This entry
is in response to chapter 13, which provides a lengthy discussion regarding
methods of assessing student learning. The chapter begins with an explanation
of instructional objectives and how they are used and the importance of
evaluation. It goes on to explain how student learning is evaluated and how
tests are constructed. Finally, the chapter explains alternative assessments
such as portfolios and performance assessments and how grades are determined in
various formats.
This
chapter directly relates to my classroom in terms of the process for setting
objectives, evaluating, and grading my students. My first four years of
teaching were in special education and I created hundreds of goals and
objectives in that time. My students’ weaknesses were in all subject areas,
social skills, organization, and behavior. The chapter discusses the three
parts of a strong instructional objective, which I am very familiar with. Now
that I have switched from special to general education, I only write objectives
for students within the Response to Intervention program but the same 3 parts
still apply.
In general
education, the frameworks and learning objectives are created for you and it is
my job to clearly state those objectives so my lesson stays on topic and the
students know what is expected of them when we finish. I am familiar with Bloom’s
taxonomy and two or three charts with verbs that match each level to help
create higher-order thinking skills and projects. I am also familiar with the
affective objectives discussed in the chapter, that stress the importance of teaching
a love for learning, confidence, and social skills, which I implement each
year.
Evaluations
have often been discussed recently as my school switches to the TKES system for
evaluating teachers. I know that students should be routinely evaluated through
formative and summative assessments to give parents, teachers, and the students
themselves an idea of their progress and overall achievement. I try to provide
feedback on students’ performances as quickly as possible through weekly
communication folders with student’s graded papers. We also use an online
program that parents can access students’ grades as soon as I enter them. Norm-referenced
and criterion-referenced evaluations are also familiar, as my students take the
IOWAs and CRCT each year. My team also creates our own assessments frequently,
and works hard to cover the important material with well-worded questions in a
variety of formats. If a student appears to have shown effort and wants to
re-take a test, I will provide an alternative assessment and either start them
off with a 90 and subtract for missed questions or find the average of both.
I learned
quite a few things from this chapter that I would like to implement this year
to improve my teaching. For example, the process of task analysis in which
teachers should follow three steps to break down tasks or objectives into
smaller components. We cover a lot of complex topics in fifth grade, and the
three steps will help me break down the information into smaller pieces that
will help students fully understand the content. I also learned that it is
beneficial to prepare the test before starting the unit to help with
determining the learning objectives for each day. The use of a behavior content
matrix was new to me, and seems incredibly useful when planning out a unit and
incorporating the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
In terms of
evaluations, I learned that providing written feedback along with the letter
grade or percentage can help students realize it was their hard work and effort
that led to the grade, not a lucky guess. I am going to start providing little
comments on my summative assessments to build student’s confidence and
self-esteem. I also learned that it is very powerful to share rubrics with the
students before they complete a test. I have done this for projects, but never thought
of showing them how I grade their short answer questions on summative
assessments. I think this will help improve my students’ responses on those
longer answers in any subject area. Finally, I learned about the strategy for
average a missing assignment into a student’s grade by converting their other
grades into a 1-5 scale (A=5, B=4, etc.) and then including the missing work as
a 0. Previously I had just given them a 60, but this might provide a more
accurate grade that represents their effort.
Again, many
topics within this chapter directly relate to my classroom and are very
significant as I plan out the upcoming school year. I need to remember that
setting out objectives at the beginning of a unit and of a lesson will keep me
on-track and at the necessary pace. I need to be aware of subskills involved with
skills I’m teaching so I can cover those before teaching students something
they aren't ready to learn. It is also important for me to ensure that my
students can apply or synthesize their skills in order to consider them
proficient. When writing multiple-choice questions for assessments, I need to
make sure a capable student could choose the right answer without being
distracted by the other choices and minimize the chance that ignorant students
will guess the correct answer.
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