Questions for discussion:
1) Looking at Figure 1.1 on pg. 4, think about your use of these types of assessments in your classroom. What percent of your assessments are of each type? What percent of each type do you think we should do/ would you like to be doing and why?
2) What does "assessment FOR learning" mean to you?
3) Which 2 or 3 of the 20 purposes for doing FACTs in Figure 1.2 on pg. 6 seem the most important to you and why?
4) What will you need to do to make a shift to a formative assessment-centered classroom? What will the challenges be? What will the rewards be?
Please briefly answer these questions in a comment on this post by Friday, October 10. Don't forget to log your hours for reading and commenting. By next Monday the 13th, please respond to one or two of your colleagues comments. I will have each post up on Saturday. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or comments for this blog!
-Carrie
Saturday, October 4, 2014
ReplyDeleteWeek 1 Assignment
Read chapter 1 pg. 1-14.
Questions for discussion:
Looking at Figure 1.1 on pg. 4, think about your use of these types of assessments in your classroom. What percent of your assessments are of each type? What percent of each type do you think we should do/ would you like to be doing and why?
Diagnostic: used about 20%. These are not always formal written assessments though. There is a lot of questioning involved with this on a daily basis. I could probably score to one higher if I included all of the questioning.
Formative: used about 60%. We try to to give a quiz at least once a week that I would consider more formative than summarize although they are added to the overall grade for the quarter. students have the opportunity to do quiz corrections or retake on these types of quizzes.
Summative: used about 20%. Maybe even less than 20%. One big unit test occurs every 4 weeks or so, depending on the length of the unit.
I think we should rely more heavily on the diagnostics and the formative assessments for the most part. I think that these assessments are more essential to shaping the student learning in the classroom.
2) What does "assessment FOR learning" mean to you? Assessment for learning means that he students ideas of their own understanding are ever evolving. Frequent assessments and feedback should provide each student a window into their current ideas and where they may have misconceptions. If the students are aware of their own misconceptions they have an opportunity to ask questions and revise their way of thinking.
3) Which 2 or 3 of the 20 purposes for doing FACTs in Figure 1.2 on pg. 6 seem the most important to you and why?
"Challenge students existing ideas and encourage curiosity." I think encouraging curiosity is the most important aspect of this one. Any way that I can find to get the kids excited and engaged instead of staring off into space....I'll take it!
2. "Encourage students to ask better questions and provide thoughtful responses." This has become increasingly important with the next generation tests that have come about. The kids are going to be required to think outside the box more and more. The more they practice with digesting material and coming up with a more thoughtful, detailed responses the better prepared they will be for the new assessments AND the real world.
3. "Evaluate the effectiveness of a lesson." This is selfish but needed. There are so many lesson that we carry out that we think drive the point home but I leaves the kids confused beyond what we have ever dreamed.
4) What will you need to do to make a shift to a formative assessment-centered classroom? What will the challenges be? What will the rewards be?
I think we are all on the verge of converting tho this anyway. In my mind it should be an easy transition, we are all creating new ideas that are easy, obtainable and effective in helping us manage the tasks that have been bestowed upon us. I truthfully think that this will make our classrooms easier to run once we get the hang of what we are doing.
My first blog...
ReplyDelete1. In the past, I have used 5% for the diagnostic, 0% for the formative and 95% on the summative. I would like to see more of a 15% for the diagnostic, 65% on the formative, and 20% on the summative. I really like the idea of having mini quizzes every week or there about just to keep the kids in check. I think that having a diagnostic so that I can judge where my students are academically will help me prepare, and then having mini quizzes as a checks and balances as the lesson plugs along. Finally, wrap up the unit with a test that brings all the mini quizzes together as a test out phase.
2. To me it means that you are giving a test for a reason other than just as an end of unit wrap up. By keeping your thumb on the pulse of your students, I think the teacher would be better off bringing all of the class up to the higher learning bar.
3. Help students consider alternate viewpoints--with this, I believe that the students will need to hear others out, even though they may not agree, at least hear them out. Maybe this will lead to a alternate way of thinking which would lead to a new discovery.
Determine if students can apply scientific ideas to new situations--I think this is a big one. For example, on 10-7-14, I taught a lesson on Bohr's model and the Lewis Dot diagram. Today, 10-8-14, the kids had a little refresher on this, BUT HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. Now I realize, that this is probably not what you are looking for in an answer, but one of my hopes is the students will be able to get an A-HA moment and really apply what they had learned in class to a real world example.
4. To make the shift work for me, I will need to set up a schedule to have a mini quiz every, say Friday or every other Friday, and stick to it. I believe that I have done more formative assessments this year than I have done in the past two years. My big challenge would be to get a schedule down and stick with it. Rewards? Well, from an educator stand point, using the tests as a check valve to ensure that I am not leaving students behind on a topic.
EVERS
I agree that it will take time and practice to get these things working for us. I have been trying to use some of the strategies fro OWP and the were so easy and I really ended up with a clear picture of where the kids stood. It's going to be nice to have an entire 'bank' of easy options to choose from
Delete8th grade gives a mini-quiz every week. There a a few DOK 1s but mostly 2s and some 3s. It does let us know if we have to re-teach something and keeps us focused on our goals. This year we started grouping our questions by learning targets. At the end of the unit if a student scores an A or B on the unit test I will drop a low quiz score if they print out their Edline progress report and get it signed by a parent. Our quizzes are not easy and if they have learned the material by the end of the unit they deserve the credit.
DeleteI agree that we should be doing more formative. I see it helping the kids too--some of them wrote "I got it" on the Bohr and Lewis Dot 1-2-3 exit slip, but had done them completely wrong. I get a lot more kids coming to me and asking for help because they are getting pretty immediate feedback that they are not understanding. This is so important to them and to me as their teacher!
DeleteI, too, would like to see 7th grade science do formative assessments every week. Maybe on a Friday? I see them as a good check point before we move on with our lesson. Tammy, I also think it will take time to get our routine down (for me anyway) and actually stick to that routine. Of course, the more we do this, the easier it gets, right?
DeleteJohn, I am intrigued with the author mentioning embedded methods of formative assessment that kids don't even realize are going on... and these sound like no extra time involved other than making the adjustment. I wonder if, with use and experience, these will become second nature things yet very valuable for us. I agree with Carrie's comment on how kids seem to value the quick feedback. I have tried to get back with them within 24 hours... still fresh on their minds. I offer them chance to take home, and most have come back corrected! I am looking forward to seeing results of upcoming summative for these kids that received feedback and eagerly accepted it.
Delete1) Looking at Figure 1.1 on pg. 4, think about your use of these types of assessments in your classroom. What percent of your assessments are of each type?
ReplyDeleteAbout 70% of my assessments are formative; 20% summative; 10% Diagnostic
What percent of each type do you think we should do/ would you like to be doing and why?
I think the largest amount of our assessments should be diagnostic and formative
2) What does "assessment FOR learning" mean to you?
Students are given several chances to "learn' the material. Not just a one shot deal. Students are given time to correct their misconceptions and allowed to show you they know the material.
3) Which 2 or 3 of the 20 purposes for doing FACTs in Figure 1.2 on pg. 6 seem the most important to you and why?
1. Activate thinking and engage students in learning.
I think that getting students engaged in learning is the most important part. If they are not engaged it is difficult for them to learn and retaining any material
2. Help students recognize when they have learned or not learned something.
The reason for using diagnostic and formative assessments is to allow students to realize when they have not learned the material. Then allow them to re-test, make corrections, or show you in an alternative way that they know the material.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of a lesson.
Daily we need to evaluate whether or not our lesson was effective. We can adjust during class or re-teach the next day. Sometimes I think I have a good lesson only to realize that I may have thought it was the best way to get my students to learn, but, in fact it was not. two-three times a year I write "DO NOT USE AGAIN" in my daily planner for lesson that did not accomplish my goal.
4) What will you need to do to make a shift to a formative assessment-centered classroom? What will the challenges be? What will the rewards be?
I need to use more diagnostic assessments to make my classroom more formative assessment-centered.
The challenge will be to consciously develop these before my lesson.
I think the rewards will be two-fold: my students can learn before their weekly quiz what they are struggling with and I can adjust my lesson plans for the week to accommodate for the struggling students.
1 hour
I'm surprised that we didn't match everything exactly and a little scared that we matched as well as we did without even talking about it :)
DeleteI agree that we need to plan ahead for the formative and diagnostic assessments that we will use. I'm thinking of tracking it as we plan so we can use it as our evidence for OTES as well. I have an idea in mind, I'll show you this week.
I agree that formative allows students to realize they have not learned the material. Some actually think they've learned it and haven't, and some need frequent reminders that they are not on track and that they need to see me for help. I've gotten more requests for help since I've started using these more often.
Delete1. In years past I mainly used summative assessments, given at the end of units. At the beginning of a unit I would often verbally ask students to share prior knowledge or experiences. From this I could get a feel for preconceptions / misconceptions that may need attention during the unit. More recently I’ve employed a diagnostic at the start of units to discover strengths and weaknesses, preconceptions, and help guide pace and instruction focus. I think a 10% diagnostic, 60% formative, and 30% summative would be a good formula. The formative component would provide quality, continual feedback for students throughout a unit and also help me customize lessons to best meet student needs prior to the summative assessment.
ReplyDelete2. To me, “assessment FOR learning” means assessments should be considered tools to enhance the learning process rather than just a way to collect data on the final product. Varied assessments throughout a unit (some of which are imbedded within lessons and don’t even look or feel like assessments to students) can provide feedback to students and get them back on course to hit the learning targets. Frequent data collection throughout the unit provides teachers feedback that can help guide instructional approaches to help students succeed/learn.
3. I picked “help students recognize when they have learned and not learned something”. Students should take more ownership of their learning…. feedback from FA’s could, over time, teach students how to self-monitor their learning and revisit material if needed rather than move on and hope for the best (life-long skill). I also picked “differentiate instruction for individuals or groups of students” as formative assessments provide teachers with feedback concerning student strengths and weaknesses, guiding adjustments in planning or pacing that best meet individual student/whole group needs.
4. The first thing I need to do is exactly what I’m doing in this book study / blog… educate myself on various forms of FA’s and how to best use the data received from them. I am looking forward to discovering (have not peeked yet) the various forms of FA’s in the book. I perceive TIME as a challenge, yet look forward to learning about embedding certain FA’s into instruction (I’m thinking these take minimal time, and go unnoticed by potential quiz-weary students). The rewards will knowing my students as individual learners… how to help them proceed successfully through units and reach learning targets.