Session #7 - Assessments

Learning Outcomes:

CLO 5253.2 - Identify a clear instructional goal that is related to the English content of the standards.

CLO 5253.3 - Provide the learning in each instructional year that lays the necessary groundwork for success in subsequent English courses.

CLO 5253.5 - Assess student progress toward the achievement of English standards and adjust instruction accordingly.

Essential Questions:

• How do you determine student skill level & determine effectiveness of instruction?
• Why do we assess and what are we assessing? How will you develop an assessment plan that is:
  • -effective in helping you plan and adjust instruction
  • -useful to all your students
  • -realistic within your classroom
  • -appropriate for your grade, school and district?

Agenda:

-Lesson Plans: Identifying the goal of the lesson (pdf)

-Diagnostic, formative, summative (see below)

-Checking for Understanding/ Student Questioning (see Strategies folder)

-Individualized/differentiated products

-Mastery Learning: “re-do’s” (see my policy for my AP students' essays)

-Record keeping/grading methods

-Authentic tasks & Authentic Assessments

-Teaching self assessment

-Timely feedback--the pile of essays (see Session 8/9)

-Rubrics (Yale's rubric design) (see below too.)

-Standardized Tests

Information:

The first two types of assessments can be categorized as being Formal or Informal. Formal assessments are the standardized ones. Standards tests (given every May), SAT, AP, GRE, ACT, MCAT, some district created assessments, some textbook generated tests, etc. Informal assessments are what teachers create and use mostly to determine levels of achievement for their students. Students, schools, teachers, districts, and states are often judged by the formal assessments. Meanwhile, student grades are determined by usually by informal assessments.

50 Formative Assessment Strategies - ready to use

For your next LMU Lesson Plan #4, create pre-formative, formative or summative assessments for a novel, poem, short story, or non-fiction, or vocabulary lesson you will teach. Be sure to adequately describe your lesson for context.

Formative and Summative Assessments video

Rubrics:

Rubrics go beyond a grade. Although students often only care about the grade, rubrics offer much more. Rubrics allow the student to see how they performed because each is descriptive. I allow students to challenge my grade if they write up why the rubric score I assigned was less accurate than the one they thought they earned. The students can accurately self-assess (not just assign themselves the highest grade) their performance. It takes the "subjectivity" more out of grading. For a good description on rubrics see Carnegie Mellon.

To create your own try RubiStar or Rubric Maker or just make one using aSpreadsheet.

Assignments:

• DUE Today: LMU Lesson Plan 3 - Writing Lesson -

Below you see the Rubric for your lesson plan. After you post your LMU Lesson Plan, do a self-evaluation of your Lesson Plan. I will also be providing feedback on your lesson plan via email.

• Read & Discuss Burke, chap 7 "Language Study: Vocabulary, Grammar and Style" (pp. 256-292)
  • Visit http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/BrowseItems and look at the sample test for your grade level. What is being evaluated? What do you notice? Come prepared to discuss.
• Design a Rubric to be used in your unit plan (required in your Unit Plan)

Next Steps:

Next week - LMU Lesson Plan #4 is due. Create a lesson plan using the LMU template. The focus of next week's lesson is on Assessment. Please create or use preformative, formative, and summative assessments and use it for this lesson.

Week after next: Video UDL & Reflection