1. Select four formative assessments from 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction and Learning.
· Describe the assessments that you selected and attach the assessment. (4 pts)
· How did you choose the assessment technique and the content assessed? (4 pts)
· What standards did the assessments address? (4 pts)
· R.A.F.T. – This is a writing strategy where students are given a Role, Audience, Format, and Topic (RAFT). The role is the point of view from which the student is writing (i.e. the first cell). The audience is to whom the writing is addressed (i.e. self, government, pen pal, etc.). The format is the style of writing which the student is asked to follow (i.e. newspaper journalist, diary, travel journal, etc.) The topic is the specific science concept the student is to write on (i.e. mitosis, acid rain, etc.). I chose this assessment because the concept which the students were learning (nutrient cycles - SC.912.L.17.10) was structured well for it. I was able to give the students a choice of role (water, nitrogen, or carbon) to write a travel journal about their journey through different reservoirs of each cycle, and how they changed throughout their journey. I asked students to choose the cycle which they felt most uncomfortable with, so that they would hopefully feel more comfortable correctly using the information presented about the different cycles.
· Fist-To-Five – This assessment is a quick way for students to indicate their understanding of a concept or procedure. Students are asked to raise one hand, showing a fist or any number of fingers, where a higher number of fingers raised represents a higher level of understanding. It can be used multiple times in a period as necessary. I chose this assessment because, as mentioned, it is quick and easy to use. However, for my students I tweaked the assessment so that students had their eyes closed during this assessment, so there was no peer pressure to put up a false number of fingers. I used this assessment when learning about vertebrate diversity (SC.912.L.15.7) because much of the information was presented via powerpoint and note-taking. This allowed me to know when to move on from a slide or section of the powerpoint, and when I needed to probe more and restructure presented information so students could better understand the information.
· Annotated Student Drawings – This is a written assessment where students make drawings to demonstrate the breadth of their understanding of a science concept, and add annotations to show the depth of their understanding. I chose to use this assessment with nutrient cycles as well (SC.912.L.17.10). The cycles are so hard to visualize because they are on such a large scale, that breaking the landscapes down into visual models helps cognitively developing students “wrap their heads around” the cycles. The notes with the drawings were used to show understanding of what reservoirs are connected, and how the nutrients travel from one to another. These drawings were done at the end of each period and reviewed by the teacher to see where common misconceptions or knowledge gaps were present.
· Wait Time Variations – By increasing or decreasing the amount of time you wait for student responses you can assess student comfort with concepts. If selected, usually slower students succeed in formulating expected answers with quick wait times (<2 seconds), you can deduce that the class has a firm grasp on the content. If students need more wait time, the opposite can be deduced.
2. Administer the assessments and collect student artifacts.
· I assessed 51 7th grade students and made necessary accommodations for students who were conscious of peer pressure, as mentioned in the Fist-To-Five FA. I also made accommodations for students who lacked creative writing skills, by allowing them to add drawings to aid their RAFTs. Conversely, students who lacked drawing skills were allowed to rely more on their annotations for their Annotated Drawings.
3. Select 1 of the assessments and develop a detailed rubric for scoring the assessment.
· Annotated Student Drawings
· Describe the assessments that you selected and attach the assessment. (4 pts)
· How did you choose the assessment technique and the content assessed? (4 pts)
· What standards did the assessments address? (4 pts)
· R.A.F.T. – This is a writing strategy where students are given a Role, Audience, Format, and Topic (RAFT). The role is the point of view from which the student is writing (i.e. the first cell). The audience is to whom the writing is addressed (i.e. self, government, pen pal, etc.). The format is the style of writing which the student is asked to follow (i.e. newspaper journalist, diary, travel journal, etc.) The topic is the specific science concept the student is to write on (i.e. mitosis, acid rain, etc.). I chose this assessment because the concept which the students were learning (nutrient cycles - SC.912.L.17.10) was structured well for it. I was able to give the students a choice of role (water, nitrogen, or carbon) to write a travel journal about their journey through different reservoirs of each cycle, and how they changed throughout their journey. I asked students to choose the cycle which they felt most uncomfortable with, so that they would hopefully feel more comfortable correctly using the information presented about the different cycles.
· Fist-To-Five – This assessment is a quick way for students to indicate their understanding of a concept or procedure. Students are asked to raise one hand, showing a fist or any number of fingers, where a higher number of fingers raised represents a higher level of understanding. It can be used multiple times in a period as necessary. I chose this assessment because, as mentioned, it is quick and easy to use. However, for my students I tweaked the assessment so that students had their eyes closed during this assessment, so there was no peer pressure to put up a false number of fingers. I used this assessment when learning about vertebrate diversity (SC.912.L.15.7) because much of the information was presented via powerpoint and note-taking. This allowed me to know when to move on from a slide or section of the powerpoint, and when I needed to probe more and restructure presented information so students could better understand the information.
· Annotated Student Drawings – This is a written assessment where students make drawings to demonstrate the breadth of their understanding of a science concept, and add annotations to show the depth of their understanding. I chose to use this assessment with nutrient cycles as well (SC.912.L.17.10). The cycles are so hard to visualize because they are on such a large scale, that breaking the landscapes down into visual models helps cognitively developing students “wrap their heads around” the cycles. The notes with the drawings were used to show understanding of what reservoirs are connected, and how the nutrients travel from one to another. These drawings were done at the end of each period and reviewed by the teacher to see where common misconceptions or knowledge gaps were present.
· Wait Time Variations – By increasing or decreasing the amount of time you wait for student responses you can assess student comfort with concepts. If selected, usually slower students succeed in formulating expected answers with quick wait times (<2 seconds), you can deduce that the class has a firm grasp on the content. If students need more wait time, the opposite can be deduced.
2. Administer the assessments and collect student artifacts.
· I assessed 51 7th grade students and made necessary accommodations for students who were conscious of peer pressure, as mentioned in the Fist-To-Five FA. I also made accommodations for students who lacked creative writing skills, by allowing them to add drawings to aid their RAFTs. Conversely, students who lacked drawing skills were allowed to rely more on their annotations for their Annotated Drawings.
3. Select 1 of the assessments and develop a detailed rubric for scoring the assessment.
· Annotated Student Drawings
This rubric was used for each of three cycles: water, carbon, and nitrogen, and a total of 27 points (9 x 3) were possible for this assessment.
4. Analyze student results using the rubric.
· Students were nonchalant about completing these drawings the first day, but realized their importance when the following class was opened with a review of the material. The two other days students were much more open to these assessments. As a result, students overall work improved from day to day.
· The first day, most students (78%) did not have any scores of 3 points from the rubric, and the class averages were 60% and 55% respectively. The second day, class averages rose to 83.3% and 80% respectively, and the overall quality of work was also vastly improved. The final day, students had a bit more time to work on this assessment. However, class averages only rose to 85% and 84% respectively. The main loss of points were from a lack of annotated arrows.
· The drawings were made in their composition books, and thus could not be scanned and shown here.
5. Reflect on student understanding based on results obtained using the rubric.
· I was surprised that students were consistently unable to come up with enough correctly annotated arrows to complete their diagrams, because a point of emphasis was that “cycle” does not mean “circle”, and nutrients can change and go to many different reservoirs from one. I was also surprised that some students seemingly refused to try and make nice diagrams from which they could study from. I pointedly asked them review questions the following mornings, and they seemed to know the content, they just refused to put the effort into showing it, which was surprising.
· One thinking pattern that I learned about is that some students, even very bright and gifted ones, don’t care enough to apply themselves and do good work in class. It showed me that I have to more to find out what inspires the students and what makes them motivated. Another thinking pattern that was evident was that some students will do shoddy work until they know that it will be graded. It was evident that once students knew that the drawings were being assessed that they were more engaged in class both in inquiry dialogue and note-taking. I will use this to my advantage to keep those students engaged in the future.
6. Address how the assessment will inform your instruction and address student needs.
Discuss the instructional implications stemming from the assessment (i.e., how will the results alter the way that you teach the class now that you have more information about how they think)?
4. Analyze student results using the rubric.
· Students were nonchalant about completing these drawings the first day, but realized their importance when the following class was opened with a review of the material. The two other days students were much more open to these assessments. As a result, students overall work improved from day to day.
· The first day, most students (78%) did not have any scores of 3 points from the rubric, and the class averages were 60% and 55% respectively. The second day, class averages rose to 83.3% and 80% respectively, and the overall quality of work was also vastly improved. The final day, students had a bit more time to work on this assessment. However, class averages only rose to 85% and 84% respectively. The main loss of points were from a lack of annotated arrows.
· The drawings were made in their composition books, and thus could not be scanned and shown here.
5. Reflect on student understanding based on results obtained using the rubric.
· I was surprised that students were consistently unable to come up with enough correctly annotated arrows to complete their diagrams, because a point of emphasis was that “cycle” does not mean “circle”, and nutrients can change and go to many different reservoirs from one. I was also surprised that some students seemingly refused to try and make nice diagrams from which they could study from. I pointedly asked them review questions the following mornings, and they seemed to know the content, they just refused to put the effort into showing it, which was surprising.
· One thinking pattern that I learned about is that some students, even very bright and gifted ones, don’t care enough to apply themselves and do good work in class. It showed me that I have to more to find out what inspires the students and what makes them motivated. Another thinking pattern that was evident was that some students will do shoddy work until they know that it will be graded. It was evident that once students knew that the drawings were being assessed that they were more engaged in class both in inquiry dialogue and note-taking. I will use this to my advantage to keep those students engaged in the future.
6. Address how the assessment will inform your instruction and address student needs.
Discuss the instructional implications stemming from the assessment (i.e., how will the results alter the way that you teach the class now that you have more information about how they think)?