The chapter on assessment in Understanding By Design could not have begun with a better quote: "Understanding shows it's face when people can think and act flexibly around what they know...when a learner cannot go beyond rote and routine thought and action, this signals lack of understanding..." This is great; I don't want students to tell me what color the curtains are on page 23, I want students to parse out how the author does things stylistically, how the author uses voice, what character motivations are, etc. The real challenge is: how DO I assess these things? How can I personally determine the value of a student response to a subjective question? Especially in an English classroom, deeper understandings often do not mean practical or utilitarian problem-solving; we are asking students to utilize abstract concepts in order to create abstract thoughts, excersizes in empathy, etc. Honestly, I do believe that a huge reason why teachers "teach to the test" is because the assessing is easier; it is much faster to grade a multiple choice test than to grade an essay...and, as I was once wont to think, these objective results are more "fair" to students because there is less subjective teacher interpretation and therefore less room for misunderstanding. But is it really "fair" in that sense, when students are expected to memorize irrelevant ideas as opposed to use higher level thinking skills? Of course not. Students may feel disenfranchised if their responses are not completely validated, but they will still grow much more, and they will always be challenged to think more in this way. So what do we do with "low level" learners? Do we soft grade them in order to assess their progress individually more than in a broader, comparative sense? Obviously we need to have the same expectations for these students so as to avoid self fulfilling prophecies, but are we committing a breach in educational integrity if we soft grade? Are we setting them up for impossibly challenging courses in their studies to come? This isn't rhetorical...I'm truly hoping someone asks this, as I've been looking at my IEP student responses to essay prompts and having absolutely no idea how to assess them fairly.
There are times, usually once a week, where I wish I was better at calculus. Math teachers have a much easier time with assessments.
So, what do Math teachers do with low-level learners? How do Science teachers grade students with IEPs? Do we change our expectations? Do we change the requirements of the course? Or do we look for evidence of growth, and base a significant portion of their grade on that? Is it fair to ask that every student get better over the course of the year? Is it fair to require that they all master some essential skills (the same for all), but beyond that we base their grade on growth, growth that we can measure and document? These are not fully-developed ideas just yet, but maybe someone else can respond and either further develop or dismiss them.
My placement focuses more on skills based testing than rote memorization, which is a step up, as Seth said, from naming the color of the curtain. However, these skills based tests are in place so students learn to succeed on the keystones. So far, I have yet to see an "engaging" assessment like the ones discussed in Assessment Live!
Assessment Live!, Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, and Bridging English, have all reiterated that students learn more when their assessments are meaningful and thought provoking. With that in mind, I have been trying to introduce some engaging formative assessments in class. I've found that sometimes getting students out of their chairs and collaborating with each other works incredibly well in one class but will blow up in my face in another. This has proven that any assessment, no matter how engaging, is never one-size-fits-all.
What is worse: rote memorization assessments or assessments that don't match with unit goals, understandings, or EQs?
Most of the assessments that I witness being ineffective in my field placement are ones that don't correlate with what we taught our students. After "discussing" (telling the students what they need to know about the novel The Pearl, John Steinbeck) we asked the students to write a two page parable. It was an option for the students who "didn't care to read the book" apparently. We didn't formally go over what makes a piece of literature a parable either so many students did not know what was expected of them. I empathized with them; it was like throwing a kid into deep water and testing them on how well they can do a perfect butterfly stroke without ever being in water before.
Both ways of assessing are not effective in fostering student growth.
I'm glad you mentioned that there's not really a "one size fits all" assessment for any classroom - we talk about our lesson ideas all the time, and it's interesting to see how everything falls into place. Of course, you may come up with something we think students will love, but they'll absolutely hate it. Or, there will be some projects that would work great in a middle school class (like my short story skits), but high schoolers would find it mega lame. Or maybe it, like you said, varies from class to class, and it's just the luck of the draw if we'll get a grumpy bunch of kids or not.
Maybe this is just stressing the importance of differentiation, but that's another can of worms than many of us struggle to open. How can we have something that fits EVERYONE'S needs and desires, regardless of interests or ability level? How does this affect grading - is it even fair? The deeper I'm diving into the classroom experience, the more I'm realizing the only way we will learn all of this is from trial and error first hand experience, unfortunately.
Interesting points Ashley. That leads me to ask myself, how do you make something meaningful for 30 different students who all have a separate notion of meaningful? Basing assessments on practical skills is a great start, but those skills become meaningless if the students cannot observe a parallel to anything outside of school.
One thing I've encountered is that in addition to differentiating for different levels of students in our classroom, we also have to change what we do for different periods even if it's the same subject. Each class has a different mixture of personalities, creating an entirely new situation. Also, a class that meets first thing in the morning is going to need very different things than a class meeting right after lunch. My first period class rarely responds when I ask them to do things like get up and read/act the scene from Hamlet we may be working on that day, whereas my 3rd period is clamoring for attention. We need to keep in mind these dynamics when incorporating activities from Assessment Live, for example. Perhaps make sure 1st period has an activity to warm up first, or their performance is later in the block period so they have a chance to get their brains going in the morning. You're definitely right, though: It's not "one-size-fits-all".
As I read through all of the texts revolving around assessment and evaluation, I find that I become more and more passionate about the idea of using Portfolios as a way to assess. In my field placement classroom, grades are given as reinforces of students above-average, average, or below-average status. Why do we do this? Isn’t it true that all students can grow and progress as learners based on whatever level they are at in the beginning of the year? Not only is giving grades a status marker detrimental to students sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and motivation, but it is also detrimental to teachers who falsely believe that they are measuring their students’ growth. Portfolios give teachers and students to embrace the model of intelligence that Milton Chen echoes in his book: Intelligence is not fixed, it’s exponential, we keep moving forward. They track the progress of students throughout the year with each piece of writing or reading that is completed throughout the year. Each can be seen as a self-reflective check point where students look at their drafts and final product with the teacher and their peers to figure out what they did well, what could be improved, and what they will do or work on next time they complete a writing assignment. Students gain authority over their own education. Teachers and students can gauge where and how much a student is growing and what aspects still need to be worked on. Lastly, the final product is a visible representation of their growth!! That’s pretty darn cool if you ask me. In Bridging English, the idea that a portfolio could be used not only for one year but for an entire high school career for students resonated with my teacher soul. I look forward to dipping my hands in the realm of portfolio assessment in my years to come as a teacher.
Becca, I do really like the idea of using a portfolio to assess a student's whole high school career. It seems like such a no-brainer to me at times, and then other times I struggle with the point of assessment at all because i don't know how to do it. But that is changing because I am beginning to understand how to assess in many different ways. I am a fan of portfolios because they let students have a bigger hand in compiling what they wish the teacher to assess, and they provide a comprehensive look at student work. Plus, I see portfolios being very relevant to how people are assessed in the workplace. Employers look at overall growth, and they should assess based on how employees become better at what they do. Let me know when you have perfected portfolio assessment so I can steal all of your good sources! ;)
I, too, love the idea of introducing a Portfolio as a way to assess students! Unfortunately, I have been unable to see it done outside of simply talking about ideas in class, so there is a part of me that is concerned with trying to introduce it to a class and then having it fall flat. If that were to happen, I would be afraid that my students were not appropriately assessed.
I do think, however, that students should be required to take more responsibility in their learning. The teacher should be a guide as students progress their education; when students can create and see their progress, it would make their accomplishments more meaningful. However, what about the students who don't care about their education? Do we just hope that they produce what we ask of them? Or, if they aren't progressing, do they fail the Portfolio because they showed little growth but still did the work?
The more I read through all of our textbooks and observe what goes on in my classroom, the more torn I become about assessments. Like Ashley said, many of the examples in Assessment, Live! textbook are incredibly engaging - it sounds awesome in theory, but I have yet to see these implemented on a regular basis in the classroom while still being so focused on standardized testing and others of the like. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it relies heavily on the type of group in the classroom. Just last week, I assessed my short story unit by having my middle schoolers perform a skit - most of them got really into it and had a good time while still meeting the requirements. While it worked well in my classroom, I'm not so sure an older group would have gotten the same experience out of it. Just between talking to my roommate and comparing middle school and high school, sometimes it seems like middle schoolers are easier to teach the fun projects to as many of them are still in that "wide eyed and bushy-tailed" state of mine. That's not to say it's impossible with other classes, but it often seems as the older students get, more creativity is squashed out of them, sometimes making those hands-on projects a little more difficult to implement.
After reading all these texts, I am torn a bit on where tests fit into all of this. Like Seth said, I don't believe on asking super specific questions will little to no relevance to the overall ideas of the topic, but I DO think it's important to have tests to quiz on specific details to make sure students are understanding everything correctly. And higher level thinking can be assessed through essay questions and short answer, right? I guess my question here is, how can we make tests engaging? Is it even possible? Luckily, we are in a content area with a lot of flexibility when it comes to assessment, but other subjects aren't as lucky.
As much as I want to include these in my classroom as a teacher, I find it hard to picture in my classroom as a student teacher. McCaskey High School is now requiring scales or rubrics for every lesson, and is making a beeline toward having common assessments starting with midterms and finals, but eventually ending with common tests at the end of each unit. To put it nicely, this is discouraging and frustrating. I know that most districts aren't using this type of assessment, but it's still hard watching an entire district that serves so many students who truly need a safe space in school do things that will probably push more students away from the school than to it.
So despite my worries about assessment within my placement, I really enjoyed seeing ways to pull in alternative forms of assessment for my students! My AP English teacher gave us a grade for having a complete writing portfolio with our own thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of our papers, and I really enjoyed getting a chance to critically look over my own papers and find places for improvement. Each paper was graded individually, but the final portfolio was a nice way to help boost up any bad paper grades that each student got, as long as you could reflect on your paper. It was also a great way to see writing improve over a semester, and after each reflection you knew what exactly you had to improve on.
I also really liked the idea of students acting out scenes from plays because it brings everyone slightly out of their comfort zone (risk taking in the classroom!), and also shows a thorough understanding of the piece. I think that given time and preparation this could be really fun for students! I've gotten students to act out their own short scenes in my classroom already, and it was a lot of fun for everyone involved. Some students chose not to act, which was fine, but even those who didn't act had a better understanding of the material after the presentations were over. I would love to do this on a larger scale of students acting out critical scenes from plays and putting their own twist on things. To put yourself in a position of acting out someone's life you really must understand what is going on around the person and inside their head. This can be a great way to test students overall understanding of a text or idea.
I am absolutely just so excited because while wrestling with the assessments and evaluations, this whole idea of Understanding by Design is finally making sense to me! My assessments need to reflect my goals, and this makes me seriously step back and analyze every assessment idea that has popped into my head or that I've learned about. I'm realizing that if my students are not reaching that end goal through these types of assessments, then I need to go back and change my form of assessment. If I did not first create these goals, I would be creating assessment for just the pure sake of grading my students. Maybe I'm a little late on this fantastic realization, but I just had to share my lightbulb moment of AH-HA! All of this UBD stuff totally makes sense and I couldn't imagine forming my assessment in any other way. I'm so excited.
I think I mentioned this to a few people because I found it humorous: an example of easy formative assessment in class happened when I noticed which students were laughing at the sexual innuendo in the drunken porter scene from "Macbeth." I realized very quickly that the ones who were laughing were the ones who "got it" at the moment. They were able to translate and understand Shakespeare enough to be able to chuckle at the sex jokes. It made realize again the importance of formative assessment. I knew that the laughing students often had a hard time understanding Shakespeare. How had they been able to understand this part? Perhaps this kid had a particularly dirty mind, or maybe he was actually paying attention that day. Either way the kids got that part of the play. I was tempted to think that it meant they were going to get the rest of the play. However, this formative assessment meant only that they had understood the particular bit of the play but not necessarily the rest of it.
For some reason this clicked in my mind, and I realized that I need to make sure I am assessing my students all the time to be able to give them the help that they need. Once they take that final unit test, it is basically too late. It may be the student's fault that she failed the test, but ultimately that could be my fault as the teacher if I did not notice the student was struggling and did not offer more help. This all seems so obvious to me now, and I may have been aware of it before, but for some reason it all just made sense to me.
I still see a disconnect between my classroom at CV and what I am learning about in our MU classes, which makes it difficult to see how these ideas - specifically the types of assessments found in Assessment Live! - would actually look like in the classroom. For my unit plan, I am focusing heavily on a Portfolio-based assessment to measure student growth because, like Becca said, I think it could be an effective way to track progress. After graduating from high school, student skills will not be tested by how well they memorize facts or definitions, so why, then, is that how we structure our assessments?
My one concern, though, is that PBL assumes that students will begin to take greater responsibility in their learning; as a result, they will become more engaged in activities and more motivated to complete tasks and see their final compilation of thoughts and ideas - but what about those students who just don't care? I am still troubled with what to do with those students who check out as they walk in through the double-doors in the morning. Sure, it is ideal to assume that this type of learning environment will shake the indifference from them, but, realistically, is it possible to reign in every student? I was observing another English teacher yesterday and she structures her activities and assessments similarly to those we read about in Assessment Live! and I was so disappointed to witness students complaining about what they were doing, as well as wasting the class time they were given to create their assignments. It really does make me question whether students often prefer tests that measure rote memorization because that it what they are comfortable with. While there may still be complaints, they seem to like the method of study, take a test, and move on rather than an ongoing form of measurement that, instead, tracks their growth. Ultimately, I believe that a Portfolio would be more a more beneficial and engaging assessment (for most students), and I plan to utilize that as a way to evaluate my students next semester, but the novice teacher part of me is worried that my ideas are too big and idealistic and may not be received well by my students who are in the learning support class and those who are just unmotivated.
I see what you're saying in your last paragraph, but I disagree that you're "too idealistic."
Well, let me explain. I'm not sure that it is possible to be "too idealistic" in a classroom, but that requires a re-evaluation of what it means to be "too idealistic." If it means that our expectations of students are unrealistically high and will never be matched as they are in our imaginations, I agree. If this is how idealism is qualified, we're all "too idealistic," and by a vast amount at that.
But what if idealism is an essential part of our teaching? No one likes to think that they've got their head in the clouds, that their hopes are mere pipe dreams, but if we change how we qualify idealism, they aren't. Expectations (and I'm sure we're all a little tired of hearing this by now but I've been learning this in a totally new way this semester) are not ends in themselves, but rather a means to an end. We don't set high expectations so that at the end of the year we can look at each student and say, "Congratulations! You've reached my expectations!" Instead, we use them as a tool to get students to where we want them to be...which is, anywhere further in their knowledge and understanding than they are now. They should be asked to make fools of themselves, to take risks. They should be asked to do things that don't feel natural, and hell yeah are they going to complain and fight us on it...if they aren't, I'd be tempted to say that we aren't doing enough.
So is it overly idealistic? Absolutely and not at all. An example: on Goodreads, I made a reading goal of 75 books this year. I have only read 50 and am like, 10 books behind schedule? Wow, looks like I'm never going to reach that goal, right? But what if I had set my goal at 50 books? Would I have read that many by now? Maybe...and if so, I'll still have read 50 books. In one scenario, I read 50 books and think to myself "Aw man, I didn't reach my goal." In the other, I've read the same amount and could think "Wow! Great job, self! Looks like I've satisfied what is expected." And yes, we need to give students very reachable goals at times so that they don't feel like their efforts are "never enough." And yes, we need to spend a serious amount of effort just motivating kids to start working on the more daunting projects. And yes, hell yes, we need to scaffold "low" kids before they even begin to believe that they can do what we're asking.
One thing I sincerely believe, though...if we ask based on what we think our students will accomplish or comply with, we are making the assessment the end and not the means to an end.
Jess, I just wanted to say that you're great. I have no big, long, fancy answers, but you're definitely not alone in your thoughts and I felt the need to share. Thank you for putting into words what has been hovering in my mind.
Jess, you hit the nail on the head for me. I'll share a quick related story that just happened yesterday in placement. We were just starting House on Mango Street, and my mentor teacher thought that it would be really cool (especially on a Monday) to get kids up and out of their seats. So she made her own QR codes (the things that are like barcodes for smartphones) and put three at each of five different stations in our hallway corridor. The QR codes linked to different things that had to do with each short chapter of House on Mango Street. There were links to youtube videos, pictures to give them a better idea of the setting, and even a personality quiz to tell you which breed of cat you might be. Needless to say, I thought it was freaking fantastic. It was interactive, low stress, and creative and I STILL heard multiple students complaining. "Why are we doing this?" "What's the point?" "Why are we even reading this stupid book?" "Miss, can I go in and just sit down?" I wanted to scream NO THIS IS ABOUT AS INTERESTING AS IT GETS MOST DAYS AND YOU'RE STILL COMPLAINING.
In short, I struggle like you do with the thought of those students who think that school, no matter what, is a waste of their time. Sometimes I think that attitude might not go away period until we completely revamp the whole system and how the United States views education in general. From what I could tell, PBL only really seems to work when you have students who value creativity (when the majority of ours have been taught not to) and students who are motivated enough to put in the time. Part of me wonders that by the time these kids get to high school, are we too late?
As I was reading your post I couldn't help but imagine how great that activity would be to use in the classroom; yet, even more disheartening that students did not receive the activity well. It seems that when we do incorporate engaging and different-from-the-routine activities, students, instead of being excited, respond with indifference; rather than complaining about how boring an activity is, they complain about the point of it. I truly believe that the public school system has beat the creativity from them because they have been taught - and then reinforced - to sit in classes where teachers talk and students listen/stare blankly into the abyss and that is how school should be... and most of them are okay with that.
Of course I don't want to make this a blanket statement for all students, because that is definitely not the case either. I think some of my 7th graders would eat that kind of activity up. So, what, then, can we do about the students who are unresponsive to even the most interesting activities? Honestly, it's infuriating to hear students respond so negatively to activities like that. I wonder... is it possible to ever receive complete participation and/or positive feedback from all students? I guess do what is best for the majority of students (like the activities your mentor and you did to engage students in the learning) and hope that the others can be convinced?
I disagree with many of the ways assessment is done at my placement. They are attempting to create common assessments for every unit in every classroom, so the teachers are sitting down and creating self-declared 'stupid' assessments for students without thinking about what they actually need to learn. It's the direct opposite of UbD, and it's so difficult to watch happen. I do, however, want to share one thing that my mentor has told the students that I really agree with. Every time our students have a grammar exam, she tells them outfront that she knows the SAT-style questions are frustrating and won't actually help them in the long-run, but it is something that she is told to do as a part of a common assessment. She also adapts the assessment slightly to create a portion of the exam in which students must identify and fix grammatical mistakes in context. She also emphasizes that they CAN use their notes on the exam and explains that the important thing is that they understand the concepts, not memorize rules. If the exams display that they didn't understand the basics, she returns the tests without grading them and we try to teach in a different way. She also told the students that when grammar really matters is on their essays. She works with them for days in proof-reading their work. I'd like to see this taken a step further and create a personalized portion of a writer's notebook where they track the grammatical mistakes they make most often. Still, she emphasizes ability over memorization for once, and that makes me grin every time it comes up.
Another thing I wanted to touch on when reading these texts is that we need to vary our assessment methods. Using innovative assessment is great, but we need to make sure we're not doing the same type every time. Some students will shy away from performance-based assessments like the talk show or storytelling. Though they'll really help some of our students flourish, we need to change it up so the more soft-spoken students also get a chance to shine. Getting to know our students at the beginning of the year is SO important when it comes to this kind of thing. It will help us create lessons where various learning and personality types can thrive and won't retreat from our attempts to get them to practice what they've learned. We shouldn't discard individual writing projects in our attempts to make the classroom more exciting. We're pursuing this field because we don't mind getting up in front of others. We need to be sure not to forget those who are terrified of such things.
I think it says a lot that for me, even at age 27, the word "assessment" still causes a bit of a tremor, however small, in the pit of my stomach. Though I have conquered public school and am on the road toward becoming an educator myself; though I have been learning for the past couple of years in higher education and real-world work experiences that assessment can mean different things, it still comes down to one thought: I'm being graded. I have to remind myself over and over again sometimes that assessment can be productive if implemented correctly. It can tell me where I've come from and where I can continue to go. It can even provide me with tools to use in order to get there effectively. Unfortunately, years of standardized testing, quizzes, multiple choice, and five paragraph essays have manifested themselves in some dark corner so that when the word "assessment" is uttered aloud, a part of me still cringes.
I loved this article by Alfie Kohn. So often we hear or read the multitude of issues staring creativity within public education in the face. Very seldom do we hear or read ways in which we, as educators, can stare back. I love that he recognizes how intimidating standing up for what we know to be right can be, especially when we are faced with high-stakes testing and a fight to keep our jobs, but he does such a good job of building us up as educators. We have learned time and time again to build our students up so that they take charge of their own educations. We, as educators, should practice what we preach. "Creative insubordination." That's what this is all about. I am amazed at the number of teachers I have talked to who have gone on and on about how terrible No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have been, and while I understand the desire to be left off of the radar, I often wonder what would happen if all of these teachers (and preservice teachers) made a stand. What would happen if we all just stopped "following the rules" all at the same time? The system would implode, and maybe politicians would start asking education professionals what really works inside of our classrooms. Still, as a soon-to-be first year teacher, I will admit that I am having a hard time coming to terms with some of the connective, engaging teaching ideas we have learned inside of our classrooms in the face of such a standardized system. How are we to be creatively subversive until we have tenure, and will the spark still remain inside of us by then? (Playing a little bit of a devil's advocate here)
I can definitely relate with Sam--thinking about assessments makes me clench up a bit inside too! The incredibly awesome thing about it is thinking about where we are now! We have the power to help our students so that they will not have to fear or dread assessments in our class! And it really shouldn't be that difficult to do, so long as we do our jobs right. Understanding By Design's backward design for creating unit and lesson plans spells it all out in an easy-to-understand way. Students will be assessed to fulfill clear goals we have outlined in ways that inform instruction, rather than an assessment thrown together after teaching a lesson. It makes me shudder to remember teachers I observed in my Soph Block who would "borrow" tests from each other after teaching completely different students content in completely different ways! Instances like this make me determined more than ever to make a difference in my classroom. I will (as I have been attempting to already through my Unit Plan) create assessments and lessons that are linked by common unit goals and that meld seamlessly together.
Steineke's Assessment Live! textbook has probably been my favorite textbook throughout my time at MU. I strongly believe in performance-based assessment, as well as project-based learning, and know that with the right amount of planning and scaffolding they can be truly successful forms of assessment. Performance-based assessment will not only show evidence of student learning, but it helps students look at assessments as something they shouldn't dread, but can be excited about! Some may scoff at the idea of giving Talk Shows or acting out a scene from a play for a grade, but those people underestimate the power of truly engaged learning. These performance-based assessments are not simply thrown together last minute as a way of the teacher getting out of "doing work" making a test; rather, they take careful and extreme planning to both create and execute. Looking to my Unit Plan, I am thrilled to teach it next semester, and I know my Talk Show assessment will be a hit with the kids. (Although I do definitely agree with Kerri in that assessment types need to be varied. It all comes down to knowing your students)
The chapter on assessment in Understanding By Design could not have begun with a better quote:
ReplyDelete"Understanding shows it's face when people can think and act flexibly around what they know...when a learner cannot go beyond rote and routine thought and action, this signals lack of understanding..."
This is great; I don't want students to tell me what color the curtains are on page 23, I want students to parse out how the author does things stylistically, how the author uses voice, what character motivations are, etc. The real challenge is: how DO I assess these things? How can I personally determine the value of a student response to a subjective question? Especially in an English classroom, deeper understandings often do not mean practical or utilitarian problem-solving; we are asking students to utilize abstract concepts in order to create abstract thoughts, excersizes in empathy, etc. Honestly, I do believe that a huge reason why teachers "teach to the test" is because the assessing is easier; it is much faster to grade a multiple choice test than to grade an essay...and, as I was once wont to think, these objective results are more "fair" to students because there is less subjective teacher interpretation and therefore less room for misunderstanding.
But is it really "fair" in that sense, when students are expected to memorize irrelevant ideas as opposed to use higher level thinking skills? Of course not. Students may feel disenfranchised if their responses are not completely validated, but they will still grow much more, and they will always be challenged to think more in this way.
So what do we do with "low level" learners? Do we soft grade them in order to assess their progress individually more than in a broader, comparative sense? Obviously we need to have the same expectations for these students so as to avoid self fulfilling prophecies, but are we committing a breach in educational integrity if we soft grade? Are we setting them up for impossibly challenging courses in their studies to come? This isn't rhetorical...I'm truly hoping someone asks this, as I've been looking at my IEP student responses to essay prompts and having absolutely no idea how to assess them fairly.
There are times, usually once a week, where I wish I was better at calculus. Math teachers have a much easier time with assessments.
DeleteSo, what do Math teachers do with low-level learners? How do Science teachers grade students with IEPs? Do we change our expectations? Do we change the requirements of the course? Or do we look for evidence of growth, and base a significant portion of their grade on that? Is it fair to ask that every student get better over the course of the year? Is it fair to require that they all master some essential skills (the same for all), but beyond that we base their grade on growth, growth that we can measure and document? These are not fully-developed ideas just yet, but maybe someone else can respond and either further develop or dismiss them.
My placement focuses more on skills based testing than rote memorization, which is a step up, as Seth said, from naming the color of the curtain. However, these skills based tests are in place so students learn to succeed on the keystones. So far, I have yet to see an "engaging" assessment like the ones discussed in Assessment Live!
ReplyDeleteAssessment Live!, Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, and Bridging English, have all reiterated that students learn more when their assessments are meaningful and thought provoking. With that in mind, I have been trying to introduce some engaging formative assessments in class. I've found that sometimes getting students out of their chairs and collaborating with each other works incredibly well in one class but will blow up in my face in another. This has proven that any assessment, no matter how engaging, is never one-size-fits-all.
What is worse: rote memorization assessments or assessments that don't match with unit goals, understandings, or EQs?
DeleteMost of the assessments that I witness being ineffective in my field placement are ones that don't correlate with what we taught our students. After "discussing" (telling the students what they need to know about the novel The Pearl, John Steinbeck) we asked the students to write a two page parable. It was an option for the students who "didn't care to read the book" apparently. We didn't formally go over what makes a piece of literature a parable either so many students did not know what was expected of them. I empathized with them; it was like throwing a kid into deep water and testing them on how well they can do a perfect butterfly stroke without ever being in water before.
Both ways of assessing are not effective in fostering student growth.
I'm glad you mentioned that there's not really a "one size fits all" assessment for any classroom - we talk about our lesson ideas all the time, and it's interesting to see how everything falls into place. Of course, you may come up with something we think students will love, but they'll absolutely hate it. Or, there will be some projects that would work great in a middle school class (like my short story skits), but high schoolers would find it mega lame. Or maybe it, like you said, varies from class to class, and it's just the luck of the draw if we'll get a grumpy bunch of kids or not.
DeleteMaybe this is just stressing the importance of differentiation, but that's another can of worms than many of us struggle to open. How can we have something that fits EVERYONE'S needs and desires, regardless of interests or ability level? How does this affect grading - is it even fair? The deeper I'm diving into the classroom experience, the more I'm realizing the only way we will learn all of this is from trial and error first hand experience, unfortunately.
Interesting points Ashley. That leads me to ask myself, how do you make something meaningful for 30 different students who all have a separate notion of meaningful? Basing assessments on practical skills is a great start, but those skills become meaningless if the students cannot observe a parallel to anything outside of school.
DeleteOne thing I've encountered is that in addition to differentiating for different levels of students in our classroom, we also have to change what we do for different periods even if it's the same subject. Each class has a different mixture of personalities, creating an entirely new situation. Also, a class that meets first thing in the morning is going to need very different things than a class meeting right after lunch. My first period class rarely responds when I ask them to do things like get up and read/act the scene from Hamlet we may be working on that day, whereas my 3rd period is clamoring for attention. We need to keep in mind these dynamics when incorporating activities from Assessment Live, for example. Perhaps make sure 1st period has an activity to warm up first, or their performance is later in the block period so they have a chance to get their brains going in the morning. You're definitely right, though: It's not "one-size-fits-all".
DeleteAs I read through all of the texts revolving around assessment and evaluation, I find that I become more and more passionate about the idea of using Portfolios as a way to assess. In my field placement classroom, grades are given as reinforces of students above-average, average, or below-average status. Why do we do this? Isn’t it true that all students can grow and progress as learners based on whatever level they are at in the beginning of the year? Not only is giving grades a status marker detrimental to students sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and motivation, but it is also detrimental to teachers who falsely believe that they are measuring their students’ growth. Portfolios give teachers and students to embrace the model of intelligence that Milton Chen echoes in his book: Intelligence is not fixed, it’s exponential, we keep moving forward. They track the progress of students throughout the year with each piece of writing or reading that is completed throughout the year. Each can be seen as a self-reflective check point where students look at their drafts and final product with the teacher and their peers to figure out what they did well, what could be improved, and what they will do or work on next time they complete a writing assignment. Students gain authority over their own education. Teachers and students can gauge where and how much a student is growing and what aspects still need to be worked on. Lastly, the final product is a visible representation of their growth!! That’s pretty darn cool if you ask me. In Bridging English, the idea that a portfolio could be used not only for one year but for an entire high school career for students resonated with my teacher soul. I look forward to dipping my hands in the realm of portfolio assessment in my years to come as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteBecca, I do really like the idea of using a portfolio to assess a student's whole high school career. It seems like such a no-brainer to me at times, and then other times I struggle with the point of assessment at all because i don't know how to do it. But that is changing because I am beginning to understand how to assess in many different ways. I am a fan of portfolios because they let students have a bigger hand in compiling what they wish the teacher to assess, and they provide a comprehensive look at student work. Plus, I see portfolios being very relevant to how people are assessed in the workplace. Employers look at overall growth, and they should assess based on how employees become better at what they do. Let me know when you have perfected portfolio assessment so I can steal all of your good sources! ;)
DeleteI, too, love the idea of introducing a Portfolio as a way to assess students! Unfortunately, I have been unable to see it done outside of simply talking about ideas in class, so there is a part of me that is concerned with trying to introduce it to a class and then having it fall flat. If that were to happen, I would be afraid that my students were not appropriately assessed.
DeleteI do think, however, that students should be required to take more responsibility in their learning. The teacher should be a guide as students progress their education; when students can create and see their progress, it would make their accomplishments more meaningful. However, what about the students who don't care about their education? Do we just hope that they produce what we ask of them? Or, if they aren't progressing, do they fail the Portfolio because they showed little growth but still did the work?
The more I read through all of our textbooks and observe what goes on in my classroom, the more torn I become about assessments. Like Ashley said, many of the examples in Assessment, Live! textbook are incredibly engaging - it sounds awesome in theory, but I have yet to see these implemented on a regular basis in the classroom while still being so focused on standardized testing and others of the like. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it relies heavily on the type of group in the classroom. Just last week, I assessed my short story unit by having my middle schoolers perform a skit - most of them got really into it and had a good time while still meeting the requirements. While it worked well in my classroom, I'm not so sure an older group would have gotten the same experience out of it. Just between talking to my roommate and comparing middle school and high school, sometimes it seems like middle schoolers are easier to teach the fun projects to as many of them are still in that "wide eyed and bushy-tailed" state of mine. That's not to say it's impossible with other classes, but it often seems as the older students get, more creativity is squashed out of them, sometimes making those hands-on projects a little more difficult to implement.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading all these texts, I am torn a bit on where tests fit into all of this. Like Seth said, I don't believe on asking super specific questions will little to no relevance to the overall ideas of the topic, but I DO think it's important to have tests to quiz on specific details to make sure students are understanding everything correctly. And higher level thinking can be assessed through essay questions and short answer, right? I guess my question here is, how can we make tests engaging? Is it even possible? Luckily, we are in a content area with a lot of flexibility when it comes to assessment, but other subjects aren't as lucky.
As much as I want to include these in my classroom as a teacher, I find it hard to picture in my classroom as a student teacher. McCaskey High School is now requiring scales or rubrics for every lesson, and is making a beeline toward having common assessments starting with midterms and finals, but eventually ending with common tests at the end of each unit. To put it nicely, this is discouraging and frustrating. I know that most districts aren't using this type of assessment, but it's still hard watching an entire district that serves so many students who truly need a safe space in school do things that will probably push more students away from the school than to it.
ReplyDeleteSo despite my worries about assessment within my placement, I really enjoyed seeing ways to pull in alternative forms of assessment for my students! My AP English teacher gave us a grade for having a complete writing portfolio with our own thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of our papers, and I really enjoyed getting a chance to critically look over my own papers and find places for improvement. Each paper was graded individually, but the final portfolio was a nice way to help boost up any bad paper grades that each student got, as long as you could reflect on your paper. It was also a great way to see writing improve over a semester, and after each reflection you knew what exactly you had to improve on.
I also really liked the idea of students acting out scenes from plays because it brings everyone slightly out of their comfort zone (risk taking in the classroom!), and also shows a thorough understanding of the piece. I think that given time and preparation this could be really fun for students! I've gotten students to act out their own short scenes in my classroom already, and it was a lot of fun for everyone involved. Some students chose not to act, which was fine, but even those who didn't act had a better understanding of the material after the presentations were over. I would love to do this on a larger scale of students acting out critical scenes from plays and putting their own twist on things. To put yourself in a position of acting out someone's life you really must understand what is going on around the person and inside their head. This can be a great way to test students overall understanding of a text or idea.
I am absolutely just so excited because while wrestling with the assessments and evaluations, this whole idea of Understanding by Design is finally making sense to me! My assessments need to reflect my goals, and this makes me seriously step back and analyze every assessment idea that has popped into my head or that I've learned about. I'm realizing that if my students are not reaching that end goal through these types of assessments, then I need to go back and change my form of assessment. If I did not first create these goals, I would be creating assessment for just the pure sake of grading my students. Maybe I'm a little late on this fantastic realization, but I just had to share my lightbulb moment of AH-HA! All of this UBD stuff totally makes sense and I couldn't imagine forming my assessment in any other way. I'm so excited.
ReplyDeleteI think I mentioned this to a few people because I found it humorous: an example of easy formative assessment in class happened when I noticed which students were laughing at the sexual innuendo in the drunken porter scene from "Macbeth." I realized very quickly that the ones who were laughing were the ones who "got it" at the moment. They were able to translate and understand Shakespeare enough to be able to chuckle at the sex jokes. It made realize again the importance of formative assessment. I knew that the laughing students often had a hard time understanding Shakespeare. How had they been able to understand this part? Perhaps this kid had a particularly dirty mind, or maybe he was actually paying attention that day. Either way the kids got that part of the play. I was tempted to think that it meant they were going to get the rest of the play. However, this formative assessment meant only that they had understood the particular bit of the play but not necessarily the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason this clicked in my mind, and I realized that I need to make sure I am assessing my students all the time to be able to give them the help that they need. Once they take that final unit test, it is basically too late. It may be the student's fault that she failed the test, but ultimately that could be my fault as the teacher if I did not notice the student was struggling and did not offer more help. This all seems so obvious to me now, and I may have been aware of it before, but for some reason it all just made sense to me.
I still see a disconnect between my classroom at CV and what I am learning about in our MU classes, which makes it difficult to see how these ideas - specifically the types of assessments found in Assessment Live! - would actually look like in the classroom. For my unit plan, I am focusing heavily on a Portfolio-based assessment to measure student growth because, like Becca said, I think it could be an effective way to track progress. After graduating from high school, student skills will not be tested by how well they memorize facts or definitions, so why, then, is that how we structure our assessments?
ReplyDeleteMy one concern, though, is that PBL assumes that students will begin to take greater responsibility in their learning; as a result, they will become more engaged in activities and more motivated to complete tasks and see their final compilation of thoughts and ideas - but what about those students who just don't care? I am still troubled with what to do with those students who check out as they walk in through the double-doors in the morning. Sure, it is ideal to assume that this type of learning environment will shake the indifference from them, but, realistically, is it possible to reign in every student? I was observing another English teacher yesterday and she structures her activities and assessments similarly to those we read about in Assessment Live! and I was so disappointed to witness students complaining about what they were doing, as well as wasting the class time they were given to create their assignments. It really does make me question whether students often prefer tests that measure rote memorization because that it what they are comfortable with. While there may still be complaints, they seem to like the method of study, take a test, and move on rather than an ongoing form of measurement that, instead, tracks their growth. Ultimately, I believe that a Portfolio would be more a more beneficial and engaging assessment (for most students), and I plan to utilize that as a way to evaluate my students next semester, but the novice teacher part of me is worried that my ideas are too big and idealistic and may not be received well by my students who are in the learning support class and those who are just unmotivated.
I see what you're saying in your last paragraph, but I disagree that you're "too idealistic."
DeleteWell, let me explain. I'm not sure that it is possible to be "too idealistic" in a classroom, but that requires a re-evaluation of what it means to be "too idealistic." If it means that our expectations of students are unrealistically high and will never be matched as they are in our imaginations, I agree. If this is how idealism is qualified, we're all "too idealistic," and by a vast amount at that.
But what if idealism is an essential part of our teaching? No one likes to think that they've got their head in the clouds, that their hopes are mere pipe dreams, but if we change how we qualify idealism, they aren't. Expectations (and I'm sure we're all a little tired of hearing this by now but I've been learning this in a totally new way this semester) are not ends in themselves, but rather a means to an end. We don't set high expectations so that at the end of the year we can look at each student and say, "Congratulations! You've reached my expectations!" Instead, we use them as a tool to get students to where we want them to be...which is, anywhere further in their knowledge and understanding than they are now. They should be asked to make fools of themselves, to take risks. They should be asked to do things that don't feel natural, and hell yeah are they going to complain and fight us on it...if they aren't, I'd be tempted to say that we aren't doing enough.
So is it overly idealistic? Absolutely and not at all. An example: on Goodreads, I made a reading goal of 75 books this year. I have only read 50 and am like, 10 books behind schedule? Wow, looks like I'm never going to reach that goal, right? But what if I had set my goal at 50 books? Would I have read that many by now? Maybe...and if so, I'll still have read 50 books. In one scenario, I read 50 books and think to myself "Aw man, I didn't reach my goal." In the other, I've read the same amount and could think "Wow! Great job, self! Looks like I've satisfied what is expected." And yes, we need to give students very reachable goals at times so that they don't feel like their efforts are "never enough." And yes, we need to spend a serious amount of effort just motivating kids to start working on the more daunting projects. And yes, hell yes, we need to scaffold "low" kids before they even begin to believe that they can do what we're asking.
One thing I sincerely believe, though...if we ask based on what we think our students will accomplish or comply with, we are making the assessment the end and not the means to an end.
Jess, I just wanted to say that you're great. I have no big, long, fancy answers, but you're definitely not alone in your thoughts and I felt the need to share. Thank you for putting into words what has been hovering in my mind.
DeleteJess, you hit the nail on the head for me. I'll share a quick related story that just happened yesterday in placement. We were just starting House on Mango Street, and my mentor teacher thought that it would be really cool (especially on a Monday) to get kids up and out of their seats. So she made her own QR codes (the things that are like barcodes for smartphones) and put three at each of five different stations in our hallway corridor. The QR codes linked to different things that had to do with each short chapter of House on Mango Street. There were links to youtube videos, pictures to give them a better idea of the setting, and even a personality quiz to tell you which breed of cat you might be. Needless to say, I thought it was freaking fantastic. It was interactive, low stress, and creative and I STILL heard multiple students complaining. "Why are we doing this?" "What's the point?" "Why are we even reading this stupid book?" "Miss, can I go in and just sit down?" I wanted to scream NO THIS IS ABOUT AS INTERESTING AS IT GETS MOST DAYS AND YOU'RE STILL COMPLAINING.
DeleteIn short, I struggle like you do with the thought of those students who think that school, no matter what, is a waste of their time. Sometimes I think that attitude might not go away period until we completely revamp the whole system and how the United States views education in general. From what I could tell, PBL only really seems to work when you have students who value creativity (when the majority of ours have been taught not to) and students who are motivated enough to put in the time. Part of me wonders that by the time these kids get to high school, are we too late?
Sam,
DeleteAs I was reading your post I couldn't help but imagine how great that activity would be to use in the classroom; yet, even more disheartening that students did not receive the activity well. It seems that when we do incorporate engaging and different-from-the-routine activities, students, instead of being excited, respond with indifference; rather than complaining about how boring an activity is, they complain about the point of it. I truly believe that the public school system has beat the creativity from them because they have been taught - and then reinforced - to sit in classes where teachers talk and students listen/stare blankly into the abyss and that is how school should be... and most of them are okay with that.
Of course I don't want to make this a blanket statement for all students, because that is definitely not the case either. I think some of my 7th graders would eat that kind of activity up. So, what, then, can we do about the students who are unresponsive to even the most interesting activities? Honestly, it's infuriating to hear students respond so negatively to activities like that. I wonder... is it possible to ever receive complete participation and/or positive feedback from all students? I guess do what is best for the majority of students (like the activities your mentor and you did to engage students in the learning) and hope that the others can be convinced?
I disagree with many of the ways assessment is done at my placement. They are attempting to create common assessments for every unit in every classroom, so the teachers are sitting down and creating self-declared 'stupid' assessments for students without thinking about what they actually need to learn. It's the direct opposite of UbD, and it's so difficult to watch happen. I do, however, want to share one thing that my mentor has told the students that I really agree with. Every time our students have a grammar exam, she tells them outfront that she knows the SAT-style questions are frustrating and won't actually help them in the long-run, but it is something that she is told to do as a part of a common assessment. She also adapts the assessment slightly to create a portion of the exam in which students must identify and fix grammatical mistakes in context. She also emphasizes that they CAN use their notes on the exam and explains that the important thing is that they understand the concepts, not memorize rules. If the exams display that they didn't understand the basics, she returns the tests without grading them and we try to teach in a different way. She also told the students that when grammar really matters is on their essays. She works with them for days in proof-reading their work. I'd like to see this taken a step further and create a personalized portion of a writer's notebook where they track the grammatical mistakes they make most often. Still, she emphasizes ability over memorization for once, and that makes me grin every time it comes up.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I wanted to touch on when reading these texts is that we need to vary our assessment methods. Using innovative assessment is great, but we need to make sure we're not doing the same type every time. Some students will shy away from performance-based assessments like the talk show or storytelling. Though they'll really help some of our students flourish, we need to change it up so the more soft-spoken students also get a chance to shine. Getting to know our students at the beginning of the year is SO important when it comes to this kind of thing. It will help us create lessons where various learning and personality types can thrive and won't retreat from our attempts to get them to practice what they've learned. We shouldn't discard individual writing projects in our attempts to make the classroom more exciting. We're pursuing this field because we don't mind getting up in front of others. We need to be sure not to forget those who are terrified of such things.
I think it says a lot that for me, even at age 27, the word "assessment" still causes a bit of a tremor, however small, in the pit of my stomach. Though I have conquered public school and am on the road toward becoming an educator myself; though I have been learning for the past couple of years in higher education and real-world work experiences that assessment can mean different things, it still comes down to one thought: I'm being graded. I have to remind myself over and over again sometimes that assessment can be productive if implemented correctly. It can tell me where I've come from and where I can continue to go. It can even provide me with tools to use in order to get there effectively. Unfortunately, years of standardized testing, quizzes, multiple choice, and five paragraph essays have manifested themselves in some dark corner so that when the word "assessment" is uttered aloud, a part of me still cringes.
ReplyDeleteI loved this article by Alfie Kohn. So often we hear or read the multitude of issues staring creativity within public education in the face. Very seldom do we hear or read ways in which we, as educators, can stare back. I love that he recognizes how intimidating standing up for what we know to be right can be, especially when we are faced with high-stakes testing and a fight to keep our jobs, but he does such a good job of building us up as educators. We have learned time and time again to build our students up so that they take charge of their own educations. We, as educators, should practice what we preach. "Creative insubordination." That's what this is all about. I am amazed at the number of teachers I have talked to who have gone on and on about how terrible No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have been, and while I understand the desire to be left off of the radar, I often wonder what would happen if all of these teachers (and preservice teachers) made a stand. What would happen if we all just stopped "following the rules" all at the same time? The system would implode, and maybe politicians would start asking education professionals what really works inside of our classrooms. Still, as a soon-to-be first year teacher, I will admit that I am having a hard time coming to terms with some of the connective, engaging teaching ideas we have learned inside of our classrooms in the face of such a standardized system. How are we to be creatively subversive until we have tenure, and will the spark still remain inside of us by then? (Playing a little bit of a devil's advocate here)
I can definitely relate with Sam--thinking about assessments makes me clench up a bit inside too! The incredibly awesome thing about it is thinking about where we are now! We have the power to help our students so that they will not have to fear or dread assessments in our class! And it really shouldn't be that difficult to do, so long as we do our jobs right. Understanding By Design's backward design for creating unit and lesson plans spells it all out in an easy-to-understand way. Students will be assessed to fulfill clear goals we have outlined in ways that inform instruction, rather than an assessment thrown together after teaching a lesson. It makes me shudder to remember teachers I observed in my Soph Block who would "borrow" tests from each other after teaching completely different students content in completely different ways! Instances like this make me determined more than ever to make a difference in my classroom. I will (as I have been attempting to already through my Unit Plan) create assessments and lessons that are linked by common unit goals and that meld seamlessly together.
ReplyDeleteSteineke's Assessment Live! textbook has probably been my favorite textbook throughout my time at MU. I strongly believe in performance-based assessment, as well as project-based learning, and know that with the right amount of planning and scaffolding they can be truly successful forms of assessment. Performance-based assessment will not only show evidence of student learning, but it helps students look at assessments as something they shouldn't dread, but can be excited about! Some may scoff at the idea of giving Talk Shows or acting out a scene from a play for a grade, but those people underestimate the power of truly engaged learning. These performance-based assessments are not simply thrown together last minute as a way of the teacher getting out of "doing work" making a test; rather, they take careful and extreme planning to both create and execute. Looking to my Unit Plan, I am thrilled to teach it next semester, and I know my Talk Show assessment will be a hit with the kids. (Although I do definitely agree with Kerri in that assessment types need to be varied. It all comes down to knowing your students)