Portfolio of Classroom Assessment Strategies

Portfolio of Classroom Assessment Strategies

By: Laura Imperiale

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Research Supporting Exit Tickets

Mind-Mapping

Formative Assessment:

When to use:

Research Supporting Pre-Assessments:

Designing Assessments

When not to use:

Exit Tickets

Mind-Mapping should be used when brainstorming ideas. Mapping ideas into a Mind-Map will allow students to put all their knowledge on paper, and then later structure their ideas into something more meaningful.

Description of Strategy:

According to Heacox, "without pre-assessments, you do not know the preparedness of your students for new learning, the specific learning differences amongst your students, or where to begin devising new curriculum."

Exit Tickets are student responses to questions posed at the end of class or activity learned that same day.

According to Robert J. Marzano- Arts and Science of Teaching/ The Many Uses of Exit Slips, states, "effective lessons commonly end with an activity in which students reflect on their experiences of the lesson."

He continues to state that there are four types of prompts that teachers can use with Exit Slips:

• Prompts that provide formative assessment data
• Prompts that stimulate student self-analysis
• Prompts that focus on instructional strategies
• Prompts that are open communication to the teacher

Mind-Mapping should not be used if you do not have sufficient amount of time.

It should not be used if teacher needs to teach a large chunk of information/ text.

If the students' maps are personalized and unreadable to others, do not assess without them explaining

This type of formative assessment gives a snap-shot of student learning.

As educators, we need to gather evidence of students' learning in a variety of ways. By using multiple "and diverse sources, teachers can be sure they have ample evidence to accurately assess student achievement" (Butler and McMunn 45).

When creating and implementing these assessments, relevance, reliability, and validity are important terms to consider:

• Relevance: Relating to classroom instruction
• Reliability: Consistency of scores
• Validity: Measuring what they are intended to measure

Exit Ticket Description Continued:

Teachers should create the Exit Ticket first, in order to avoid including extraneous, or unnecessary examples, questions- that might get in the way of student mastery of the topic.

Teachers can use a Mind- Map when introducing a new subject in a way which is accessible and easy to follow- concepts and ideas. Mind-Mapping encourages collaborative discussions amongst peers because it forms a link between topics and ideas/ opinions. Students have the opportunity to visualize holistic approaches

Exit slips identify struggling students AND makes it clear where the

struggle is located.

Daily Exit Tickets inform own instruction. They can be used as a reflection or closure of how the lesson was taught-effective/ ineffective.

Pre-Assessment Sources:

Assessment can be in oral or written form.

Leveled Categories of Assessments

http://totallytremendousteachers.wikispaces.com/The+Importance+of+Pre-Assessment+and+Formative+Assessment

http://cal.dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/cal/pdf/pre-assessment.pdf

http://www.diffcentral.com/examples/brighton_preassess.pdf

Exit Ticket Sources:

• Diagnostic Assessment: designed to determine students' knowledge, skills, or misconceptions prior to planning instruction.
• Formative Assessment: sets targets for students and provide feedback on progress toward those targets in ways that foster more progress.
• Summative Assessment: culminating experience, which gives students' mastery of content, knowledge, or skills.

Marzano believes "that they are easy to use and take little time away from instruction. Many teachers use them routinely-even daily- and attest their positive influence on student achievement.

Exit Tickets allow teachers to adjust the following lesson plan, plan for small group instruction, or re-teach lesson in order to meet all students' needs and success.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessment-exit-slip-rebecca-alber

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct12/vol70/num02/The-Many-Uses-of-Exit-Slips.aspx

Butler, Susan, and McMunn, Nancy. A Teacher's Guide to Classroom Assessment. pp 3

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teacher-assessment-strategy#

For more information, please visit:

Assess and Plan with Exit Tickets from the Teaching Channel

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct12/vol70/num02/The-Many-Uses-of-Exit-Slips.aspx

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Diagnostic Assessment:

Research Supporting Mind-Mapping

Mind-Mapping

Summative Assessment:

Exit Tickets:

Description of Strategy:

When not to use:

Reflective Essays

Description of Strategy:

According to Tony Bunzan, British psychology author states that "traditional outlines require that the reader scans the information from left to right and top to bottom, whilst the brain's natural preference is to scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion."

When to use:

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Mind-mapping is a highly effective strategy in which it is composed of a diagram connecting information around a central subject.

Exit Tickets should not be used if there is not sufficient amount of time, or if all of the content was not covered/ learned in class

Description Continued:

Dr. Roger Sperry, a Nobel Prize winner for scientific research states, "when you are Mind-Mapping, you are not only practicing and exercising the fundamental memory powers and information processing, you are using your entire range of cortical skills."

Reflective writing provides the teacher insights of what the students gained/ learned from the topic of study.

Reflections allow students to keep a written record of their final thoughts, ideas and opinions.

Reflections are a "mental process. It is a contemplation or a long consideration."

Mind Maps are ideal for teaching and presenting new concepts because they provide a useful tool for students, delivering an overview of the topic without redundant information.

Teachers should use Exit Tickets

to activate prior knowledge and after a lesson taught that day.

Teachers can rate students' understanding of new learning, analyze and reflect on students' effort.

Exit Tickets provide feedback on teachers' instructional strategies.

Beyond note-taking, Mind-Mapping can help students be more creative, remember more, and become autonomous learners.

Mind-Maps are "creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally maps-out your ideas."

The Mind-Map is powerful "by the use of all the left and right brain-thinking tools, which enhance clarity, structure, and organization of students' thinking."

Click on link for online (FREE) mind-mapping tools for your students to use to organize their thoughts and brainstorm new ideas:

http://mashable.com/2013/09/25/mind-mapping-tools/

Mind-Mapping Sources:

http://thinkbuzan.com/articles/view/7-mind-mapping-uses-for-teaching/

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-mind-maps-to-unleash-your-brains-creativity-1348869811

http://thinkbuzan.com/articles/view/7-mind-mapping-uses-for-teaching/

http://www.asianefficiency.com/technology/10-ways-mind-maps-over-text-notes/

http://www.mindmapping.com/theory-behind-mind-maps.php

http://mashable.com/2013/09/25/mind-mapping-tools/

Discovering how to Mind-Map!

Research Supporting Reflective Essays:

Pre-Assessments:

When not to use:

Overall Sense of Strategies:

When to use:

Reflective Essays:

Mind-Mapping--

Diagnostic Assessment:

When to use:

According to Meichenbaum, metacognition "refers to awareness of one's knowledge- what one does and doesn't know- and one's ability to understand, control, and manipulate one's cognitive processes."

How well did I do? What did I learn? How might I apply this line of thinking to other problems?

Description of Strategy:

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Pre-Assessment

When not to use:

Exit-Tickets--

Mind-Mapping is an excellent tool for students to visually organize information. It captures information and ideas and helps improve brainstorming. It also can help clarify thinking, along with manage complex information.

Reflective Essay Sources:

Pre-assessments should not be used as a grade that counts for report cards. Having a pre-assessment evaluated as a grade towards student success would defeat the purpose of what the assessment is intended for. It should be for teacher's records and am analysis of student growth.

https://sites.google.com/site/appinventorsbl/assessment

https://teal.ed.gov/tealguide/metacognitive

Exit Tickets are an easy/ informal way for teachers to see where their students are at, academically. It is a low-stress assessment, that allows students to explain their thinking. Teachers can then provide individual feedback to improve student success.

According to Nietfeld and Shraw, "constructing understanding requires both cognitive and metacognitive elements. Learners construct knowledge using cognitive strategies and they guide, regulate, and evaluate

their learning using metacogntion strategies. It is through this

"thinking about thinking" that real learning occurs.

Pre-assessments should be used prior to teaching new concepts.

Teachers should evaluate assessments in order to create flexible groupings and to differentiate instruction

Teachers should plan learning activities that address varying levels/ needs.

Reflective Essays--

Reflective essays should be

given in a positive environment with sufficient amount of time.

It should be used for students to discuss how they approached problems, dealt with difficulties, and critically analyze their applications.

Teachers should foster metacognition and assess student progress/ individual growth.

Pre-assessments are used before teachers begin a new content of learning. It determines what the scholars know and do not know.

With this evidence, teachers can make instructional decisions and begin at an appropriate level based on prior knowledge.

Pre-assessments help teachers "effectively match instruction with the needs of students. Decisions include pacing, grouping,

learning activities and content.

Pre-Assessments--

Reflective essays should not be graded based on writing. It should be based on their metacognition.

Reflections should be based on authenticity as opposed to specific insights.

This assessment should not be the only indicator used for student success.

Reflective essays are summative assessments that allows students to think about their thinking. It provides students the opportunity to self-monitor their own awareness of their strengths and struggles with a specific content of learning. Scholars can critically reflect their experience, comprehension, and their next steps.

Pre-assessments are diagnostic assessments that gather information about student readiness to learn new concepts/ skills. Additionally, i determines what skills a student has prior to the start of the learning experience. Teacher does not grade the pre-test; rather determines whether some students require pre-requisite skills or need additional degrees of challenges.

http://cal.dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/cal/pdf/pre-assessment.pdf

Examples of Pre-Assessment Strategies:

• Anticipation Journals
• Concept Maps
• Entrance Tickets
• Open-Ended Questioning
• Informational Surveys
• Predictions
• Self-Evaluations
• Writing Prompts
• Picture Interpretations