#7 Assessing Student Learning

 

Description

The ability to assess student learning stems from knowing what the learning objective is and how to assess it (Slavin, 2018). Assessment can be formal or informal and should guide instruction (Slavin, 2018).

 

Analysis

Instructional objectives can be described as the goal of the lesson or what you want the students to be able to know or do (Slavin, 2018). A teacher can have general learning objectives for a unit and a learning objective specific to one lesson. The objective usually clearly states how it will be measured (Slavin, 2018). There will be a condition stated for the measurement used, an action verb, and the criterion for successful completion (Slavin, 2018).

 

To write specific and measurable goals, teachers can look at performing a task analysis (Slavin, 2018). A skill can be decomposed into prerequisite skills and component skills that need to be addressed and combined for understanding of the learning skill (Slavin, 2018). Backward planning is taking a broad objective and narrowing it down to a specific behavioral objective (Slavin, 2018). It is much like planning for a year, units, and lessons.

 

When assessing students, it is a best practice to link the learning objective to what is being assessed. Assess what is taught and at the level of understanding that it was taught (Slavin, 2018). Bloom’s Taxonomy has six levels of understanding that should be taken into consideration for the lesson content and measurement. Each level is not for every purpose and the developmental level of students should be taken into consideration (Slavin, 2018). 1) Knowledge (recall); 2) Comprehension-understand and use it; 3) Application- use to solve real-world problems; 4) Analysis-look for patterns; 5) Synthesis- create something new; 6) Evaluation-judge against a standard (Slavin, 2018). A behavior content matrix can be used to map out how to meet students at different levels (Slavin, 2018).

 

Research on instructional objects shows that student’s reading and math scores were level with the degree they were tested (Slavin, 2018). Objectives help teachers plan, guide evaluation, and improve student achievement (Slavin, 2018). They should be broad enough to cover what was taught. Teachers need to check for understanding by evaluating learning and giving feedback to students and parents. Evaluations are used for placement, entrance to universities, and employer requirement. The feedback can let students know what they need to work on and inform teachers on the effectiveness of instruction (Slavin, 2018). The information from evaluations can be used to inform parents on student progress and as a means for reinforcement at home (Slavin, 2018). In the classroom, evaluations can be used to inform groups for advancement or remediation. It can also hold teachers, schools, and districts accountable (Slavin, 2018).

 

There are different types of assessments to evaluate student learning: formative, summative, norm-referenced, criterion-referenced evaluations. Formative assessment is given more frequently to gauge how students are understanding concepts in incremental stages; feedback should be quick and used to improve instruction and student understanding (Slavin, 2018). Summative assessments are given at the end of the unit and should be tied to the more frequent formatives and learning objectives (Slavin, 2018). Norm-referenced assessments compare students with other students of similar demographic groups (Slavin, 2018). Criterion-referenced assessments focus on master of specific skills, they can be stand alone assessments or questions within the state-mandated test (Slavin, 2018). Formative assessment are usually criterion referenced and summative can be either norm or criterion (Slavin, 2018).

 

Student achievement is higher when students receive immediate feedback (Slavin, 2018, p.351). Students can reflect on learning and focus on improvement. Teachers need to make sure feedback is frequent, when formative assessments are given (Slavin, 2018). Awards can be given as incentives in the classroom or at home when parents are involved (Slavin, 2018). Students should know their strengths and weaknesses and even how they compare to others. Summative assessments should reflect the formative assessments in format and level of understanding (Slavin, 2018).

 

To construct an effective achievement test, teachers need to keep six things in mind. 1) Achievement tests should measure learning objectives that are aligned to instructional objectives; 2) Achievement tests tasks should represent a sample of learning tasks and should not trick/surprise students; 3) Achievement tests items should be appropriate for what is being tested; 4) Achievement tests should test based on specific data collected (recent-formative, broad concepts- summative); 5) Achievement tests should be reliable but recognized as just one data point; 6) Achievement tests are meant to improve learning (Slavin, 2018). Using a table of specifications can help with test creation but categorizing objectives and their level of understanding (Slavin, 2018). It is a tool to aid in test creation. Selective response test items should be clear and not confuse students, such as multiple-choice, true/false, and matching items (Slavin, 2018). These types of questions can easily allow to guess, so it is important to also give constructed response or essay items (Slavin, 2018). When adding constructed response items, it is best practice that students have had formative assessments that were also constructive response (Slavin, 2018). Students should be given adequate time to respond to essay items and directions should be clear and to allow students to know what is expected of an exemplar essay (Slavin, 2018). A rubric is a great resource for students. Teachers should give feedback for students to improve when essays are given as a formative assessment (Slavin, 2018). Peer evaluations can help students improve writing as well as problem solving assessments (Slavin, 2018).

 

Real means of documenting student learning is accomplished through authentic, portfolio, and performance assessments (Slavin, 2018). These are ways for student to demonstrate real learning that is not so formal. According to Slavin (2018), some examples of authentic learning are a longer passage to show deeper understanding (reading), experiments (science), complex physical problems that require creativity (math), and writing real letters or newspaper articles (p.368). Portfolios allow students to collect work samples that can show improvement/progress over time and are a great tool for communicating with parents and allowing students to self-reflect (Slavin, 2018). Performance assessments allow students to demonstrate knowledge or skills in real life (Slavin, 2018). They are only effective if students have a broad understanding of a topic (Slavin, 2018). Scoring rubrics should be provided well in advance for students to know what is expected and how they will be evaluated (Slavin, 2018). Students can be evaluated using technology through digital games and simulations (Slavin, 2018).

 

Grades have been used for along time as a form of feedback, although they can be a confusing form of feedback. The meaning of grades should be given and reflect the level of student effort and understanding (Slavin, 2018). Sometimes student grades are more a reflection of the level of difficulty of a test (Slavin, 2018). Absolute grading is criterion-referenced grading and relative grading is given according to student rank in class (Slavin, 2018). This can cause undo competition which can harm peer collaboration (Slavin, 2018). Scoring rubric should define expectations. Other alternative grading systems are contract grading, mastery grading, and grades that reflect improvement and effort (Slavin, 2018). Grade weights for report cards should reflect what is most important to the teacher/school/district (Slavin, 2018). Grades should never be a surprise and prior communication should have happened between parent(s)/student/teacher on how to improve grades (Slavin, 2018).

 

Reflection

My main source of assessing student learning is using formative assessments. In the past, I have used spiral reviews to access how much students have retained overtime. I have used questioning as quick check and to encourage engagement since I pull sticks so students do not know when they will be called on. I have used weekly quizzes, but I have not graded the quizzes with the class. I have learned it is better to grade the quizzes immediately so students will get the feedback they need on their strengths and weaknesses. This is something I will do moving forward. I have used student journals to allow students to self-reflect on the learning objective, and it was usually in the form of an exit ticket. Most of my exit tickets are open-ended questions that tie directly to the learning objective. I will call randomly on students to share their responses and I will give immediate feedback or even call on another student to expound on the response given. The only downside to this has been that students who struggle with writing seem to never finish their response before the bell rings. I plan to periodically offer Flipgrid to record their responses, but I do not rely solely on this, because my assessments have written responses to them.

 

I do want to be more creative with my assessments by having more authentic assessments. Our school mandated we use the assessments from the curriculum that was adopted, and they are the same format (matching, short answer, and claim-evidence-reasoning responses. This year, I will be the gifted and talented teacher, so I plan to have a variety of assessments, such as projects, portfolios to document our discovery days on the hiking trails, and performance tasks. I will provide rubrics so students will know exactly what will be graded and expected. I want my students to be involved with parent/teacher conferences so the portfolio will help facilitate the student-led conferences.

 

I plan to be very selective when I write assessments to pay attention that they reflect the learning target and what was taught in class. I want my assessments to also reflect the style of teaching. I will not be grading in the traditional sense, but I want my students to get the feedback necessary for improvement. I hope by using alternative ways of assessment, students and parents will get an accurate picture of what the student can do and how much growth they have made. In the past, I have given summative assessments and then moved on because of pacing constraints. I believe formative assessments are the most valuable assessment in guided my planning, teaching practices, pacing, and how I choose to reach my students. I look forward to being better at utilizing assessments and the data I glean.

 

References

Slavin, R. E. (2018). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

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