As I wrap up my current thoughts on assessment and begin prepping for the upcoming school year, I decided to reflect on what I’ve learned and what I believe. I said it from the beginning that assessment in the classroom is beneficial, can take many forms, and needs time. I still agree with these sentiments and found an abundance of research to support it. My Three Beliefs:Assessment is beneficial.First, assessment is beneficial to use in the classroom, if crafted and used properly. A quality assessment can provide a teacher with the data they need to inform further instruction, address students who need remediation, and understand where students are in their learning progress. A quality assessment can also allow students to understand the goals they are attempting to achieve and access where they are at in meeting them. Teachers can use assessments to communicate with students and give them feedback on their progress. Teachers also can receive feedback on what needs to be retaught or misconceptions that need to be corrected. To design this quality assessment, teachers must begin with the learning goals first. Meyer et al. (2014) state, “Clear learning goals are the foundation of any effective curriculum. Only by clarifying what we want to accomplish and when-in the next 10 minutes, in the next lesson, in the next year - can we begin to consider what assessments, methods, and materials will be most effective” (p. 70). Once clear goals are established, teachers can begin to craft lessons and assessments that acquire students’ understanding. By everyone knowing the goals, students and teachers can both find success in the classroom and see the benefit of assessments. Assessment comes in many forms.Assessment can come in many different forms. However, again, they need to be of quality no matter the form and keep the learning goals as their focus. Right now, at least in my experience, this is not the case, for multiple reasons. According to Lorrie A. Shepard (2000), “many teachers rely on a traditional, pre-test-posttest design to document student progress, but then do not use information from the pretest in instruction” (p.11). This system of pre-test and post-test has become ingrained in many classrooms, as teachers are asked to provide data showing student growth. While this could be used as a growth measure, many teachers, as Shepard suggested, do not analyze the pre-test data enough to adjust their instruction. Also, many assessments today force students into using memorization strategies to do well, instead of applying concepts they’ve learned. After Black and Wiliam reviewed 578 publications, it was determined that most classroom assessment today “typically encourages superficial and rote learning, concentrating on recall of isolated details, usually items of knowledge which pupils soon forget…” (Hattie and Timperley, 2007, p.101). Students study and memorize content, only to forget it after the assessment. This is unacceptable and teachers need to focus on creating assessments, whether electronic or on paper, that are of value, are goal-focused, and do not promote recall in any way. Assessments can take many forms, but they need to have a quality purpose at the same time. Assessment needs time.In order for assessments to be beneficial and engaging, teachers need time, support, and collaboration to create them. When designing assessments, Hattie and Timperley (2007) suggest that teachers should be “devising assessment tasks that provide information and interpretations about the discrepancy between current status and the learning goals at any of the three levels: about tasks, about the processes or strategies to understand the tasks, and about the regulation engagement, and confidence to become more committed to learn” (p.101). That way, teachers are providing students with information about the task, the process, and building their confidence to achieve the designated learning goal. That needs time. Many researchers also recommend that teachers get collaboration time, in order for other teachers to examine and critique teacher-made assessments. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) wrote, “Participants in peer review sessions regularly comment on the value of sharing and discussing curriculum and assessment designs with colleagues” (p. 27). This collaboration can allow teachers to receive feedback and share ideas about their assessments. It also enables their assessments to be checked for bias, which helps all students show their understanding in the most accurate way. This all takes time and teachers need it to create valuable, creative, engaging, goal-oriented assessments. Change in Beliefs:While my views on assessment never really changed, they did become stronger reading through a lot of the research. Every time I was introduced to a concept, like feedback, universal design for learning, game-based assessment, etc., it always seemed to connect to one of these main ideas. I really appreciated updating my Assessment Design Checklist with new criteria for teacher-made assessments. In my first blog post about assessment, I stated that assessment is beneficial due to the feedback that teachers and students receive. While this is true, that can only happen if students truly understand the learning goals and the assessments align with them. I’d always thought about making my assessments more goal-oriented and that is supported by research. Black and Wiliam support this statement by stating, “...pupils can assess themselves only when they have a sufficiently clear picture of the targets that their learning is meant to attain” (p. 143). The self-assessment is something that I feel I don’t challenge my students to do often, especially when I’m not confident they understand the true learning targets. However, that piece is vital to making an assessment beneficial in the classroom and therefore, it would be a phenomenal contribution to my learning environment to make some changes. Application of Beliefs:Learning more about how assessments should really assess the learning goals made me think that my classroom as a whole should be more goal-driven. Students should understand the goals and be able to successfully self-assess their progress toward those goals. A lot of my 8th-grade Literature class is about preparation for high school and if students can master the goals in my class, they are more than ready to continue on in their journey. Black and Wiliam (1998) argue, “What is needed is a culture of success, backed by a belief that all pupils can achieve” (p.142). This belief system is definitely something I want to promote with my students, where students support one another as we all work to obtain the same goals. Hopefully, by changing the mindset in my classroom and promoting the achievement of goals, students will be able to take ownership of their learning and truly put in their best effort. The assessments then serve as self-assessments and opportunities for me as the teacher to inform and support my students. For example, instead of asking students to recall details of a book they read, I will challenge them to cite evidence from the novel that supports their response to a given prompt. This shift in mindset was crucial for me and I hope it will be for my students too. With everything going on in our world today, the assessments that I create should not only be goal-oriented and engaging but also free from testing memorization and promoting any bias. “Perhaps most important, assessment tools should be just as diverse as the students who take them” (Milner, 2018, p.88-89). Assessments should be diverse in all types of ways, from form to goal to task. This will cause students to feel more engaged in my class, which may support them to become lifelong learners. According to Gee (2003), “...most important, people need to be able to learn to be literate in new semiotic domains throughout their lives” (p.19). Students need to learn all kinds of content throughout life, but by establishing clear goals and assessing themselves along the way, students are on track for success both inside and outside the classroom. ReferencesBlack, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-144, 146-148.
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. Meyer, A. Rose, D.H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning: Theory and practice. Wakefield, MA: CAST. Milner, H.R. (2018). Confronting inequity/assessment for equity. Educational Leadership, 75(5), 88-89. Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14. Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jennifer StirlingThis is my #MAET journey! Thanks for reading! Archives
August 2020
CategoriesThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |