So which came first the assessment or the test? Breaking the ice with a joke is humorous, but good assessments are not a joking matter. I find assessments to be one of the most difficult elements of good curriculum. I feel this is one of my weakest areas in my teaching. I know I need to increase formative assessments but I don’t want it to be cheesy stuff the high school students hate. I have always relied on students to write for me. I often have them do a five minute response to a reading or a reflection of what we just went over in class. I feel like if they can use their words to explain it to me then I am finding a reliable gauge to their learning. However, am I boring the kids with the same thing daily? I need to be using variety in my assessments.
This year I have tried new things including using KWL charts. I began to use them when we were discussing the non-fiction units. It was beneficial to understanding where each student was in their knowledge of the historical events we were discussing. I then was able to know how much of the basic information I needed to give to the student to make the current story relevant. The KWL was a helpful assessment tool for me and I plan on using it again. When I read the article 52 Ways to Check Understanding, I found two more ideas for assessments I would like to try. The students are used to limiting their writing to short, concise thoughts due to the limitation of social media. So when I read idea #39 Twitter Post, 140 Characters or less response, I thought it could be successful. Incorporating art into an assignment is something I want to do more of in my English class. Idea #20 is a Collage that represents the main idea or theme of what the students are reading. I loved this idea. Blending of the arts is a great way for the students to express their thoughts. However, these are all just individual assessment tools and if I am not looking at the bigger picture to see that they are all working together then they really may not be helping. Grant Wiggins discusses the topic of backward design in the article Defining Assessment, “So you have to think about how it is going to end up, what it’s going to look like. And then that ripples back into your design, what activities will get you there.” This is strange to me. I have to start with the end product and work my way back when I am planning my lesson plans. This is so different from when I went to college 30 years ago. This year has changed my view on many educational topics, including assessment. I am slowly understanding the reason for backward design. I still feel it needs to be solidly grounded in the standards. I feel that if I understand the standard and what I am focused on teaching then the assessments will fall into place and no jokes will be needed. Work Cited “53 Ways to Check for Understanding.” Edutopia, www.edutopia.org/resource/checking-understanding-download. “Grant Wiggins: Defining Assessment.” Edutopia, 21 Jan. 2002, www.edutopia.org/grant-wiggins-assessment.
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AuthorMy name is Lisa and I teach English Language Arts at Forsyth, MO. Archives
May 2017
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