Hi everybody,
I am attaching two papers I recently wrote for my Assessment module.
Enjoy.

ED 615 Mod 8 Assessment Philosophy

Liam Breathnach

 

Whatever your personal feelings about assessment, it is an integral part of teaching. Assessment is the way a teacher gets information on how well the students have learned and can apply the material. It also gives vital information about how the teacher’s practices and methods are achieving the stated objectives in the class. Reflecting on this information and modifying future instruction where necessary, is very important in successful teaching. Students get an idea of what they know and what they still need to do. Parents and administrators also get feedback on the performance of the teachers and students (McMillan, 2008).  Assessment is very broad and occurs in every class. Formative assessment, such as questioning and worksheets, gives the teacher regular feedback on student knowledge and comprehension. Then summative assessment, such as quizzes and chapter tests, gives letter grades for students work, usually in a timed situation.

I feel like my philosophy has always been to have as broad a range of assessment as possible, and to assess frequently. People are different in how the learn, process and recall material and it is important that students have adequate opportunity to show they have achieved the objectives (Snowman & McCown, 2015). We are trying to assess learning, not to trick students. I aim to have about three chapter tests per quarter, so a test every 2 to 3 weeks. These tests contain a range of questions types including multiple choice questions and short and long construction responses. The test construction becomes familiar to the students over time and the larger semester exams are also written in the same style. In a style associated with Bruner, I strive for student mastery and want to have my students assimilate and apply what they learn as much as possible (Flinders and Thornton, 2013). Learning is both easier and more productive when it is linked with experience and prior knowledge (Snowman & McCown, 2015). 

During a chapter there will be some quizzes, and homework will be given most evenings. All of these assessments give me feedback on how my instruction is working and on how engaged the students are. During the course of each lesson I monitor students during classwork, and use various forms of questioning for constant feedback. It is important as a teacher to see what is required at any moment and to adapt as necessary.  

During this course I have identified some ways in which I can adapt and hopefully improve my approach to assessment. As usual some of these things are associated with my preparation and book keeping. I need to be better about aligning my objectives with my formative assessment. In the same vein my rubrics should be written more clearly. I feel the students quickly learn what I am looking for in my assessments but there is still room for improvement. Also in this area is Item Analysis. This is the act of reviewing individual questions to see that they are being answered in a decent way. You look for questions that few, or no students answered correctly, or ones where the lower ability students might outscore your higher achieving students on. I do this to some degree when grading, but I could be more exacting in my approach. 

Something I have never done and really should, is use Affective Assessment. Affective assessment often takes the form of a questionnaire, and gauges people’s feelings about a topic. It could easily be used to see how the students feel about a topic or teaching strategies. I could use the information to modify my teaching or strategies to enhance the experience. I could also identify strengths or weaknesses in aspects of the teaching such as curriculum, teaching methods or assessment methods. In a similar fashion, student reflections could give me a great picture of what needs to be improved. I have also found that giving students some ownership, and showing that their opinions are important and can make a difference can be a good motivator. This also fits in with ideas that attract me to Dewey’s Philosophy. Dewey believes in the role of schools in helping have an educated, knowledgeable population who are capable of making informed decisions about societal issues.

My school has an iPad program and all the students have one. There are a multitude of options for teachers when using the technology. There are often games based on content that you can have students play. For example, Cell Explorer is a game where you fly a small ship around a cell, and accomplish tasks based on what you know about cell and organelle function. Bruner believed that games are an important part of teaching and learning (Flinders and Thornton, 2013). Kahoot is an online quiz game that the students love. Students choose answers and get points for being correct and fast. It is limited by being only multiple choice questions but, with literally millions of kahoots to choose from, the ability to easily make more and such high student engagement, it is a great tool. 

An important part of assessment in making sure they are as fair as possible to the students. It order to do this you need to make sure that what is required of the students is made plain to them. Again we are not trying to trick, but accurately assess learning. Fair assessment is more than the actual written test. You should be clear about the learning objectives and the rubric. You have to make sure that the students have had sufficient opportunity to learn what you want them to, and that the material has been presented in a manner which suits the range of learning styles that individual students have. This also is important in the questions you use. Students should have the opportunity to show what they know. It is also important to check the paper for bias and to make sure that there is no prior knowledge required that they may not have (McMillan 2008). We all have an individual set of experiences and questions should not be skewed in favor of what I know and have experienced. Having others read over a paper being giving it to a class can help with that (McMillan, 2008).

Teaching is not an exact science (Snowman & McCown, 2015). It is multifaceted and you need skills in many different areas. Assessment is a large part of teaching, and therefore requires a lot of thought and reflection. So it is important that a teacher has a clear idea of what they want and expect from each assessment. But it is also important that the teacher learns from experiences and modifies their assessment philosophy according to what they learn along the way.

Thanks. 

References

Flinders, D. & Thornton, S. (2013). The Curriculum Series Reader (4^th Ed.). Routledge

             Mc Millan, J. (2008). Assessment Essentials for Standards Based Education. (2^nd Ed.). Corwin Press

McCown, R. & Snowman, J. (2015). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed.). Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning

ED 615 Mod 8 Assessment Inventory
Liam Breathnach

 

There are many formative assessments that I use in the course of a lesson. I often ask the class to work together to come up with as many important points as they can about content. This can be a review at the start of the class, or as a tool at the beginning of a topic. I can see what, if anything, the students know or remember about the material, and get a sense of what will be required over the coming weeks. As we started the topic I wrote up and circled a key word, DNA, and saw what information or associations the students were able to give me about it. The students normally get 2-3mins to work with a partner to come up with as many as possible and then we will go through them as a class. The results vary and the system is not scientific but I learn if the students are coming into this with any prior knowledge or experience. It is also helpful in identifying misconceptions that students may have. When the concept map or word web is complete, a quick picture on the iPad allows me to compare what came up in the class with what is to be taught according to the lesson plans.

I also use this type of assessment at the start of other classes as a review. I tell students to get a clean piece of paper or a new Note on their iPad and give them 60 seconds to write down all the can remember about the topic in bullet points. I use this time to walk amongst the class and see how people are doing. Are things flowing for the students? Is there a struggle to recall information? Is there a pattern? Are they hard at work or just avoiding my gaze? This is always an opportunity to talk briefly about student skills, and what students should be doing when studying. Just about anything is better than passive reading (Snowman & McCown, 2015). I encourage quizlets, flash cards and continually testing yourself to see what you do and do not remember. My own favorite, is summarizing, learning and summarizing notes again, until you have a set of words or phrases, bullet pointed or as a word web. The hope is each word has lots of associated learning with it. I stress that you can then quickly review to see what you remember, rather than having all the text of the book, notes or powerpoints to review each time. The visual aspect of a word web or simple concept map can also be used to aid recall (Snowman & McCown, 2015).

I also believe questioning to be a vital teaching tool. It works well to get someone back on track when they have drifted. But mainly you can get a feel for what has been assimilated and what is still to be learned. It is very common, but you can use it in different ways. Using higher order questions can draw more from students and prolific use of “Why?” can ask more than just recall of them. Also you can mix it up by asking students who answer correctly to ask the next questions of someone else. This helps to keep it fresh. Visuals such as the ones attached also give a different slant to the teacher asking questions and students can be given some degree of control of the class if it is going well. If students are moving they are often more engaged so these activities work well where possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are few activities I have found that work as well as Kahoot. The kids love it! And they do not seem to have bored of it. The theme music is a common sound around the school, but maybe a bit too common approaching semester exams. Our school has a 1:1 iPad program so all students have access to play it online. It is easy to do and can be as quick or as comprehensive as you like. Other advantages are there are literally millions of free kahoots online and they are all open to being duplicated and edited free of charge. You can have teams or individuals and the results can be downloaded if you so wish. It is multiple choice so there are limits to the types or depth of question you can ask. However it is a great tool for formative or summative assessment and wonderful for review. I give kahoots at the start of class as review of previous material, I also give them at the end of class of there is a few minutes when I may have gotten ahead of my timing. I can use the results to gauge if the class is ready for examination or if not, I can work out what areas students seem to be struggling with. The downloadable excel result sheet is also ripe for Item Analysis.

Homework is a regular thing in my classes. It provides some repetition of the day’s work and means the students will have to recall or reread some of the days material. I use a program, eBackpack, which students post their homework to. I can check it, grade it and give feedback, all online. I am very happy with the ebook we use. It has some features you cannot get with a real text book, and also has good questions throughout. I also tend to add my own “Learning Checks” to the powerpoints I use and use them for homework also. The Learning Checks are always available to the students as review also. Checking homework does give indicators as to how well the students have understood the content. From checking homework I can decide about pacing or repetition going forward, and it often provides a springboard into the lesson.

I always tell myself I should use more quizzes. There are teachers in my school who start every class with a short quiz and who often do not have a graded homework as such. I do not think I will go to that degree, but I do like giving short multiple choice quizzes or short constructed response quizzes to the students. They occur in my class with a frequency of at least once per week. Being short answer, there is a limit to how much you can gain, but for 5 minutes of class and with a quick turnaround in grading you can gain valuable insight and give quick feedback (McMillan 2008). The quizzes are usually for the start of the class, and are from the material we covered during the previous class. It is easy to see who is either learning the content immediately or reviewing at night, and who is not doing those things. The immediate feedback can be used as a motivator, or as a reminder about constant work being very important. And I can also get the usual indicator of how well the class is progressing. You can tell if a section of material is being assimilated, and if you need to spend more time or can continue to build upon your position in the unit.   

I have not yet managed to see a way that portfolio assessment fits well into a science classroom. There might be opportunities but it seems more suited to fine arts and languages with their constant progression of ability over progression of content. I do use performance assessment when possible but it has not occurred the in past 8 weeks in this class.

The students have completed 2 summative end of topic assessment during the duration of this class and are due one next week. I work with my colleague Angela while teaching this class. We often chat for a few minutes each morning to coordinate on content, and to discuss and exchange materials. Then we teach as our own personalities allow. When it comes to the units assessments we sit down together to write the papers. They are often based on assessments used in previous years but there is always some editing involved. I find it useful to edit tests just after they have been given to classes, and thus amend them while they are fresh in my mind but it is my first time teaching this particular class level. Working together allows us to make sure the test will be valid and fair by making sure the students have had sufficient help to learn the material and to make sure the questions are unbiased (McMillan, 2008). We can also come up with a clear rubric that will work for all parties. The assessments had a broad range of questions types to help students divulge their knowledge in different ways. The tests contained multiple choice, matching and short response questions in addition to some constructed response questions to complete it. This allows us to have a range of difficulties and to assess the range of the student’s knowledge and understanding (McMillan, 2008). As stated, these more formal assessments occur when the students are finished a unit and they normally take all of our 1 hour class periods. We can apply a letter grade to the students, it will be added to our weighted system of grades and posted on an online platform for students, parents, administration and councilors to view if desired. Angela and I have follow up meetings where we assess how the questions were answered and to look at the questions that were answered well or badly according to student responses. We have not carried out exact Item Analysis but in future this will allow us to better review the questions (McMillan, 2008). We also can talk about how the teaching went and analyze where we may have differed in our presentation. It does allow us to get a firmer footing of what will be required when we return to the content next year. We can deduce what caused the students difficulty, what questions types they relate to better and how we can adapt out teaching to better service them in the goal of meeting our objectives and successfully assessing their learning.  

Thanks

References

Mc Millan, J. (2008). Assessment Essentials for Standards Based Education. (2^nd Ed.). Corwin Press

McCown, R. & Snowman, J. (2015). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed.). Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning