Assessment was always a scary word for me. I always thought they required pencil, paper, and a time limit. As I have been working though the course work for this endorsement, I have learned that assessments can be anything to help you realize if your students are learning what you have intended. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this particular course. I felt that all of the assignments we were asked to create were things that I could use in my PE classes.
Module 3 dove into the development of summative and formative assessments. One of the articles written by the faculty of the NIU Development and Instructional Design Center broke down the components of each type of assessment and explained what each one entails. You can read the full article here. This article can be used as a starting point for many teachers, myself included. However, the more I dove into this article and the others in this module, I realized that I was doing most of the examples in my classes, I just wasn't classifying them correctly. I also took to heart the video of Rick Wormeli on "Defining Mastery". There is a section in there where he gives an example of a student asking to bring their grade up and he responds by asking the student to show him evidence of their learning rather than doing a random project rather than learning and experiencing the material. Rick goes on to say that when you allow redo's and make-ups, extra credit becomes obsolete because the student can now earn a grade as high as they want and so ends the bartering for grades. I never looked at giving extra credit as bartering for grades but even in PE, students will ask how they can raise their grade when they did not participate during a fitness day or they did not do well on a test/quiz. This video has definitely helped me look beyond my current philosophy of grading and I have been slowly making changes.
Overall, this course has pushed me the most to change certain aspects of the assessments I give to my classes. I have been able to help my students on a higher level because I have a better understanding what they should be learning and how they are able to learn.
Overall, this course has pushed me the most to change certain aspects of the assessments I give to my classes. I have been able to help my students on a higher level because I have a better understanding what they should be learning and how they are able to learn.
Hi Valerie,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your initial fear of assessments - I feel/felt the same way! I agree though that this class has helped us see that there are so many variations to how "assessment" works now though, and how useful they can be in so many areas of education. I agree too this will help me better guide my students based on where they are currently & how they can best progress.
Good job assessing how you give grades and reflecting on how you might improve. I was struck by the same notion of extra credit & student mastery after watching the video. Do my ways of assessing students truly reflect mastery? I was challenged to allow students to rework their projects and resubmit. Often times I want the control of starting and finishing projects before moving on. I enjoyed reading your blog and learning from you during this course! Good luck this year!
ReplyDeleteValerie,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of reflecting on your own practices as an educator. I really connected with the article by Rick Wormely as well. I think that we are starting to realize how important the process of attaining mastery really is. There is so much more to a grade than just a final product.
I am glad that the Wormeli video on mastery got you thinking. Grades and mastery can be, and usually are, two completely different things. I am sure your reflecting on this has lead you to some great conversations with other teachers and rethinking how things are done.
ReplyDelete