Foxes Task:
an example of an assessment task and supporting materials
Assessment items
The Foxes Task is a set of assessment items to administer to students. The questions follow and refer to a short paragraph and a diagram of a food web. Some items test students’ understanding of ecological content while others test their facility in handling claims, evidence, and reasoning.
Uses: You could use a task like this before teaching an ecology unit to get a better idea of students’ baseline, or afterwards to assess progress. Or you could pick one or two questions to use at the start of each class period as a warm up.
Answer Key
The answer key indicates correct answers for the assessment items. The key also tells you the target level for each question: the level within either the Ecology or Argumentation learning progression that a correct answer indicates.
Learning progressions
There are descriptions of both the Ecology and the Argumentation learning progressions. Each progression is broken down into levels 0 through 3 (least to most sophisticated). By using the assessment items and answer key to locate a student on the construct map, you can better understand the student’s level of conceptual mastery.
Of course, students don’t always climb through a progression steadily and without any backsliding. Though the general trend is upward, learning is often a two-steps-forward, one-step-back proposition, as students grapple with new tasks and information. Still, this formative assessment can help you optimize instruction. Rather than belabor what is obvious to a student, or talk over the student’s head, you can challenge the student to take their next viable conceptual leap.