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The ABCs Of Assessment Practices

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What is the purpose of assessment ?

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When looking at assessment practices and trying to decide ways in which to make assessment meaningful, its important to develop an understanding of what the purpose of assessment is

The Definition

From the growing success document we see it defined as:

"The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning"(Growing Success, 2010, pg 6.).

All be it a simple definition, but at it's core it provides us with a good starting point. Assessment should always be student centered, rather then teacher centered. It should be done so that student's are able to grow in their learning, and teachers are able to monitor that growth.

Starting the Development process:

When we are developing meaningful assessment it is important to keep in mind The Seven Fundamental Principles:

• are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students; (Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the

language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit;(Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much

as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students;(Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course

and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course;(Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple

opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;(Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support

improved learning and achievement;(Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

• develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning. (Growing Success, 2010, pg.6).

Assessment Theory and Student Learning

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Feedback and Assessment Theory

When looking at the theory of assessment it's important to look at feedback, since this is the main line of communication with students!

Feedback, as defined by Taras, “requires knowledge of the standard or goal, skills in making multicriterion comparisons, and the development of ways and means for reducing the discrepancy between what is produced and what is aimed for.” (Taras, 2005, pg. 471). Yet many of us when we are providing feedback “fear of hurting pupils’ feelings, (2) lack of evaluation knowledge and skills” (Brookhart, pg.434)

When we are creating and providing assessment to student's we need to keep in mind that proper assessment knowledge and practices will lead to student growth.

Assessment For, As and Of Learning

As we will discuss later one, assessment for as and of learning is an important part of the assessment process. Understanding each and being able to apply them to your assessment practice is a great first step in creating an assessment protocol in your school, see the attached table for more detail...

(Growing Success, 2010)

Assessment in our classroom

Assessment with in our classroom can take on many forms but how it is planned, applied and reviewed are all of major importance when instituting assessment into the classroom

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Planning

When planning out our assessment procedures it is important to start with what our learning goals and success criteria are for the lesson. This gives you, as the educator, a clear idea as to what it is you was to be gained from the lesson so that you may better develop your assessment

From here you will move into the instruction portion of the lesson. Making sure to provide transparent understanding on what needs to be learned is vital for proper ongoing assessment

Learning Goals and Success Criteria

Learning goals become of the utmost importance when developing proper assessment. This is because they provide the student with the expectations of what is to be gained from the lesson. it also gives the student's transparency as to what you will be assessing them on

Success Criteria is what the successful attainment of those learning goals look like (Edugains, n.d.). As teacher is important to include student's in the creation of success criteria, so that they become personally invested in their learning.

Gregory, Cameron & Davies (1997, in Edugains, n.d.) give a four step process to follow when constructing Success Criteria:

  • Brainstorming (Edugains, n.d.)
  • Sort and Categorize (Edugains, n.d.)
  • Make and Post a T-Chart (Edugains, n.d.)
  • Add, Revise and Refine (Edugains, n.d.)

Application

How the assessment practices are applied in the classroom can make or break their success!

Ensuring the application of assessment for, as and of learning can greatly increase the success of your assessment

For, As and Of Learning

Harlen (2006) explains this concept well: “Using the terms ‘formative

assessment’ and ‘summative assessment’ can give the impression that these are different kinds of assessment or are linked to different methods of gathering evidence. This is not the case; what

matters is how the information is used. It is for this reason that the terms ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘assessment of learning’ are sometimes preferred. The essential distinction is that assessment

for learning is used in making decisions that affect teaching and learning in the short term future, whereas assessment of learning is used to record and report what has been learned in the past”

(p. 104).

When we are looking at assessment, it must not be seen as something that takes place at the end of a lesson or even unit. Rather, it must be viewed as something that takes place through out the lesson. Teachers must insure that they are monitoring and providing adequate feed back to all students.

Feedback

An important part of assessment, feed back gives the chance for the teacher to connect with the student and their understanding of the material being taught. There are three main factors that should be kept in mind when providing adequate feedback:

  • Structure: what was done well, what needs improvement and how to improve (Edugains, n.d.).
  • Focus: All feedback should relate to the learning goals and the success criteria which have been shared and clarified with the student at the outset of learning (Edugains, n.d.).
  • Amount: We want to avoid overwhelming students by addressing all of their learning needs at once. Prioritize your comments by commenting on the aspects of student learning needing immediate attention (Edugains, n.d.).

Review

Reviewing how your assessment practices went is a great way to figure out how to improve them in the future! Participating in self assessment and peer reviewing is a great way to improve your practice.

Self Assessment (Reflective Teaching)

Now being able to asses one's own practice is a great way of developing better assessment strategies that work with your students. Tools like: keeping a reflective journal, student evaluations and teaching inventories are all great ways of looking and improving one's own assessment practices.

Peer Review

One of the most important aspects of setting up a proper assessment protocol is developing a peer review system. This is where colleges (either as department or school wide) are able to come together observe each other's assessment practices and offer suggestions, encouragement or feedback on what seems to work and what doesn't. Developing this "community" around effective assessment is vital to it's successes

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Formative Assessment

When looking at formative assessment, also known as assessment as learning, there are a number of different ways to apply as well a number of different reasons for it!

Defined

“Formative assessment is—or should be—the bridge or causeway between today’s lesson and tomorrow’s” (Tomlinson, 2014, pg 11). Tomlinson bring up a fabulous definition here that provides a great definition as to the importance of assessment. She is showing that formative assessment should provide students with the knowledge/information necessary to transition into the next lesson.

How to apply Formative Assessment

There are a number of tools available that can help a teacher incorporate formative assessment into their practice:

  • Quick Feedback: simple quizzes, q-cards or programs like Socratic and formative that develop simple questions on a topic and provide you with instant feed back (Davis, n.d.).
  • Integrated Presentation and Quiz Tools: programs like Kahoot that provide a live quiz game type atmosphere or turbonote which provides students with the ability to take notes and critically reflect on what they are learning (Davis, n.d.).

Summative assessment

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Summative assessment is the form of assessment that happens at the end of lesson and is where grade points and suggestions/next steps is provided

Purpose

The main purpose of the summative assessment is for teachers to see if learning goals are being met and to collect information the student's learning to better accommodate /support them in future lessons.

How to implent

"Assessment involves interesting real life or authentic tasks and contexts as well as multiple assessment moments and methods to reach a profile score for determining student learning or development” ( Gulikers et al.,2004, P.68)

when conducting summative assessment it is important, much like when constructing a lesson, to include student interests in the assessment process. Assessment first and for most is for the student, so insure that students "buy in" to the assessment process is very important when dealing with it's success. Summative assessment also requires clear, descriptive feedback on submit work. The feed back should offer encouragement in areas that are completed well as well as suggestions for improvement (i.e. "two stars and a wish" type feedback model)

Types/Tools for summative assessment

There are a number of tools that can be used when creating summative assessments, some are more effective then others. Ultimately it is up to the teacher and administration to decide what works best for each class. Some examples are:

  • Exams
  • Tests
  • Final written products
  • Rubrics for the assignments (ensure that they are given to students prior to assessment and contain appropriate information/language so students know what is being assessed)

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Works Cited

Brookhardt, S. (2004) Classroom assessments: Tensions and intersections in theory

and practice. Teachers College Record, 106(3), 429-458.

Davis, V. (n.d.). Fantastic, Fast Formative Assessment Tools. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis

EduGAINS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/aer/index.html

Formative and Summative Assessments Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ctl.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments

Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in ... (2010). Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growSuccess.pdf

Gulikers, J. T. M., Bastiaens, T. J., & Kirschner, P. A. (2004). A 5 dimensional framework for authentic assessment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(3), 1042-1629.

Harlen, W. (2006). On the relationship between assessment for formative and summative purposes.

In J. Gardner, ed., Assessment and learning. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

Tara, M. (2005). Assessment- summative and formative-some theoretical reflections.

British Journal of Educational Studies, 53 (4), 466-478.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2016). The bridge between today’s lesson and tomorrow’s. Educational Leadership. 71(6), 10-14.

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