Assessment As a Means Of Instruction

The past two days I wanted to create an assessment that tested students ability on various fronts across disciplines. I wanted to test their ability to use Non Fiction texts to extract information. I also wanted to assess their knowledge of the 13 colonies. Lastly, I wanted to determine their mapping skills.

Ultimately, I came up with an assessment that asked them to create a map with various symbols. Not much information was given, so students had to find information in the text book. No page numbers or chapters were given.

In a way, I think that many students actually learned from this assessment. Many came to me and said, “Where is this information? or “You never taught us this!”" I resisted the temptation to give them clues and simply reminded them that all the information was in the book. Thus, many learned index skills and key word identification skills that are critical to research. Other students whined at the creation of three symbols to represent conditions and way of life in Colony groups. Many eventually realized that this task involved making connections across colonies. Lastly, many students actually learned various mapping skills by physically drawing the borders between colonies. They realized that they had to use key physical features to calibrate their position.

I guess what I am saying is that a well crafted and thought out assessment piece can actually encourage or “facilitate” learning.
Some may interpret this as an exercise and not an assessment. But I guess that viewpoint aligns with the “Teacher Centered” classroom. I, on the other hand, like to see myself as the facilitator. One who creates environments that support learning and allowing students to navigate.

I have created an Assessment Wiki- A E-Portfolio

Here is the link to the Wiki. It is public

Here are some direct links to assessments I have created.
http://yacapaca.com/demo/quiz.php/14031/test?key=fb040b2f0a38fc8f8bd2ec8d2aeb566f

Which of these items is not an Artifact? An Artifact is something that is altered or changed from its natural state by human culture.
( surveys)

11 Basic Principles For Assessment

As part of this post, I will review and reflect on the “11 basic principles of assessment” that are discussed in the article titled,

“Fundamental Assessment Principles for Teachers and School Administrators”

James H. McMillan

of Virginia Commonwealth University.

http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=8

1) Assessment is inherently a process of professional judgment

This principle suggests that assessment is ultimately a function of someone’s judgment. Whether in creating the test, creating rubrics, scoring constructed responses, assessments always incorporate some sort of judgment.  When using assessments in education, we need to think about the quality and intention of other professional’s judgments.  And conversely, when we create them, we need to be conscious of how our own judgments are effect our assessments.

Sitting in a group of four teachers who are trying to grade the same pile of papers with the same rubric, I realized we all had different expectations and assumptions coming into this process. Ultimately, I realized that we need not be the same in our intitial judgment, but we should try to reach a mutual understanding of what we are assessing and how we will assess it.

2) Assessment is based on separate but related principles of measurement evidence and evaluation.

I was really interested by this distinction.  In my interpreting “data” through a statistical lens is different from our interpretation as educators. Much like researchers and business analysts, we look for strengths and weaknesses, statistical trends, validity, reliability, correlations in the data.  We look at numbers and not students. This is measurement evidence.

Then we shift, we move towards and evaluation of this evidence. This evaluation or “meaning-making” as I like to call it, refers to the judgment of the reviewers of how, why and what of the performance data in relationship to a specific objective.

3) Assessment decision-making is influenced by a series of tensions.

I had never really thought about the tensions in assessment decision making process.  Ultimately, I think we need to be aware of the tensions, especially assessment overload, when creating assessments. And as the author states, we need to prioritize when creating assessments or deciding which ones to use in our classrooms.

4) Assessment influences student motivation and learning.

This principle provides a salient point. Quality assessments, especially formative ones, provide students with an opportunity to learn. Providing feedback and opportunities for revision are two ways assessments can achieve this goal. Clearly, the quality and speed of feedback will effect learning much as they do in everyday teaching and learning. Assessments that carry high student motivation are also of high demand in the modern classroom. I believe that teachers will get a better picture of what students know when they take assessments that they are engaged in and motivated by. With a clearer picture, teachers can give more precise and relevant feedback. They can also plan future instruction more efficiently.  I attached a link I used below to start a short unit of study on the Pilgrims. My purpose was to elicit student motivation and to give quality feedback.

5) Assessment contains error.

I don’t think educators need to dwell on this point. But again, they need to be aware that some assessments and the data associated with it, needs to be scrutinized with a cautious eye. Anything that is highly unusual, might be unusual for a reason.  Educators need to be aware that at times, data may be misleading in a positive or negative direction. Again, in this case teachers need to revert back to their mathematical/statistical mindsets.

6) Good assessment enhances instruction.

Ideally, a teacher looks at himself/herself as an artists who continually tries to hone his/her craft with some good old quality action research. In doing so, a teacher is taking the emotions out and putting assessment in. Assessments range in their scope and formality. The information they provide for alterations to future instruction should vary greatly as well. It may affect the individual student in one ten minute conference or it might affect instruction for a three year focus across all grade levels. Regardless, it should inform the future by being reflective about the past.

7) Good assessment is valid.

Having valid data means your assessment measures what you intend it to measure. A clear alignment between learning objectives and learning outcomes helps validity. More important though, is the careful revision of assessments to ensure that they reflect intend learning outcomes.

Good assessment is fair and ethical.

Measures  should be taken to ensure that students are aware of the learning objectives early on in the learning process. They will also know how they will be assessed. This is very evident and essential  in my elementary classroom.   Also, assessments are created and monitored to ensure there is no stereotyping or bias involved.

9) Good assessments use multiple methods.

Whether assessing for instructional feedback or assessing for student performance  and grading, a variety of assessments types will paint a clearer picture for either purposes. Some assessments are quick and dirty and other long and arduous.  It is the comparison and synthesis of these assessments that makes your inferences and conclusions more robust and significant.

10) Good assessment is efficient and feasible.

I make weekly math tests that always involve five questions.  These assessments give me weekly feedback on my teaching. Because of the speed with which I can grade, students can have them graded as they finish.  As a result, the feedback is immediate for them as well.  Clearly, there are times where a more summative assessment is appropriate but for the most part the advantage of using assessments that provide quick and easy feedback are essential. Seeing as this assessment is easy for me, I am able to implement it consistently. I believe this consistency establishes an expectation amongst the students that begins on Monday. They know they what they will be tested on and they know they will be getting feedback on Friday afternoon.

I think this particularly true for the modern student. They are used to receiving  information and feedback almost instantaneously. Anything I can do to assist that generational characteristic is valuable from a teaching standpoint.

11) Good assessment appropriately incorporates technology.

This principle ties into the aforementioned principle. Students are comfortable by technology. Their world is technology. They view technology as the most valuable tool for their own success. And for good reason, it will be.

First and foremost, the use of technology for assessments makes learning more relevant and engaging to students. They are inherently more engaged by something they perceive as valuable and real.

Secondly, technology makes assessments easy. Students can complete them with great facility. Teachers often get assessments results with little more than a press of a button. Data interpretation displays are immediately available.  And students get an idea of how they are doing instantly. In today’s day and age, instant information is critical.

A Balance Between Assessment and Instruction

Some teachers and administrators (and many more parents) might say that there is entirely too much assessment in today’s classroom.  This viewpoint, although at times  misguided, has merit.   Students don’t actually learn anything during an assessment.  True,  students learn in the review of assessments and if self motivated, they can identify areas of need for future study. But they actually learn nothing from the assessment itself.  Remove the teacher, and this is self evident.

Recently, my school district began to utilize a data driven assessment tool in which students test three times a year. The tests are district wide and are based on standards. And while these data test provide highly valuable data to teachers and students, I wonder if they contribute to an excess of assessment. Ultimately, the balance between instruction and assessment has been skewed. Add on to that, the addition of various other new technological assessment tools that schools are going crazy over. The skew is now  further in the direction of assessment.

It should be noted that I am myself,  a huge fan of technology and assessment. They both have incredible value. However,  in an effort to include more actual “instruction” in my classroom, I have dropped vari0us written assessments that are called for by the curriculum. Akin to the compact disc and the tape or should I say the compact disc and the Mp3 file, I think we need to look as these technological assessment systems as replacements for prior assessments, not as supplements.

Assessment Vocabulary

Assessment is the act of collecting information from individuals or groups in order to better understand them. Assessment, in education, also provides valuable feedback to students.

Evaluation and assessment differ. Assessments are snapshots into what students know at any point in time. Evaluation is judgement made upon the synthesis of various assessments. It is also a judgement of prior assessments and instructional design.

Formative assessments then, might be the various informal/formal assessments you give to students to track their progress and provide them with feedback of areas of growth and or future need. Summative assessments, on the other hand, might refer to the determination made based on various assessments about overall performance.

Assessment can vary in reliability. Largely this refers to the degree with which scores would vary across different evaluators or graders. You would hope that this would not change much within grade levels.  Ideally, scoring patterns would not change much across schools or grade levels either. However, there is always some degree of variability in this area and people need only to be wary of gross differences between assessors.  

Data should also carry high validity meaning in tested what it was supposed to test and not some other variable.

Evaluation also refers to times within our larger assessments, that we stop to reflect on the effectiveness of our previous assessments or instruction.  Evaluative assessments, in this sense, can determine how well previous assessments assessed students and/or how certain instruction affected performance. Ultimately, its purpose is to effect future instruction by continually refining previous versions of instruction/assessment.

Traditional Assessments are any type of assessment where students choose answers from a list (i.e. multiple choice etc.)

 Authentic assessments resemble real life situations and are designed intentionally to achieve this purpose (i.e. debates, creating newspapers, perform scientific reseearch).

Quality Assessement is a new term that speaks to a clear alignment between objectives and performace data. Specifically, it refers to assessment in which students are keenly aware of objectives prior to learning. The assessment would also reflect questions etc. that test knowledge or skills of those exact objectives.

Internet Connectivity

Instructional Videos

I had some trouble inserting this video.  I used Jing to capture the process but couldn’t seem to get embed code. All I got was this URL from the “Clipboard” which I think is just the URL anyways.  I tried to use the Add media Icon on wordpress to no progress. I think the link works though.

http://www.screencast.com/users/rossblue25/folders/Jing/media/3125a7aa-d392-4642-adae-aa948887b064

So I have been a two computer person for a long time. I originally bought a Dell desktop four years ago for around 900$. At the time, it was all I needed. But as time past and I wanted to do more digital video editing, it required upgrades.  I added 1 GB of RAM myself and installed some firewire cables. This only cost me an additional 200 dollars.  As more time past, I realized I needed a laptop too.  I had a 600 HP for three years and the hard drive broke twice.  I was pretty rough on it.   I searched craigslist three months ago and even went to a couple of stores and could only laptops for around 700 (with some basic requirements 528 MB RAM, 60GB of storage).  It was too expensive.

Eventually, I did find the Triple EEE and bought one for 300 dollars. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/

I  realized ultimately that I really only used my laptop for surfing the net. The lack of a hard drive made it durable too. But what is key to this laptop working for me in a professional setting (not much hard drive space or the common programs Word, Powerpoint) is the movement of information storage and programs away from the personal computer  to shared and free programs and storage on the internet.  I think you can even load, with the appropriate software) your work computer’s interface onto your own computer via the web. I am really not sure whether or not you need the same software to make it work (i.e. Powerpoint). 

For myself and if I was in charge of buying computers for a school, I would recommend buying easily upgradable desktops in a lab and a set of cheap free software laptops for classroom use.  Buying RAM is cheap, http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?c=us&category_id=4325&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn and pretty easy to install.

What I am not sure of is, how we figure out if the potential speed of the communications between the motherboard and the processor is too small to handle certain upgrades?

A New Laptop

So I have been a two computer person for a long time. I originally bought a Dell desktop four years ago for around 900$. At the time, it was all I needed. But as time past and I wanted to do more digital video editing, it required upgrades.  I added 1 GB of RAM myself and installed some firewire cables. This only cost me an additional 200 dollars.  As more time past, I realized I needed a laptop too.  I had a 600 HP for three years and the hard drive broke twice.  I was pretty rough on it.   I searched craigslist three months ago and even went to a couple of stores and could only laptops for around 700 (with some basic requirements 528 MB RAM, 60GB of storage).  It was too expensive. Eventually, I did find the Triple EEE and bought one for 300 dollars. I realized ultimately that I really only used my laptop for surfing the net. The lack of a hard drive made it durable too. But what is key to this laptop working for me in a professional setting (not much hard drive space or the common programs Word, Powerpoint) is the movement of information storage and programs away from the personal computer  to shared and free programs and storage on the internet.  I think you can even load, with the appropriate software) your work computer’s interface onto your own computer via the web. I am really not sure whether or not you need the same software to make it work (i.e. Powerpoint). 

For myself and if I was in charge of buying computers for a school, I would recommend buying easily upgradable desktops in a lab and a set of cheap free software laptops for classroom use.

Second Life

Second Life is a crazy place.  I had no idea how real it could be.  I mean, talked to some guy from Portugal for like ten minutes. I just assumed he was from the US.  I really wonder how this program could be used in educational setting. I wonder if there are virtual classrooms or schools within second life. If there isn’t, it would make for a great project to start one. I know this would be extremely difficult in an elementary classroom (due to the anonymous nature of its users). I just think it would be amzaing if there was a version of second life for say 10-12 year olds.  Only schools could register them and students could chat to each other from around the world. What an amazing possibility. The incredible part is though, is that children (or adults) aren’t communicating on second life in email to email fashion. It is live and visual, another step up from IMing. It also allows people to shed any insecurities and interact as who they are. 

 In the end, I worry that Second Life demonstrates a trend of people moving towards less and less face to face interaction. However, I think the program entails endless possibilities.  I could easily see people actively using second life to do more than just socialize.  In a way, I feel like it will become more public (just like your internet profile). For example, second life could be a great way to have a business meeting. IIt doesn’t have the complete awkwardness of a video conference but it still has the real accountability.  I can imagine someone rolling late into a meeting. I can also imagine elite clubs and elite colleges where people have to apply. And unfortunately for some,  status and power will ultimately play a function in second life. But how that power and status is mediated will be slightly different than it is in the real world today.