7. Assessment

During our second unit in social studies on explorers, students studied many advancements that occurred in the late fourteen hundreds to mid fifteen hundreds including technology, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and of course, the Vikings. After discussing this chapter with the cooperating teacher, paraprofessionals, and special education teacher, I taught this chapter with more videos and activities than using just the textbook. During the lesson on Vikings, I implemented the formative assessment by having students write down two facts about the Vikings that they learned from watching the video that was shown in class. The purpose of this formative assessment was to allow students to show me what they learned individually rather than giving every student the same two or three questions that would have the same answer. It gave the students the opportunity to tell me facts about the Vikings that they found to be interesting and express their ideas and what they got out of the video. It allowed me as the teacher to also see if students were listening and what part of the Vikings appealed to them. Below is the formative assessment that was given to students.

Knowledge indicator 7I of the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards states, "knows assessment and progress monitoring techniques to assess the effectiveness of instruction for each student." The video on the Vikings covered a vast amount of information and dates which I knew not every student would remember every part of the video. However, I still needed to monitor my students' learning from the lesson which meant I needed to use a form of progress monitoring that would allow students to have flexibility in showing their knowledge while still providing me evidence of my effectiveness of instruction. Throughout the video on the Vikings, I paused it at various points to discuss key details and main ideas with students in case there was confusion at any point. After discussing and finishing the video, I provided the formative assessment to students. When students turned in their assessment, there was a variety of facts and content which showed that students not only understood the content, but the responses from students were all different. I knew providing questions to students would be difficult to assess because students may not have understood a specific part of the video that answered the question that I may have provided. Distributing this assessment allowed students to demonstrate their learning to me by providing any two facts from the video rather than being limited to answering two or three closed-ended questions.

I learned through this formative assessment that students need to have more of these types of assessment to demonstrate their understanding of content. I had seven students who received special education services, one ELL student that struggled with learning English, and fifteen other students who were either at or above grade level academically. I knew the comprehension ability varied greatly in the classroom. I still had to use a form of assessment to see if my students were understanding what they learned. I needed to use a form of assessment that allowed each student, no matter what level or services they received, to still be able to participate. If I had provided closed-ended questions, students would either answer correctly or incorrectly. The amount of content to cover on Vikings was extreme and each part would not appeal to every student. By using this assessment, I was able to see what part of the lesson really grasped students' attention and stood out to them. To have a variety of responses yet they were all correct allowed students to show their understanding by providing facts they found to be interesting while still showing me their learning progress.

The summative assessment on food webs was created during student teaching in the fall of 2022. At the end of the unit on food webs, students created a Google Slides presentation of six animals, one producer, and a completed food web. Students worked in groups and were given the list of animals and producer. They were to research all six animals and one producer by providing at least one (but no more than three) facts about each animal and producer in a complete sentence using Kiddle.co. Each slide was to have the one fact plus a visual image of the organism. The last slide was a completed food web with arrows to display which organisms were eating the producers and other consumers which was a total of eight slides. Students were able to present their finished projects with the class and teacher. The purpose of this food web project was for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding about food webs while working collaboratively as a cohesive group. Below is the rubric that was used when scoring students on their finished project.

Performance indicator 7L of the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards states, "involves students in self-assessment activities to help them become aware of their strengths and needs and encourages them to establish goals for learning." For this assessment, I was able to have students become involved in the assessment by actually having them work together to not only research facts about animals and producers, but have them create a food web from scratch with only the facts they researched and their knowledge about producers and consumers (primary, secondary, tertiary, herbivore, carnivore, herbivore). My goal was for students to be hands-on with their learning and assess themselves on how well they understood the food web content and what more they needed to work on to becoming competent with this content. Students provided feedback during and after this project with the majority of the class explain that they enjoyed having the challenge of creating a food web by having to look at each organism and decide its role in the food web and finally make the connection of what it eats.

From the teacher standpoint, I learned that when students have a role in determining their progress when learning, the results are more accurate and honest. During my student teaching, I wanted my students to know that they are an important part of the learning environment and their voice matters. When I was in elementary and middle school, teachers were beginning to implement project-based units rather than unit exams. Having a wide range of academic levels in my class, I wanted to challenge my students but also allow them to be an active member of their learning. Students were excited to share their researched facts with me and would ask meaningful questions when creating their food webs while not feeling nervous or embarrassed to ask questions when they were confused. This showed me that when students are provided these opportunities, they want to be invested in their learning progress which was displayed during this summative assessment.