This semester, in both instructional design and social studies, forms of assessments have been an important piece of each course. When you start to unpack different kinds of assessment strategies it makes me feel both overwhelmed and supported at the same time. Overwhelmed with the idea that because there are so many pieces, there are many elements to use and confuse (as noted in all of the bad assessment samples). The variety also makes me feel supported to know that as the classroom teacher, I am still provided with the choice to determine how I’m going to evaluate what my students have learned. For me, rubrics are a significant contributing piece to my success as a student at UR. It helps me to outline and define clear expectations as well as the ability to compare and contrast what is important/relevant and what is not. That being said, using these rubrics for performance-based assessments seems to be dauntingly inconsistent across educators. Like Deborah brought up in class, it also seems at times unrealistic that teachers will have such time to set aside to making “grading” consistent and equitable across the board. I am still wondering, if we aren’t giving percentage grades on all performance-based assessment, is the grade more for us as teachers to understand where our students are, rather than students trying to reach some numerical achievement? I really appreciated the review of bad examples of assessment. I have experienced assessment in both good and bad ways and this class has really demonstrated a clear path to providing good questions that require students to incorporate the six competencies in Deep Learning and more. What really resonates with me is that it’s not about trying to trick students, or to make questions as difficult as possible, but to provide and create questions that encourage critical thinking and information recall in a way that they can apply knowledge and not just regurgitate it.
2 thoughts on “Week 6”
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Stephanie,
I’m glad you are seeing connections across classes in this focus on assessment. It’s such an important part of the work we do as teachers. I agree that translating assessment scores into grading is a big piece of the puzzle we haven’t given a lot of attention to and it merits discussion. I believe every teacher needs a philosophy of grading. You might remember that I talked about this a few times in math. Should be we grading student work while they are in the learning phase? If we are using the work to formatively assess, why do we attach a number to it? If they are failing WHILE they learn, will they continue to dig in want/try to learn more or will they give up? I think teachers need to know what the school policy is (how many assignments are required to assign a grade) and then must think carefully about what work best allows students to demonstrate that they have mastered the content.
Stephanie,
Grading with rubrics can be a daunting task at the outset. However, when you really dig into the process it is pretty structured and easy to follow. Always begin with what it is that students need to know (standards and skills) and apply that to a common rubric. You will make tweaks to that rubric along to fit the context of your lesson. Also, if you collaborate with other teachers to create a rubric it will have a better chance at being equitable if more eyes are on it. It is certainly a shift in how we traditionally do business…but it is better for students in the long run.