As there are only a few short weeks of summer left, and I begin to think about the upcoming school year, I reflect on what I have learned in CEP 813 this semester and our discussions on assessment. In CEP 813 we spoke about assessment, and at the beginning of the semester I posted about what I believed were 3 important thoughts to consider when thinking about assessment. If you want to read about my original thoughts that post can be found here. Although my thoughts have not completely changed, I do have some new thoughts, as well as, some reiterations on the thoughts I previously had on assessment.
My original beliefs on assessment as outlined in my blog post were that assessment should always drive instruction. Also, that assessment should always have purpose. In other words we as educators should never give an assessment without having a plan for that assessment. Last I thought that students need to be apart of the assessment, and in my post I mentioned pre assessments and expectations to be apart of involving students. Now that I have experienced CEP 813 and have a better understanding on assessment, I have some new considerations on my original thoughts. I still think my beliefs have an importance in the role of assessing but my thoughts on their importance are more clear now.
First when thinking about how assessing should drive instruction. I originally thought that meant looking at an assessment and seeing where to go next in teaching. Which is a pretty simple thought in the grand scheme of assessment. According to Wiggins and McTighe, we need to look at assessment and planning in the view of a designer. “Good design, then, is not so much about gaining a few new technical skills as it is about learning to be more thoughtful and specific about our purposes and what they imply.” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) The article goes on to talk about how in order to obtain the desired results we as educators need to consider the lessons and units leading up to the desired results. We can have the most amazing lessons ever but if they are not considering the desired results of the assessment then they are really not serving their purpose. Taking one more step back, if we are not considering how the students will benefit from the lesson to achieve the desired result, then truly we are wasting our time. By taking a backward design approach, all of the steps leading up to the assessment are carefully thought through, and are designed around the end result. Which leaves the teacher with an assessment that truly does reflect the lessons taught. I make this the first point in my ADC 3.0 as I talk about how lessons and assessments should effect each other.
My next thought from my original post was that assessment should have purpose. I do think now this goes along with lessons reflecting assessment, however, this is a belief I still have. Shepard reaffirmed my belief when she stated, “The content of assessments should match challenging subject matter standards and serve to instantiate.”(Shepard, 2000). To me this statement defined what purpose was to me when I thought about assessment. My original thought on this belief was sparked, as my district adopts a new reading curriculum. While we were unpacking the curriculum we were left with almost 8 possible ELA assessments we could give. That is an overwhelming number of assessments, some were redundant, some had upgraded approaches. However, until we found the purpose of using these assessments we could not determine which would be used. After taking this course I feel that I have some new ideas to consider when thinking about purpose with assessments. After working on my formative assessment design, I had to think about what the purpose of that assessment would be. Originally I had it set up as a summative assessment but after some tweaking I was able to make it a formative assessment. When creating assessments knowing the difference between the two assessments, can change the purpose of the assessment tremendously. In terms of the assessment I designed on the water cycle the purpose of each step assessed would tell me if the students understood the process. So thinking about the purpose and designing lessons around that purpose is very important. When thinking about how to apply games to assessing I had to consider the purpose as well, when putting my game together. I had to think about procedural rhetoric and apply that to the purpose (semiotic domain) of what I wanted the students to learn as they entered the world of words.
Lastly, I thought originally that students should be apart, of the assessment process. I articulated this in my first post by saying they should have clear expectations. Now I think that is only a small fraction of how you can involve students in the assessment process. From feedback, to self evaluations students should have almost an equal role in the assessment process. Hattie and Timperley talk about how feedback can support learning gains by offering students a chance to revise, tune and rethink their work (Hattie and Timperley 2007). However, that feedback has to be effective. Not a simple nice job. Using my ADC 3.0 I outlined this by using the 7 principles of good feedback. I demonstrated this even further in my Game based assessment when giving students specific feedback after each level played. I went a step further with that game, at the end by giving them time to to reflect and decide if they need more practice, or more time to review, or if they feel good and are ready to move on. Including students in the reflection process is a a great way to gauge how they feel about their understanding. Another great way I have gotten to apply feedback was using my Classroom Management system which I spoke about in a previous blog post. I found that CMS’s make assessing as well feedback more convenient and purposeful.
I have continued to keep my beliefs on assessment but, through my work in this course I have been enlightened about my original ideas, as well as, have some new thoughts on assessment. One of those new thoughts are that assessment needs to take on a new look. They need to be more engaging. As talked about in Mishra and Mehta’s 2017 article we are assessing 21st century learners using 20th century type assessments. Although this is not something that can be controlled with standardized tests we can control how we assess in our classrooms, and take the steps to make assessments more engaging. Another thought that I have about assessments is that we as teachers need to make assessing easier for us. These essentially are tools for us to use to drive instruction, and by using technology as well as a backward design approach to developing our assessments, they can aid our teaching in a whole new way. Sams and Bergmann do a really great job of showing how a flipped classroom can work to engage the teacher and the student in to 21st century learning and assessing and have given me new thought as I consider to using CMS’s and Electronic Assessments. “Education is for everyone, but the way in which we deliver education and the way in which students receive it is not the same for everyone.”(Sams & Bergmann, 2013) CMS, and Electronic Assessments make learning more engaging and accessible for all, and give the teacher access to new forms of data that previously they may not have had.
Overall this course challenged me more than any other course I took in the MAET program. I rethought every think I already knew about assessment, and I am excited to apply my new knowledge as I dive into the upcoming school year. Whether it is rethinking some old outdated assessments, or creating new digital assessments, I feel equipped to take on assessing my 21st century students using 21st century skills.
References
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.
Mishra, P., & Mehta, R. (2017). What we educators get wrong about 21st-century learning: Results of a survey. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 33, 6-19.
Nicol, D., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199–218
Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.
Sams, A., & Bergmann, J. (2013). Flip your students’ learning. Educational Leadership, 70(6), 16-20.
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (Vol. Expanded 2nd ed). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Learning with Lindsay 