Classroom Assessment

1. Classroom Assessment LTC 5 ITS REAL Project Vicki DeWitt Deb Greaney Director Grant Coordinator

2. Major Writers & Developers Bev Bergdolf (ROE 10) Deb Greaney (LTC 5) Presenter- Deb Greaney Acknowledgements

3. Topics • The role of assessments in the classroom • The various types of classroom assessments • The need for and process of matching the target with the method of assessment. • Student involvement into the assessment process. • Various tools to be used in the assessment process

4. Activities • Reflection on current assessment practice • Create IBL unit assessment pieces

5. Role of Classroom Assessments • Strives to increase achievement • Informs students about themselves • Reflects targets that underpin standards • Can produce unique results for individuals • Teacher’s role is to promote success • Student’s role is to strive for improvement • Motivates with promise of success

6. Provide Assessment FOR Learning • How much did they learn? • How well did they learn it? • How well did I teach it?

7. Assessment OF & FOR Learning • Both assessment FOR and OF learning are important • Assessments FOR learning serve to help students learn more (Classroom Assessment) • Assessments OF learning provide evidence of achievement for public reporting (Standardized Testing)

8. To improve their teaching, teachers must define learning outcomes and measure their attainment. To improve their learning, students must learn how to use feedback to assess their own progress (= “self-assessment”). The best assessment derives from teachers’ questions about their own teaching. Assessment provides an impetus for active student involvement, a proven “best practice”. Assessment Principles

9. TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS • Selected response • Essay • Performance tasks • Personal communication

10. Selected Response/Short Answer • Multiple Choice, True/False, Matching, Fill in the Blank, Label a Diagram, A Sentence • Strengths: Aligns well with knowledge and understanding • Bias/Concerns: • Reading may be an issue for some students • Insufficient time to respond • Poor quality test items • Sample size • Wrong method for target

11. Essays • Extended written answer to a prompt or exercise • Strengths • Aligns well with knowledge, understanding & reasoning • Can develop connections • Bias/Concerns • Insufficient time to read & score • Lack of writing proficiency for some students • Sample size • Wrong method for target

12. Performance Tasks Assessments • Demonstrating Skills / Developing Products • Strengths • Reflects reasoning proficiency • Demonstrates performance skills • Demonstrates product development capabilities • Bias/Concerns • Unclear or incorrect performance criteria • Unfocused tasks • Wrong method for target

13. Personal Communication • Questions & Answers, Conferences, Interviews, Oral Examinations • Strengths • Aligns well with knowledge, understanding, reasoning • Using in conjunction with other methods can deepen understanding • Bias/Concerns • Time • Common language shared by teacher/student • Student personalities • Keeping accurate records

14. Target Selected response Essay Performance Personal comm. K R S P Target/Method Match

15. Rule • SIMPLE TARGET, SIMPLE TASK • COMPLEX TARGET, COMPLEX TASK

16. Low Level vs High Level Benchmarks

17. Where is YOUR Assessment Target? • Your need to raise your assessment target to that same higher level, and aim for it! • If you hit it, you are teaching to the unit’s benchmarks

18. Let’s Look at Our Units • Look at each benchmark to define the target of the assessment. • Choose a method that matches that target and will completely assess the benchmark. • Write a brief description of the assessment in the Individual Student Assessment area of the template

19. Create Your Unit Assessments • What rubrics do you need? • Any performance task • Final team product rubric

20. What is a Rubric? • A set of scoring guidelines for evaluating student work • Rubrics answer the questions • By what criteria should a performance or product be judged? • What does the range in the quality of the performance look like? • Often accompanied by examples of products or performances to illustrate the various scoring points

21. Persuasive ¶ A Graphic Organizer What is it? What are the parts? Scoring Instrument Performance Criteria Compare or Contrast Range of Quality Rubric Checklist Student Involvement Scoring Points Sea Creature (Kindergarten) Colonial Celebration (7) What are some examples?

22. Creating Quality Rubrics • Content • Does it cover everything of importance? • Clarity • Does everyone understand what is meant? • Are terms defined? • Are the levels of quality clearly differentiated? • Are there samples of work to illustrate levels of quality?

23. Creating Quality Rubrics • Practicality • Is it easy to use by teachers and students? • Will students understand it? • Can students use it to self assess? • Is the rubric manageable? • Technical quality/Fairness • Is it valid (measures what it should) and reliable (different raters will give the same score)? • Is it fair?

24. Some Examples… • Working in teams, examine the rubric examples • Use post it notes to rate each one: Good, Bad or Ugly • Be prepared to share your ratings and reasons behind them

25. Incorporating Student Involvement What is student involvement? • It is anything that helps students • Understand learning targets • Engage in self-assessment • Watch themselves grow • Talk about their growth • Plan next steps for learning • Why should we involve students? • Motivation • Greater understanding of criteria • Students monitoring improvements through record keeping

26. Examples of Student Involvement • Selected Response • Student generated question bank • QAR questions from IBL units • Essay, Performance Assessment, Personal Communication Rubrics!