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Share a time when an assessment in school impacted you as a learner. Was it a positive or negative experience? Why?
A moment that happened quite frequently in terms of assessment that impacted me as a learner were tests and exams. I am not a good test taker and any time I would have to take a test of my kind, I would do badly on it. It did not matter how much I studied for it or how long we focused on the tested subjects in class, I would not do well. This did not reflect my understanding in class, however. During homework and classwork, I did well. I was able to answer questions and understand the material quite well, the information simply would not transfer over to test-like situations. This impacted me deeply as a learner as it was frustrating to not understand why I was not doing well on tests. It impacted my confidence as well and caused me to become less motivated in learning as I did not see a point in studying if I was only going to do badly on the test. My growing lack of confidence combined with the perfectionism I exhibited in high school led me to struggle a lot during the last few years before I graduated. It was only when my grade 12 physics teacher took me aside and helped me by giving tips and tricks on how to get points even if you don't know the answer, as well as letting me redo some tests that I found myself feeling more confident in my ability to learn and became more motivated in subjects that previously highly interested me.
Which type of assessment do you think has the biggest impact on student learning? Why?
All types of assessment have an impact on student learning. The impact can be either negative or positive depending on how effectively the teacher uses them and on a student's own personal preferences and abilities. An oral assessment or a formative assessment may benefit a student who isn't a good test taker but the same could not be said for a student who suffers from social anxiety or stage fright. They may prefer tests. As mentioned previously, how teachers make use of assessments also has an impact. A teacher who makes it unenthusiastic may be impacting student learning negatively. The same would go for a teacher who only uses the same type of assessment over and over again, or a teacher who only uses one type of assessment once and bases the students' entire grade on that one assessment.
Post-practicum update: I still have the same outlook as I did previously and I find that my thoughts on it influenced how I used assessments. I attempted to make my assessments as fun as possible and tried to include various types: writing, drawing, sculpting, etc. However, I did not have an oral component, which I wish I had added but due to time constraints, I could not.
Is it realistic to expect our public education system to integrate any alternative assessment characteristics on a regular basis? Why or why not?
I think it could be difficult to expect public education systems to integrate alternative assessment characteristics regularly, such as forest schools due to reasons such as resources, locations, budgeting, etc. I think it is important for schools to have such things as forest schools or outdoor education in which students can interact with the world around them and if a school tries, they can make it possible. One such way to do so in an urban setting, for example, is to have small vegetable or flower gardens in the schoolyard for students to be able to learn from and interact with.
Post-practicum update: I definitely think, now more than ever that it is realistic for schools to integrate an alternative assessment such as a forest school or some variation. The school I am at, although it does have some trees in the schoolyard, does not have too much greenery beyond that. The school itself is also located in a lower-income neighbourhood where parents may not be able to afford any expensive trips for their children if the school decides to offer them. However, my AT went out of their way to get a type of nature-based teaching certificate which allows them to create environments such as forest schools. My AT had previously made a little camping trip for the students where students built a representation of a campfire through tools they found outdoors. Other teachers created outdoor activities for their students as well, such as the first-grade teacher making prints in the snow for their students to then find and attempt to identify. I do not think that teachers should be ones solely responsible for creating forest school-like environments for students and definitely believe the public education system should attempt to at least support teachers who wish to take part in creating such learning opportunities for their students.
How can you assess a student’s creativity?
I believe you can assess creativity but I don't think you should. Creativity is subjective in the sense that you might consider yourself to be creative, others do not. What would one consider creativity? A student's out-of-the-box thinking in the research they did? or would it be the layout of their final project and pictures they decided to include? Maybe its simply a student who did more than what was required of them? What a student might consider to be creative, the teacher might only see as having done extra work. Creativity is not something that can be assessed with consistency, and consistency is important in assessment to ensure fairness is equally distributed among students.
Post-practicum update: I still firmly believe that creativity cannot be assessed. Instead, I believe that originality should be assessed. Throughout my practicum, I have seen many different versions of what can be considered creative: verbal expression, drawings, use of colour and detail, and writing. However, occasionally students would attempt to copy my example rather than tap into their imagination and creativity to come up with their own. Originality is still in the realm of creativity but the focus is more on students attempting to come up with something of their own using their own abilities rather than assessing students on what the teacher perceives to be creative.
Would we be better off if we didn’t have marks on report cards or are they necessary for higher levels of education?
This is a difficult question to answer. I do believe in the importance of ungrading and the difference it can make in a student's life but at some point, grades will be important. When it concerns higher levels of education, unless they end up with a new way to ensure fair admission, grades are the only way to ensure only the number of students the school can accommodate are allowed to be accepted and to ensure any post-secondary staff can't put too much influence in the admission process. Although grades should not be important and we can argue that post-secondary could take into consideration feedback instead, there are teachers who don't give positive feedback, which brings fairness into the question.
Post-practicum update: I still find this difficult to answer. I think that makes are still the only option I can think of that makes the process of getting into post-secondary as fair as it can be. The only option I can think of is to take a holistic approach to grading but at what point does a holistic grading system become too vague for very competitive programs? What should change instead is how grades are presented to students and cultivate a growth mindset in them. How assessment is approached can be changed as well, students should be able to be assessed in a way that benefits them, especially if their grades will be going towards their chances of gaining an opportunity to attend post-secondary.
If a student is using a digital reader or speech to text to compose a story are they reading and writing?
Yes and no. It would have to depend on what the task is. If it is asking students to be able to read and respond or to write to a text and not for assessing their actual phonetical awareness or ability to spell, then yes I would consider it reading and writing. However, you can't assess a student's ability to decipher phonemes if they are not actively reading. Nor can you assess a student's ability to sound out words and to recognize phonemic patterns through writing if it is speech-to-text.
Post-practicum update: After my practicum, in which I had a student who required me to scribe out what they were thinking before they were able to copy down what I wrote, I would have to say that my answer did not change much. However, I think it is important to know when to switch from technology to person. If it is phonetical awareness you are attempting to work on during writing, speech-to-text software should be replaced by a person writing it out for the student instead. Such software, however, is amazing for students who have difficulties expressing their thoughts in words on paper. On the other hand, text-to-speech would only be useful when focussing on comprehension or if it is being used in alternation with the student reading the text themselves (such as listening to it, then listening and reading at the same time, then reading it without the software). This way, the student gets the support they need when it is needed for the text they are performing.
What are you most excited about when it comes to assessment? What are you concerned about?
I can't say I am too excited about assessment as it has always been something that I, as a student, got anxious over. However, I will be attempting my best to present it in a way that students' anxiety is lessened. When it comes to concerns, I am mostly worried about my wording in my assessment tools and whether I will be able to not only use them effectively but also know what I should or want to assess them on.
Post-practicum update: In the end, I do believe that one of my concerns was realized: I could have worded my rubrics better for more clarity and distinction between the different criteria achievements. However, I do believe that I chose the right assessment types depending on the task and I used them effectively. I also ended up getting excited over some assessments I did as I did them without students being aware they were being assessed. The result was beneficial to them as I got to see if my teaching methods proved fruitful and students themselves were not anxious about demonstrating their own knowledge on the topic. I also attempted to make every assessment task with the least amount of restrictions as possible to ensure students would be motivated to do their best and not have to rely on memorizing the information I showed them, which was something I struggled with as a student.
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