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Caitlin Alexander

Abstract

[|Assessment] is a very important aspect of a teacher’s profession, and as such it is an aspect that is constantly evolving, in ways that can either be helpful or harmful to both teacher and student. As such, it is imperative that teachers evaluate how they assess their students, and which form of assessment is best. The current education system uses a wide variety of “ ’quick and dirty’ standardized tests” to assess the knowledge and improvement of our students (Tomlinson and McTighe, 60). While this form of assessment may seem to be valid, it does not offer a complete view of the students’ growth and cultivation of knowledge, and therefore does not give an accurate representation of the students. Instead a set of three distinct rules are provided, which guide educators towards better assessment methods. Through such authentic assessment methods such as portfolios, pre-assessments, and other various activities, a teacher can not only assess the growth of his or her students more effectively and efficiently, but they can give better and more helpful feedback to the students, proving to be a far greater resource than a teacher who remains locked in the traditional, standardized methods.

Synthesis

The “Three Principles of Assessment” from this chapter, which provide helpful guidelines for educators in the field of assessment, seemed most important to the class. The principles encourage teachers to look at the work of students as a whole (photo album), and not in short clips (snapshots); to match up our assessments with our goals; and to use different forms of assessment at the appropriate and most effective times. [|Feedback] and self-assessment are particularly important as well. Through self-assessment students are able to reflect upon their own abilities and recognize where they might need to improve, and through feedback from the teacher students are able to get a different perspective on where they might need to improve, making it a very powerful resources.

Shila Cook
The chapter addresses the ways of assessing the different types of knowledge that the students should have acquired in a unit or lesson. The many different ways to make accurate assessments are also discussed, however the thing that I took from the chapter was a specific form of assessment. The "Standardized Test". This is the type of assessment makes me extremely angry, so much depends on them, mostly a single test that the kids rush through because they have no idea how important they truly are. I hope to never have a class formed around a standardized test because I feel that the accuracy is very poor. If I ever have to administer a standardized test I will make sure that I clearly state what the outcome means for the students themselves. At least then some of the kids that would have normally blown the test off might think twice about it.

Olivia Wandelear
Chapter five offers insight on the proper and most effective ways to assess learning in the classroom. Standardized tests cannot be used as the only forms of assessing student learning because they only offer a very narrow snapshot of the students’ understanding on narrow subjects. I learned from the chapter that a balance between inauthentic and authentic work gives students the opportunity to master the basic skills and knowledge while also using that knowledge by explaining it and applying it. When I teach, I plan on using the GRASPS frame to develop assessment in the classroom. The frame puts everything about assessment into six easily perceived features for determining success and learning. Additionally, I find it equally important to use non-graded diagnostic assessments as part of the learning process, because having an idea of what your students know and understand already allows a teacher to plan and guide instruction for the rest of the lesson, so he or she knows where to start.

Dylan Stefani
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions” said Vince Lombardi. Feedback is one of the greatest tools to assess and understand what your students know. Having evidence that a student has attained the right information and is able to use it in the real-world is what teaching is about. This chapter focused on three assessment principles and how they can benefit a teacher as well as a student. The first principle talks about how using multiple tests and assessments rather then a single test is a better way to provide a complete picture of the students learning. The second focuses on what students should know by know, what they should be able to do with the knowledge, and how students should act. These three indicators help the teacher better understand the students abilities in the class. Students who are able to demonstrate the six facets are on their way to a successful life. The last assessment principle says that you need to assess the students gradually and over the time they are learning the information, not at the end of the unit. Assessments are in place for the teachers as well as the students. The teacher gets feedback about how they teach and ways they can improve and the students get feedback about how well they understand the material.

Courtney Burns
This chapter discussed the importance of assessment, whether it be a teacher’s assessment of the students, a teacher’s assessment of themselves, or a student’s assessment of themselves. As a teacher it will be important to remember that assessment is not something as simple as a test score but, rather, something more complex. The chapter uses the “photo album versus snap shot” (pg. 60) metaphor to stress that MULTIPLE sources of forms the best evidence for “reliable assessment” (pg. 60). Assessments should evaluate the understanding of the knowledge by the student; after all, there is a difference between knowing and understanding. Another important part of assessment is self assessment. As a teacher you must be able to be reflective of yourself and your teaching style. At the same time, students must be able to evaluate/assess themselves so that they can reflect on their performance and see where they need to grow personally.

Dan Horne
Chapter five discusses what the different things the students should get out of lessons that you teach them. After reading the chapter i was most influenced by the part about standardized testing. Since I was in middle school I have been taking state mandated regents exams for mostly every class I completed. These tests were graduation requirements for my years in high school and followed pretty much every class I took and if I did not pass it I would have to take it over and over until I did. I think those are a good tool because it shows that you did understand what was taught in the class and created a standard that everyone had to complete in order to graduate. Now being in a state that doesn't require such tests and after my three weeks in the classroom I really see the benefit I got from those tests

Kay Sue Collins
This chapter describes three important principles of good assessment practices. First is: photo albums vs snapshots. This means that to really assess what the student knows you need to look at multiple forms of assessment over time rather than the usual test at the end. Second is: match the measures with the goals. This is talking about crafting your assessments so that they provide the kind of information that addresses your stated goals. The different kinds of knowledge are declarative, procedural, and dispositions. This chapter also introduced the concept of GRASPS. The third principle is: form follows function. It talks about different times to assess students and the various uses of these assessments. They include Pre-assessment/ Diagnostic at the beginning to assess what they already know, Summative/ Evaluative to assess their final learning, and Formative that assesses progress along the way. Of the three the most important is the formative because it allows you to tailor your teaching to the needs of the students. This chapter also talked about the importance of offering appropriate choices of assessment and giving useful feedback to the student and the importance of the student using self- assessment and reflection to increase their learning. I really liked this chapter because it helped me understand how assessment works and how it fits into my goals. Knowing how to properly assess students properly is the difference between a mediocre teacher and a great one.

Timothy Grivois
Because one of the necessary roles one must play as an educator is also an agent of assessment, understanding and utilizing effective strategies of evaluation is the mark of a prepared teacher. This chapter outlines and analyzes the three key principles of assessment; considering long term results instead of short, creating goal-oriented systems of measurement, and using audience-based context. Teachers can also fill the gap between themselves and students in terms of previous knowledge by using pre-assessment techniques. Pre-assessment creates a classroom environment wherein students feel as though their previous knowledge is being acknowledged and understood rather than ignored. By building from previous knowledge rather than erasing it and starting anew, students will learn more efficiently. Teachers should also model self-assessment and encourage it in the classroom. Sometimes the most honest and legitimate critic of a learner’s performance is the learner him or herself. Students and teachers alike who have had bad experiences with assessments should not steer clear of them entirely, but rather adopt a system that makes them comfortable.

Erika Tingley
One key aspect of Understanding by Design is that the teacher needs to plan their assessment in order to determine how he or she is going to approach the lessons and activities for a unit. A teacher that uses this method is able to ensure that the assessment that is used fits for the concepts that he or she wants his or her students to understand. I learned how important it is that a teacher keeps the goals in mind when determining how he or she is going to evaluate student progress. It will be hard at times for me to keep the big picture in mind when focusing on the parts of unit development. However, I do believe that this approach will be most effective for my students, and that they will learn the most when there is clear objectives that everything they do is leading to.

Andy Shorey
In chapter five of Ubd the authors discusses how to effectively assess students. The book gives us three principles to follow one is that we need to use more than one way of assessment, they compare this strategy to looking through a photo-album. The second principle is to find out what we want the students to know and to asses and plan lessons around that. It says that a variety of assessment helps all different types of learners to show they know what we have taught. Principle three tells us that the way we teach a class and design the curriculum should directly relate to the way we assess students. That part discusses how there are two ways of assessing pre assessments and formal assessments, pre assessments are before you teach the material and formal is during and at the end. The book also tells us that students should self assess at the end of the unit. I like that this chapter gave us different ways of assessment. I think that in a math classroom using test is the best way but also doing other different things before test is a good way of assessing.

Josh
The fifth chapter of //Understanding by Design// focuses on assessing students for understanding. Knowing the three types of assessment will help me design lessons for the students and also allow me to fairly check their learning. While the summative and diagnostic assessments are powerful measuring tools, I think that formative assessment in a math class is by far the most accurate way to tell how the students are progressing. I will need to be able to assess on the fly where my students are so I do not introduce other concepts before they are clear on the previous building block ideas. Another concept I learned that will be useful in my class is the four requirements of feedback. It will be important that the students are aware of exactly what they can improve and what they are doing correctly. Being aware of exactly where they are will allow the students to own their learning and progress further at their pace.

Caitlin Alexander
===This chapter mostly focused upon the importance of assessment, and different forms of assessment that teachers can use in their classrooms, and it emphasized the importance of “photo album” assessment vs. “snapshot” assessment. Snapshot assessment merely gives a small sample of the students’ learning and understanding, while the “photo album” method of assessment allows a teacher to see the progress of the student over time and gives a teacher an impression of just how far the student has come in the learning process. The different kinds of assessments, such as “summative”, “diagnostic”, and “formative”, are very useful to teachers, because they provide different types of assessment for different instances in the learning process, so that a teacher can get a better all-around look at how the student is progressing. I feel that learning about these different forms of assessment is very important for teachers because using different methods of assessing the learning of students can better allow a teacher to cater to the different types of learning styles, as well as the different levels of learning shown by each student. The idea of pre-assessments is also very important to teachers, because by gauging where a student is already in their learning, rather than assuming that all of the students are at “point a”, a teacher can arrange a lesson plan accordingly. These different kinds of assessment will be useful to me in my future classrooms for the same kinds of reasons: they will not only allow me to better understand where my students stand in the learning process, but how to better help them learn.

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Tyler Brookings
Assessment is not only a way to track the progress of the student, it is also a way to follow the progress of the teacher. In reality it should be clear whether or not the students are retaining the information they have been given by taking these assessments and two basic ways to do that are photo album and snapshot assessment. Photo album assessment allows a teacher to see how much information the student has retained over a relatively long period of time while the snapshot assessment focuses more on a lesson or two. Breaking these categories down we get the three basic assessments such as summative, diagnostic, and formative. Each relates and works best with a certain learning techniques employed throughout the year. Having a variety of assessments helps the teacher vary and keep the kids on their toes and help students with different learning styles. Using this in the classroom will be a necessity, although I do not favor standardized assessment I realize it must be done and having a variety will certainly help not only myself but the students.

Kyle Rines
Assessment in an English classroom is somewhat different than in other classrooms. This chapter focuses on the three different ways of assessment and how they can be used beneficially to the educator, but when I think about assessment with my classroom, I don't. You can assess a student on their skills in English, whether that be writing, grammar, or reading skills. But in the end is all how they process that knowledge and actually put it in their writing. It's like learning how to swim... you can read up on how the write way to swim is, but until you actually get in the water and try it you won't know how good or what kind of a swimmer you are. I agree that assessment is a necessary tool for educators to use, and I do plan on using it, but only in certain areas. The real skill and importance of English is to gain a better perspective on their reading, improve their many facets of writing, and become a literate and knowledgeable teenager/human being.

Kasey Darnell
This chapter discussed strategies on how to design assessments in the differentiated classroom that meets the needs of all learners. By using the backward design model, teachers can form assessments that are aligned with their curriculum and will demonstrate students’ understanding of the content. Using multiple sources of assessment is helpful, instead of only one summative assessment at the end of a unit. Also, giving students various options to show their knowledge is a good way to cater to different needs. The standards for each project would be the same, but students would be able to choose a format that fits their personal learning style. This chapter also discussed the differences between inauthentic drilling and authentic work, and talked about the GRASPS frame as a way to facilitate more authentic work from students. I will try to use these techniques in my classroom, and use many types of assessments to test the knowledge of my students. I don’t want to be the kind of teacher who makes the students spit back information for a test without any real learning occurring.

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Ben Villeneuve
Chapter five of //UBD/DI// deals with having students demonstrate understanding, connecting this chapter with chapter three of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal.// This chapter establishes neatly laid out principles of effective assessment. These include things like having many assessments over the course of the learning, matching assessments to goals established while putting together the lesson plans, tuning assessments to the purpose they will ultimately serve, and giving students options as to how they will show that they learned. I can feel this focus on assessments shaping how I will ultimately teach. I wouldn’t say that it’s showing me what’s really important in teaching, but it is definitely giving me ideas about how to show others that I understand what’s really important in teaching.

Heath
“The overreliance on a single measure as a basis for inferences and high stakes decisions is psychometrically unsound and politically risky …” (pg 61) Teachers need to look at trends in their students performance, a single good grade doesn’t indicate understanding. We want our students to understand why a result occurs not just know what occurs. To this end, students benefit greatly from receiving feedback on their process. In this case feedback is not an 83 or an A, it is specific and reinforces the positive aspects of a student’s performance while pointing out what pieces the student has missed or need to develop further.