Unit 3 - The Role of Assessment

A teacher has constructed a formative assessment to elicit student understanding related to the unit objectives. Which sample feedback would be most useful to a student who completed this formative assessment?

"It looks like you have a good grasp of symbolism and imagery. Nice job! Let's make sure we review personification, so we make sure we understand it more clearly."

Skills: Students will be able to: • Follow instructions in their lab kits for assembling garden boxes. • Use gardening process steps to plant seeds and monitor growth of herbs.

Section 5

Performance Tasks: Students create a two-minute presentation on the importance of sustainable farming and the challenges faced by farmers in areas facing famine and other areas lacking resources.

Section 6

Formative assessment performance is a good predictor of_________________.

student summative assessment performance

A science teacher provides the following feedback: "Each of you is making great progress with your DNA models. Just ensure that you focus not only on the shape but also on the component parts and their positions. That is just as important as the double helix and will account for a larger percentage of your grade."

Address the learner's advancement toward a goal.

Types of formative assessments include______________.

verbal feedback, checks, and self or peer assessments

Which rubric component is represented by "Communication among group members" in the rubric pictured?

Dimensions of the assignment

After a few more lessons teaching literary terms, Mrs. Yoshida gives students a task that will act as a second formative assessment. Students will write a paragraph or two that describes a personal experience. After revising students' writing for clarity, Mrs. Yoshida directs them to incorporate similes, metaphors, and imagery into their writing. On the final draft, Mrs. Yoshida directs students to identify at least one instance for each of these three elements in their writing by adding identifying notes in the margin where the elements are used. Which learning objective would align to this formative assessment?

"Using original writing samples, students should be able to incorporate and identify similes, metaphors, and imagery into their writing with 100 percent accuracy."

three stages of backward design

1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Anticipation Guides

A list of statements related to a topic that provoke disagreement and challenge students' beliefs about the topic. As knowledge unfolds and they develop a deeper understanding, students may revisit and change their viewpoints.

Why is a rubric a useful tool for assessment?

A rubric allows teachers to clearly lay out the task, the expectations, and how those expectations will be measured.

Response Cards or Small Dry Erase Boards

A student will hold up or display a colored sheet of paper or whiteboard in response to a teacher's question; when more than 20 percent of students make an error, the teacher may choose to reteach that content.

Individual Student Conferences

Allow teachers to learn about and record issues students are having; may inform differentiated teaching strategies to meet the varying needs of students.

Personal Response System (also referred to as an audience response system)

Allows for polling questions in a variety of question formats. Once the question has been captured, a bar or line graph displays an aggregate of group responses. May be used to reteach a concept if the class average is low; may also conduct item analysis on multiple questions to determine what needs to be retaught.

Which description characterizes a basic difference between assessment for learning and assessment of learning?

An assessment for learning is usually formative in nature, and assessment of learning is summative.

KWL Charts

Assess what students already know (K), what they would like to learn (W), and what they have learned (L), before instruction.

Explain how the purpose of formative assessment can change over the course of a unit of study.

At the beginning of a unit of study, a teacher can use formative assessment to determine what prior knowledge students bring, what needs students have that will inform the way they should be instructed, and what should be taught. As instruction continues, assessment is used to monitor student progress and to inform teachers about how to modify curriculum or instruction to meet student needs. Additionally, teachers can see what students are retaining, which instructional strategies are working, and how students might be able to apply their learning in other subjects.

A teacher tells a student, "You completed steps 1-5 correctly, but step 6 had some issues. Let's compare your work to this example so you will see where your calculation went off track."

Be as specific as possible.

Exit Slips

Contain a question for the day from the lesson. Students answer anonymously; data may be used for reteaching concepts prior to summative assessment.

Mrs. Yoshida, a language arts teacher, launched a unit teaching literary terms and how they are used in writing. Students have been actively working on the unit of study for a week. The teacher would now like to check for students' understanding of the concepts in the unit. Mrs. Yoshida would like to keep an efficient record of how individual students are gaining mastery in identifying and applying literary terms. What are two methods that will enable Mrs. Yoshida to keep track of which students are mastering which concepts?

During class discussion, Mrs. Yoshida keeps a ledger on her desk that enables her to write down immediately when a student demonstrates understanding. She has created a notation method where she uses abbreviations to quickly indicate student learning: familiarity (F) with a concept, working knowledge (WK), or mastery (M). Mrs. Yoshida establishes a system of stations throughout the classroom at which students may study particular literary devices. Students then self-select to take an "exit ticket" assessment to establish that they have mastered the concept. Mrs. Yoshida keeps a record on a spreadsheet that cross-references student names and concepts mastered.

How do you think this graphic describes the relationship between formative and summative assessments?

Each of the elements of formative assessments should align with what students will need to know, think, and do as part of their summative assessment.

Pre-assessments

Establish a baseline for educators to then measure learning progress during a reporting period

Summative assessment

Evaluate student learning at the conclusion of a learning unit

After Instruction Strategies

Exit Slips KWL Homework Assignments Individual Student Conferences Projects

Ms. Turay is concerned that a small group of students in her math class is falling behind in the coursework. Which type of formative assessment would provide immediate feedback about her students' understanding while respecting their anonymity?

Exit slip: At the end of class, students provide a quick, written answer to a question provided by the teacher. The teacher reviews them to gauge student learning of the concepts taught.

Mr. Yoshida is teaching a unit on human body systems. His learning objective reads, "Given an anatomical model of the cardiovascular system, students will be able to correctly identify structures and their functions with 85 percent accuracy." Which formative assessment measures the learning objective?

Flash cards with CV system structures and functions

Throughout a unit on literary terms, Mrs. Yoshida uses the following two formative assessment strategies: Formative Assessment Strategy 1—She hands out admit slips at the start of each class that provide an example of a new literary term that was introduced during the previous class session. Formative Assessment Strategy 2—While grading homework assignments or during group work in the classroom, she provides quality feedback, explaining what students have done well and what they need to do in order to improve their work. Which two purposes correspond to the two formative assessment strategies Ms. Yoshida has included in her instruction?

Formative Assessment Strategy 1—To check for understanding and comprehension Formative Assessment Strategy 2—To guide learning toward mastery

Following an activity in which students read a passage to express voice tone and inflection, the teacher says the following: "Before we move on, take 2-3 minutes to share peer feedback with your partner and compare their performance to the grading rubric you were each provided."

Give immediate feedback.

A standardized method of measuring student achievement

Grading

Pre-tests

Help guide teachers regarding their instructional emphasis based on student performance.

Classroom Discussions

Help teachers learn students' prior knowledge of a concept or subject matter.

Formative assessments

In-process evaluation of student learning; feedback gained informs instructors of what students are and are not learning so that teaching strategies may be adjusted as needed

Inter-Rater Reliability

Indicates how consistent test scores are likely to be if the test is scored by two or more raters.

Parallel-Forms Reliability

Indicates how consistent test scores on different forms of the assessment are.

Internal Consistency Reliability

Indicates the extent to which items on a test measure the same concept.

Test-Retest Reliability

Indicates the repeatability of test scores over time, based on the assessment content and its variability.

Projects

Individual or group projects that require steps should use a grading strategy that will allow a teacher to provide specific feedback concerning a student's performance on a particular step. Can then be used for reteaching and preparing students for summative assessment.

A second-grade teacher is going to assign students a short opinion paper as an assessment to measure their understanding of their recent writing lessons. Why is it important for the teacher to provide this rubric before students start writing?

It allows students to see exactly what the expectations for the assignment will be and what needs to be done to meet the expectations.

As students file into the classroom, Ms. Kalani greets each student, then gestures to the whiteboard, where an assessment question is displayed. "All right students, as we start this new unit, I'd like to see who did the reading last night and what you thought about it. Put up your things, and take out a sheet of paper and something to write with. I would like you to write down an answer to this question on the board to find out what you know about the topic. Then, we are going to investigate it further." Which type of assessment does this activity represent?

Pre-assessment

After teaching students how to measure the length of different items using a ruler, a teacher assesses students' learning of the following learning objective: Given a standard ruler, the student will determine the length of an object to the nearest ¼ inch and ½ centimeter. The summative assessment to be given to all students is as follows: Directions: On your desk are four objects: a pencil, a box, a paper leaf, and a marker. Use the ruler supplied to you to fill in the blanks below. Make sure all measurements are recorded to the nearest ¼ inch. 1. The length of the pencil is _______ inches. 2. The volume of the box is _______ cubic inches. 3. The width of the paper leaf is _______ inches. 4. The length of the marker is _______ inches. Which statement is true of this assessment?

It is not a valid assessment.

Before Instruction Strategies

KWL Charts Admit Slips Classroom Discussions Pre-tests Anticipation Guides

When providing formative learning feedback on a student's progress on a project, which section of the project grading rubric should the teacher use to show students where they have room for improvement?

Levels of performance

Homework Assignments

May be used to gauge learning, with data gathered on incorrect responses that may inform where reteaching may be necessary.

Ms. Kalani is beginning a language arts unit that will introduce readers to the concept of how characters are developed in a literary work, based upon their character traits. The lesson learning objective is, "Given a description of a character's actions, words, or thoughts, students will identify an applicable character trait and provide supporting details in a written response, scoring a level 3 or higher on the writing rubric." Ms. Kalani would like to start the lesson by gaining a sense of how much her students know or understand about the traits of characters in a story, and how that adds meaning to how the story develops. Which formative strategy will assess her students' prior knowledge of the traits of a character in a story?

Ms. Kalani reads an excerpt from a short story and asks students to write down a character trait of the protagonist and explain their answers.

What is an important consideration when planning feedback to give students?

Not all feedback is productive.

In an effort to curtail the sharing of test questions, a teacher gives her first-period geometry class a multiple choice quiz and her second-period geometry class a short answer and essay quiz on the same concepts. After grading the quizzes, the teacher noticed that the scores on the quiz from second period were an average of 16 percent lower than the scores from the first-period class. Which test quality issue may be a contributing factor to this disparity in scores?

Parallel-forms reliability

Students are preparing their final narrative drafts prior to giving presentations the following day. The teacher addresses the class with the following feedback: "Good luck with your finishing touches on your presentations today. I know it can be nerve-wracking presenting in front of each other. Just remember, this isn't a competition. Just do your best with your material and try not to worry over comparing your presentations to the other groups. You have all worked hard and I know you'll be great!"

Present feedback carefully.

What should guide the creation of a rubric?

Previous teacher experiences, standards, and learning objectives will focus a rubric on the important components of an assignment.

The process by which a teacher uses student performance data to evaluate students' improvement toward learning goals and to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction

Progress monitoring

Which activities are examples of summative assessments?

Projects and high-stakes tests

A system (or systems) used to describe or represent student actions in a written or electronic form

Record keeping

EfS Standard 1—Students understand and are able to apply the basic concepts and principles of sustainability. EfS Standard 2—Students recognize the concept of sustainability as a dynamic condition characterized by the interdependency among ecological, economic, and social systems and how these interconnected systems affect individual and societal well-being.

Section 1

What are the challenges that are faced by farmers in areas that lack necessary resources for farming?

Section 2

A student will understand that sustainable farming practices allow for farming in areas that otherwise do not have access to critical natural resources to sustain them.

Section 3

Knowledge: Students will define key terms associated with farming, elements necessary to grow fruits and vegetables, and elements that will be necessary to build a small herb garden box and plant herbs.

Section 4

Formative Activities: • Students will create a journal that will be used to log their completion of steps associated with building their garden boxes. • Students will complete each of three labs for assembling the garden box, adding soil and essential nutrients, and planting seeds and monitoring herb sprout growth. • Students will submit journals for grading and to receive feedback on both the content and completion of journal activities.

Section 7

Reflect on any challenges that you are facing while building the garden box.

Section 8

Admit Slips

Short two- to five-minute activities that teachers present to students via overhead or on small slips upon entry into the classroom. Preview the day's lesson and assess prior knowledge. Can be used to justify reteaching a skill or advancing to a new skill.

Mrs. Yoshida continues to use formative assessments as part of her lessons. Why is it important for Mrs. Yoshida to use good record keeping during this process?

So she can keep track of the results of formative assessments to monitor progress and ensure progress toward mastery of the concept.

High-stakes assessments

Standardized tests for accountability to federal, state, or local government agencies concerning measurement of effective teaching practices

Identification of the students' starting performance level on skills they will learn during that academic year

Step 1

Identification of achievement goals that the student will need to reach by the end of the year

Step 2

Identification of the rate of progress the student must maintain in order to meet those goals

Step 3

Institution of regular progress check activities, also referred to as probes, for performance measurement

Step 4

Which formative strategy below would inform instruction to help the teacher meet the individual learning needs of each student in the class? Strategy 1: A classroom discussion to open a new unit on traits of heredity in which students are asked about their inherited physical traits. Strategy 2: Response cards in which students are shown sentences and phrases that require punctuation use. Students are given cards with various punctuation marks; they hold up cards that correspond to the punctuation marks needed in each example. Strategy 3: Midway through a challenging math unit, the teacher sets up conference sessions with each student to chat with them about their progress and have them explain what they are having difficulty with. Strategy 4: Students are given an anticipation guide that provides a list of reasons why voting laws have been instituted in the United States.

Strategy 3—Individual student conferences

Ms. Garcia is teaching a unit about the components of the water cycle. Her learning objective reads, "Given a diagram, students will be able to identify the four main stages of the water cycle with 100 percent accuracy." Which summative assessment would be appropriate to use for this learning objective?

Students are given a diagram, and they are to label the four stages of the water cycle.

Learning objective: Given an image containing 100 animals, the student will identify all of the animals considered to be mammals with 85 percent accuracy. Which assessment would best align to this learning objective?

Students are given a large chart with the images of 100 animals on it, and they have to circle all the mammals.

Unison Responses

Students respond to a single question for which there is only one correct response, to gauge student learning.

A teacher is having students discuss a current project with a partner. The peers ask one another questions about what they have learned in the course of their projects. Peers then informally evaluate the overall progress of their partner's project by giving verbal feedback. How might this formative assessment strategy improve student learning?

Students will be able to articulate their understanding of concepts and skills, and peer feedback can guide them in the project.

Assessment Reliability

The reliability of an assessment is measured by how dependably or consistently a test measures a characteristic or learning objective

An English teacher uses classroom response devices to allow students to respond to questions that assess students' ability to correctly identify adverbs and adjectives. When the polling slide comes up, 60 percent of the class answers the questions incorrectly. The teacher plans a follow-up lesson to teach the concepts again.

The teacher uses formative data to find gaps in methods, then plans a remediation lesson to reteach concepts with additional formative activities.

A language arts teacher administers an admit-slip formative assessment on a new set of spelling skills. Ninety percent of students spelled the words correctly. The teacher responded by adding 10 more complex spelling words to the following lesson.

The teacher uses the formative data to make lesson content more challenging, based on students' demonstrated level of proficiency.

A math teacher collects formative data from student homework assignments. He has identified trends among students, noting their varying degrees of understanding of these concepts. He then gives additional help to students who are struggling, while continuing on in the lesson for those who are on target.

The teacher uses the formative data to structure differentiated practice activities based on varying levels of mastery demonstrated among students.

Assessment Validity

The validity of an assessment is determined by whether the instrument measures what it intends to measure

assessment

The wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skills acquisition, or educational needs of students.

How do pretests like KWL charts and anticipation guides used at the beginning of a unit of instruction help inform the way the teacher will present the unit?

They provide teachers with information about students that will help them shape the unit based on students' knowledge and interests.

Why should teachers align assessments of student learning to learning objectives?

To ensure the assessment is appropriate for the learning planned

During Instruction Strategies

Unison Responses Response Cards or Small Dry Erase Boards Personal Response System (also referred to as an audience response system)

KWL

Use the "L" column to hear what they have learned; data can then be used to adjust instruction before a unit concludes and a summative assessment is provided.

Learning objectives

What do I want students to know how to do when they leave this course?

Instructional strategies

What kinds of activities in and out of class will reinforce my learning objectives and prepare students for assessments?

Assessments

What kinds of tasks will reveal whether students have achieved the learning objectives I have identified?

Formative assessments are assessments used to check student progress and learning and also to________________.

evaluate the curriculum and teacher instruction