional Learning (5)
  • Using assessment data (1)
  • With Administrators in Mind (4)
Blog Team: Jane Myers and Jini Alreja
Assessment for Responsive Teaching

Copyright 2023 Collaborative for Educational Services · All Rights Reserved