USING SEESAW TO DOCUMENT MASTERY OF CONTENT

It wasn’t too long ago that paper and pencil tests, scantrons and student projects saturated the documentation process as teachers attempt to document student progress and growth throughout each learning unit. With the onset of new technology, including apps and programs created to provide students with opportunities for creativity and reflection, the way students are able to share what they have learned in the classroom is ever increasing. Seesaw is just one way that many teachers across Fulton County are not only able to allow students to self-reflect and share what they know about content in a variety of ways, but also to document their learning progression and the mastery of content to their teachers and their families.

Since students learn in a variety of ways, it is safe to say that they also must be able to demonstrate what they have learned differently in order to effectively communicate their understanding in their own unique learning style. The Seesaw app offers our young digital natives an opportunity to do just that while giving them the ability to share what’s happening in class by accessing their own Seesaw profile through Launchpad. All across the county, teachers are digitizing their assessment techniques and using this application to offer students creative ways to model their mastery using photographs, text, drawing tools, creative voice and video recording of content!

In Kindergarten and first grade classrooms, teachers and students are working together to take pictures of student work while using the microphone feature to capture the student’s fluency of reading the onscreen text. In reading, students are creating digital book summaries, sharing in text, audio or video the text features they are learning about in class. In math, the live drawing feature allows students to demonstrate active problem solving while calculating the numbers on screen and explaining the process verbally while they work! Students can now even create their own paper slide shows including their personal drawings and summarized content describing what they have learned in science and social studies! This app lends itself to some interesting assessment alternatives for every subject!

Help students get excited about assessments using selfie mode! The video capture tool can be quickly and easily used to ask students to reflect back on topics discussed during reading and writing conferences given simple prompts (What I am doing well is…What I need to work on is…). This helps confirm that all involved understand the common goals the teacher, students and parent are working together to achieve throughout the learning process. Creating a quite Seesaw recording area is perfect for this! You can even prompt students to self-record their own responses to your EQ to get a quick measure of progress. Working with the standards in mind to ask students to demonstrate exactly what they are expected to know is a great way to know if future lessons require some remediation or reinforcement of concepts. And by taking a picture of standard assessments along the way, parents and students can see their growth over time; never again will that last test never make it home for parents to view!

In this selfie driven digital age that we live in, the options for learning and demonstrating what students have learned using Seesaw are almost endless! Why not use it to your advantage, empower students by giving them a chance to demonstrate what they know in a way they understand and connect them to the technology that is drives their interest while providing a great way to show off what they have learned with the world at the same time!