Watch the video from 18:30 to 20:15
What am I trying to collect evidence of?
Write a post reflecting on the following:
- Thinking about the first 4 components of a "good" assessment (Alignment, Impact, Reliability and Quantity) what are your thoughts on these and how you use them to create assessments in Science? What areas may you need to work on?
-Comment on a colleagues post
I think it is important to look at the first 4 components and, depending on the type of assessment, create the assessment that best fits the needs of your students. Whether my students are required to bubble in the correct answer, produce tangible products, or by a student performance, the assessment should strive to include all of the necessary components as appropriate for a first grade learner. An area that I need to work on is providing students feedback on their learning. It seems as though time flies in my class, and I am not always actively giving my students feedback on their work, as we move from one activity to another.
ReplyDeleteWendy-I agree that providing students with feedback is an area to work on. Other than the projects and experiments we incorporate for science, it is hard to give students a lot of feedback when we use mainly chapter and vocabulary. However, it is so difficult to give assessments in science that provide a lot of feedback because of the lack of time!
DeleteI know it is a totally different situation teaching high school, but we have incorporated a science study hall once every four days. I see all of my students and give them more feedback on how they are doing along with giving them strategies for being more successful on formal assessments.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea-I hear from our parents and even HS teachers that kids are "stuck" in study halls all afternoon, and what better way to get them more involved in their education than to peak their interest and offer additional support in a science study hall. I'm going to suggest this idea to our classroom assistant who has a daughter and son in high school.
DeleteWow! That's great to hear, I have only seen this done for Math, that's a great time to have.
DeleteOf the first 4 components of a good assessment, I think they are equally important, but I think alignment and impact resonate a little more with me. Alignment is obviously important because we are expected to address the standards in our curriculum so it only makes sense to ensure these two are in sync. I think it's also important so there is consistency across grade levels. The main purpose of assessments are to drive instruction and offer feedback, with this in mind impact on instruction should be addressed. Ongoing feedback from ongoing assessments will help motivate students.
ReplyDeleteI probably need to focus more on the attribute of impact. In science, it seems as though I introduce a topic, teach a few lessons on the topic, administer some form of assessment and move on to the next topic. In order to maximize the impact, it would make sense to introduce, teach, assess, give feedback, re-teach as needed, attend to any misconceptions, assess again, offer feedback, and continue the process as needed.
I appreciate your comments on impact. The biggest barrier to this is of course time. Constraints force teachers to move on to the next item on th ecurriculum map even though students may need more time on a particular topic.
DeleteThinking about the assessment I create, I feel all of these components are very important. In terms of alignment, is the assessment meeting one or more of the standards I need to cover in my curriculum. To me impact is even more important when using informal assessments. Since my informal assessments help me gauge how my students are progressing allowing me to reevaluate my decisions for future instruction.
ReplyDeleteThe reliability component is important when creating formal assessments to help students be prepared for a summative assessment at the end of the year. In my college class I use released part 2 short answer questions from previous exams. Many of the questions are similar in terms of the format, so I find it very helpful for students to become comfortable with the various question types. I also time my quizzes in my AP class to reflect the pace at which the student will need to work at on the AP exam.
Impact is the area I would like to work on more. Unfortunately time is always an issue. As mentioned in an earlier post all of my students have a study hall with me once every 4 days where I can monitor there progress. Many times I take the time to catch students up on labs they have missed which limits the time needed to consult with students regarding their performance on past asessments.
That's a great use of a study hall Richard! Wish we had them in elementary school.
DeleteI think aligment and impact are both the most important and the areas teachers focus most on. Quantity does not seem to be an issue, unless you consider how much science takes a back seat to ELA and Math. I think more time teaching science would lead naturally to more assessment, as it should. Reliability is not a big problem. Most teachers create their own exams or use text book created tests.
ReplyDeleteAlignment is improving. With STEM classrooms teachers can focus more on teaching processes so that students better understand them and improve their abilities on local and state assessments. Impact has also improved because students are now able to add to the continuum of the cycle of feedback to the teacher about their learning so that the teacher can inform their instruction.
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ReplyDeleteThe four components, alignment, impact on instruction, reliability, and quantity are all important when it comes to creating assessments. I think our assessments in science could improve in all of these areas. One of the biggest challenges is the students only take science every six weeks. Right now we use mainly basic tests, vocabulary quizzes, and short answer questions. Then we move on to the next chapter right after the test. It does show us if the students retained the material, but we definitely could be using more authentic ways to assess students. We have incorporated a scientific method experiment, animal research project, dolphins/porpoises essay, newspaper articles, and different writing assignments this year. However, I wish we could find time to use more of these and use less of the basic tests. These summative tasks cover the four components of assessments better than just basic tests or quizzes from the readings.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely a limiting factor Nicole, if you are only teaching science every six weeks. I can see why assessing the students would be a challenge.
DeleteI really see all four of these assessments tools being used on a daily basis. Almost every day when the kids walk into the room they are asked questions that make them draw upon their prior knowledge and self question what we discussed in class the day/days before. At the end of the chapter or topic summative tasks such as quizzes and tests help the teacher to determine if the kids are ready to move on to the next topic. Sometimes we go over certain parts but with so many hands on activities the kids are doing very well grasping the concepts this year.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that as far as alignment there simply isn't enough time to sit down every day and determine if we are aligned with the core curriculum. We would find out that the tasks and projects that we do daily always meet some aspect of the common core anyways.