A little blurb about genuinely observing for assessment…

I am currently reading Reflections on Assessment: It’s Purposes, Methods, and Effects on Learning by Kathleen and James Strickland.  It was published almost 10 years ago, but I think the distinctions, observations, suggestions, and opinions they give their readers are very helpful and interesting.

Assessment…grades…Evaluation…Accountability…Recording…Reporting…etc. All of these terms are often used interchangeably in conversation, but the Stricklands make certain to define and underline the differences between the terms and how it effects our assessment and evaluation processes.

Assessment—it’s the collection of data—NOT grading—It is information that we gather that enlightens the teacher and the learner.  This information should be ongoing and drive our instruction.

Evaluation—it’s the next step after assessment—It’s the product of assessment—We draw conclusions from the information we gather (assessment).  We evaluate.

It was a hard concept for me to grasp as I have been reading this book because they are so often umbrella terms that so much falls under.   Anyway, the Stricklands have reminded me of the power of observation.  Observation is one of the most helpful methods of gathering information about—or assessing—our students.  Observing our students working independently or collaboratively, genuinely listening to their conversations and taking notes, interviewing/having conversations with them, keeping records of interactions, this is what helps us understand the culture of our classroom and the learning processes of our students.

What are the implications? Well you obviously can’t be lecturing the whole time. You can’t be at the board working/writing/talking the whole class period. You have to give students the opportunity to work collaboratively so you can utilize observation.  I think some teachers think “oh good I’ll let them work in groups, and I can sit at my desk and finish grading these tests/essays/projects…or I can plug in grades into the computer..or print progress reports, etc.”  I’m guilty.  I’ve done it before, but we can’t make a habit of letting this tool slip through our fingers.  Just because we aren’t teaching/talking/instructing doesn’t mean we sit at the desk and monitor for students being on-task or noise level.  We should take on that observer role….genuinely listen to their conversations and take notes in order to reflect on it later.  This could be a great way to see if students are actually getting “it”… whatever “it” may be.

The Stricklands also recommend having conversations about the lessons with our students, asking them questions, interviews, etc.  Another suggestion I liked was midterm reflective questions to make students think about their writing and emphasize and review their own processes for writing.

One example had the following questions that must be turned in with a composition piece:

• Who’s your audience for your paper? (no somebodies, anybodies, people who are interested in family, etc; be precise)
• What is the paper’s purpose, the effect you want to have on the audience?
• In what ways did you gather ideas for this paper?
• What was the hardest thing for you to do as you drafted and revised this paper?
• What aspect of this paper are you happiest about?
• What did you learn from writing this paper—about your writing process and/or your topic?

This gives us and our students insight into the effectiveness/struggles/reactions/ processes of a particular assignment.  Their answers should drive our future instruction.  It goes further than just assessing our students through these questions though.  We are giving our students the experience of reflecting on their own writing processes to see what is working and what isn’t, what they are struggling with, what they are most proud of, etc.  It gives them the opportunity to explain themselves as developing writers further than just turning in a stapled, printed copy of an essay.  I  think all projects should have fairly extensive reflective questions like this—not just essays.  It  will help us—and benefit our students—to be able to read our students’ observations and experiences as learners.

I’ll stop now, since I’ve written so much, but there’s so much more on assessment and evaluation that I’ll have to share with you later!

Stuff Happens

Well, this is the third day that I have looked longingly at the blog trying to decide how everyone posts.  At the moment I actually asked for help, I saw the light-or the NEW POST button at the top of the webpage.

I have read two books in the past couple of days that have made me see how incomplete my life was before them.

1. Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K-8  By: Portalupi and Fletcher  The book is perhaps one of the best resources I have seen for teaching a quick lesson on a variety of topics.  When I read through my students writing I am constantly picking out elements of their writing that need improvement.  This book proves to be an invaluable resource by giving you multiple quick lessons filled with examples, steps and summaries that are engaging to students, but also stresses how they can better improve their writing.  I LOVE YOU, CRAFT LESSONS!

2.  Lessons that Change Writers By: Nancie Atwell Well, I have never used this book to change a writer’s life, but it has definitely changed mine.  From heart mapping and writing humor to giving a brief history of common punctuation marks, this book has it all.  It is the Long Island Iced Tea of the writing world.

Crafting Authentic voice

I am facinated by this book that I am reading “Crafting Authentic voice” by Tom Romano. Here is an extract from the book. “Voice does not arise from nothing. It’s influenced by much. our voices are shaped by the places where we learned language-in our parents’ arms, at our school desks, in the neighborbood, on playgrounds and streets——-people we play, work and socialize with influence our voices.”

lilian

Summing It Up

In a valiant effort to avoid committing to a TIW yesterday, I read Summarization In Any Subject: 50 Techniques To Improve Student Learning: by Rick Wormei. While much of the information presented seemed pretty self evident, I did find several points quite useful. Below is a summary on summarazation!

Notes on Summarization
Information archeologists
Dig for information, make sense of it, and attach meaning to it.

Activate background knowledge- perspective and paradigm will color how students read and interpret the text.
Socrates, “All thinking begins with wonder”
If students play with a microscope before they read and summarize an article on microscopes- they are better.  Prior knowledge gives meaning to the text. Very little goes into long-term memory unless it is attached to something already there. This makes me wonder, if students have no interest or prior knowledge of Ancient Civilizations, then how can they comprehend the text?

Prime students’ brains-Instead of just telling students. ” read the chapter and take notes” tell them specific things to look for.

Vocabulary development- Word Bank on wall. This is an idea I stopped using for some unknow reason. I will start using it again!
Headline technique-  have student tun short passages into headlines

Active listening:

Line up for summarization- put events in correct order
0-10 continuum- imperialism- stand at which number and why.

Socratic seminars
Series of questions (book banning example-, which leads to key question like- FG policy making at a local level.

Summary Ball- toss a beach ball- kid says something new we learned- if nothing to say they sit down.

I really like the idea of information archeologists. I want  students to ,”dig for information, make sense of it, and attach meaning to it”.

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.