I think that the McTighe reading tied in very well with the Shoob and Stout reading as well as the material covered in class. The McTighe reading described four key goals of education that I think should be covered in varied assessments. The first, knowledge, implies that the student should know what is factual and concrete like vocabulary and basic concepts. I think that this knowledge is foundational and necessary to achieve the other goals of education and should be tested in a concrete manner that has less variability in response. The second goal of education is for the learner to acquire basic skills. I believe that this should be assessed much like the reading puts it, with on a continuum through observation and examination once their is a final product. I believe that this goal allows for variability in assessment like creative projects and can be summative. The third goal is understanding of the “big idea”. This can be assessed through justification using evidence that I think can take place in argumentative or persuasive papers or a short answer test. The final goal of education is long-term transfer of knowledge. This means that the information you learned can be applied to a new situation. I think this can be assessed with hands-on creative projects as well where the student is given the liberty to apply the content to something they are interested in.
In the Shoob and Stout reading, I really liked the idea of using models of student work as examples for the different grading levels on the rubric. I think this gives students a better idea than just the rubric of what exactly their work should look like. I also think that incorporating self-assessment is key to the classroom environment because it creates accountability and ownership for student’s work. Additionally, I was intrigued by all of the intricacies of rubric making that we discussed in class. I see now that it is much more complex than writing simple categories and attaching them to numbers. Feedback is crucial for aiding students and nourishing their potential.
Mercedes,
First, I hope that you are feeling much better.
I appreciate the connections you make to the McTighe and they forms of assessment that might be used to see that students are qualified in each of the 4 areas described (knowledge, skills, understanding, transfer).
I am interested in digging a little deeper with you. How do you see this connecting to social studies? What skills do you see that should be developed? Where should we look for understanding of big ideas and transfer of skills?
Mercedes, thank you for the important connections to our class reading assignments. The idea of creating and using rubrics is such a critical element of performance assessments but a daunting task for many to think about. However, it does not have to be. If we always begin with the standards and what it is students must know and be able to do we will begin the process of building a rubric being aligned to the standards. This is a great start. Working with colleagues to build a rubric is the next best thing to do. The dialogue will be invaluable to the process.
I wonder how you will take the information you learned from our readings and class lesson to begin with the end in mind for a lesson you develop. I look forward to finding out.