Week 9

Essential question: What assessments will I use in my UBD Unit, and what is the purpose of these assessments?

For my unit, the first assessment I will use is a classroom poll. When the class does the poll, they will go online and go to a url that I provide. The answers that are chosen will show on my computer screen and we can go over them as a class once they have all been answered. Below is an image of what it could look like when answered.

The second assessment is a self-evaluation. I choose this because “we want our children and adolescents to be the self-assessors of their work, dispositions, and goals” (Desautels, 2014).

Book Self-Evaluation Name: Book Title: 1.       Researching and creating this book was (Hard   Easy) to complete because ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 2.       The part of creating this book that I did the best was ____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 3.       I could have done a better job if ______________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 4.       The technology I used in this process included ___________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 5.       After completing the book, I felt____________________________________ because________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 6.       Working with my group went ________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 7.       I would rate my work on the book as (Excellent   Good   Fair   Poor) because ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

I use a lot of formative assessments when teaching in the elementary school. One reason for this is because “tests are not real measurements of what matters most in education” (Wheatley, 2015 p.15). We have to make sure that students see the power of leaning and that it is much more than a grade. Test can also be a big stressor and cause students to consider cheating. When setting up the classroom environment maybe consider that “it would be pointless to cheat if you were interested in the learning itself” (Kohn, 2015). Talking about how learning is one of the most important things within the classroom and how to make it the highest priority.  

Alber said, “low-stakes assessments are really the most important and useful student data” (2011) and shores stated that, assessments “are powerful instructional tools for improv- ing the learning of students” (2009 p.34). If an assessment is used correctly it is nothing but beneficial for teachers and students. The teacher should make sure that the assessment is being used to better understand were students need more support and in what areas they have mastered the content. When looking at the school year as a whole it might be beneficial to look at it with the idea of “You just need a formative assessment toolbox, and you need to use it every day” (Davis, 2015).

References

Alber, R. (2011, December 06). 3 Ways Student Data Can Inform Your Teaching. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-student-data-inform-teaching-rebecca-alber

Davis, V. (2015, January 15). 5 Fantastic, Fast, Formative Assessment Tools. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis

Desautels, L. (2014, August 13). Self-Assessment Inspires Learning. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-assessment-inspires-learning-lori-desautels

Kohn, A. (2015, March 26). Who's Cheating Whom? Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/whos-cheating/

Shores, C., & Chester, K. (2009). Using RTI for School Improvement : Raising Every Student’s Achievement Scores. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin.

Wheatley, K. (2015). Factors that Perpetuate Test-Driven, Factory-Style Schooling: Implications for Policy and Practice. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Educational Research Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 1-17.