To be honest, I need to work on developing a consistent ongoing assessment process and the tools to carry it out. Glen, I'm humbled by your mention of how you are creating and applying rubrics to your lessons. I may ask for your help with this. Do you use the rubrics for the whole class, sub groupings, or individual students?
In a much less formal way, I have been using a similar "point system" with my students. In NY, most elementary assessments are scored using a 4 point scale. A score of "3" is typical grade level work. "4" means on the high end or above grade level. "2" is low end or below. "1" is below grade level. My kids are pretty used to using this system. I often ask them to "show me in fingers" how they would score a task they have just completed. Then I tell them what I would give it and why. They often are harder on themselves than I would be, but when I ask them about why they have selected a particular number, they can usually back it up pretty well.
I use this same four point system when I do individual performance assessments for recorders and rhythms. Other than that, the assessment process in my room is pretty much based on my overall observations of a student's effort and participation in my classes. With classes of 20-25 students and only 25 minutes of class time, I feel like I don't have time to do any more. As it is, when I do one of my performance assessments of their recorder playing or rhythm reading, it usually takes an entire class period or more.
Maybe I need to think about this differently.
I'm curious if anyone else is feeling like me, that the process of formalizing and documenting assessment is something that you don't have a good handle on. Does anyone have suggestions or even questions you can offer me to help me figure this out?
Rob
PS... That above comment was from ANNIE not Glen... someone forgot to sign out of Google...
ReplyDeleteAnnie,
DeleteI also appreciate your feedback. But I'm nervous about the video taping. I sense in my building that my principal would require me to communicate with all of the families before taking such a step.
Maybe I'm overthinking the idea, but the privacy thing is hard for me to figure out.
It comes down to this: If I video tape for assessment purposes, it's not realistic for me to capture kids individually on camera. That would take as much or more time than solo assessments do now, and raise the stakes too high for many of the kids. If I'm going to use footage to grade a student, I'm not sure that I can keep that to myself. Since I assume that a parent can request to see all of their student's work and receive an explanation of how it was scored, I sense that I would have no way to protect the privacy of the other students in the video if I received such a request. Around here, people talk about other people's kids. I don't want to create anything that might add fuel to that. I also don't assume that I could refuse such a request and stand behind the grade.
Of course, a parent inquiry that gets to that point is unlikely, but I believe it's possible. Every now and then I get contacted by a parent who wants me to explain how I grade and why Susie (who sings all the time at home) doesn't have an A in my class.
Of course, when I have a student teacher, they video tape, but always from the back of the group, and their purpose in taking the video is to evaluate themselves. It's never used in any way to evaluate or score the kids' work.
I'm interested in continuing this conversation, since I know that you and your colleague have thought this out and put it in place. Are there are other aspects I haven't considered?
I think Annie's idea about video taping is a really good one - I did that last year for myself so I could have enough time to properly assess each child (so helpful), and also for the students to self-assess on certain projects.
ReplyDeleteRob, I had no idea you only see your kids for 25 minutes at a time. I've heard of 30 min. increments, but that sounds really tough to fit everything in. At our school I'm lucky: I have the kids for 45 minutes, so the assessments don't take up the entire class time. A fellow teacher in my district will sometimes conduct her assessments over several different class periods: she will take about 10 minutes at the end of class to assess about a third of the kids, and do the same over the next few sessions until she has gotten to everyone. This might help diversify your 25-minute blocks of assessment time and prevent them from feeling like the entire day has to be given up to a single assessment. I haven't tried it myself yet but it sounds like a worthy idea.
Beverly,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughts about this. I haven't used that approach very often, but tried it with some of my second graders last year. I remember that those classes didn't seem as bogged down by the assessment thing.
It also occurs to me that I might need to think of ways to do such "little bite" assessments in other ways. Maybe I can structure things that only require one or two responses from the students. If I do that and can get such "mini-testing" down to a 3 to 5 minute block, I could take a more "ongoing" approach to assesses things related to vocabulary, notation, historical and cultural content, etc.
You have me thinking...